Daily deals can be a powerful way of building your business, and should be included in all digital marketing campaigns, especially local digital marketing consultant mixes. However, before going forward with a daily deals programme, small and medium businesses (SMBs) should formulate a clearly defined plan.

1. Check inventory and capacity: Make sure that your company is ready to handle an onslaught of eager new customers. Negotiate with the deal online marketing consultant provider for a ‘cap’ on the number of digital marketing offers that can be redeemed, and ensure a fixed time period for redemptions.

2. Pricing of products: Today’s customers are very search-savvy. Do not try the old trick of raising prices just prior to offering a digital marketing discount, as you are sure to be caught out if customers check up on prices. Recently, FTD miffed customers who purchased a digital marketing coupon on Groupon, when buyers noticed that flowers on its main campaign website were priced lower.

3. Create a retention plan: If you are getting a high volume of customers through your Internet marketing special offers, create a plan on how to gain repeated business from them once they make their first purchase. You cannot keep eroding your profit margins by continuously offering discounted deals.

If a small business wishes to use daily deals as part of their digital marketing programme, they should begin planning for their post-deal customer relationship from the beginning. This means thinking about loyalty programmes, refer-a-friend deals, combination offers and so on. One strategy that is commonly recommended by Internet marketing professionals is an email programme, which encourages new people to enter their contact details in a sign up form, in return for a special offer for their next purchase.

Another digital marketing tactic that can be useful is Closely.com’s ‘Social Select’ deals through which you can reward your best customers with special private deals. These deals are given at the point-of-purchase, and usually provide useful discounts that can be used on the customer’s next visit. Companies should work to harness customer relationships through various loyalty tactics, and get them to come back repeatedly.