My wife was excited.  She got a coupon from a discount coupon site for a car detailing for $60 (normal price $119).  I wasn’t all that interested in it until I heard where she saw it… in her email.  People still open those things from advertisers?

The companies got it down.  People are signing up to receive daily, weekly, monthly deals on different products and services.  I’m not one for coupons personally; I don’t clip them out and the ones I get from the cashier end up in recycling.  However, after looking through some of what these sites offer, I learned 3 key points:

1. Essence of Time =  These promotions scream scarcity.  10 left! 2hrs to go!  They create an urgency among their memberships to buy now.
2. Unsolicited Solicitation = An oxymoron, I know.  However people look at these emails as not an advertisement, but like they were looking for the classified ads.  It is welcomed and accepted solicitations.
3. Bulls Eye Targeting = Sure, the coupons are for a wide variety of services and products, but they cater to a certain class of people; those who want to stretch their dollar.

If you are selling anything and you do it online, take notes.  They know how to do it and we should be following suite.