Shoutback Concepts

The Steaks are Sizzling!

aserot — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:47:45 +0000

Summer is the time for grilling. Omaha Steaks deals do very well, especially during prime grilling season. Imagine sinking your teeth into a juicy steak prepared perfectly. If you’ve already completed the National Deals agreement, contact us about the details surrounding the sizzling deal you could have from this prominent national merchandiser.

Not yet signed the National Deals Agreement? Contact us to get this initial paperwork completed so you can participate in hot national deals when they present themselves. Who should you contact? Reach Tom Gaebelein at 216-378-1850 x103 or tgaebelein@shoutback.com.

Ideas Worth Spreading

aserot — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:07:17 +0000

This phrase is borrowed from a website – www.ted.com. Bookmarking this site will bring you a pathway to jaw-dropping ideas delivered by people you will be surprised to see. Yes, there are great thinkers, renowned dignitaries and celebs sharing ideas, but the most provocative talks are from everyday folks like you and me that care.

What ideas do you have? Chances are you’d tried many things to differentiate your daily deals business vis a vis your competition. Why not share them?

Collaboration is at the root of the astounding discoveries of this generation of innovators. Collaboration is the fuel that drives the presenters that share at TED conferences. Collaboration can be the “game changer” with your business as well. What platform do you have to share with? Amy Booker, Platform Services Manager, will be creating a series of sharing opportunities upcoming later this year. Topics for these sharing sessions will be revealed later. Got an idea for one? Send your idea to abooker@shoutback.com.

What Doesn’t Get Measured Doesn’t Get Done

aserot — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:21:20 +0000

This is an old saying, but still very pertinent — especially when it comes to the world of deals and ecommerce. Most deal platform providers give you the software and then send their publishers into the big bad world of competition with a one-page best practices sheet and hearty good luck wishes.

At Shoutback, we don’t leave success to chance. Our specific, replicable, and regular Business Review process makes sure that you are examining your performance, comparing it to the performance of your peers.

The point is simple. If you want to “get by” talk to the other guys. If you want to succeed, talk to Shoutback! Reach out to our Business Development Team at 216-378-1850 or sales@shoutback.com for a free analysis of where you could take your program with our help.

Who’s Ready for Mother’s Day?

aserot — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:51:38 +0000

Mother’s Day continues to be a very popular holiday and a great time to give gifts. Has you deal site strategy included Mother’s Day?

We began seeing at Thanksgiving last year the enormous impact running themed multi-deal pages have on sales. Assuming you have not put a Mother’s Day strategy in place for 2012, here are a few tips.

Put a media plan in place. Coordinate print and online inventory to promoting your deal site offering.
If you can, combine promotion with advertorials about some of the marquee merchants to be featured in the offering.
Develop a special widget and email template with the theme. Have them ready to use 10 days prior to the launch.
Decide how your theme page will be viewed. Many feature it as the main deal one week prior. Moving it to a permanent link off your deal site is next.
Begin sending supplemental emails to your opt-ins after the first day it moves away from the feature deal.

What other ideas are you using this year not mentioned here? Contact Amy Booker, Platform Manager, with those ideas or to discuss how to incorporate this type of campaign into your future plan.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

aserot — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:51:27 +0000

Shoutback offers products and services to media companies, regardless of whose deal platform they’re using. For the past three months, for example, since offering national deals we have had countless opportunities to talk “off the record” with many media companies running their program on a competitor’s platform. Know what their biggest complaint is? The sense of “running blind.” These media companies indicated that the attitude of their platform provider seemed to say; Here is the software – good luck.

Once their initial platform training occurred there was no ongoing training or analysis of their metrics. No other competitor had peer-based comparative metrics to learn from. No other competitor had ongoing monthly reviews to make sure the latest best practice tips were passed along. This sentiment was more evident the smaller the size of the market.

Shoutback has recently increased its commitment to individualized personal assistance given to media clients. The addition of Platform Services Manager Amy Booker has already made an impact to many clients with greater insight to what the Shoutback platform can accomplish. Have you talked to Amy yet? If not she will be contacting you shortly to share some of her insight.

When is a Good Deal a Great Deal?

aserot — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:21:43 +0000

Remarkably, there is a difference between a good and great deal. What is a great deal? A great deal is defined by what you want it to accomplish. Sometimes a deal’s goal is to increase the number of opt-ins based on the merchant’s popularity in your area. How do you measure a great deal the you bring on to grow opt-ins? Our best practice suggests that a great deal should have a % buy rate 25% greater than the norm. If traditionally your % of emails buying is at 7%, then a great deal delivering a 10% buy rate is above that metric.

Why 25% as the goal? Let’s assume your optin emails are at 10,000. Most of the time you are going to sacrifice revenue share with a popular merchant to get his deal. Typically, revenue share is 55% on a restaurant deal. The great restaurant may want a revenue share of 60%. In this example, let’s also assume that deal is a $10 for $20. The difference in dollars given to them is $2,150, however, you generated 300 additional emails. The acquisition cost would be approx. $7 per email. Does that make sense? Most Shoutback properties at this email range have an annual value per email near $25/year. In this example you will see a payback in 3-4 months.

Try using this type of analysis to evaluate whether that good deal was a great deal. If you need some help, don’t hesitate to call your Business Development Manager.

National Deals, No Strings

aserot — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:48:36 +0000

One of the biggest challenges in making a Deal program work is a consistent, high quality supply of deals. Now, Shoutback has an answer that is a no obligation proposition for your program.

We have a dedicated sales team that goes into the marketplace and secures deals with nationally based merchants. Best of all, you can now have access to these deals with absolutely no obligation.

Here are the steps in becoming a part of the Shoutback National Deal Sourcing Network:

Contact National Deal Sourcing Specialist Tom Gabelein at 216-378-1850 x103 or tgaebelein@shoutback.com for more information.
Tom will answer any questions and send you a national agreement that obligates you to NOTHING but the opportunity to review deals as they hit the network.
Sign and return the agreement.
Bask in the glory of having another source of great deals with no risk.

What are you waiting for? The only thing you have to lose are great deals and more revenue. Get in touch with Tom today!

Announcement: Just Found $100,000. Is it Yours?

aserot — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:49:15 +0000

More good news about themed multi-deal pages. Just this past week we had a partner run a multi-deal page using a golf theme. This page ran for a week in addition to their normal diet of daily deals. This golf page, featuring six courses, added nearly 14% to their sales they will see in March.

Think of what a 14% increase in sales could mean to your daily deal business if you ran these kind of deals, say, five to seven times a year. Some partners see an additional $100,000 per year from using this strategy alone. Since the fall of 2011 several partners have added multi-deal pages to their long-term strategy. This plan does work to grow business without pushing out buyers to the daily deal site. Want to see how to make this happen at your media company? Contact your Shoutback Account Executive for a demonstration.

Explosive Impact of Emails

aserot — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:30:48 +0000

A Business Review this week revealed again how quickly a larger opt-in email list can impact deal site sales. This property has 15,000 in their opt-in list and their monthly sales average $35,000. We shared a best practice that continues to be a “game-changer”; free deals. Based on the number of monthly uniques on their website, they should be able to add 5,000 new emails from running a free deal.

What impact would this have on their business? Within a month of running the deal, their sales should grow to $52,000 per month. Not a bad return! A 20,000 opt-in list will act very differently and be more productive than a smaller list.

Want to brainstorm how to position a free deal with a local merchant? Contact your Shoutback Account Executive for that important “game changing” call!

Would You Pass Up a 10% Increase in Sales?

aserot — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:54:31 +0000

Running your main deal as a side deal for the balance of the week has proven to deliver a 10% bump in sales. Sounds too good to be true? Not really. Many of Shoutback’s media clients take most of their main deals and continue them as side deals. Negotiate this with the merchant when the deal is structured. When you explain that they will continue to get exposure for the balance of the week most merchants will not turn it down.

Have questions about how to do this on the platform? About five months ago we made changes on the platform that makes it quick and simple to re-designate from main to side. Check out your platform guide, or call Shoutback’s Client Services Manager, Laura Schultz at 216-378-1850.