Selling courses can be challenging, especially when it comes to finding the right target audience. Even if you have the right information about them, cutting through the noise to reach potential students can be difficult given the availability of other online courses.
PM3's campaign demonstrated the importance of offering value upfront to attract potential leads. 🔥In this case study, we will delve into their campaign strategy that resulted in 35,773 leads and a 1:1 referral ratio!
Who is PM3?
PM3 is an EdTech company with six years of experience, belonging to the Aluda group, Brazil's largest EdTech ecosystem. They specialize in online courses designed for career development in product management, marketing, growth, and leadership.
In addition to individual courses, PM3 offers an annual subscription called PM3 Sprints. This program is tailored for professionals aiming to advance their careers or enhance their skills in areas such as business, innovation, data, marketing, or product management.
Bianca is a growth coordinator at PM3. She is the person behind this campaign, which generated over 35,000 leads! 🙌🏻
Why did PM3 choose UpViral?
PM3 needed to collect new leads and improve lead qualification for PM3 Sprints. However, their existing database contained leads not suitable for PM3 Sprints. They needed to reach a new audience more aligned with the PM3 Sprints offering.
They chose UpViral to achieve the following goals:
- Increase customer base for PM3 Sprints.
- Generate new leads and brand awareness for PM3 Sprints.
- Implement a referral system to spread the word about PM3 Sprints.
Previously, PM3’s marketing strategies included email broadcasts, paid media, and participating in online and in-person events. The issue with this is that the efforts are not part of a bigger and more cohesive strategy.
PM3’s Campaign Results with UpViral
PM3 aimed to reach 25,000 leads using UpViral. Instead, they achieved the following amazing results:
- Over 35,000 leads
- Generated 57,000 direct visits which had 18,600 direct leads (33% conversion rate).
- Referred leads generated 68,000 visits, from which 17,112 leads signed up (25% conversion rate).
- All in all, the campaign resulted in a total of 125,000 visits and 35,773 leads collected.
Based on these results, PM3 was able to achieve its goal of getting new leads! It was also important to note the amount of referral leads Bianca and PM3 achieved throughout this campaign. They have collected over 18,000 direct leads and more than 17,000 referred leads.
🔥The UpViral team is truly impressed that they achieved nearly a 1:1 referral ratio, which is significantly higher than the average amongst UpViral users. This ratio shows that every lead who signed up for the campaign referred someone else.
Aside from these amazing results, PM3 also achieved its goal of lead qualification. High email engagement usually indicates quality leads.
The UpViral campaign resulted in:
- A high email engagement: 68% overall open rate.
- The email sent after registration had an 86% open rate.
The open rate is important because it confirms that the email addresses that they were getting were legitimate. This points out that they’re getting quality leads that are engaged with the campaign.
Read: 5 Follow-Up Emails You Should Send When Running a Contest (With Examples)
Opt-In Page and Prizes
The campaign was launched in January and ran for three weeks. Although Bianca and their team didn’t expect sales for the campaign, they achieved approximately 107 sales from the leads that were collected.
At the end of the campaign, they conducted a YouTube live where they offered a discount.
Remember that the objective of the campaign was to collect leads and increase engagement with PM3’s educational offerings. So, they created a landing page to invite participants to sign up for free access to three quick PM3 Sprints courses for a seven-day trial period.
This offer included courses in Product Design Service, Digital Business Metrics, and Storytelling, each culminating in a certificate upon completion.
They connected the sign-up form with UpViral and Kajabi, which is the platform where they host their courses.
This offer served as a compelling incentive for potential leads to sign up. 🎁 By providing valuable educational content for free, PM3 aimed to attract individuals interested in advancing their skills in these specific areas.
The landing page required participants to submit their name, email address, cellphone number, and area of interest. They collected cellphone numbers to create WhatsApp groups. The area of interest is connected with the courses that PM3 offers. This helped them with marketing their products and nurturing the right target audience.
In addition to the educational offer, PM3 also integrated a referral incentive into the campaign, which was also included on the landing page.
This lets participants know that there is a competition where they can win other rewards. Typically, these prizes are introduced on the thank you page or confirmation page.
Participants were encouraged to refer friends and colleagues, with the promise of additional digital content and the chance to win attractive prizes like an Xbox, Kindle, Alexa, and PM3-branded items for top referrers.
People who refer one to two people are also guaranteed to get prizes!
Aside from this, PM3 also conducted a LinkedIn giveaway. Participants were encouraged to share their course completion certificates on LinkedIn (via email) with a specific hashtag for a chance to win a prize. This resulted in 500 user-generated posts on LinkedIn!
This user-generated content not only promoted PM3 but also increased the virality of the campaign and provided social proof of the campaign's value and legitimacy.
Read: E-commerce Incentives That Attract and Retain Customers
How did they promote the campaign?
Promotions played an important role in PM3’s campaign strategy. They implemented the following:
Email Campaigns and Notifications
PM3 employed email campaigns targeting existing PM3 email subscribers and sending them an informative email about the free course offer and how to sign up:
Paid Media and Organic Social Media
The campaign utilized paid media, such as Metaads, to drive initial sign-ups and amplify reach. Multiple Facebook ad variations showcased the free courses and certificates.
Here are some examples of the creatives that were used:
Organic social media channels were also leveraged to engage participants and promote the campaign organically. Here’s one of their social media posts (in carousel format):
Business Newsletter
Aside from email, paid ads, and organic social media, PM3 sponsored an external newsletter with a relevant audience. This generated significant lead traffic, which amounted to 4,000 leads.
Sponsoring a newsletter can be beneficial for gathering leads because newsletters typically have a specific subscriber base interested in particular topics.
Sponsoring one ensures your message reaches a relevant audience. Moreover, associating your brand with a reputable newsletter can enhance your credibility and build trust with the audience.
How did PM3 keep its audience engaged?
PM3 conducted a 3-week campaign. To keep their audience engaged, they sent regular emails to leads such as reminding them about the expiration dates of the free trials or when they unlocked a certain reward.
They also sent reminders to share their certificates or finish the remaining courses.
PM3 also offered free content whenever a lead referred one to two other people to the campaign. The prizes included access to Product Camp 2022 lectures and the monthly check-in framework.
This means that when a referrer shares their link with a friend, and this friend signs up, the referrer can unlock one prize. PM3 sent emails through UpViral whenever a lead unlocked any of the two prizes. The email was automated via UpViral.
PM3 also leveraged its social media presence to post updates and reminders about the campaign. These posts helped maintain visibility and engagement among their followers.
The takeaway here is that campaigns that achieve a successful referral ratio invest in engagement strategies. Communication doesn’t stop at people signing up, you have to get them to refer their family and friends as well.
How did they announce the winners of the campaign?
To end the campaign, PM3 sent an email to the top referrers. Sweepstake winners were also announced on social media platforms.
PM3 also conducted a YouTube Live session as part of their campaign strategy. During this live event, they engaged with their audience by answering questions about the courses. Moreover, they also offered a discount, incentivizing them to take immediate action.
What made the campaign so successful?
When asked about the reason behind the success of the campaign, Bianca said that it was all thanks to their multi-channel approach and choosing the right incentives.
Instead of focusing on sales, PM3 chose to provide value first and give people access to three courses. This allowed their target audience to get to know PM3’s products.
What are PM3’s learnings from the campaign?
Bianca and PM3 learned that offering valuable incentives and creating a positive experience has been instrumental in the success of their campaign.
The right incentives motivate participants to refer others and engage more deeply with the campaign. Moreover, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience for both referring customers and new leads is important for success.
What they would do differently is to increase the referral ratio for the next campaign. They aim to improve the viral coefficient from one invitee referring one person (1:1) to one invitee referring two people (1:2).
Bianca found UpViral to be user-friendly, as it is easy to use and doesn’t require advanced technical knowledge.
Aside from this, the platform's drag-and-drop features and customization options enabled her to align the campaign with PM3's branding, including colors, images, and logos!
Lastly, UpViral provided data analytics that helped them track performance, optimize conversion rates, and make adjustments during the campaign.
Final Thoughts
PM3's campaign effectively made use of multiple channels and chose engaging incentives to surpass their lead generation goals. The strategic use of free courses, referral rewards, and targeted promotions showcased their ability to create value and prioritize engagement.
This strategy helped them reach more people and build trust, creating a solid base for future campaigns. 🙌🏻
If you’re interested in using UpViral to reach your lead generation goals, you can click here to learn more.
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