TasterLab is a different type of online promotional platform which provides one of the most efficient and effective ways for you to grow your business.
What do we do?
TasterLab is an online promotional tool that promotes service businesses by distributing tasters of their service to a rapidly growing community of people interested in discovering a new hobby or passion. Our service works just like the tried and tested method of product sampling, only it’s much more efficient and targeted exclusively at services. TasterLab allows merchants to attract a new audience that may not have otherwise sought them out as we can cross sell from category to category, inspiring consumers through onsite media to try something new. TasterLab inspires users to discover what they love with the help of expert taster guides on what experiences are like, as well as feedback from the TasterLab community and also regular suggestions made by TasterLab based on their preferences chosen whilst using the site.
How are we different?
We’re different to other promotional platforms as we mainly focus on promoting services that have a natural repeat purchase - things that can become a hobby or passion. We’re not for everyone, and we’ll never try to be. We believe sampling only works for certain types of business. If your service doesn’t involve much repeat business (i.e. you offer hot air balloon rides or a teeth whitening service), more than likely we’re not right for you. But if you provide a service that people use repeatedly, then we’ll be able to provide an extremely efficient and competitive route to market you.
How are we better?
We don’t believe in flooding our merchant’s business with deal chasers through one day deals. We believe in working in partnership with our merchants to provide controlled and sustainable growth at a rate to suit you. For this reason, we’re not the type of promotional business that’s here today and gone tomorrow to leave you to pick up the pieces. We release our tasters in timed batches at an affordable discount and commission structure to allow you to have full control over the tasters we’re distributing for you.
How can we offer such great value?
As we work with our merchants in partnership and have multiple merchants on the site over long periods of time, we can afford to take less commission per sale than daily deal sites. For this reason we can offer you a more efficient route to acquire customers. We also offer complete cost transparency by giving each merchant a login to the site so they can see all the impressions, taster requests, social media shares via Facebook and Twitter and consumer feedback that your pages are generating. You’ll be able to control the frequency of distribution as well as have full access to costs incurred or commission owed.
TasterLab markets services through trial, creating WoM in hard to reach networks and driving repeat business.
How does it deliver great results?
TasterLab is focused on promoting your business through trial. Getting a customer into your business is the hardest part of the process, but once there, it’s easy to see the quality of the product. Trial is the most immersive and effective marketing tool, and it’s why some of our merchants are enjoying up to 70% conversion rates from trial to paying customers.
Trial is also extremely effective at generating WoM within hard to reach networks. TasterLab generates the maximum WoM possible through sharing across networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as developing a community around the different categories for users to discuss the experience. In today’s fragmented media landscape dominated by a slightly cynical user, consumer-to-consumer recommendations are considered to be the most trusted forms of advocacy. TasterLab allows users to get genuine feedback on your business to make an informed decision as well as giving you valuable feedback on your service. Additionally, we don’t just encourage trial. TasterLab has been designed to reward repeat business by helping consumers discover new passions so you can cost effectively acquire customers.
How do we drive new business?
TasterLab promotes your business virally through the customer journey. They request a taster, redeem the taster and then discover a new hobby or passion. The consumer journey can be summarised in 8 steps:
1) Your service is promoted via the existing TasterLab community, as well as through paid, organic and viral media channels.
2) The potential customer reads information via the expert guide, taster page information and user reviews and requests a taster.
3) Once they request a taster, the customer’s network is automatically alerted through Facebook Connect driving further awareness and new business.
4) Upon completion of the request, the customer is sent a unique reference number which is emailed to the merchant and also visible on the merchant’s own password protected page on TasterLab.
5) The customer redeems the taster with the reference number.
6) The merchant can log onto the site to show the taster as redeemed and see the key stats of their campaign such as page impressions, viral shares, reviews, tasters distributed and tasters redeemed. The merchant page also shows commission generated to allow complete transparency on the effectiveness of the taster activity.
7) If the tasterer enjoys their experience, they mark the taster as a discovery – their network is alerted via Facebook Connect which drives awareness and business.
8) If the customer makes a discovery, they will return to your business and you’ll take 100% of the commission.
TasterLab offers businesses a host of benefits as well as sampling, and we don’t charge anything until we deliver you results.
What service do we specifically provide?
If you’d like to be promoted on TasterLab, we aim to deliver you the very best customer service possible – after all, your business is our product. You’ll be assigned an account manager you can approach about your activity and effectiveness at any point.
If you decide to join TasterLab, we’ll provide you the following services absolutely FREE:
- Your own professionally designed web pages hosted on our site
- Bespoke copy written by a professional writer to help promote your business
- SEO optimisation of your page by an SEO specialist
- Promotion through TasterLab’s large and rapidly growing community of professionals interested in discovering a new hobby or passion
- Promotion through paid, on and offline media channels
- Promotion through carefully selected affiliate partners
What are the specific benefits for your business?
Being part of TasterLab will deliver the following core benefits:
- Cost effective, highly targeted customer acquisition
- Access to hard to reach online networks and communities of prospect customers
- Viral awareness through Facebook Connect and Twitter
- Increased SEO performance of your business online
- Feedback on your service directly from real customers
- Complete transparency on the cost effectiveness of any activity
- No upfront fees whatsoever - if we don’t deliver for you, we don’t get paid!
What type of Tasters do we promote, and what’s the cost?
We promote the following types of taster: Free tasters, Paid Tasters and Taster Bundles
Unlike other ways to reach your target market, we don’t charge you until your potential customer has engaged with our platform and requested a taster. We deliver a customer eager to try your business as well as targeted information on that particular customer that allows you to sell to them in the future.
We charge fees based on sales commission for paid tasters or for distribution if you offer a free taster. Costs vary for merchants depending on the expected value of the customer – but we ensure that we charge low enough fees to deliver you a very competitive ROI. We want to work in partnership with you over a long term basis – if you’re not seeing a great rate of return then, understandably, you won’t stay with us. This is what we want to avoid!
Free Tasters: Free tasters are one-off tasters free for the customer. They are ideal to get customers into your business quickly as they’re the easiest, lowest barrier way for users to try your service. We charge a very small, affordable commission per voucher we distribute based on the expected customer value to your business and expected conversion rate from request to redemption to conversion. The cost is benchmarked very competitively against alternative channels such as Google PPC.
Paid Tasters: Paid tasters are one-off tasters discounted for the user by at least 50%. Paid tasters work best when it’s not possible to offer a free taster of your service.
Taster Bundles: Taster Bundles are a group of tasters that are discounted at an affordable rate for the merchant. They are ideal for businesses that feel they need to distribute more than one sample for users to get a sense of their business and the experience offered. They’re also highly effective at helping convert new customers into regular customers by introducing the activity as a part of their lifestyle.
How do we reach your target market?
TasterLab is a platform built to be viral. We use social media to generate cost effective awareness as well as organic SEO and targeted CPC. We also drive traffic through numerous partnerships. Ultimately, we find that people are our best advocate, and by attracting the very best business providers, we help to ensure positive WoM.
