Today’s Featured Merchant is owner Susan Han of Cranberry Café in Blue Bell, PA, just outside of Philadelphia.
Since opening Cranberry Café in 2006, Susan had only tried one advertising method before Groupon, a local coupon book. Click through to find out how she’s seen her revenue skyrocket and how Groupon helped people discover her great restaurant.
Writes Susan:
Looking back, I didn’t have a lot of time to properly market Cranberry Café the way I wanted. Shortly after opening, I became pregnant and my schedule became much more demanding. I was also fighting a location problem, as my restaurant is located inside of a day spa.
I worked with a local coupon-clipping book to try and bring in new customers and get my name out in the local community. I was spending $700 per month on the book and had no clue how effective it was. I kept spending the money because I would receive a few returns and always thought it was helping. Then I found Groupon.
I had used Groupon as a consumer and found myself trying out new places that I never would have gone without the Groupon. I immediately thought that it would be great for my own restaurant.
While most businesses start out by offering a deal through Groupon.com, I started offering deals for Cranberry Café through Groupon Now!. The flexibility of being able to offer the deal for only certain periods of the day really worked well, but I still wanted to offer a traditional deal to get my name out even more.
A month after I started offering deals through Groupon Now!, Cranberry Café was featured on Groupon as traditional deal in August of this year. The response was incredible. We sold more than 300 deals and the overwhelming majority of buyers had never heard of us before. I can’t count how many would say, ‘This place is wonderful, but we never knew you were here, I thought it was just the day spa.’ Groupon has put my restaurant on the map!
So far we have seen a 90% return rate among Groupon customers and our revenue has increased 35% in just one quarter alone! Groupon has done more for my restaurant in one quarter than the coupon book did in years. Also, the geographical heat map in the online merchant center shows me where my Groupon’s were purchased. I was advertising in the wrong places all along.
Working with Groupon has been one of the best things I could have ever done for my business. Now people come in and say, “I love your restaurant, but I didn’t know there was a day spa here!
-Cranberry Café owner, Susan Han
Questions or comments for Susan? Leave them below and we’ll be sure to send them her way.
Tags: Featured Merchant
