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BizReport : Research : May 07, 2008
MarketingSherpa: How widgets turn subscribers into affiliates
Word of mouth marketing is increasing in popularity but do you really know how good the return on investment is? Many marketers don't; they also don't realize that even though word-of-mouth can be a benefit, WOM efforts can be much better. A recent study showed that using email and widgets helped improve the WOM efforts for one company.
Marketing Sherpa completed the case study for Student Advantage. The study allowed college-student subscribers of the company to use widgets and email to promote the website to their friends. The study found that these options helped lift conversion rates by more than 10%.
The students were compensated for their promotional efforts ($10 per new subscription) and were given widgets or allowed to use targeted email messages to recruit new subscriptions. New subscribers only had to include their name and an email address. The recruiters focused on social networks and email to recruit new subscribers; the college students could track their progress in the campaign through a dashboard.
"It’s not a torrent of traffic, but it consistently brings in a steady stream of new enrollments without requiring a big burden in terms of program management," said Ari Parnes, Senior Manager, Marketing, Student Advantage (which commissioned the study.
Tags: email marketing, social marketing, widgets, word of mouth
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