The secret of Groupon’s success is … good writing & Email? | Hacker News Reader

The secret of Groupon’s success is … good writing & Email?

venturebeat.com

54 pointsCmccann732 comments

Aggressively targeting women who have money and enjoy spending money instead of young men who don't have money and enjoy stealing the product isn't hurting their financial performance, either.

Except when my girl uses it to try and get a discount on some health session things locally and no coupon ever materialises and the money is seemingly impossible to get a refund on.

You cannot imagine the bad press she's telling all of her friends. There's not much I can imagine being more powerful than one of the key people in a little social group starting with "You wouldn't believe how bad this company is, I think it's just a scam.".

Anecdotal it clearly is, but once you have the opportunity to sell the same time and energy that is put into copy should be put into customer service. Especially when your company can be affected by third parties not pulling their weight.

Doesn't Groupon have a no-questions-asked refund policy?

It does... but she seems unable to gain access to her account. She's getting email updates, but can't login. Password reminder emails aren't coming through so she can't reset. It just says her email isn't recognised even though she made a purchase. She's only got the one email so it's not like she's confused about which email she used.

She's emailed Groupon a few times and tried to contact the supplier of the classes she purchased... no response from either. So she's now just venting at anyone who will listen, which is me a lot of the time but more effectively her friends.

I've just had her login using Facebook Connect to see if that was what she had done originally, but apparently not.

I'm just encouraging her to give the bank a call and do a chargeback.

She clearly was charged, clearly hasn't received any coupon or class, hasn't received responses to customer services, cannot login and is being treated like her account doesn't exist. A chargeback seems to be the only option.

Though now I've tried to talk her through all possible scenarios I totally get why she's really pissed at Groupon.

Try giving them a call maybe?

From their contact page: http://www.groupon.com/contact-us

Having trouble using Groupon? Email Groupon at support@groupon.com or call 1 (877) 788-7858 (during normal business hours, central time)

Hi buro9,

Sorry to hear about the trouble! I can understand the frustration and I apologize that there is trouble accessing a Groupon purchase. Unfortunately there could be a few things going on, so it's difficult to diagnose without discussing it directly. Sometimes people just simply typed in a typo in their email when they purchased their Groupon and then are unable to get in to access it. If you're still having trouble, please never hesitate to just give us a ring like weaksauce posted here, our number M-F 9am-5pm CST 877 788 7858. Or, you can always email us too (even if it's after hours) and we will get back to you: support@groupon.com. We have a staff working feverishly after hours to help as well! Please contact us and we'll get it figured out for you---if you were charged by us, you certainly should have a Groupon!

Regards, Kelly Groupon Customer Support

Spoken like someone who is outside of the Valley echo chamber ;)

Consistent, short, engaging; writing and video are the most undervalued part of any consumer facing company. Good copy reinforces a "brand personality" which leads to a feeling of connection.

Whenever I consult I always tell companies, a company cant and never will be considered a "friend" by any consumer. A company wont help you move places, go drinknig with you, or give you personal advice. The goal companies should aim for is to make a company/brand feel like a "familiar acquaintance." If people feel a companies brand personality is consistent and they are comfortable with the company existing some place in the web of their life to be called upon in a limited number of scenarios they are doing the most you can do.

See: Virgin, GroupOn, Google

The BIGGEST secret to groupon's success is....being able to convince store owners to give REAL, REAL good coupons!

That is the OVERWHELMING value of groupon--which is why I question their longterm strategy. Store owners will at some point figure out that they can give the same type of super-awesome coupon online and get similar value as groupon provides only in this case they don't need to give 50-60% of the revenue to groupon.

Groupon is basically made possible due to the spread of crappy coupons in the past decade. When coupons originated, all coupons rocked. I remember as a kid in India, when a coupon appeared in a paper, it was rare and the paper would sell out. Literally sell out! All because it had a coupon. And by definition, a coupon meant real savings--not 10 cents off your dinner.

Groupon's editorial manual describes in detail their approach to copywriting: https://docs.google.com/View?id=dmv9rbh_11gtqx983t

I just started working on a groupon clone. Dev site: dealhill.com. If you're working on one too, feel free to email me. It would be cool to share knowledge and discuss strategy.

Upvoted for the link to the manual, not for the copycat site. ;)

Ignored for explaining your vote, not for the cheap attack. ;)

Is this an American thing - I don't notice humour being used by groupon in the UK ?

The UK site is run by Citydeal. Groupon bought Citydeal in May.

David Ogilvy's book, Confessions of an Ad Man; makes this point even more clearly: Good copy can lead to successful businesses.

Yap. Especially in the case of Groupon, many of their articles read like poetry--very daring imagery and voice. They are doing as much service to the people who subscribe to their emails as to the brands who have the honor to get the Groupon face-lift.

It is a very refreshing model compared to most other startups where as far as I can see, paid no attention to copywriting.

Woot would be another example of a startup with great copy. I buy something like 0.5-1% of all Woots that I see - but I keep checking them because at least 20% of the descriptions make me "lol".

Yeah, and another one I like (that's probably not new by now) is ThinkGeek. The beauty of this is probably how drastically different they all are :)

It is not just the copy, it is the whole direct selling layout. They know the tricks and the methods. Benefits, big buttons, ask for the order etc. Good job.

In my limited experience with the site, Groupon appears to use fake images of discounts coupled with the region's name in their web ads and web site in order to entice new users, not letting the users know that no discounts for the advertised area actually exist until after they sign up. If this is an old practice, this may factor into their "secret of success", as well.

It's the "AdultFriendFinder" advertising model!

"Groupon’s approach was shaped by its constraints..." It's all about the constraints. "Constraints shape and focus problems, and provide clear challenges to overcome as well as inspiration. Creativity, in fact, thrives best when constrained" Points for whoever can name the author of the quote.

uh the Lady...but I think there are historic layers behind this quote

I buy a couple Groupons per month, but I've never read their emails entirely. The secret to their success with me is cheap prices for fun activities that I would have otherwise never done.

I receive and usually read the Groupon emails even though I'm yet to actually buy anything, but I think that the emails are significant because they make it easy to share Groupon deals with friends. As I said I haven't actually bought anything but fairly often people ask me if I know about "that coupon thing" many of these conversations end with me forwarding a deal email or two, or just adding their email address to Groupon's mailing list (with their permission of course).

I know that laws of suppply/demands are at play here but it is strange that Groupon would attribute their success to good copy yet pay writers only a merger salary of $35k.

source: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0830/entrepreneurs-groupon...

I heard a rumor that, internally, they think the secret to their success is their referral program.

Nobody likes a grammar Nazi, but second paragraph, last sentence. Perhaps they should have learned from Groupon? :)

their success is probably more because business owners are willing to provide a massive discount to get the Groupon exposure, $120 million funding and an enormous subscription base.

their copywriting is quite lame.

I don't think you know much about copywriting if you say that.

I've studied their landing pages and emails. Groupon has fantastic clear,benefit-driven copy and landing page design, and they split test everything fanatically.

That's the real secret to their success- constant iteration and improvement. They're one of the few American companies to truly master kaizen, and the results are easy to see.

"Groupon has fantastic clear , benefit-driven copy and landing page design , and they split test everything fanatically ."

Care to provide us with references or examples?

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