Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed for improving merchant outreach campaigns by a promotion and marketing service. An example apparatus includes content harvest circuitry, segmentation circuitry, trigger detection circuitry, and campaign generation circuitry. The content harvesting circuitry may include hardware configured to retrieve electronic marketing information, business analytic data, and sales intelligence data. The segmentation circuitry may include hardware configured to determine merchant segmentation criteria, and to classify merchants into segments based on the merchant segmentation criteria. The trigger detection circuitry may include hardware configured to identify occurrence of a triggering event.

Abstract: Techniques are described for facilitating the awarding of prizes in chance-based contests in various ways, such as chance-based contests which are part of promotional advertising, etc. In at least some embodiments, the techniques include facilitating the awarding of prizes at the time a contestant enter or plays the contests, while awarding a selected number of prizes, which may be determined before the contest starts. In at least some embodiments, the techniques include employing an award counter to control awarding of prizes in a chance-based contest. For example, an award counter may be incremented at random or pseudo-random times. In at least some embodiments, the contest is associated with a location-based virtual group of users that has one or more associated geographical areas.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed for generating a promotion structure. The method includes receiving an indication of a service offered by a merchant and presenting one or more tiles based on one or more promotion option structures, wherein each tile includes at least one option and a descriptor associated with each included option. The method further includes receiving one or more selections, and generating, by a processor, the promotion structure based on the received one or more selections. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for identifying a service need via a promotional system, and offering the service need to a third party. Promotions may be offered via a promotional system for a consumer to purchase in exchange for a discounted product or service from a provider. Demand information, which may be collected based on promotions and/or other sources. A residual demand may be calculated based on the demand information and available inventory. The residual demand may be utilized to identify a service need. The service need may be identified in a geographic area having a similar demographic to a geographic area having an associated successful promotion. A service need may be provided to a third party or provider, and may indicate the need for a new business or expansion of a current business.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for mobile location based sales lead identification. Sales lead information may be provided based on a reference location, such as a sales resource real time location. Additional location information, demand information, competitive information, activity history, follow-up tasks, sales resource ownership information and past promotions relating to a particular sales lead may be additionally provided. The mobile location based sales lead information may allow a sales resource to efficiently manage their time during and in between sales visits, and prepare effective sales pitches to sales leads.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed to improve the process of generating promotions. The method includes identifying a promotion structure for approval, the promotion structure defining a promotion to be displayed via a promotion and marketing service and determining whether the promotion structure satisfies automatic approval requirements, the automatic approval requirements including one or more parameters relating to the promotion structure. The method further includes in an instance in which the promotion structure satisfies the automatic approval requirements, automatically approving the promotion structure for display via the promotion and marketing service, and in an instance in which the promotion structure does not satisfy the automatic approval requirements, indicating that the promotion structure cannot be automatically approved. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

Abstract: Various methods are provided for dynamically providing altered menu content data for display in response to real-time constraint data. One example method may comprise detecting a user device in proximity to merchant beacon device based on location data received from location services circuitry of the user device, accessing menu content data, the menu content data comprised of a list of goods or services offered for purchase via a merchant point-of-sale (POS) device or via a merchant application, accessing constraint data associated with the user device indicative of content constraints, applying the constraint data to the menu content data to generate altered menu data content, determining a type of a device at which the altered menu content data is to be provided, formatting the altered menu content data in accordance with the typic of the device, transmitting the formatted altered menu content data for display, and causing display of the formatted altered menu content data.

Abstract: Various methods are provided for dynamically altering displayed menu content data in response to real-time event data. One example method may comprise receiving, at a server, a request for menu content data to be transmitted to a remotely located merchant beacon device, generating the menu content data, transmitting the menu content data, receiving, from the remotely located merchant beacon device and one or more other merchant devices, real-time interaction information, altering the menu content data based on the real-time interaction information, and transmitting, configured for display at the remotely located merchant beacon device, the altered menu content data.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed for generating a promotion structure. The method includes receiving an indication of a service offered by a merchant and presenting one or more tiles based on one or more promotion option structures, wherein each tile includes at least one option and a descriptor associated with each included option. The method further includes receiving one or more selections, and generating, by a processor, the promotion structure based on the received one or more selections. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

Abstract: Provided herein are systems, methods and computer readable media for managing a sales pipeline, and in some embodiments, calculating supply based on travel propensity. An example method comprises identifying a total demand for a promotion tuple at a geographic location, determining, using a processor, a promotion area for the promotion tuple, the promotion tuple comprising at least a category, price information and a geographic area, identifying one or more promotions offered by a promotion and marketing service that comprise at least the category and the price information of the promotion tuple, determining whether the total demand for the promotion tuple at the geographic location is satisfied, wherein the total demand is satisfied in an instance in which the geographic location is within the promotion area for the one or more promotions, and identifying a demand gap in an instance in which the total demand for the promotion tuple at the geographic location is not satisfied.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for mobile location based sales lead identification. Sales lead information may be provided based on a reference location, such as a sales resource real time location. Additional location information, demand information, competitive information, activity history, follow-up tasks, sales resource ownership information and past promotions relating to a particular sales lead may be additionally provided. The mobile location based sales lead information may allow a sales resource to efficiently manage their time during and in between sales visits, and prepare effective sales pitches to sales leads.

Abstract: Provided herein are systems, methods and computer readable media for forecasting demand. An example method comprises generating a virtual offer for one or more combinations of a category or sub-category, location, and price range, accessing consumer data comprising one or more users and user data related to each of the one or more users, calculating a probability that a particular user would buy a particular offer in a particular time frame for at least a portion of the plurality of users and for each of the virtual offers, and determining an estimated number of units of to be sold for at least a portion of the one or more virtual offers as a function of at least the probability associated with each of the one or more virtual offers.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for calculating closing metrics regarding a contract between a promotion service and provider. A promotional system may calculate a probability of closing, and an estimated time to close. The promotion service may offer a promotion to consumers for a discounted product or service, to be honored by the provider. A category, lead source, historical data, stage in sales, and/or size of the provider may be used in calculating a probability of close and/or time to close. An example method may comprise supplying a classifying model with a dataset, wherein the dataset comprises an identification of a provider and attributes corresponding to the provider and identifying a class of the provider in accordance with the plurality of corresponding attributes, wherein the identification is determined based on one or more patterns determinative of a return rate by the classifying model.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed for updating a structure database. The method includes accessing a corpus of machine readable text generated based on a plurality of promotions, wherein each of the plurality of promotions comprises at least one promotion option associated with at least one service, and extracting features from the promotion options, the features being mapped to services associated with respective promotion options from which the features are extracted. The method further includes identifying one or more components associated with the extracted features, tagging, using a processor, each promotion option with every component associated with at least one feature of the promotion option, and updating a structure database using the tagged promotion options. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product are disclosed to improve the process of generating promotions. The method includes identifying a promotion structure for approval, the promotion structure defining a promotion to be displayed via a promotion and marketing service and determining whether the promotion structure satisfies automatic approval requirements, the automatic approval requirements including one or more parameters relating to the promotion structure. The method further includes in an instance in which the promotion structure satisfies the automatic approval requirements, automatically approving the promotion structure for display via the promotion and marketing service, and in an instance in which the promotion structure does not satisfy the automatic approval requirements, indicating that the promotion structure cannot be automatically approved. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for calculating closing metrics regarding a contract between a promotion service and provider. A promotional system may calculate a probability of closing, and an estimated time to close. The promotion service may offer a promotion to consumers for a discounted product or service, to be honored by the provider. A category, lead source, historical data, stage in sales, and/or size of the provider may be used in calculating a probability of close and/or time to close. An example method may comprise supplying a classifying model with a dataset, wherein the dataset comprises an identification of a provider and attributes corresponding to the provider and identifying a class of the provider in accordance with the plurality of corresponding attributes, wherein the identification is determined based on one or more patterns determinative of a return rate by the classifying model.

Abstract: Provided herein are systems, methods and computer readable media for managing a sales pipeline, and in some embodiments, calculating supply based on travel propensity. An example method comprises identifying a total demand for a promotion tuple at a geographic location, determining, using a processor, a promotion area for the promotion tuple, the promotion tuple comprising at least a category, price information and a geographic area, identifying one or more promotions offered by a promotion and marketing service that comprise at least the category and the price information of the promotion tuple, determining whether the total demand for the promotion tuple at the geographic location is satisfied, wherein the total demand is satisfied in an instance in which the geographic location is within the promotion area for the one or more promotions, and identifying a demand gap in an instance in which the total demand for the promotion tuple at the geographic location is not satisfied.

Abstract: The unified payment system, product and method provide an effective and efficient way to better communicate to a merchant the value of running a promotion and determine a deal structure that works for the merchant, the customer, the promotion system, or any combination thereof. The unified payment system, product and method provide real-time ROI calculations that a merchant and sales representative can collaboratively simultaneously work on to identify a deal structure for the merchant to select. In this way, the merchant and sales representative may arrive at a mutually acceptable payment plan.

Abstract: Techniques are described for providing location-based information and functionality to people and computing devices in various ways. In at least some situations, the techniques include enabling multiple people in a common geographic area to interact in various ways, such as via devices capable of communications (e.g., cellular telephones, computing devices with wired and/or wireless communications capabilities, etc.), while in other situations at least some users who are remote from a particular geographic area may be allowed to intercommunicate with one or more other users or other entities in or related to that geographic area. In addition, the techniques include enabling the creation and maintenance of location-based virtual groups of users (also referred to as “clouds”), such as for users of mobile and/or fixed-location devices. Such clouds may enable various types of interactions between group members, and may be temporary and/or mobile.

Abstract: Provided herein are systems, methods and computer readable media for identifying supply. An example for identifying merchants for fulfilling demand comprises receiving one or more virtual offers and an associated quantity of at least a portion of the one or more virtual offers, wherein the one or more virtual offers are representative of a residual demand for a geographic area, assigning a virtual offer of the one or more of the virtual offers to one or more merchants in an instance in which a supply source of the one or more merchants is identified as able to supply at least a portion of the associated quantity of the virtual offer, and determining a priority score for the one or more merchants, wherein the one or more merchants are rankable based on the priority score.