Groupon [groop – awn], a company that negotiates and offers huge discounts—usually 50-90% off—with popular businesses. The deals are sent to thousands of subscribers in a free daily email. Of course, I probably didn’t need to tell you that. Groupon is huge…and growing. In case you haven’t seen exactly how it works from a consumer’s perspective, here’s a 30 second version:

• Go to Groupon, subscribe to deals for your area
• When new deals come out, you get an email alert and a chance to buy one of a limited number of these deals
• You then redeem your coupon at the business

So, from a business’s perspective, the value is pretty clear:

• Come up with a crazy good deal you can offer to consumers
• Work with Groupon to setup the offer
• The offer goes out by email to a huge list of people in your area
• They buy the offer and redeem it at your business

In other words, you are buying access to their huge email list of local consumers that are ready to make a purchase by heavily discounting your product. Already there are a bunch of resorts that have used Groupon. These resorts are averaging a 50% discount for their offers:

Killington
$55 for a One-Day Lift Ticket at Killington Resort
http://www.groupon.com/boston/deals/killington

Alyeska
Half Off Lift Ticket at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. Choose from Five Options.
http://www.groupon.com/deals/alyeska-resort

Seven Springs
$50 for Two Any-Day, Any-Time Lift Tickets at Seven Springs Mountain Resort
http://www.groupon.com/deals/seven-springs-akron-canton

Treetops Resorts
$59 for Two Lift Tickets and $24 Worth of Cuisine at Treetops Resort in Gaylord (Up to $128 Value)
http://www.groupon.com/detroit/deals/treetops-resort

Masnfield Ski Club
$58 for Two Adult Lift Tickets (Up to $116 Value) or $23 for One Child Lift Ticket (Up to $46 Value) at Mansfield Ski Club
http://www.groupon.com/greater-toronto-area/deals/mansfield-ski-club

Alpine Meadows
$35 Lift Ticket to Alpine Meadows ($69 Value)
http://www.groupon.com/san-francisco/deals/alpine-meadow-homewood-mountain

Mt Waterman
$25 for an Adult All-Day Lift Ticket at Mt. Waterman ($50 Value)
http://www.groupon.com/deals/mt-waterman-2

If any of you have used Groupon, I’d be super interested to hear how it went. Shoot me an email if you have any insights to share.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.