The Best Way to Run Viral Contests and Grow Your Email List

To create a great viral giveaway contest, you need to use a combination of the right tools and engaging marketing campaigns that win users over.

In this post, we’ll look at how you can create a viral giveaway and leverage it to grow your email list.

By following the steps here, you’ll build leads and can then nurture them and turn them into paying customers.

Define your goals

Start by setting a major goal for your viral contest. In this case, we’re focusing on how to boost your leads by getting more email newsletter subscribers.

At this starting point, you need to have a clear idea of who your target audience is. Make a list of demographic information, interests, and keywords that you think people would use to find your product.

When you know what your audience looks like and thinks like, you have a better chance of reaching them with the right content. And you’ll tailor your giveaway to appeal to them more.

Choose the right plugin

If you wanted to, you could create a giveaway contest without any tools by just sharing your contest on social media or via email. You can ask your users to apply a hashtag to their posts or have your subscribers reply to your email to participate.

However, this has disadvantages. For one thing, it doesn’t make the seamless experience that using a plugin provides. And second, you’ll have a harder time managing a large influx of contestants and content. And finally, you won’t be able to connect your giveaway to growing your email list.

If you want to run a successful contest that makes growing your email list seamless and manageable, then you need to use a giveaway plugin.

You’ll avoid having to deal with complicated coding. Your audience can like and share your content by just clicking a button. Designing your contest image, creating a landing page, creating a subscribe button, and managing the backend issues of your giveaway become easier.

And you can focus on engaging with customers and marketing your product while the more technical issues are handled with an easy tool.

Choose the right campaign

There are several approaches to making a viral contest campaign. Take a look at these campaign ideas:

  • Refer-a-friend giveaway: As the name suggests, your audience will participate by referring your contest to their peers. This is a neat way to get more attention and to have people spread the word about your business as a way to win a cool prize
  • Holiday giveaways: In this type of campaign, your efforts are time-bound and oriented around the holiday theme. You’ll need to plan your contest early and build up steam by marketing your campaign before and during the holiday you’re focusing on. This type of campaign can make a greater impact since it’s built off the existing holiday excitement
  • Social sharing giveaway: In this type of campaign, your focus is on getting social media attention. Using your plugin, you can make it mandatory for your social media audience to sign up to your newsletter to participate
  • Pre-launch campaign: This is a campaign where time also matters. If you’re launching a new website, a new product, or a business, then you can create your giveaway so that it generates a buzz and boosts your email list before the launch. This leverages emotions like curiosity and excitement to get more attention

Once you’ve covered the creation of your giveaway post, including creating the right copy, images, and other details, the next step is to market it.

Create a compelling giveaway prize

Your giveaway is only as exciting as the prize you’re giving away. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, you need to offer an exciting prize that creates real stakes for your audience.

Giveaway prizes can include cash, gift cards, giving your product away for free, an opportunity to meet with a celebrity, free services, and anything else your audience will love.

While a large and meaningful prize can utilize more resources, the interest you get will be proportionally larger.

Remember to balance giving away what you can without hurting your business with making a prize compelling enough to generate true enthusiasm from your audience.

Promote your giveaway

Once your giveaway contest ready, then it’s time to start making some noise.

You need to target multiple channels and use different methods to get people to participate.

Fortunately, due to giveaways and contests being exciting all on their own, you stand a good chance of getting attention online and fast.

Make sure that you do the following to create the best impact:

  • Create a giveaway landing page on your website that users land on when they engage with your contest. A dedicated landing page can provide more information and makes it a better experience for users by connecting your giveaway on social media to your brand
  • Create brand hashtags and encourage your users to add them in their captions or content. This will help you find your users and also drive more attention to your contest
  • Share your giveaway with your email list
  • Ask your participants to tag friends and to share your post to their own social media profiles
  • Use relevant hashtags related to your target audience to draw their attention to your giveaway
  • As the giveaway takes place, highlight your customers’ social media posts on your own profiles or recognize your audiences’ activities

With constant engagement and promotion, you improve your chances of getting seen. Remember to comment and reply to users as they engage with your brand.

Carry out post-giveaway activities

A giveaway contest that’s over will still have mileage left if you leverage your campaign effectively.

Once the contest is done and you’ve picked a winner, send a thank you email to all your participants and share the winners of the contest in your communication.

Surprise the participants who didn’t win with some kind of bonus giveaway. This can be a digital download, a special discount, a swag item, or some other interesting item. A surprise gift can create positive associations with your brand and delight your audience.

Remember to analyze the results of your giveaway. Use Google Analytics and your giveaway plugin reports to see what worked and how you can improve your campaign.

Over time, information from your giveaways can help you improve your marketing and get even better results.

Back to you

There are a few key ingredients that go into making a giveaway successful. You need to have a solid plugin to help you make your giveaway, share it, and carry out the backend tasks of selecting a winner, integrating with email marketing, and getting reports.

And then, you need to market your giveaway too.

Focus your giveaway building and your marketing so that you link winning the prize to subscribing to your business. And in this way, you’ll build goodwill and grow your email list too.

Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community

Author: Thomas Griffin

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