How A Business Accelerator Made $16,200 In 4 Weeks Off Cold Contacts

Boy, have I got a treat for you today!

I’ve got permission to feature a case study that one of my good friends, Casey Hill, put together. He’s the Head of Growth at Bonjoro.

He’s a monster when it comes to growth marketing, demand gen, and almost everything I love learning about.

We connected on my podcast last year, and when I read the recent case study he put together, I knew I had to get it out to all of you.

Luckily — he was down!

He breaks down how one of his customers tapped into COLD leads (we’re talking 2–3 years old leads), and generated $16,000 dollars worth of brand-new business in 4 weeks.

Not bad at all.

Of course, he plugs his product, but it is damn good, so you should check it out anyways.

All right — let’s get into it.

Guest Post By Casey Hill

Think cold leads are no good after 6 months? Think again.

Christo Hall, founder of Basic Bananas, used a novel approach to re-engage old customers and prospects, many that had been cold for 2–3 years.

You read that correctly, not months, but years.

With this approach, he made $16,200 in new revenue, specifically attributable to this method, in just 4 weeks.

When Christo looped me in on his story, I was so surprised by the data he was sharing, I just shut up and listened.

Here is what he said:

“We used Bonjoro video messages for loads of things, from following up with new leads, to touching base with workshop attendees, to welcoming new customers. But then we thought, what about these colder opportunities? We have already called them a ton to no avail, they haven’t engaged with us for months, or in many cases, years, via our automated email campaigns. How could we tell these past customers and opportunities about the new products we were launching? And that is where we found Bonjoro uniquely situated to really solve that problem for us. That is where we made $16,200 in 4 weeks.”

How Christo organized his team around personal video

When I pressed him on how many messages they sent out and how we organized his team around sending them, his response surprised me again.

“Although we send Bonjoros consistently throughout the month, for that specific cold contact re-engagement attack, we just snagged a 100 each from our CRM (they use Ontraport) and each team member bunkered up for a few hours and got them done.”

So while the revenue and sales might have trickled in over the next month, Christo and his team essentially generated $16,200 in sales from a few hours of concerted work.

Let’s take a look at what his Bonjoro videos look like. Click on the image below to view an example Christo shared with us.

How Christo makes his videos compelling

So how is Christo getting such amazing results from his videos?

Let’s take a deeper look.

Here are some things we think Christo nails to make his videos super compelling, and more likely to get results.

He makes them informative, but informal

Most of the contacts that Christo is reaching out to in this campaign are customers from years past. So they know the value and quality that Christo brings to the table. So the trust is there. In his message, he lets them know about a new local opportunity near them, the first time doing this Genius Bunch workshop in Melbourne. He lets them know what it is about, but also keeps his tone informal so it feels more personal. Subtle language like “We look forward to looking after you”, helps bring those past customers back to the value they got before with Christo, and re-imagining what it would be like to team up again.

He keeps it concise

With personal videos, it can be a balancing act. You want to get personal and really dig into their use case, but at the same time, you don’t want to record a ten-minute video each time because of course all time has an opportunity cost. This video from Christo strikes a great balance between delivering value and staying focused.

He creates urgency

When it comes to sales, urgency is huge. If someone is interested but uncertain, knowing that taking action now might save them hundreds of dollars can be a strong driver of a buy decision. Christo is not pushy or overly salesy with something like “Buy by the end of the day AND…” type of pitch, but he just lets them know the price is currently at the lowest it will ever be, putting the idea in the prospects head that it likely will go up with time.

He keeps it real, not over-polished

What I love about Christo’s videos is they just show how accessible personal video can be. You don’t need perfect lighting or some fancy script or an ideal backdrop to drive results with video. Instead, personal video works because humans like to work with and buy from other humans. That connection that happens when you are able to see someone’s facial expressions, tone and body language, creates a deeper level of trust.

Let’s talk about open rates and engagement

Because 1:1 personal video emails dodge things like promotions folders and are looked at differently by ISPs (inboxes like gmail, outlook etc.), they often are able to get up to 10x the engagement vs. standard text emails.

In fact, Christo’s videos, which were going out to people that had been cold for several YEARS were getting 60+% open rates and 30+% click through rates 😲. That is insane!!!

Part of it also might be the novelty. Iconic marketer Seth Godin discusses a phenomenon he calls “The Purple Cow”, wherein he notes that if you saw a cow on any given day, you wouldn’t think much of it. On the other hand, if you saw a bright purple cow, you would stop, take pictures and tell your friends.

This principle is another reason why personal videos resonate. With all the piles of emails that people get today, something personal and 1:1 from a brand feels distinct and unique.

Why Basic Bananas is thriving and growing

From following Basic Bananas and Christo for many years, I have always been impressed by how vocal his customers are in support of everything Christo and his team does.

I asked him what he does differently versus a lot of other agencies or business workshop types of programs. He described to me the following tenants.

Cut out of the fluff

A lot of businesses get deep into theory and brand voice, and a lot of other esoteric stuff. Christo tells me that a core reason behind Basic Bananas success is they stick with stuff that generates results. They focus on proven and repeatable systems and structures that business can put in place to move the revenue needle.

There is structure

Christo and his team are big on structure and systems. By building funnels and systemizing their processes, they free up time to be able to spend more attention on their customers. Also, it’s a way to make sure that each customer is walking away with something tangible and real after the classes are over.

Focus on relationships

Christo has built an incredible business on the back of relationships and word of mouth. His workshops are typically in person (before COVID times), and it gives his customers not only the opportunity to interface with him and his team directly, but also the ability to meet tons of other motivated and like-minded entrepreneurs that they can network with as well.