The Client:The San Francisco Institute of Esthetics and Cosmetology is a full-service beauty school and Paul Mitchell partner school. It has won numerous awards, including Best Hair and Make-up at the San Francisco Fashion Show in 2009, as well as many from the Paul Mitchell schools, including the Sales Award, the Culture Award, and the Education Award.

The Challenge: The Institute has a system in place to track customers and how they were referred. In the past, many of them came from newspaper ads, which the Institute spent 600 to 700 dollars on each week. But last year, these ads stopped performing well, so the Institute began exploring other marketing methods. Yelp proved a good fit since the Institute has such a great reputation and receives excellent reviews. It also experimented with social media marketing — which is how Aaron Palm stumbled on Groupon. What initially interested him in Groupon was the fact that he’d have to pay nothing out-of-pocket.

The Deal: The Groupon process was seamless. Aaron discussed possible offers with his salesperson at Groupon and decided on the best one. He received the copy not long after and was quite pleased with the write-up. All he had to do after that was wait for the day of his feature.

The Results: When that day came, the Institute made sure its reception desk was fully staffed —a wise precaution, as the phones rang non-stop for almost the entire day. Aaron expected to sell 300 to 400 Groupons, which would have made the promotion more successful than anything else he had ever tried. He was shocked and delighted to discover that by day’s end, the Institute had sold nearly 700 Groupons. Aaron also loved how these results were easily measurable. Most of the customers were new — and many bought additional products and services, with many booking another appointment before leaving the salon. These customers also tipped well, according to Institute technicians. The Institute looks forward to working with Groupon again, and plans to incorporate fundraising efforts into its next promotion.

The Proof:

• Huge jump in Yelp traffic — from 1,600 hits per month to 3,000 in a single day
• Increase in website traffic for two weeks after the feature
• Average Groupon customer spent 78% above the value of the Groupon