Often the first question we get when we tell someone about our awesome new application, Social Offers, is why is it better than using either a daily deals site such as Groupon, or the new Facebook Offers product? We thought we would take a moment to explain just why.
Let’s start with a comparison with the new Facebook Offers product.
Note: If you don’t feel like reading you can skip down to the table summary.
Wishpond Social Offers vs Facebook Offers
Facebook Offers is a pretty nice way to leverage your fans and reach their friends. While it is early days, many large brands have been experimenting with the product. So why would you choose our application over one that Facebook developed themselves? We think there are some pretty good reasons why:Social Offers is more flexible
Facebook Offers allows you to set a start date, an expiry date, and a maximum number of people can claim the offer. With Social Offers you can set all parameters of your campaign: Start date and time, duration, the discount you will offer, the minimum and maximum number of participants, and all the redemption details:- You can set your offer up to be claimed online or offline.
- With PayPal integration you can require payment ‘on the spot’, or you can choose to collect payment when the person is redeeming the offer.
- In order to prevent fraud and abuse you can use our system to generate unique coupon codes, supply your own coupon codes, or choose not to use coupon codes at all.
Social Offers is cross-platform
Facebook Offers is a one trick pony. The offer lives inside Facebook, and that is where it stays. Social Offers on the other hand is completely cross-platform. We don’t play favourites. In fact, we’ve found a significant percentage of sharing happens purely through Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and by email.Social Offers gives you more insights
Facebook Offers show you how many people claimed your offer. With Social Offers you can see not only how many people claimed your offer, but when they claimed it, and who they are – this helps you prevent fraud as you are able to check those people redeeming the offer against this list. We are also able to provide aggregate insights into the demographics of those people who have redeemed your offer, so that you can figure out exactly who to target with your other advertising.Social Offers provides a bigger canvas to work with
Because Facebook Offers lives inside the news feed you have limited space to work with. You get to write a headline that is up to 90 characters long. The image used in Facebook Offers is just 90 pixels by 90 pixels. Social Offers display a much larger image (up to 258 pixels by 250 pixels), and a more comprehensive description of the offer you are making so that people know just how awesome it is. We can even customize the Social Offers application with your own branding to make sure that your fans have a great experience.Everyone can use Social Offers right now
Facebook Offers is currently only available to a limited number of Page administrators. Anyone and everyone is able to create and run a Wishpond Social Offer right now.The bottom line: why you should use Wishpond Social Offers instead of Facebook Offers
Facebook’s Offers product is restrictive, single-platform, designed to ensure that Facebook remains the gatekeeper of your relationship with your customers, and chances are that unless you are one of the lucky few Page admins included in the beta trial you can’t use it right now even if you wanted to. Wishpond Social Offers is designed to be flexible, multi-platform, multi-channel, to give you access to your customers, and you can make use of it to run a campaign right now. We think that makes it a pretty great alternative.Wishpond Social Offers vs Groupon
Social Offers is significantly different from Groupon, however we think if you are considering using Groupon (or even waiting in line for your crack at running your first Groupon deal) you should first consider Social Offers. There are several major reasons why:With Wishpond Social Offers, you keep your revenue
Groupon reportedly takes a standard 50% share of the revenue generated by any offer that is run on their platform (the final percentage is negotiable depending on the likely popularity of your offer, but this is widely quoted as standard). This is in addition to the large discount you are required to offer in order to make use of their platform. Furthermore, the revenue from the deal is shared with you in installments, usually over 60 days. With Wishpond Social Offers we charge a flat fee of $25 per 100 participants. You can offer whatever discount you are comfortable with, and you collect the revenue either immediately via PayPal, or as people redeem the offer. You don’t have to wait for us to pay you. Imagine you are running an offer for 50% off a $20 voucher to use in your store. With Groupon you would receive approximately $5 revenue per offer that was purchased (under a standard arrangement). With Wishpond Social Offers you could run the same promotion, and double the revenue that you make from the special offer. What if you were to have 1000 people take you up on this special offer? Groupon would likely keep approximately $5000 of the revenue generated from this deal, leaving you with revenue of $5000 that would be paid to you in installments over the coming weeks. With Wishpond Social Offers you would double the amount of revenue you generated from this offer to $10,000, you would receive that cash either immediately (via PayPal), or as people redeemed the offer, and the promotion would cost you just $250. I know which one I would choose.With Wishpond Social Offers, you are in complete control
Groupon requires you to offer a large discount on your products or services in order to use their platform. They are also in control of when they run your offer. With Wishpond Social Offers you are in complete control of your offer. You choose all the parameters of the deal: what it is for, what the discount you are offering is, when you run it, how long for, and the redemption details. We provide helpful suggestions for how to get the best results, but it is all up to you.With Wishpond Social Offers, you are building your relationship with the customer
Groupon has built a phenomenal mailing list through the incredible offers that businesses have run on their platform. When you create a remarkable offer with Groupon and people share it you are helping Groupon build this mailing list. This isn’t a bad thing per se, but we think you would much rather be building your own customer relationships. Because Social Offers are hosted by you on your Facebook Page or website it is you who is building the relationship with the customer. As people participate they become fans of your business, and share your Facebook Page or URL with friends. This means that your relationship doesn’t end when they cash in their special offer, you have an opportunity to reach out to these customers again in future.The bottom line: why you should use Wishpond Social Offers instead of Groupon
With Groupon you need to wait in line for the privilege of running an offer, you have to give up a big chunk of the revenue from the offer – on top of the discount you are offering, you have to wait to be paid for several weeks following the promotion, you don’t have full control, and you are helping Groupon build their customer contacts – rather than creating your own. Wishpond Social Offers is designed to be flexible, cost-effective, to give you access to your customers and insight into who they are, you get the revenue almost immediately, you pay a flat fee based on the number of participants, and you can make use of it to run a campaign right now. Why wouldn’t you choose Wishpond Social Offers?Side-by-side
Let’s take a look at the three offers platforms side by side: Which is the right platform for your next offer? Well, that is up to you, but we think we have a pretty compelling set of reasons why you should consider using Wishpond Social Offers. Why not give it a try for yourself today?
Curious about the sources of our information?
Maybe you would like to do a little more reading on the other deal platforms. Here are the sources of the information we have used in this post:- Facebook Help Center – Facebook Offers
- Groupon, LivingSocial and daily deals – merchant FAQ, from Rakesh Agrawal
- A look at Groupon’s extremely lopsided merchant agreement, from Rakesh Agrawal
- What is the typical revenue cut deal-of-the-day social technology companies like Groupon take from merchants? on Quora
- To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts, working paper from Benjamin Edelman, Sonia Jaffe, and Scott Duke Kominers of the Havard Business School
