Before you pull the trigger on a sweepstakes to win a new iPad, diamond earrings, or luxury vacation, ask yourself if the people who enter your contest are doing it because they are potential customers and want to engage with your brand, or if they’re just using you for a chance to win that shiny new gadget/sparkly/getaway. In the race to accumulate “likes”, it is tempting to offer up a high-demand product that will create a frenzy of activity, but in the end leaves you with a mass exodus once the promotion is over. Sure, an expensive luxury item giveaway will help you acquire fans quickly, but how many of those coveted “likes” are from people that are immediately going to “unlike” you after the promotional period is over? Pick a prize that is relevant to your core audience – something that resonates with the fans that you want to hang around long after the winner is announced.
Give Them A Reason to Pay Attention to Your Product
When Laura’s Lean Beef wanted to get the word out about their vegetarian-fed, antibiotic- and hormone-free beef, they executed a promotion that will get their customers grilling all summer long. By offering up a chance to win one of 14 Big Green Egg grills every week throughout the peak BBQ months, Laura’s Lean Beef is attracting new fans to their page that a) enjoy grilling and b) are in the market for something to cook on that grill!
Give Them Something They Can’t Get Anywhere Else
You don’t have to break the bank to attract fans to your sweepstakes, either. Sunoco Racing attracted new fans by offering up a piece of race history: a Sunoco Checkered Flag autographed by the winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. What better way to attract hard-core fans than to offer up their very own piece of the race?
The lesson? Be creative in your offerings and make them attractive to your specific niche, not necessarily the entire Facebook Universe. It is better to attract 100 fans that you can convert to customers than attract 10,000 fans that never want to hear from you again.
Inspired to create your own targeted sweepstakes? Visit http://woobox.com/sweepstakes to get started. And as always, let us know about your experience. We love to share customer success stories!