I am a small startup with a very limited budget. I am not sure about approaching the service providers directly as I am a small startup with no credibility. I'd like to get something up and running very quickly so that I can prove the model and generate revenue. Approaching the big service providers will mostly likely have a long sales cycle. Any ideas how Groupon/Daily Deals have achieved this?
It would be helpful to know the sector.
I would try and start hyper local. That way you can easily and quickly get deals with small local businesses. You can then grow to small chains and then larger chains for a wider coverage.
Small local business are in my experience very up for these kinds of programmes which might drive more sales or footfall.
If you're looking at bigger corps or online brands then you should start with reselling an existing affiliate programme e.g affilinet in Europe.
Happy to give more specific advice on a call.
Groupon first started as a blog, tracking discounts for their users. They would just post discount they found online and gather users from that. After you have a good user base (your previous users) you can use it as asset to leverage deals. This is how lean entrepreneurship works.
First, you do something really small in order to get users interested in what you have to offer. It's usually a bit different from the goal itself, but sells the same ideia - (groupon: special offers). If you have huge number of people interested in the discounts you are posting on a blog, you can make a good deal promoting a special discount to the same people.
"Low budget" and "very quickly" rarely combine.
If I was interested in something like that, I would spend a year, at least, trying to find the best way to share good prices and special offers, and build a high number of access monthly and use it as pitch with other business.
Hi. I believe that you are better off, focusing on a niche within the market, especially initially. Don't try to be everything to everybody. For example, focus on Diabetics and work with hospitals and insurance companies to use your app to help patients make good choices. This is just an example, but specialized and you can dominate your niche.
Best of Luck,
Mike
From the Trenches to the Towers Marketing
