Have You Ever Bought a Lottery Ticket?
I’m sure most of us have, in our decidedly short/long stay we’ve spent on earth so far. (sidenote: stick to the end for an ethical bribe)
I’m not a gambler, and you’re not one either… But why is it that we still buy then – knowing that we have a higher likelihood of getting struck by lightning than coming even remotely close to winning? And why is it we only buy when the reward goes above a certain number and ignore it completely otherwise?
The reason is simple.
- The reward is BIG enough
- The cost of participation is low
- There’s trust (store is not going to up and run once a winner is drawn)
- Everyone wants to win something
Now you may be wondering, how does the lottery relate to me launching my product on Amazon?
Well… How the lottery ties into your product launch strategy called the points chance system.
The model is simple. Consumers are not guaranteed a prize at any certain point, but instead more chances at winning a reward (why, that’s exactly like the lottery!).
The reward in question, is something highly relevant and desired to the consumer, so much so that they take the time in their busy lives, to pause for a moment, and sign up.
Why does this work? Well…
- You enter a promotion because you think you’re going to win
- When you’re tied for first place, you’ll do everything to make sure it stays that way.
- The fear of losing out to others because of insufficient points outweighs the inertia of performing whatever action you’re instructed to do
So now that we’ve gotten the theory out of the way, how can I implement this into my product launch strategy?
Well, the first thing you want to do is to perform social listening (It is an incredible way to understand what your customers needs, wants and goals are ).
Join Facebook communities, crawl the Youtube comments section and lurk on Reddit. You’ll find heaps upon heaps of information ripe for the picking.
Decided on the prize you’re going to be offering?
Great, let’s continue.
NOTE: There are tons of ways to go about this, but since Messenger Marketing is my playground, I’ll be explaining how to do this in ManyChat.
- Come up with a couple of different ad copies of FB ads that you want to run to drive people into your Messenger bot flow. This way, you’ll be able to build a coherent flow where the message tallies with the ad (and not leading to a disconnect).
- Go ahead and build the flow, being sure to capture the emails as well as phone numbers of your customer (if you’re unsure how to do this, check out my BFCM flow I posted awhile back).
- Collect an OTNR to use on the day of the launch
- Log their information into a Google sheet with the “Insert Row” function of the Google Sheet action. (Be sure to log their MANYCHAT ID)
- Create multiple ways for customers to earn points (do you want them to purchase a product? or maybe like and comment on your Instagram? or perhaps share a FB post with a friend?)
- For every such action they perform, map it to an action step where their number of points increases. Then, use the update row function of the Google Sheet action and update their points accordingly (this will be done with the comparing of their MC ID).
- Put them on email drips(you don’t have to send one everyday) to keep them warm and engaged. You can talk about what inspired you to launch the product, its general use cases or even trivia.
- About one to two weeks from the launch, run a paid broadcast for both Messenger and SMS to re-hype your list, and give them additional ways to earn points to increase their chances of winning.
- On the day of the launch, send out emails, SMS, paid broadcasts as well as utilize your OTNR to reach your customers.
- Refresh your Amazon APP every five minutes
The days of putting up a product on Amazon and having it rank by itself are (sadly) long over.
Whilst this method requires A LOT more work, it’s a fantastic way to build a brand following and hit the ground running right from the get go.
It’s 2021.
It’s time to treat Amazon as a cashier for your business, and not your SOLE business.
I hope you get tons and tons of sales, and may your Amazon APP crash because of your sales volume.
Questions? Feel free to join our Facebook Group where we talk about diversifying your marketing avenues with automation. I’d love to hear from you.
P.S. Here’s an ethical bribe. If you want a BFCM flow that I built to diversify your marketing channels, just click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
I’ll be asking for your email in exchange for it.