Marketing Studies

The contest we prepared for our marketing partners for the Enlightened Salesperson ends tomorrow.

During the two weeks of the campaign every marketing partner got a 70% commission on all his sales (instead of the 50% commission we normally give). The top partner could also win a 300 USD cash prize and a full 100% commission for the first 10 copies of the e-book sold in the first two weeks after the contest is over.

We also offered them 13 additional bonuses not listed on the web site they could use as an inscentive to boost their sales during the time of the campaign.

The point of this campaign was not only to increase sales, but more importantly to boost marketing partner activity.

As you already saw from my post from the first day of the campaign, I was somewhat pesimistic (also take a look to see what could have gone wrong with the campaign), and now it seems that with good reason.

Although there is still one more day to go, I can say with utmost certainty that the campaign was a complete failiure ... and also my "greatest" personal marketing failiure ever.

These two weeks were absolutely the worse in terms of e-book sales for us, and from what our statistics tell me none of our 184 marketing partners actually did anything much for the campaign.

Let's take a look at the campaign specifics and see what was happening.

a] We announced the campaign to our marketing partners by e-mail on the 14th of September, inviting them to participate.

b] We sent them preparation instructions (what they can do to ensure they make the most out of the contest even before the contest starts) and the link to the contest web site the next day.

Results: 4 people clicked through to the contest web site and 1 person requested to be removed from our partnership list. These people also explored the entire partnership site and examined the materials we prepared for them.

Does this mean that the initial offer was not powerful enough or that our e-emails didn't even get through (or if they did, does it mean they weren't read, being considered spam)?

c] On September 18th the third letter was sent to the partners, giving them advice on how to launch their own campaign on Monday, with one link for those that have an e-mail list and the other for those that don't.

17 people clicked through to the partnership web site. Half of these also explored the partnership site further.

d] On the same day we also invited the other marketing partners from other projects (373 people; 3 asked to be removed after this mailing) and our existing Enlightened Salesperson customers (in this same e-mail we also gave them the opportunity to download additional ES thank you bonuses) to participate.

15 of the 373 marketing partners and 5 of the customers clicked through to the contest web site.

There were however 930 file requests for the first bonus package and 506 file requests for the bonus interviews package from the existing ES customers, which means that these people actually did receive our message and read it.

Knowing this forces us to ask ourselves whether 1) the contest inscentives just weren't strong enough or 2) the way we communicated the contest was a failiure.

e] On September the 19th we sent the 4th letter to our marketing partners (11 people clicked through, 4 further explored the site and examined the sales materials), letting them know that the contest just begun and that they can start promoting the e-book now.

One day later we also sent them an e-mail letting them know that we extended the contest deadline for another week (13 people clicked through). The same letter was also sent to the other partners from other projects (3 people clicked through). 3 people further explored the web site during this day.

f] On the 22nd of September the next e-mail went out to our partners, giving them more promotional advice. 10 people clicked through to the contest web site and 5 of them explored the web site further.

g] The last letter was sent on the 26th of September, telling our marketing partners they still have one week for the contest. 4 people clicked through and all of them further explored the web site.

All of this data could also be viewed more complexly, precisely determening how the visitors actually used the web site after clicking through. It would however take more time and given the low volume of partnership web site visitors the information would not tell us much, since it could not be applied to a larger pattern.

Most people that actually further explored the partnership web site took a look at the free promotional report we prepared for them to promote the e-book, then the additional bonuses they can offer to their lists during this time and the sales letters.

No one took a look at the follow-up sales letters (the letters they could send to their list after their first mailing).

What tools we prepared for the partners

We prepared the following tools to help our partners better promote the e-book during this campaign:

1. The free report presenting the Enlightened Salesperson sales philosophy

2. The announcement letter, announcing the great deal (the 13 bonuses) everyone that buys the Enlightened Salesperson during this period is getting

3. Banners and other promotional images for on-site promotion

4. Promotional articles and instructions on how to distribute them to e-zines

5. Sales letter examples and follow-up sales letter examples

6. Short text ads

What could have gone wrong

There is a number of things that could have gone wrong and why this campaign was a total failiure. I already explored these in this article.

What bothers me the most is that we really can't be certain where the problem is (naturally, we are going to ask the partners why they didn't participate). Any guess is as good as the other.

First, it's evident that only a very marginal share of our partners was actually interested in this campaign, since very few of them clicked through to the contest web site.

Was the contest itself not interesting enough? Didn't we offer them enough inscentives? Did our e-mails even get through? Are they not happy with the e-book (our other research shows that they are)? Do they not perceive us as "worthwhile" and consequently do not react to us anymore?

The most interesting part is that our sales actually heavily dropped during the time of the contest.

Well, we're definetly going to test this contest on another project, and hopefully that's going to give us more information on what went wrong this time. Is it the contest itself or something else?

We'll just have to test and see ...