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TL;DR: Seeking some inspiration? Here’s a successful marketing campaign example for a small business that relied on three simple elements.
Yes, a single marketing campaign can really generate six figures in sales. Even for a small business.
And no, the campaign doesn’t need to be elaborate.
You don’t need billboards in Times Square, contracts with influencers, cross-promotions with massive consumer brands, or a big ad budget for a successful marketing campaign.
What do you need? Three things:
1 – A decent-sized following via email and social media.
2 – A clear, simple offer.
3 – A product or service with proven results.
This case study contains all three – and some more magic sprinkled in.
Let’s jump into it.
A successful marketing campaign example for a small business that netted six figures
My client is the one and only Bob Lang. He has been teaching people of every skill level how to trade options for income at Explosive Options. And he’s been doing it for 15 years now.
Bob focuses on education so you can be successful over the long-term. Things like how to manage your risk and use technical analysis to spot high-probability trades. (He’s been my client since 2013, and we even co-authored a book together, so I have a ridiculous amount of knowledge about options trading.)
Anyway, every fall, Bob, Nicole Krug, and I meet for an annual strategy session. Nicole and her team handle his website and a lot of technical things I don’t touch; I handle blog writing and editing, email marketing, and anything copywriting related.
This case study focuses on our annual holiday promotion, which we ran in December 2025.
Our marketing challenge: Break through the noise
Because Bob teaches people how to earn income trading options, you’d think the line of interested people would be out the door and down the block.
In 2025, his options trading portfolio was up 51%.
Insane, right? Who wouldn’t want those kinds of returns!
However, the competition is stiff, and there’s a lot of noise out there.
Our solution: Build trust first, launch promotions second
Throughout the year, we work hard to build trust by freely sharing proven trading strategies (via blog posts, ebooks, webinars, and free guides and tutorials). Bob also appears on TV, including on Jim Cramer’s long-running Mad Money program on CNBC. Everything we do has one goal: Grow our following.
When it comes time to run promotions (typically two each year), the hope is that we’ve built enough trust with our newest followers that we can convert them into paid members.
In December 2025, we created two promotions for two distinct audiences:
- Current members were given the opportunity to extend their membership to 15 months while only paying for 12 months.
- Non-members were offered the chance to join as a member for four months but only pay for two months.
I wrote landing page and email copy that stressed Bob’s recent winning trades and the year’s portfolio results. Nicole’s team at SocialLight designed and published the landing pages and emails and set up the promo codes in checkout.
Our result: Six figures in sales
In less than two weeks, these promotions netted nearly $120,000 in sales.
We were thrilled.
If you go back to the my three-point checklist for a successful marketing campaign, you’ll see we had all three for the holiday promo:
1 – A following that we’ve built for 13 years together (you really never know when someone will convert).
2 – Two clear offers for two audiences: current subscribers and non-subscribers.
3 – Proven results. In this case, outstanding returns in real dollars thanks to Bob’s options trading strategies.
Do you have an idea for a marketing promotion?
Make sure you have the above three elements in place first! And as I said – er, as I quoted Dan Russell saying – in this blog post on how to create landing pages that convert, make it clear why you are the obvious – and only – answer to your target market’s challenge.
Related: Landing Pages That Convert Do These 3 Things Exceptionally Well