Groupon T SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT SU EXACTTARGET PROVIDES RELIABLE, SCALABLE SOLUTION TO CCESS CLIENT DELIVER SUCCESS NEARLY 25 MILLION MISSION-CRITICAL CLIENT EMAILS SUCCES DAILY CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIE SS CLIENT What's Inside? SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CL IENT SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT T SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT SU 2 Collective Buying Powerhouse 2 Massive Growth Poses Challenges 4 ExactTarget Provides Scalable Solution And More 5 Looking Into the Future 5 Get Your Groupon... 6 Ready To Get Started? CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIE SS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CL IENT SUCCESS CLIENT SUCCESS CLIENT ExactTarget All rights reserved 02-03072011
CLIENT SUCCESS CASE STUDY Everyone loves to save a little cash especially while discovering new local things to eat, do, see, and buy. And that s the essence of Groupon a daily deal site that offers customers unbeatable discounts on restaurants, spas, massages, theaters, hotels, and a whole lot more, in hundreds of cities across the country. Operating in roughly 170 U.S. markets to date, Groupon s loyal subscribers are spreading the word about Groupon s tremendous local deals and they aren t about to stop. MASSIVE GROWTH POSES CHALLENGES Founded in 2008 as a Chicago startup, Groupon has taken just two and a half years to grow into a nearly 5,000-employee global operation. Now, with over 50 million (and counting!) loyal subscribers, Groupon s daily offers powered in the U.S. solely by ExactTarget are available in more than 500 markets throughout 45 countries. To date, Groupon has saved consumers more than $2 billion and has generated millions in revenue for the local businesses it features. But this massive growth hasn t come without challenges. It didn t take long for Groupon to realize their success was dependent upon having a technology partner who could keep up with them and their rapidly-expanding subscriber base. Specifically, they knew they needed a partner who could provide: MISSION-CRITICAL SENDING. Daily deals are just that daily and only run until midnight. Each deal is delivered by 7:30 a.m. local time to give subscribers enough time to buy and participating businesses enough time to generate sales. Given that daily deal emails are the heartbeat of their business, it was absolutely critical for Groupon to find a platform that could deliver their mission-critical messages on time, every day without the threat of downtime (Figure 1). COLLECTIVE BUYING POWERHOUSE SPREADING THE WORD Groupon s devoted subscribers aren t shy about sharing their love for the collective buying club. And the referral incentive program certainly sweetens the deal. Customers who refer a friend automatically get $10 added to their Groupon account when their friend makes their first Groupon purchase. ExactTarget has been invaluable in helping us now send one billion emails per month. I am constantly impressed by their commitment and dedication to align their goals with ours, as well as their mission to exceed our expectations. JOHN BECVAR Senior Director, Relationship & Loyalty Marketing, Groupon 2
SCALABILITY. Groupon s subscriber base is growing at a pace that most organizations would struggle to keep up with. That s why Groupon needed a solution that could handle the demands that come with sending over 1 billion emails per month a number that is only growing with each passing month! 500% GROWTH...IN UNDER 9 MONTHS Groupon sends more than 1 billion (yes, we said billion) emails each month. And that means they ve grown at a rate of 500% in less than nine months! DELIVERABILITY. Daily deals mean nothing to Groupon s subscribers or participating businesses if they don t make it to the inbox. And that means that reliable deliverability is critical. Because Groupon sends over 170 campaigns in North America every day, finding a technology partner with deliverability expertise and the time to devote to developing and maintaining ISP relationships is a definite win. Figure 1: Market-specific Twitter pages like this one for Chicago keep Groupon in touch with its 50+ million subscribers. 3
CLIENT SUCCESS : GROUPON EXACTTARGET PROVIDES SCALABLE SOLUTION AND MORE Groupon found everything they needed and more within the ExactTarget Advanced Edition. Groupon can quickly generate personalized emails for each market (Figure 2), follow-up surveys to solicit feedback, and scouting emails, giving customers a chance to pre-screen businesses before being featured as a daily deal. But that s not all Groupon s staggering growth rate has proven to be no match for ExactTarget s robust platform and they ve found a reliable marketing engine that can keep up with the increasing demands of their growing fan-base. And although Groupon does devote some time to deliverability metrics, they ve also found support from ExactTarget s deliverability team, who play an instrumental role in preventing issues before they occur and mitigating them when they arise. In fact, John Becvar, Senior Director of Relationship and Loyalty Marketing for Groupon says much of their success is due in part to the expertise of ExactTarget s professional services team and the partnership they ve formed. ExactTarget professional services made it easy for us to get up and running in no time at the scale and level of sophistication we require to serve our customers worldwide, says Becvar. Figure 2: Groupon can quickly generate personalized emails for each market, including this Indianapolis email for discounted helicopter flight lessons. ExactTarget professional services made it easy for us to get up and running in no time at the scale and level of sophistication we require to serve our customers worldwide. JOHN BECVAR Senior Director, Relationship & Loyalty Marketing, Groupon Follow Groupon on Twitter: @groupon 4
ON-THE-GO GROUPON Groupon s mobile app lets customers purchase, manage, and redeem Groupons directly from their iphone, Android, or Blackberry. Now, that s customer service. LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE In the future, Groupon plans to rely heavily on their partnership with ExactTarget as they evolve their program. So far, Groupon plans to continue optimizing their current email program and begin integrating additional channels like social media and SMS to help activate, engage, and retain customers. GET YOUR GROUPON...YOU LL BE GLAD YOU DID. Visit www.groupon.com to subscribe to the daily deals in your neck of the woods. Go ahead prepare to save 50% to 90% off the coolest stuff to do, eat, see, and buy in your city. It just might turn into the one email you can t wait to receive each day! A DASH OF HUMOR Groupon s editorial staff works hard to make their daily deal emails as appealing and witty as possible. While they devote loads of time to researching thousands of daily deals, they spend even more time wrapping clever humor into each one. You just can t help but smile. 5
READY TO GET STARTED? Here are several ExactTarget tools that help organizations like Groupon deliver time-sensitive, massive scale messages throughout the world: EXACTTARGET ADVANCED EDITION. Packed with revolutionary segmentation, personalization, and integration tools, the ExactTarget Advanced Edition gives you all the tools you need to deliver the most targeted, relevant messages to your subscribers. Plus, the included triggered messaging capabilities help ensure that every interaction you have with your customers is a meaningful one. CLIENT FEATURE FAVORITE EXACTTARGET INFRASTRUCTURE AND ARCHITECTURE. Major investments in multiple data centers, infrastructure, and architecture ensure our application is always available, performant, and reliable. With load-balanced clustered servers, concurrent Mail Transfer Agents, and automated server additions, we deliver consistent, timely processing of transactions no matter the volume. DELIVERABILITY EXPERTISE. Maintain your sender reputation with a series of built-in tools and controls to monitor and diagnose any deliverability issues across your customer base. Our team of deliverability experts is dedicated to keeping you compliant with evolving ISP and corporate anti-spam specifications so you avoid the legal risks stemming from managing deliverability compliance in-house. INTERACTIVE MARKETING HUB. Stop burdening your IT department with inflexible integrations that come from managing multiple digital communications vendors. ExactTarget users have access to the Interactive Marketing Hub, a single console which can be used to trigger mission-critical messages across emerging digital communication channels including Email, Mobile, Social, and Sites. SOCIAL FORWARD. ExactTarget s Social Forward functionality makes it easy for your subscribers to engage with and share your email marketing messages allowing you to extend the reach of your messages, drive deeper engagement with your customers and their online communities, and build your subscriber list. 360-DEGREE TRACKING AND REPORTING. Our robust, real-time tracking and graphical reporting will help you analyze results and drive future program improvements. 6
PROUDLY POWERING MISSION-CRITICAL CAMPAIGNS FOR THE WORLD S BIGGEST BRANDS, INCLUDING: No other technology provider has been able to match the scale, speed, and level of partnership we ve found in ExactTarget. JOHN BECVAR Senior Director, Relationship & Loyalty Marketing, Groupon WWW.ICELANDAIR.NET 7
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