Sweepstakes are one of the most powerful ways of creating the sudden attention of consumers towards your brand. If done in the right way it can give you unexpected returns of your investment.
Sweepstakes and giveaways have some unmatched advantages like scalability in cost and conversion. It can be done with a few hundred to millions of dollars. Some brands exist solely on such marketing tools.
How to decide the right types of sweepstakes to make it successful?
Whether you are running an online business or brick-and-mortar shop, sweepstakes can be a potent weapon in your marketing arsenal.
It’s one of the most effective and versatile marketing tools that fortune 500 companies use to expand their customer base, grow their business rapidly, and increase brand exposure.
Sweepstakes are cost-effective, and if appropriately utilized, its benefits outweigh other conventional promotion methods by a significant margin.
After all, what other marketing tools could generate more leads and sales from multiple platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest at the same time?
Here in this brief piece, we are going to explain what kind of sweepstakes you can run, and what benefits they can fetch for your business. So, without wasting any further time, let’s dive into the wonderful world of sweepstakes. Here are some tips to make successful sweepstakes.
Type of sweepstakes
- Entry form: Some basic data and contact information can be collected from people in a prize draw entry form, and you can select the winner through a fair and randomized process.
- Social media participation: A product giveaway contest can be conducted among the popular social media users where they must like and comment in a post, picture, or video to enter the contest and tag their friends for further exposure. You can ask them to share company posts or videos on several social media platforms as well to be eligible for participation. It will help to grow your social profiles and brand value further.
- Promotional Event: You can announce promotional events and activities like a game show, concert, or charity program, and distribute product merchandise among the attendees.
Decide prizes or giveaways
Product samples: You can give new products sample to your customers. Remember that it must be worth some value, otherwise people will not participate
Cash Prize: It is the most demanded prize. It will attract more participants than other prizes.
Real Gift: It can be some popular item like a car, bike, or a bbq grill. Or it can be tickets of events or tours. But it will attract only those people who are interested in your gift.
Single prize or multiple? You can provide $10K to a single winner. It will make your giveaway more attractive. Another way is to give $2K to 5 winners. It increases the chance of winning. Think your self which will drag more consumers to your sweepstakes?
Benefits of sweepstakes
- Creates a hype: The most influential advertising is word-of-mouth as it’s the actual users who share their genuine experience and emotion for the product, and they tend to do such through various channels, including blogs, twitter, Facebook posts, and more. Sweepstakes can create a hype around a product by making people discuss the same with their friends, family, and neighbors. And if they win, they get excited and talk positively about the same product or service in their social circle.
- Increases website traffic: If you’re struggling to make your online store popular, a sweepstake can trigger enough interest among the people and increase digital footfall on your site exponentially. For instance, if you use a sweepstake to promote a new product launch, users will visit your website to know more about the specific product or service, but at the same time, they will come to know about other products you offer as well, generating further interest and sales for you.
- Grows your email list: Sending product launch emails and newsletters to potential customers is another way to boost sales and increase awareness about the products a company offers. That’s why online sweepstakes almost always come with an email field where the user needs to enter their email in order to take part.
- Generates creative marketing content: A sweepstake can be used to encourage people to be creative and make various advertising materials like posters, videos, songs, and other things to submit as part of the contest. Those are valuable creative materials, and ad agencies can charge you a fortune to produce them. You can pass the ad money to your users as a prize, thus making the whole affair win-win. Additionally, such creative sweepstakes can make users emotionally attached to the product and the brand.
