Whisky Club
How we launched the UK’s fastest growing competition website
HOW WE DID IT
RELATED SUCCESS STORIES
THE CHALLENGE
With a passion for collecting as well as drinking whisky, two friends often felt that pang of jealousy when missing out on the latest inaugural release or being pipped at the hammer for that dream bottle that had finally appeared at auction. With this in mind and feeling a similar plight with many other whisky lovers, co-founders Simon and Harvey wanted to figure out a way to get some of the world’s most prestigious brands in the hands of those who deserve it most! The problem? This was all a concept. They needed help from a team who could skyrocket them to Whisky enthusiasts across the country. A team who could help them navigate the plethora of website requirements for a competition space.
THE SOLUTION
MOD Digital catapulted Whisky Club from vision to reality in a matter of months. By implementing best in business Facebook ads, facilitating the strict needs for their digital platform and strategic planning of authority enhancers, MOD Digital catapulted Whisky Club from vision to reality in a matter of months. We not only tested the feasibility of the idea but also discovered the ideal customers for Whisky Club. We took care of everything — from building an effective, high-converting website to creating an automated and reliable system of acquiring customers using the power of Facebook ads and Email marketing. Even today, this system helps Whisky Club to focus all of their time and energy on delivering their knowledge and expertise rather than worrying about maintaining their website or trying to find customers.
From:
Concept
To:
in
£500,000+/year
12 months
WANT US TO WRITE
YOUR SUCCESS STORY?
Abandon the maze of guesswork, save yourself from the trial-by-fire, and sidestep the endless rabbit hole of solo troubleshooting. Leap forward into a world where business growth is fueled by data-backed acquisition strategies, proven conversion funnels, and robust operational frameworks. Because let's be honest, growth should be about strategy and hard work, not just hoping for a lucky break.
Website Psychology
Timers
“You can buy this.” vs “You have 2 days left to buy this.”
Which sounds better? The latter, obviously.
Urgency is important. We coded a timer for Whisky Club - controlled by seamless date input on their end - adding to the website visitors reluctant to convert.
Tickets
“You can buy this.” vs “There are only 5 opportunities left to buy this”.
Which sounds better? Again, the latter!
Crucial to the success of any competition based website is a limitation to entry. Not just in total, but to create an engaging experience for all, for individuals too.
By displaying the ticket quantity and showcasing it dropping every time someone makes a purchase, we add scarcity. This too increases our chances of conversion.
Transparency
“You can buy this.” vs “Join 500+ others who have bought from us and loved the experience”.
Need we write this sentence again?
As a new competition website, Whisky Club was more susceptible to scepticism than most businesses. That’s why we had them join TrustPilot.
We set up an email automation sequence encouraging customers to review their experience with the brand. This was so effective that Whisky Club now rank in the top 10 alcohol stores in less than a year of trading. Full credit to them for delivering an exceptional customer experience.
We assisted Whisky Club with getting TrustPilot premium at a better price. Enabling us to add social proof, star ratings and reviews to all marketing channels.
These minor psychological additions make a massive impact at the subconscious level and drastically increase the conversion rates for Whisky Club.
Schedule a strategy call with us for guidance on how you could increase your conversion rates with marketing psychology.
Website Technicalities
Payment Legislations
Competition websites fall into murky water when it comes to payment vendors, there are not a lot of options for businesses like Whisky Club. We needed to source and integrate a well-priced payment merchant whilst maintaining all website control and function.
Through extensive research and trials, we executed the perfect solution for Whisky Club. We built an intricate Webhook/API system that allows Whisky Club to tick all legality boxes whilst maintaining full creative control. Using Zapier we feed data into a sales analytics platform allowing Whisky Club to see KPIs and customer data at a glance.
Instant Changes and Ease of Use
With new competitions every week it’s vital that the Whisky Club team can make rapid changes, additions and launches. We built their website with exactly this in mind.
Just like filling in a spreadsheet, all Whisky Club need is the data/information that they want to add - the rest is complete for them automatically and in a matter of seconds. One update on the backend updates everywhere in the front end.
Clients shouldn’t have to learn web design to run their website - we make it so they don’t have to.
Facebook Ads
The Trove
For Whisky Club, we adopt two paid advertising strategies:
The first is designed to populate their list with active and engaged shoppers that will continue to buy from them week-on-week. The objective in this strategy is to achieve mass acquisition at minimum cost - short term ROI is not a priority, instead this is about fueling a machine to sell consistently over the long term.
On the contrary, we have strategy two - to sell as many tickets as possible within a short timescale whilst maintaining profitability and maximising ROAS.
Freebie Ads
Each month, Whisky Club offer a free competition. Entrants exchange their email for a free ticket in the free prize draw. The idea of course being that these will now be contacts for Whisky Club to send marketing emails to and convert further down the line. It’s our job to attract as many of these entrants as possible.
We’ve truly unlocked a results machine, sharing the targeting options would be like sharing our safe combination. What we can tell you is that it always boils down to the same psychological principles; with each of our audiences, we show unique and subliminal characteristics in our ad creative which triggers a click whirr response in their brains purchasing engine.
These small subtleties make a massive difference in conversion. Appealing to external factors in our prospects mind allows us to capture attention in a way competitors don’t consider.
Often the traffic pays for itself immediately, with a large percentage of leads also signing up for paid competitions (we call these bonus sales) due to the landing page we created working its magic.
4,743 Sign Ups £0.48 Spend £4,014 Bonus Sales
Hero Bottle Ads
Whisky Club have a unique competition style where they collaborate with a large industry distributor such as Dalmore or Kingsbarns and team up to offer a live tasting experience alongside their competition draw. With strict deadlines and more expenses to cover in these events, it’s an absolute necessity to sell out and sell and do so as profitably as possible.
Whisky Club comes to us ahead of these ‘Hero Draws’ and we build a campaign tailored to maximise sign-ups and ROAS.
£666 Spend £2,654 Returned 398% Immediate ROI
Simon Douglas
Co-Founder
|
"Huge thank you to Flynn and his team at MOD Digital. We've just finished our biggest draw ever and we came into this draw with confidence in the knowledge that we knew we'd sell out due to those guys and the work that they've done."
FROM THE CLIENT
