Features of promotion: how we built a partner channel. Errors and solutions

In this article we will talk about the difficulties and advantages of attracting customers in our field, what kind of promotion strategy we built in the end, what pitfalls we stumbled upon and what benefits marketing agencies and studios will get from this.

So that you understand our specifics, a couple of words about us:

We have a rather difficult product for the Russian Internet marketing sphere - the Carrot Quest service. In fact, this is a universal service for internet marketing, which combines 6 important tools:
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• Event Analytics. Collection of key information about each visitor on the site (his actions, sources of transition, contact information, etc.)
• Sending automatic messages (chat, pop-ups, letters, webhook-i, js-scripts, calls, SMS);
• Smart online chat, which is based on a modern model of communication in instant messengers ;
• Email newsletter. Both manual and automatic with complex scenarios and various triggers;
• Pop-up windows that are very finely tuned for each user and are shown when it is relevant for him;
• Creating funnels for any user actions.

We are faced with the fact that users do not quite understand the possibilities of combining all these tools, because previously not encountered. Yes, some segments represent separate advantages, but in general there is no product.

Therefore, we can say that we are creating a new market - a market for such solutions in Russia. At the first stage of promotion, we did not use paid advertising at all, we simply created useful educational materials (articles, cases, interviews, instructions) that would show new opportunities in the market and the huge benefits that companies can get from the service in the context of modern Internet. marketing. Users read and come themselves.



In such training materials we talked about different solutions in the service:

• Improving the efficiency of the site;
• Increase first and repeat sales;
• About the new model of user and customer support;
• Hold and return users;
• Personal work with leads and customers, their step-by-step heating and bringing to purchase;
• Automate Internet marketing;
• Increased customer loyalty, LTV and average bill;
• Refusal of a zoo of services and association of all tools in one place for the sake of optimization of processes of work;
• And etc.

The main problem:

The approach with the training materials gave a good effect, but our clients (whatever they were specialists in their companies) are mostly very conservative (or are loaded with other tasks) - they expect ready-made solutions from the service, so that without any efforts - “I installed the code - I got the benefit”, but in this case it does not happen.

We give a universal tool for different solutions, we tell different cases, but the user himself must still adjust these capabilities for themselves and their business processes.

There are two options:

• the company has a project team that implements such solutions;
• There are several marketers in the company who are already deep in their work and this additional task seems too heavy for them, which is why they are not activated and do not understand the service.

Guess which companies more?

Decision:

We began to work on the affiliate channel so that through marketing agencies we can go to companies that do not have their own marketing project teams, and the marketers themselves are busy doing other things.

That Carrot Quest is great for sale and companies are ready to use it with pleasure, but they need help in setting it up, we understood a long time ago, but ...

It turned out that similar tools are necessary for marketing agencies themselves . Not only because they will receive additional income by offering services to their own clients, but in general, the use of the service improved customer performance because of what he trusts the agency and orders more services.

Why? Let's figure it out.

It would seem that the majority of marketing agencies concentrate on a single direction of work (event-events, seo and contextual advertising, website development, etc.) and, logically, this should be their advantage.

In general, this is the case, when you focus on a single task, you rapidly develop in this direction and give the maximum result, and if you offer all kinds of services, the focus is blurred and the result leaves much to be desired.

But there is one important nuance in the work of agencies and studios.

Client companies evaluate your efficiency not only for the work you have done, but also with an eye on your main indicator - sales. You can very well set up contextual advertising and make an effective website, but poor processing of incoming leads and leading them to the purchase of a company at the crossroads of all your merits. It is unlikely that such a client will contact you again or will appreciate your work and will pay more. And all the profit of marketing agencies is often based on a long-term relationship with a client and a high LTV.

Today there is one such problematic place for which the agency never has enough time, but with an emphasis on which, they can easily raise the main results of the client, without investing much time and effort into it. Also, receive additional payments for this. What is it about? On increasing the main indicator of the client - sales. All the solutions in the Carrot Quest, which we have listed a little higher, are ultimately aimed at this indicator.

Quite a common situation: if using different tools to increase the conversion in the purchase in the company by only 0.5-1%, then the number of sales of the client increases by 2 times, and the profit in 3-4. Unfortunately, not everyone sees these bottlenecks. How do you think, how will the attitude of your client towards you change, if you raise his profit by 3-4 times, but do not spend a lot of time on this? Your main work in this case becomes many times more valuable for the client.



Introducing the Carrot Quest service, our partners solve a number of their tasks:

1. With the help of Carrot Quest, you solve the client's problems - raise his sales and profits . The client associates these results with your work and becomes loyal, continuing to make a monthly profit;
2. You can incorporate Carrot Quest into your customers' business processes — set up and provide monthly support. This is additionally from 10,000 to 150,000 rubles on one client depending on the type of implementation (simple scenarios or the development of a full-fledged strategy for working with users in the service) + monthly support;
3. For each client, you receive a monthly deduction from Carrot Quest in the amount of 20% of the tariff . For example, if attendance of a client’s site is 60,000 unique visitors per month, then every month you will receive 2,400 rubles for it.
4. We are starting to use joint promotion with you. And this is for you the possibility of additional coverage of your target audience .

The partners themselves can be divided into several types. They differ in a couple of parameters (they make implementations, support, whether they sell or not).



For example, to become a certified partner you need to go through a training free webinar, set up a service for 2 of your clients, make interesting cases for them. This allows the client to receive from us additional customers, making them support and implementation. Next, I will tell you a few nuances that are associated with the training and management of partners.

Results and first mistakes:

We began to actively engage and implement an affiliate program a little more than 4 months ago. In the first 2.5-3 months of work, we “stepped on the same rake” - we hoped that the partners themselves would go into the service in detail (its additional features, settings, etc.). Because of what, at the first stage we did not show good results.

Every month we registered about 40-50 partners, for 2 months, 12 companies moved into the category of active partners (resulted in 2 or more clients). We realized that the problem is that the partners are not sufficiently trained and informed in the capabilities and settings of the service.

In the shortest possible time, the approach had to be changed and he gave an excellent result.

For the remaining 1.5 months, we managed to attract almost 3 times more active partners than in the first 2 months. This is of course a serious result and success. Although it is important to clarify: some of the partners were able to reanimate and return from those who registered a long time, but did not show any activity.

It's simple. We have become mandatory to teach partners all the possibilities and features of the service: free webinars, instructions and communication with our employees. All this gave the result.



If this topic is interesting to you and a couple of questions have appeared, let's comment right here.

Let's do integrated internet marketing together.

Register in the affiliate program and in addition to additional income you will get incredibly loyal customers.