Another new start-up for location marketing, so whats new? Here is a fresh approach, there is no app to download, instead the company is relying on mobile ad networks to display its deals on the appropriate cell phones.Partly funded by Google Ventures, ThinkNear drives customers to your business during down times by automatically creating coupons that nearby consumers can view on their mobile phones. Think of it as an instant happy hour machine. Whenever things are slow for you, they will automatically create discounts and get people in the door.
The start-up is so confident of its services that it will give businesses a free 3 month trial, with no obligation to join. After the 90 day free trial they charge a flat fee of $99/month. They guarantee that your ad will be seen by at least 5,000 mobile phone users who are near your business. If they don’t reach 5,000 users in a given month, they will give you that month for free.
To get started all you have to do is tell the company when you are typically slow, they will then track factors that affect your business, like weather, traffic, and sporting events. The company claims that this helps them determine the time when your business is slow. They would use this knowledge to create a discount to get people in the neighborhood through your door.
The business decides the range of discounts it is able to offer during slow periods. From there the company will monitor the things that are happening around your neighborhood. When things happen that usually slow down business (like rain or snow). They claim that they would use a lot of “fancy math” to determine the level of discount you need to offer to actually get people into your store.
Deals show up as advertisement in popular mobile apps, and consumers can elect to receive real-time alerts. Customers like the fact that they’re getting a deal. Every night they will email you a report that tells you how many people saw your coupon, how many clicked on it, and how many claimed it. The business gets details such as the coupon code the customers used, what discount they got, and at what time they came in.
Services like Groupon normally drive business to a location during busy times, for example at dinner time for a restaurant.Also unlike services like Groupon the service is meant to be ongoing – not a single blast of business. With this service you calibrate the discounts at different times of the day. The customer just comes in and shows the discount coupon on his or her phone. The mercant sees a “Powered by ThinkNear” logo on every coupon that customers shows. ThinkNear coupons displays 4 things on the customer’s phone: The discount amount, a countdown timer that shows when the discount will expire, the name of the person at your store who approved the coupon, and a special verification code, unique to each coupon.
http://www.thinknear.com
