Google Offers - A New Digital Marketing Feature

The much anticipated 'Offers' initiative of Google was launched on March 10th 2011. Google Offers is a new digital marketing feature which enables hair salons, restaurants and other local businesses, to display discounts and other special offers to prospective customers.

This announcement was made by Google in their blog, just before 'South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2011' kicked off in Austin, Texas. SXSWi is a set of film, interactive and music festivals, as well as conferences, which have been held every spring, since 1987. It is attended by thousands of people who visit Austin from all over the country, and presents a great opportunity for the Mountain-view California based company to test the effectiveness of their 'Google Offers' product.

If the search giant had launched their digital marketing product while SXSWi was underway, there might have been a lot of confusion with businesses trying to hop on to the Offers bandwagon, before their competitors. Considering the huge amount of sales generated during SXSWi, it is not surprising to learn that the first 60 businesses to use Google Offers as part of their digital marketing strategy are based in Austin, Texas.

For instance, Bird's Barbershop is offering a discount of $3 for men and $5 for women, on all haircuts at three of their locations. Also Austin Land and Cattle, which offers the most delicious steaks and seafood in the city, is rewarding check-ins with free food. Their digital marketing offer states that customers who purchase two beverages, can choose from a free burger, pork sandwich, or frito pie.

People using Android phones have been able to check-in to Google Offers using Google Latitude since the beginning of February 2011. Google Latitude is a service that enables users to view the location of their friends on a map, and display their own position. Since then, the digital marketing media has been looking forward to Google Offers, which is considered to be promising because of its geo-social nature. In fact, most digital marketing experts say that Offers is more similar to the 'Specials' platform of Foursquare, than to daily deal websites like Groupon and LivingSocial.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Facebook is also developing a new digital marketing feature that will allow companies to offer discounts to users. A bit like Groupon.com, this feature is expected to be a part of Facebook's 'Deals' channel. Some of the cities in which it will be launched are San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas and Atlanta. Currently, the sales department of the social networking giant is working very closely with local companies to ensure the success of this digital marketing product.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency and can be contacted on 020 8891 2077 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.

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