SeizeTheDeal.com is a website similar in nature to Groupon or Living Social. You know the type, an incredible bargain, one-day only that you can redeem if enough people buy the item. Today’s deal is a great example of why marketers need to go the extra mile to ensure that their offering actually meets the needs of their market.
The deal offered is “$25 for two Fandango movie tickets and a $50 Restaurants.com gift certificate”. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Well it would be if there were actually any restaurants in Southwest Montana that were participating! A closer investigation reveals that the nearest restaurants accepting the vouchers are almost 300 miles away.
Now before you get on their case too much, it’s pretty obvious that SeizeTheDeal.com is participating in some sort of national promotion. They probably didn’t have a local promotion for today and this seemed almost as good. Beside, the text does state that it’s redeemable in any U.S. city… Well that’s great; but as site owners we must understand that our customers would actually be more upset purchasing this than if they hadn’t.
The lesson here? Do your customers a solid and research any offering completely. Then be as transparent as possible with it’s promotion.
We’ll thank you in the long run!