I love this story. Brandon Fernandes, Sage Real Estate’s Marketing Coordinator, was telling me about this phenomenal marketing initiative Gary Vaynerchuk ran and thought it would be a great one to share with readers of The Astute Agent…
Here is a perfect example of a ‘Thank you’ campaign executed very well.
Last summer, Brandon saw a posting on Gary Vaynerchuk’s Facebook wall saying something to the effect of: “Go buy my book ‘Crush It!’ today and send me the receipt and you will get something in return…”
He did just that – and 24 hours later he received an email with a video link first thanking him for doing what he did, but also telling him that there would be a surprise in the mail soon.
Approximately 30-40 days later Brandon received a letter-sized cardboard boxed mailer with a letter from Vaynermedia telling him that Gary was working on a new book called the The Thank You Economy’. It went on to say that when it’s released – around Spring 2011 – he was going to get a FREE copy! WOW! What a great gesture simply for buying one of the author’s books. There was also a link to a ‘thank you’ video. (Truth be told, Brandon already owned a copy of the book ‘Crush It!’, but he was really curious as to what the surprise in the mail would be, so he jumped on the double purchase bandwagon and now own two copies of ‘Crush It!’ – one to keep around and one to lend out.)
It is now a few months later and Gary’s new book was released on March 8th 2011, 9 days later (yesterday) he received another letter sized cardboard boxed mailer that contained a FREE hardcover copy of the ‘THANK YOU ECONOMY’ by Gary Vaynerchuk.
I love how Gary executed this staged marketing campaign and used different marketing channels social media, direct mail, video, and email. Look at how much good will he is developing with his existing customers. He is demonstrating the power of the Thank You Economy. This campaign might have cost him $20-30k but look at the group of evangelists he has developed. He turned me into one and I did not even receive the free book. Just love it. Now the question is how can you use this sort of approach in your marketing?