If you are a small business, what do you do after you run the daily deal? Or how do you run a daily deal-like promotion “safely,” without hurting your brand? These are the questions a number of start-ups have posed for themselves as they seek to dive in to the deals revolution, while differentiating themselves from the cluttered destination deal and white-label deal marketplaces.

At ILM East last week, we heard from WildFire Apps and Closely — a new Denver-based company from MapQuest and Local Matters founder Perry Evans that formally debuted its “Social Select” service at the conference (and which we wrote about last July.)

Evans says Social Select relies on social media to tackle the two major flaws of the daily deals space. The first is the “very, very low” percentage of return visits, which he says is often under 10 percent. The second is the sense that merchants look like they are desperate for business, harming their “brand and margin value.”

Closely’s solution is to work with merchants to bring in existing customers and attract new customers via a “connect, referral and social network.” It is an “everyday, social commerce” approach,” says Evans. The mass market appeal of a daily deal is under performing outside of “maybe 10 to 15 core categories,” he suggests.

The offering is made up of two parts. First is a “private deal” for preferred customers and friends, which is akin to a “manager’s special.” Merchants hand out preprinted cards with QR codes taking them to a 24-hour deal. customers can hand them to five friends. “It allows you to hand select your next lead,” and shift to “better targeting and engagement,” says Evans.

The deals are also very flexible, since cards can be handed out based on consumer interests, and can represent many different deals. “You could have nine different deals,” he says.

The card idea is thought to be ideal for such recurring categories as home services, automotive services and pet services. “You don’t get a recurring customer from one visit. It takes five or six visits,” says Evans. He adds that the use of a deal card does not preclude a loyalty card that provides discounts or free services after a certain number of visits. It is just a different concept. Evans notes that the program have now been field tested with three partner/agencies.

The other part of the Social Select concept is the management of social media promotions and includes widgets for updating merchant websites, Facebook and Twitter. The company enables all relevant categories to be displayed, and to develop a “curated social graph.”

The post Closely Debuts ‘Social Select'; Moving Deals Away from Mass Market appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Small businesses are gaining the ability to interact with customers anytime, as e-mail marketing gives way to “the social graph,” says local marketing pioneer Perry Evans, who is introducing Closely Inc., a new firm dedicated to helping SMBs leverage the new opportunities in online and mobile marketing.

Like everyone else, Evans says he has watched the rise of Groupon and pondered what role daily deals have in the new marketing. His answer: They are great “training wheels to demonstrate to businesses how powerful social networking can be to stimulate demand.”

But more comprehensive solutions are really needed. “The daily deal model simply organizes an audience for a specific metro-area deal, campaign-style. We need a broader term than ‘daily deals,’ ” says Evans, offering up “live local social marketing” as a candidate. “This captures the real-time and socially engaged ways that marketing will shift into a key small-business tool for demand stimulation.”

Closely is being designed specifically to meet these needs, adds Evans. Businesses should be able to create live deals anytime, when they most want/need demand. At the same time, Closely is building an engine for expanded offer distribution.

“Offers will get to consumers in variety of ways,” says Evans. “The industry has centered on a campaign e-mail model; yet the user spends a ton of time on local and social Web sites, in search and on mobile devices. Getting offers published when businesses most want leads, and delivered through multiple channels is the best way to describe what we’re about.”

Ideal SMB customers for such a service are more local service oriented than product commerce oriented, he says. Product commerce granularity can be overwhelming, while offers from local merchants and service businesses seem to be welcomed right now by consumer. “This implies a meaningful opportunity for Yellow Pages as partners, alongside daily media, mobile and e-mail distribution,” he adds.

The post Perry Evans on Closely: ‘The Social Graph’ Is Overtaking E-Mail Marketing appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Small businesses are gaining the ability to interact with customers anytime, as e-mail marketing gives way to “the social graph,” says local marketing pioneer Perry Evans, who is introducing Closely Inc., a new firm dedicated to helping SMBs leverage the new opportunities in online and mobile marketing.

Like everyone else, Evans says he has watched the rise of Groupon and pondered what role daily deals have in the new marketing. His answer: They are great “training wheels to demonstrate to businesses how powerful social networking can be to stimulate demand.”

But more comprehensive solutions are really needed. “The daily deal model simply organizes an audience for a specific metro-area deal, campaign-style. We need a broader term than ‘daily deals,’ ” says Evans, offering up “live local social marketing” as a candidate. “This captures the real-time and socially engaged ways that marketing will shift into a key small-business tool for demand stimulation.”

Closely is being designed specifically to meet these needs, adds Evans. Businesses should be able to create live deals anytime, when they most want/need demand. At the same time, Closely is building an engine for expanded offer distribution.

“Offers will get to consumers in variety of ways,” says Evans. “The industry has centered on a campaign e-mail model; yet the user spends a ton of time on local and social Web sites, in search and on mobile devices. Getting offers published when businesses most want leads, and delivered through multiple channels is the best way to describe what we’re about.”

Ideal SMB customers for such a service are more local service oriented than product commerce oriented, he says. Product commerce granularity can be overwhelming, while offers from local merchants and service businesses seem to be welcomed right now by consumer. “This implies a meaningful opportunity for Yellow Pages as partners, alongside daily media, mobile and e-mail distribution,” he adds.

The post Perry Evans on Closely: 'The Social Graph' Is Overtaking E-Mail Marketing appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.