How we became Santa Claus. Christmas rake. Part 1

Greetings to you, my dear boys and girls! Did you behave well this year? ..

Probably, this is how I would begin my story, if I were Santa Claus. But it is not. We tried to become one, but last year it was not very good. I want to tell you how we started the project to send letters from Santa Claus, and how many New Year troubles fell on our programmer heads.
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Start

It all started last year, about 4 months before the New Year. We really wanted to get something good in karma . And since we already had a blank for a similar project, it was decided to develop and launch a resource that allows us to send a “letter from Santa Claus”.

First of all, we looked at the competitors and their projects, after which our joy knew no bounds. Whichever project we opened, it was inconvenient and low-functional: all sites were reduced to 2-3 pages, it was possible only to choose a template, add a “postscript” and enter the recipient’s address, the payment was on receipt from the bank, after which it was necessary to call and say when and how to pay.

Well, here young blood began to play, because now we will do everything right!
It took about 2 months to develop, made a prototype, launched it, started testing and editing.

They didn’t even think that there could be a problem with sending letters by mail. What after all there can be problems? He came, gave the letters and they left for themselves peacefully.

Error number 1

This is where our first mistake was: the entire stage of the order and sending the letter to the customer was not passed. This defect and got out in the near future.

As soon as the system on the site passed the scheduled tests, we all started thinking: how to promote a project that is only 2 months old? Since search engines did not know about us, customers could only be searched by acquaintances or advertised.
Moreover, there was less than a month and a half before the New Year, which means it was necessary to advertise with might and main.

Error number 2

And we realized our second mistake: advertising of the project and promotion should be started in advance (at least promotion in search engines), then the price of effort will be much less.
Not only do you need to prepare in advance for advertising, you need to approach this point with a “sober” head. We had no idea how to advertise a product. They only knew that they needed a stream of customers, and some of them would order letters for their children. We climbed a couple of large portals, watched the attendance statistics and found out their ads. We found one that cost not much + there were 30-40 thousand visitors on the counter, and we pecked at it. They quickly arrived and signed everything they needed, immediately paying. But after the launch, everything turned out to be much worse: 30-40 thousand visitors are on all sections of the portal, and where we took advertising, only 2 thousand per day. There was nowhere to go. We went to VK and there successfully lowered $ 2000, receiving only a few orders. And these are not all the places where the money was wasted (yes, we received the traffic, but there were few sales).

Now we know: if you don’t know how to do advertising, it’s better not to go and find those who can do it.

Error number 3

There were 15 days left until the new year, and we have already begun to print a letter for mailings.
They brought the first batch to the post office, satisfied as small children, that now our letters will begin to conquer distances with a view to please the kids before the New Year. But as soon as we started to give the first letters, the joy from our face instantly disappeared (remember the error number 1). It turned out that the letters must also indicate the recipient's full name (just the address was not enough).

Error number 4

We ran to the office, got all emails from emails from the database. Instead of writing each one separately (we already had a panic / rush), we sent one letter to everyone. Google is good, all the answers under one topic are stored in the tape.

Thus, it turned out very sad "chat" instead of mail. We barely figured out who should write what full name, and how to send, while receiving negative feedback due to our negligence. And it was a titanic work, get 200 letters, find by email, who sent the letter and where, and indicate the full name on the envelope.

Thank God, coped with it. Returned to the post office and again received a hammer on the head.
This time: registered letters must have the correct return address !!! Required.
We were told how to get out of the situation quickly (just indicate on the envelope my full name and return address. What we did successfully in 2-3 hours while standing at the post office did).
But we were again disappointed. The letter indicated a non-existent address (we indicated “the mountain where Santa Claus lives”). It is impossible for the letter to have two return addresses, even if one of them is invented.

After long hours of persuasion, we had to send letters by ordinary mail (not registered), with the inability to track where they are.

Error number 5

But here another fun thing got out. Since all letters are visually similar, if one somehow does not “fit the template,” the mail rejected all the letters at once (although in others everything was fine).

Error number 6

So. Here we send letters, at the same time we try to console those who are worried about the delivery. Then partners with Grupon called us, and for some reason we agreed to launch a discount campaign just a few days before the New Year.

Knowing our mentality, many people leave their gift purchases on the very last day: we received hundreds of requests (even sometimes they begged us to send letters directly) and then ... a couple of days before NG we also started sending hundreds of letters to clients from Grupon.

In addition to the serious omissions described above, quite a few smaller nuances have occurred: it is rather difficult to compare the two hundred letters with their envelopes (without marks and consequences for the design of both); it turns out, the photo paper in stores ends on New Year's Eve; signet from sealing wax heats up quickly and the fifth seal is not the same as the first one (there is snow on the street); ... But these circumstances are not so interesting.

Let's sum up:

• Starting a project, spend at least a couple of days for a full analysis and thinking through a surface strategy. Become first yourself the client of your project. Let one of your friends / employees buy or order your service. This is a very important point, because a lot of mistakes can come out of it and immediately the wishes of the project.
• If you have money for advertising - use the services of professionals. If not, look for cheap advertising options.
• When your business or project depends on other companies, learn their rules, make a test purchase or order a trial service.
• If you use newsletters, try for each client to receive a separate letter with the topic for him personally. It will be more pleasant for the client, and it will be more convenient for you to correspond with him.
• This error intersects a bit with the 3rd. Try to streamline your work with partners, it will be more convenient not only for other companies, but also for you.
• Do not try to "squeeze" even a little bit to "save" the project (business), if time is already lost, you will not save the project, and you will lose clients because of poor service. It is better to wait and prepare for the next season.

We will immediately answer the question: why is there “Part 1” in the title of the article? The fact is that we are preparing another article describing how this year we tried to solve the problems described and what consequences this led to.

PS: Thank you for your attention. I hope our experience will be interesting, because not so many publish analyzes of failures, in which you can often learn much more than articles about success.