LostGolfBalls + ViralSweep Logos

A Hole In One


LostGolfBalls generated over $50,000 in revenue selling recycled golf balls using ViralSweep.


Located in Sugar Land, Texas, LostGolfBalls is the world’s largest recycler of used golf balls. Working with over 2,400 different golf courses, they collect, clean, and sort golf balls, which are then sold back to consumers at a drastic price reduction.

LostGolfballs sells between 40-50 million used golf balls per year through their online store, LostGolfBalls.com. They’ve been in business for over 20 years, and have 50 full time employees.

This case study is based off of 6 separate promotions that LostGolfBalls ran over a 6 month period (1 promotion per month).

The 6 Promotions

Promotion 1

February 3 - March 9, 2014

Masters Tickets Sweepstakes

Promotion 2

April 14 - April 30, 2014

Nickent Iron Sweepstakes

Promotion 3

May 8 - May 14, 2014

Spring Golf Package Sweepstakes

Promotion 4

June 2 - June 29, 2014

PGA Championship Sweepstakes

Promotion 5

July 19 - July 31, 2014

TaylorMade SLDR Sweepstakes

Promotion 6

August 11 - August 28, 2014

Titleist Short Game Sweepstakes

The Setup:

Hubspot Integration

LostGolfBalls utilized ViralSweep’s integration with HubSpot for each of their campaigns, so that all data entered into the sweepstakes was passed into their HubSpot account.

Data Collection

LostGolfBalls used ViralSweep’s widget on a landing page they built through HubSpot to track visits, leads, customers, and revenue, and they also used ViralSweep’s lightbox on their homepage to capture entries from casual website visitors.

Costs

The total retail value of all the prizes was $7,500. The cost of goods for LostGolfBalls was $6,269.58.

LostGolfBalls is using a custom ViralSweep plan, in which they are paying $152 a month for. Their total cost for ViralSweep over 6 promotions has been $760.

Email Cycle

LostGolfBalls uses a 30 day customer nurturing program in order to turn new leads into customers. People entering the sweepstakes are added into this program, where they receive 5 different emails over a 30 day period. Below are the exact emails that LostGolfBalls sent out:

LostGolfBalls Manage Preference Email

2 Days After being Added

'Manage Preferences' Email


This first email asks the user to fill out a brief survey so that LostGolfBalls can understand them as a golfer. This also helps LostGolfBalls segment their user base.

This email also contains a ‘carrot’ to help lure the user into learning more about the LostGolfBalls business, showing off a video on how they sort over 200,000 golf balls a day.

Why Use LostGolfBalls

5 Days After being Added

'Why Used Golf Balls' Email


This email comes 5 days after the first email, and it is an infographic that not only explains why used golf balls are just as good if not better than new golf balls, but it also shows actual tests that were performed to confirm this.

At the bottom of the email they link to 3 days worth of results. When you click on the results, it opens a PDF document that shows actual tests performed by an independent equipment testing program. The tests confirm that the difference between used balls and new balls was almost negligible.

LostGolfBalls: Check out our blog

9 Days After being Added

'Check Out Our Blog' Email


This email comes 9 days after the first email, and it introduces the LostGolfBalls blog, and the staff. This helps to build a relationship with the customer, providing them with helpful golf related resources, as well as familiarizing them with the team at LostGolfBalls.

LostGolfBalls: Follow Us

16 Days After being Added

'Follow Us On Social' Email


This is a brief email that asks people to check out the LostGolfBalls latest videos on YouTube and to also follow them on different social channels.

LostGolfBalls: Low On Ammo

30 Days After being Added

'Low On Ammo' Email


This is the final email that is sent out in the 30 day customer nurturing program, and it is the sales email.

LostGolfBalls takes a smart approach to this email though; instead of saying ‘Hey! Buy our golf balls!’, they instead ask if you’re “Low on Ammo” and explain that over 300,000,000 golf balls are lost in the United States each year, and they are the ones who collect them and sell them at incredibly low prices.

The bottom of the email contains 3 different golf ball options that you can purchase. Instead of providing pricing in the email, they instead use 'Click Here For Pricing' which helps to drive traffic to their sales pages.

The Results


February 3 - March 9, 2014

Masters Tickets Sweepstakes

12,286 Entries

April 14 - April 30, 2014

Nickent Iron Sweepstakes

2,895 Entries

May 8 - May 14, 2014

Spring Golf Package Sweepstakes

5,678 Entries

June 2 - June 29, 2014

PGA Championship Sweepstakes

1,925 Entries

July 19 - July 31, 2014

TaylorMade SLDR Sweepstakes

5,716 Entries

August 11 - August 28, 2014

Titleist Short Game Sweepstakes

5,247 Entries

After duplicates were removed, here are the final stats:


Total Entries

33,679

New Leads On 6 Campaigns

10,400

New Customers On 6 Campaigns

757


Facebook

Facebook Logo
Total Shares

2,752

Total Fans Gained

4,701

Fan Growth

37%

Twitter

Twitter Logo
Total Tweets

1,274

Total Followers Gained

2,366

Follower Growth

56%

Pinterest

Pinterest Logo
Total Pins

631

Total Followers Gained

587

Follower Growth

70%

Instagram

Instagram Logo
Total Followers Gained

426

Follower Growth

88%

Google Plus

Google+ Logo
Total Shares

1,045

Revenue


LostGolfBalls generated revenue by taking all the new email addresses from their campaigns and placing them into their customer nurturing program.

The final email in the program is where they track all sales made from those new customers. Below are the numbers for revenue generated from each campaign:

February 3 - March 9, 2014

Masters Tickets Sweepstakes

New Customer Revenue:

$27,988.41

April 14 - April 30, 2014

Nickent Iron Sweepstakes

New Customer Revenue:

$5,555.27

May 8 - May 14, 2014

Spring Golf Package Sweepstakes

New Customer Revenue:

$2,588.11

June 2 - June 29, 2014

PGA Championship Sweepstakes

New Customer Revenue:

$4,221.00

July 19 - July 31, 2014

TaylorMade SLDR Sweepstakes

New Customer Revenue:

$6,704.12

August 11 - August 28, 2014

Titleist Short Game Sweepstakes

New Customer Revenue:

$6,443.14

Only on the last promotion was LostGolfBalls able to track total revenue generated from a single campaign, which amounted to $47,000. Andrew Linn, LostGolfBalls e-commerce coordinator said…


We didn’t have the reporting available on our CRM yet to track total sales per campaign. On the last campaign we were finally able to track “Total Revenue” which amounted to $47,000, so I can only imagine the total revenue we generated from those first 5 campaigns.


The total cost to run all promotions was $7,029.58 ($6,269.58 for the prizes and $760 for ViralSweep). So that means...

Total revenue generated from new customers was...

$53,500.05

This means that overall, LostGolfBalls has had an ROI of 661.07% through 6 campaigns.

In Closing

LostGolfBalls has had some tremendous success thus far with ViralSweep. They’ve told us that they love how easy it is to set up a campaign and integrate with HubSpot. Andrew says…

Andrew Linn from LostGolfBalls

“I can make the decision to do a sweepstakes on Monday, and be ready to go by Wednesday.”

—Andrew Linn, E-Commerce Coordinator

To learn more about LostGolfBalls, visit their website at LostGolfBalls.com.

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Golf photos compliments of North Charleston and the talented Justin MacLochlainn.