The PromoLeading Edge

As part of the PromoLeads Beta test, PinLine has just reported their sales results for the first 3 months of the test. Accoding to Dave Wehr, PinLine generated incremental sales of $34,000 through PromoLeads during the period.  Apart from the obvious benefits of growing sales – there were some other great take-aways from PinLine’s test results.

• PinLine supplemented their normal web traffic by advertising on Google for specific search keywords through Google’s pay per click advertising  program (aka Adwords).  This program displays PinLine ads in the google search results when consumers search for related keywords. 
• PinLine spent $1265 on pay per click advertising (Google) during the period and generated 163 leads for distributors.
• Average cost per lead generated from pay per click advertising was $23.42 – but this is known to be over-stated because customers will often return after clicking an ad and convert later. If you consider all traffic sources – average cost per lead is $7.76
• 27 Orders were generated yielding a lead to order conversion rate of 17%
• Using the conversion of 17% and the advertising cost of $1265 yields a cost per order of $46.85 – with an average order size of $1260
• More than 1/2 of the orders were received within 10 days of the lead being generated – 3 were received the same day. The longest time to close was 90 days with the average being 13 days to close (lead generated to PO received)
• 27 Bad leads were generated during the 3 months (6 distributors, 9 were from countries not served, 3 were duplicates of other leads and the balance were mostly people looking for free samples).

“The real mind-blowing part of this test is that for the first time in our history (which spans over 40 years) we can truly measure the effectiveness of our advertising” says Mr Wehr. “In fact as you can see from these numbers, we know exactly what the cost of each lead was and the sales that resulted from those leads.”

Mr. Wehr went on to say “In addition to this $34,000 in sales already realized – we’re actively working on over 100 leads with Artcraft and we’re certain a good percentage of those will convert – not to mention the repeat business that’s sure to come from these new customers down the road”

When asked about the experience of working with Artcraft on these leads, Mr. Wehr indicated that he’d developed a much closer relationship with Artcraft and in particular Joanne Watson than he had had in the past. “Now that I think about it, we had never worked with Joanne before she joined the PromoLeads program – but I can think of at least 3 orders she’s sent to us recently that were not from PromoLeads – that should tell you something.”  He went on to comment about the feedback mechanisms saying “I really like the note feature – we use it to update eachother throughout the sales cycle.  It provides great feedback and keeps us in touch with the distributor.”

Recently Joanne Watson and Greg Law of Artcraft Promotional Concepts shared some of their experiences with PromoLeads during the last  quarter. (June – August) This period was the very beginning of our beta test – yet the results were tremendous.  As discussed earlier – this phase of the test was designed to be very small and participation was limited in order to be able to control and monitor results closely.  Below are some highlights from their letter.  

The PromoLeads site is off to a great start.  I realize you are only in your ‘Beta Test’ phase but the leads generated have surpassed our expectations in both volume and quality.   Despite our initial skepticism, PromoLeads represents a great potential for both suppliers and distributors.  Here is brief summary of the results to date and our feedback.

Leads – Over the past 3 months Artcraft has received over 300 leads from the site for Pinline and PrimeLine suppliers.  Based on our initial estimates, about 40-50% of these leads are qualified.  To date we’ve closed 58 orders, with a total of $89,093 in sales. 

Customers – Customers range from individuals running golf tournaments, medium companies looking for new product ideas, to large Fortune 500 companies looking for custom products.  Prospects are placing multiple website inquires and it still remains a competitive marketplace.

Sell-In – This isn’t an order taking site for stock products.  Custom products, creative artwork development, and customer service are a key part of the inquiries. Based on the results to date, the quicker the follow up to inquiry, the higher the close rate. 

Suppliers – As an added bonus the system promotes a closer relationship with suppliers!  Through distributor updates and notes on the lead, and contact through the sales process, a strong partnership has developed!  Our goals are the same, attract new customers and increase sales volume. 
The PromoLeads site allows suppliers and distributors to work together in generating new leads from the internet, without distributor concerns of suppliers selling direct.  Many factories already have contact pages on their websites, and auto-directing these inquiries through PromoLeads to distributors, provides a faster, most efficient way to close the sale. 

We are very excited about these initial results and look forward to working with more suppliers in the rest of the test phase.  PromoLeads brings both sides immediate business and we feel a strong partnership with the suppliers we work with.  We’d be happy to discuss our experiences with new suppliers. 

If you haven’t put your lead collection form up on your site yet – what are you waiting for?   Activating your form is the first, critical step in generating sales for you and your distributors!   If your form is active but you’d like to improve your results, we’re here to help.    Simply email support@promoleads.com or call us at 800-460-4996.   In addition, both Joanne and Greg have graciously offered to discuss their experiences with any prospective PromoLeads suppliers.