Digital Coupons and Loyalty Programs Go Viral
Today, Fast Company did a piece on a local Austin bagel company that offered a free bagel to anyone who joined their Facebook fan page. 3 days later, they had over 330,000 fans. All I can say is…wow!
Facebook says that Einstein’s Bagels is the first instance of a business offering something free through an instant digital coupon, although I would imagine there are some people who would contest that. Einstein’s simply blew it out of the park and smartly parlayed that into a pitch for a news piece to a major technology publication. Great work! I am very proud that Austin is being so well represented by our local businesses.
This does however raise some interesting logistical questions as to how you can use digital and mobile coupons and track those effectively. Most web based or mobile coupon applications require you to either print out the coupon (which is very inconvenient in our “right now” world today), or it requires the vendor to somehow validate the coupon at the point of sale. In this case, I’m not totally sure how Einstein’s will do this but they have been working directly with Facebook to “insure” the campaign is a success.
Loyalty programs are another thing altogether. Even with a printed coupon or fan status validation, you still don’t know who redeemed what, when, and where. You don’t know who your best customers are, who is your greatest champion, or how to reward them. Companies like Foursquare, Yelp, and Gowalla are using their GPS check in features to allows visitors to let it be known how often they are visiting a business. This presumably could be a nice avenue to develop a coupon application and loyalty program, but with Foursquare and Gowalla being game based applications you would need your customers actually using and playing those games.
What digital coupons need is real time validation and tracking. We here at PandaMedia actually have this product near completion that will not only allow you to use the social graph of your customers, but track coupon redemption, customer loyalty, and rewards. And the local business itself controls who uses the application. Its is web based mobile application, so it truly can be viral without platform limitations. If you want to learn more, check out the information here. If you are interested in trying the product, contact us here so we can put you on the list.
