[Breakdown] 40+ Demos From a Gifting Campaign

Intro 

Hello and welcome to Mark Sourced, where we break down successful B2B marketing programs that you can leverage to hit your growth goals.

Today, we’re looking at how Default generated 40+ demos and influenced $225,000 in open pipeline through a gifting campaign, a program detailed in a LinkedIn post by their head of growth.

Let’s unpack the campaign!

Summary

Default is an inbound marketing tool that automates scheduling, routing, enrichment, and intent workflows.

To help generate new pipeline, as well as advance existing pipeline, the team at Default sent 100 champagne bottles to strategic prospects, customers, partners, and influencers.

Each gift recipient was strategically selected and received personalized 1:1 communication via email in the lead up to receiving their gift.

The result was multiple demos, hundreds of thousands in pipeline generated, and multiple social media posts from gift recipients about the campaign.

The Results

40+ demos
$225,000 in pipeline influenced

Why This Worked

The team at Default was able to make this campaign successful with a thoughtful and personalized approach that made their customers, partners, and prospects feel valued.

Here is what they did that I think made this campaign so effective:

1. The recipients were strategically selected

Default built their target list with a mix of different types of contacts:

• Customers

• Partners

• Influencers

• Prospects

For customers, partners, and influencers, the goal was simply to surprise and delight. On top of that, they hoped to give each group a reason to post about the brand on social media…many of which ultimately ended up doing so.

For prospects, they selected a handful of strategic targets for whom they hoped to generate new pipeline and/or increase the chances of closing open deals. The highly personalized approach generated attention and helped contribute significantly to their pipeline goals.

2. The gift was valuable and memorable

The folks at Default felt like it was important for the item they were sending to be valuable to the point that their prospects would feel compelled to post about it on social media. That was the standard they were shooting for.

Ultimately, they landed on champagne that was delivered in a high quality and branded bottle and package. The gift hit the mark and they received many positive responses and posts on social media from delighted recipients.

3. They were intentional and strategic with communications

Default reached out to their gift recipients three times in the lead up to them receiving the package. Here is the sequence they followed:

1. 2 - 3 weeks before launch: pitched the idea and asked for an address

2. 2 week before launch: provided an update about their package and what’s coming

3. Shortly after the packaged was delivered: prompted the recipient to post about their package

The initial communications built excitement about the gift and then the third was a call to action to help build public virality around the campaign. That thoughtful approach proved to be effective.

Who Should Consider Running This Type of Program

In total Default invested $17,900 to distribute 100 champagne bottles. That’s nearly $200 per recipient.

For this type of initiative to be profitable, you need to have a fairly high annual customer value.

For Default, their lowest pricing tier is $500 per month / $6,000 annually. I imagine that the folks that they were sending to were all on their next tier up (the pricing for that tier is not publicly shown on their website) and worth significantly more than that.

At a high level, you probably need to be looking at about $10,000 in annual revenue potential for this type of effort to be worth it.

If you’re more of a transactional business model, this program probably isn’t for you and you should look to cheaper channels.

How to Run This At Your Company

Certain types of campaigns require specialized resources to be able to execute like an in house designer, industry expert, channel expert, etc.

For this one, it actually is pretty simple to execute. You largely just need folks responsible for the following tasks:

1. Identifying the prospects

2. Communicating with the prospects

3. Someone to help created branded champagne bottles and ship to guests (you can source a vendor for this)

All of the above tasks can be accomplished by a single in house project owner.

Conclusion

Default did a great job of surprising and delighting their customers and prospects with their champagne campaign.

It’s a great example of a strategic and personalized ABM approach, and it’s a template that other companies have used with similar success as well.