One of the newest ways that many auto shop owners are bringing in new business is through advertising on group discount websites. These websites, such as Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com or BuyWithMe.com offer daily discounts to a huge database of local users in your area.

How They Work

Group Discount sites operate in several areas across the country. Once you’ve figured out what kind of offer you can realistically make and still make money (like a discounted oil change or radiator flush), you will sit down with a rep from the website and run through numbers to make sure you’re being realistic. Before your campaign is run, you will also set a minimum and maximum number of deals to be sold. The minimum number should be your tipping point or how many you need to sell to make it worth it for your business.

Groupon and sites like it don’t take upfront fees when you set up a deal with them. But they do take a percentage of the sale, so you really have to be aware of the numbers to make sure that you don’t lose money.

What They Can do For Your Business

The whole idea behind these online group discount sites is the potential to get lots of new people walking through your door to take advantage of your deal. While this is great, it’s important to realize that these new customers are doing so at a greatly discounted rate. So to make an impact on your business long term, you need people to return after their initial discounted visit. You can accomplish this quite a few ways, but collecting Email addresses or offering them a second coupon when they come in may spur them to come back again.

In addition to the influx of customers who buy these deals and visit your shop, these sites also offer serious exposure for your business. Your daily deal is sent out to a huge database of users who like to receive the daily deal by email, as well as through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. So even people who don’t end up purchasing your deal are being exposed to your company in an email they look forward to and open every day.

Many auto shops have had great success doing these types of campaigns. If you set the price of your deal well and really take care of the customers who come in, the sky’s the limit on the amount of new customers you can bring in with promotions like these.