Re: UKNM: Lotteries (was Mailing List Servers located overseas)

[Ben Thompson]

Merging various items into one mail:-


Emily,


Yes I can go and get prizes (attached to editoral adverts its not difficult)

and we could set up a pop-up which would run them for other sites. However,


1) the site loses as the true cost of the advert is usually always greater

than the prize provided

2) for the provider of the prize the results can be scarely poor, and not

mentioning any names here but I've seen some really, really scary examples

of single and double figure entries attached to very big prizes (cars,

kitchens) on large sites and that was before the opt-outs and stuff.

3) Big prizes usually provide only a little addon value to the supplier. How

many people entering a big prize competition are actually shopping for a car

or new kitchen?

4) Some agencies comments on the quality of the audience drawn into sites by

competitions are not repeatable in public and we are talking about large

London based agencies here.


So yes I can run competitions at no cost. However, as I don't think it does

anyone any real favours so I don't.


Pete,


This system is designed for one purpose, to allow us to justifiably email

people and remind them to return to the site they entered on. Its not really

designed to  entertain people (if you want to do that add  Quizzes or

Competitions in Flash or Flash / Java / Javascript based scratch cards to

your site). To entertain people you need to provide instant gratification

but we're weren't looking at that.


We set out to design something that enabled us to send an email once a month

to the vast majority of people that visited a site and with the lottery

system we've found it. It allows us to send:-

1) a thank you for visiting the site mail and

2) a time delayed (after the monthly draw) reminder to get people to return

to the site at little cost and with little to no annoyance.


A lottery is the perfect retention tool, theres a large but unlikely big

prize, a small prize you may just about win (but you need to check the email

to see), and a time delayed result which allows the site to remind the user

two or three weeks after his/her last visit that they still exist and would

they like to revisit it.


Of course, having never seen one of your competitions I can't comment of

their effectiveness compared to a lottery at retaining customers but as you

claim to be a competitor I wouldn't comment anyway.


Jason,


Yes it will get boring but we can always change the odds, the prizes and

other such things (say match five win a Porsche, match four a model one or

something).


Remember, our lottery is not designed to be a big part of the site it runs

on and if anyone was trying to build a brand around it I would think they

were mad. Its a small, very cheap, retention tool that provide sites the

ability to legitimately email entrants with reminders (and offers say) to

ensure they return to the site.


Remember, �1,000,000 is an awfully neutral but interesting prize and its not

costing them anything to enter. And as people willing pay �1+ weekly  to

entry the lottery and  thunderball draws I would can't imagine why those

same peope wouldn't spend a minute entering a totally free lottery.

(especially when the cost to the site is probably lower than what Exactis or

24/7 would charge to send two emails directly to that person).


Ben


--

Give your visitors �1,000,000 reasons to return.

Add a LottaLotto.co.uk lottery to your site.



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