Quickly and Easily Learn to IM Like the Big Players

I need a diversion from the rest of life so I thought we could chat some about a company that is rocking it in their industry. Yes I am going to out the company here, I hope all you in the U.S.A. join because this is one of the best deals going.

The company is www.GoodRX.com. This will be our case study going forward for awhile for those interested in seeing how the big boys work. This is NOT buying prescription meds on the net, GoodRX.com does not fill prescriptions. Their system for finding coupons, however, is probably 99% automated (think of an RSS feed coming in with the data) and then computer generating the coupon bar code, something even us small fish can do (to a point anyway).

Why is this an excellent IM case study? Their main product is free, totally legal (in the U.S. and probably other countries as well), requires no registration, no trickery, and no information from a user to fullfil the company's obligation to such user. They have been mentioned on Forbes, Good Morning America, Fox News, ABC, and Prevention Magazine to name a few who have vetted (made a careful and critical examination of) this company.

We are not talking people who bought a post from CNN on BlackhatWorld for $27 - this company is doing some industry-shaking work and we are going to digest (make sense of) what they are doing and why they are doing these things.

So let's get going. GoodRX.com is in the business of finding coupons from prescription companies and other legit companies that provide prescription medication to most of America, think Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Target and the such for the "other legit companies" then add the actual pharmaceutical companies that produce medicine. There is more to GoodRX.com than this but we are starting with the basic service that launched this company (in my opinion) to what it already is.

So GoodRX.com provides coupons - that they probably get for free - to consumers who are already purchasing medicines and then saving the consumer up to 80% off the regular price with a printable coupon or app, get this, at the point of sale (Walmart pharmacy...this is important).

The coupons are good when presented to the variously mentioned pharmacies above so the savings are instant and totally free. This is like a personal prescription program for all of us who do not have prescription insurance, and it is being done with coupons.

No membership is required nor money requested. This is where I will need your help - how would you monetize this company while still maintaining the core strengths that launched it? Let me give you my thoughts first but I have already written enough for tonight. For now just look at the Alexa.com stats for GoodRX.com: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/goodrx.com



Last month the company saved people over $80 million U.S. dollars alone. I know I saved about $450 myself, honest truth, no joke or BS (I am over 50 so hey I have some high blood pressure and other medical issues that come with age).

These guys are big boys, stay with me and you can easily learn some killer IM strategies, marketing and more.

phillip aka thedorf

P.S. The third most read item in a post or email is the postscript (P.S.) - start using them today like I just did.

P.P.S. Post a reply if you like the start of this thread otherwise I'll just drop it eventually - silly me I need feedback from someone out there...

I am bookmarking this thread.

thedorf said:

OP

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Hey Philip, this will be awesome case study, don't drop it man! I think we can brain storm on the business model and learn from each other.

Looks interesting bookmarked to see how this goes

The are likely not just curating coupons found on the net and giving them away for free. They are selling advertising via the coupons to manufacturers and giving them to visitors for free. Coupons are a form of advertising and nobody gives advertising away for free.

If you have any doubt about this, you can find this in their "How GoodRx Works" page

"GoodRx is free for consumers, and we require no personal information to search drugs and receive discounts. We do not sell your personal health information to anyone. We make money from advertisements on our site and referral fees. This revenue enables us to continue to make the best, free product to help Americans afford the prescriptions they need."

Hey all I'm back again. Here is the homepage for goodrx.com as it shows on my laptop:



The focus of this page is to get a search run for a drug. One input box, nicely contrasting colors, sample searches, the line "start saving now for free, no sign-up or obligation required" is great positive reinforcement. The map doesn't make sense if you don't scroll down so I don't know what they are trying to do there, other than show there is more content under the fold. All of this leads to a fantastic 35% bounce rate - that is super low.

I'm wondering if we could duplicate this in a different industry but which one sounds good for coupons? I'll host and build a website if we come up with a good niche. I'll bet we can find rss feeds with coupons in them in some niche out there. But this will be as I have time. If I have no time then...no work gets done. But let's see what we can do.

My first thought is groceries but that sounds boring and surely it's being done well already. Needs to be something people already buy on a monthly basis, and with retail sales points common in the community, maybe fast food places.

phillip aka thedorf

P.S. Suggest a niche!

Hey Philip,

Thanks for the detailed thread.
I've subscribed would love to read more.

So you need a niche right?

thedorf said:

I'm wondering if we could duplicate this in a different industry but which one sounds good for coupons? I'll host and build a website if we come up with a good niche. I'll bet we can find rss feeds with coupons in them in some niche out there. But this will be as I have time. If I have no time then...no work gets done. But let's see what we can do.

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Of course you can duplicate this in a different niche. However you should still realize that the coupons are the product that GoodRX is selling and they aren't just scraping the coupons from somewhere. It's not some small start up trying to survive, GoodRX has a former Yahoo employees and some folks from Facebook on the team, they have a big money operation going.

They are also collecting your data and reserving the right to sell that information in the future.

This site has a nice write up of Goodrx - http://www.ejovi.net/goodrx-make-money/

soccerlover said:

Hey Philip,

Thanks for the detailed thread.
I've subscribed would love to read more.

So you need a niche right?

Click to expand...

Yeppers!

UptonGoodwin said:

Of course you can duplicate this in a different niche. However you should still realize that the coupons are the product that GoodRX is selling and they aren't just scraping the coupons from somewhere. It's not some small start up trying to survive, GoodRX has a former Yahoo employees and some folks from Facebook on the team, they have a big money operation going.

They are also collecting your data and reserving the right to sell that information in the future.

This site has a nice write up of Goodrx - http://www.ejovi.net/goodrx-make-money/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link to the writeup. You lose me when you say "coupons are the product that GoodRX is selling".

I used GoodRX just the other day and I did not pay for the coupons. Who is paying for the coupons?

I just read the article - what a mess that is. Maybe we take this a different direction...

thedorf said:

Thanks for the link to the writeup. You lose me when you say "coupons are the product that GoodRX is selling".

I used GoodRX just the other day and I did not pay for the coupons. Who is paying for the coupons?

I just read the article - what a mess that is. Maybe we take this a different direction...

Click to expand...

The manufactures and pharmaceutical companies are paying for the coupons. From the article I linked though it seems they have a middleman between the drug manufacture and GoodRX, but GoodRX is getting paid when you use the coupons.