RapidBuyr's Kevin Wells on Why Publisher Leads Are a Natural Fit For Daily Deals

September 15, 2011 By Jim Sturdivant

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For business-to-business publishers, being able to target audiences with useful products and services is always a winning formula, and the recent popularity of "daily deals" coupon services provides a new way to leverage valuable leads.

In June, Reed Business Information announced a partnership with daily deals provider RapidBuyr, in which Reed's BuyerZone, which provides targeted, qualified sales leads to businesses, is able to offer RapidBuyr deals to its network of nearly two million businesses.

It's part of a growing effort by RapidBuyr, which offers discounted products and services tailored to small and mid-sized businesses, to partner with publishers. In addition to Reed Business Information, the company has recently partnered with American City Business Journals and TechTarget to offer daily deals. Publishers reap a share of the revenue from each sale; for RapidBuyr, the arrangements add millions of qualified prospects.

Publishing Executive Inbox recently asked Kevin Wells, RapidBuyr's executive vice president of market development, about these partnerships.      


Inbox: Publishers have had some success partnering with you on offering daily deals. What about the deals makes them "work" for a B2B publisher?

Kevin Wells: We're focused on deeply discounted values on business products and services. Business buyers, while not impulsive, are highly opportunistic in terms of procurement for their businesses. The value to the publisher is the ability to create significant, incremental revenue from their subscribers/users by participating in the net revenue from the sale.


Inbox: How, specifically, are publishers utilizing these deals to monetize their customer base?

Wells: RapidBuyr creates offers that live on the publisher's sites and the deals are also pushed to users via opted-in emails. Any product or service that sells creates incremental revenue for the referring publishing partner.


Inbox: Have you tried this with any consumer publishers? If so, how has that worked? How is it different from B2B?

Wells: We're currently not focused on many of the consumer titles. RapidBuyr would not be an appropriate solution for a fashion magazine, for instance.


Inbox: How has the partnership with Reed Business Information's BuyerZone expanded your business? How does it improve what you are able to offer publishers (and their audiences)?

Wells: RapidBuyr provides a platform for BuyerZone to monetize their users and is also offering BuyerZone an opportunity to market their RFP services to our users as well.


Inbox: What do you tell publishers who are worried about offering daily deals because they fear a negative reaction from online audiences? What about your approach makes them seem like a value-add for audiences rather than an aggressive pitch?

Wells: Because we operate as a third party merchant, if you will, there is no editorial vs. publisher "church and state" issue for the publishers.

Typically, offering your readers/users an opportunity to buy more intelligently for their core business is seen as helpful, rather than intrusive. There is no hard sell pitching in the approach. It's a service; if you find it valuable, please sign up—you can opt out at any time. We find that our opt outs are rare.


Inbox: Can Rapidbuyr actually be used as a means to attract new audiences—and if so, how are publishers using the deals in their marketing?

Wells: We expect that in some cases, RapidBuyr will be a draw to new audience. In all cases, we are seeing RapidBuyr is a net positive in terms of significant incremental revenue for the publisher with their existing audience.

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