The hottest marketing trend online at the moment is running promotions on group buying websites like Groupon and LivingSocial. With Vancouver's highly-connected residents being some of the world's biggest users of Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, you need a social marketing strategy. A great way to kick start your social marketing is by running a promotion on a group buying service. Typically, these group buying services want you to discount your product or services by at least 50%. Then, they usually take 25% of the remaining discounted sale. For example, for $100 of services you would create a Groupon for $50 and the company would take $25. So the challenge for your business is to find a way to at least break even at $25, which can be tricky.If it's a slow time of year for your business, group buying can give your sales a serious boost. While you may not make any money directly from a group buying promotion, the word-of-mouth publicity generated can be phenomenal and it can be a serious catalyst to building buzz for your business in the Vancouver social media community.

How Does Group Buying Work?

Learn How Groupon Works! from Brad Chmielewski on Vimeo.

Groupon is the largest of the Group Buying services and it has the biggest presence in Vancouver. Groupon also provides the best information to learn about how group buying can benefit your business. I recommend that you watch the instructional videos on their Groupons Work For Business website to learn more. Basically, these websites promote your business' deal through their massive e-mails lists, followers on Facebook and Twitter, and targeted local advertising on Google's Content Network. You don't have any upfront advertising costs, but you need to be prepared to deal with a potential massive influx of business. The people who use group buying are very socially connected and if your business is unprepared then your group buying experiment could turn into a public relations disaster.

The Demographics of Group Buying Users

Source: Grouponworks.com As you can see in the infographic above, the prime demographic of Groupon and other group buying services are women between the ages of 18-34 that are single, wealthy and highly educated. Additionally, the people using these services are hyper-connected and are very actively sharing on Facebook, communicating on Twitter, placing reviews on Yelp and blogging about things happening in the city of Vancouver. In a nutshell,  when they hear about a good deal or an interesting local business, they tell all their friends.

Vancouver Businesses That Are Using Group Buying Services

Many of the most well-known business in Vancouver have used Groupon with great success. In this Groupon deal a few weeks ago, Grouse Mountain sold 2,623 passes for their new "Eye of the Wind" Turbine for $36 a piece. While most Vancouver residents look up at Grouse Mountain on a regular basis, most people rarely visit the popular tourist attraction. Now, thanks to this group buying promotion, Grouse Mountain is going to be a lot busier in their Fall shoulder season. In addition to all the people who bought this Groupon and will tell all their friends about their experience, many more people would have heard about Grouse Mountain's exciting new Wind Turbine lookout through Facebook, Twitter and popular local blogs.

How To Get Your Business On Groupon And Other Group Buying Services

Getting your business on a group buying website is easier than you think. Services like Groupon allow you to generate cash flow and new customers with no upfront costs. You also get amazing business exposure, measurable results and you might even find that you can reduce your overall advertising budget. To learn more, I've listed links to the business information pages on Groupon and the other group buying services active in Vancouver.

1. Groupon Works
2. LivingSocial
3. WagJag
4. Grooster (this website is Vancouver-based)
5. EthicalDeal (another Vancouver-based website)
6. DealFind

To monitor daily deals by local businesses across all the Vancouver-based Group Buying website, I recommend Deal Radar.