Congratulations – your Daily Deal promotion is off to a great start! It sold well, and consumers are starting to redeem their vouchers.

Now for the challenge that the Daily Deals site salesperson skipped over:  converting Daily Deals shoppers to long term customers.

Daily Deals offerings are often – but not always – run at a loss to the merchant, with the assumption that these new trial customers will become repeat customers. It’s this assumption that needs to be revisited.

Merchants, who know the economics of the deal, feel like they’re owed something in return for such a fabulous deal offered. So they run the deal, sit back and wait for the love. But Deals consumers are just coasting along.

Do consumers know the economics of a deal? Not usually. Do they think such a great deal is made possible from some Internet magic? Yes, unfortunately some do.

So what to do? Start by educating them. Many consumers love local businesses and would support them with a little direction and or incentive.

Educating them requires conversing with them on some level. Either in person or via systems put in place that your staff can execute. Don’t leave it to chance; that if they just show up at your shop, interact with the same staff in the same way, then everything will work out.

Go the extra mile for this promotion, and you will be well rewarded. Here are some specific tips to use in the shop or POS to convert on your Daily Deals:

• Hand consumers a flyer, include in the bill, or post on premises. Have it say something like:

Glad to meet you! Here’s what we’re about. Now that you’ve tried us, consider coming back. Yes, we know times are hard and you want a deal, so we’ll extend this one to you:

• Offer another Deal – a “continuance” deal. Meet them half way, or make it a simple X% off their next visit, with or without a close-in expiration date. When you sell them your own deal at POS, you do so without a deal site’s commission.
• Condition  a “continuance” deal further by requiring an email signup to your newsletter or other list.
• Ask them point blank to join your “insider / fan list” for fans-only specials either on Facebook or via email. Don’t leave it for them to do at home – have them write down their email there at the shop, and you input it.
• If you have the tech capabilities, and it’s reasonable to ask, condition the initial deal to be redeemed only by online or phone reservation. At that time a more full profile of the consumer can be gathered.
• Ask them point blank to review the business on Yelp, and Facebook. That’s the lease you can do, and hope they will do it from home.
• Better yet, ask them to fill out a paper review card and let you post the review. We use a simple one that asks for a numbered star rating and room for text comments. Post these on your main website and other review sites that then feed into Google Places. Click here for a sample.
• Facebook postings from the merchant fan page are good. Make it personal with photos that customers can tag themselves in. This works best in bars and party/fun/entertainment establishments. Ask “May we take your picture to post on our Facebook wall?”
• Facebook postings coming from the user’s account are better, but one needs to log in to an account. If an iPad or a kiosk or a public PC can be set up, then ask users to log in to Facebook (or Yelp) then and there.

Many of these things are simply best practices in the era of Social Media marketing, and in this case, they do double time on your deals.

Use them all or just a few, and you’ll go a long way to help convert a Daily Deals shopper into a long term customer.