Action Hero has been a game-changing team / resource for our business. They've helped us get in front of the key decision-makers at schools around the country and built a reliable and proven outreach and engagement model that has streamlined our outbound marketing efforts. Highly recommend working with their team.
The Challenge: Initial Cold Outreach Woes
When we first approached cold outreach as a new marketing channel for WonderMath, an online math tutoring program catering to K-12 students, the excitement was palpable. However, our initial campaigns did not yield the results we had hoped for. Despite the careful planning and implementation, the response was underwhelming.
Diagnosing the Problem
Our first step was to inspect the technical aspects of our campaign. Were our emails even reaching the intended recipients? We scrutinized everything from verification failures and open rates to click rates and DMARC reports. Technically, everything checked out perfectly—our messages were getting through, but they were not engaging our audience.
Refining the Targeting Strategy
WonderMath’s primary targets were principals and PTA members of K-12 elementary schools. Given the narrow focus, our options for further targeting were limited. We decided to enhance our data quality by sourcing from the best education-specific databases, ensuring we were reaching the right individuals.
Revolutionizing the Creative Approach
Generally speaking the conventional wisdom in marketing emphasizes the importance of small, iterative tests. Make one small change, run your test, implement the learnings, and repeat. Most of the time, small tests like this don’t produce results with a significant delta between the versions to make any real progress. Thats why I like big tests. For WonderMath, we were getting crickets. I knew we needed a big test. Something bold and transformative. What’s the best place to test? Test your offer.
Our initial offer of “30 days of free tutoring” was not resonating. Drawing inspiration from my previous success with Meet the Masters—a company that sold art curriculums by offering free art assemblies—we decided to pivot drastically. We introduced the concept of a “Virtual Math Night,” a post-COVID adaptation of the in-person events that schools loved. The free math night gave the principals a gift they could share with their teachers and students instead of an ask. It also was almost free for WonderMath to produce and provided an email list after the event.
The Dramatic Pivot: Virtual Math Night
This new approach was a game-changer. It wasn’t just an offer of free tutoring—it was an event, something that principals could proudly host, bringing value to their entire school community. The Virtual Math Night was designed to be engaging, educational, and fun, catering to the communal spirit of schools.
Results: “Bonkers” Success
The results were near instantanious. The day of the revised launch we could see things had changed for the better. We saw our responses 10x over the next few weeks and the campaigns continue to do well as of this writing, nearly a year later.
The big takeaway here, that I feel is often overlooked and under appreciated is the long term value that changing the initial offer will bring to WonderMath over the lifetime of the business. They wen’t from struggling to find any sort of consistent marketing and lead generation to taking dozens of meeting a month. This, seemingly small thing, may prove to be a catalyst for a new phase of business growth for WonderMath.
