A Great Sweepstakes Still Needs an Audience
“Can you help market it?” is one of the most common questions we hear after a client asks us to build a promotion website. It is a fair question: the site, the prize and the entry process all matter. But before we talk about ads or affiliates, we ask a more basic question: Who will see the promotion?
You know your business and your customers better than an outside agency can on day one. You know who buys from you, where they live, what interests them and why they would care about your offer. Your team should be building an email list, testing what works, growing its presence on Facebook and Instagram, and giving people a reason to return. TikTok may also make sense for your audience. Content is king, and that has not changed. Without that groundwork, a sweepstakes has to build an audience while it is running.
The audience is the advantage
Think about a major brand such as a national airline or cruise line. Its marketing team has spent years building a customer base, an email list, social channels and relationships with media. When it launches a promotion, it can put the offer in front of people who already know the brand. It can create awareness and get entries quickly, sometimes within a campaign of just a few weeks.
A smaller or newer company starts in a different position. You cannot just show up at the party and expect everyone to flock to your table. People need time to become aware of you, understand the value you provide and decide whether they want to engage. Even a remarkable prize will not draw entries if the people who would want it never hear about it.
For a startup, that job is harder than ever. Apps and social feeds are governed by algorithms, so posting does not mean your audience will see the offer. You may have to pay to reach them, then work to give them a reason to come back.
Buying traffic is only the beginning
Social platforms can help reach a specific audience, but distribution usually costs money. An ad click pays to bring someone to the site; it does not guarantee an entry, a new email subscriber or a customer. If, for example, clicks cost $2 to $5 and only a fraction of visitors enter, the cost per entry can be several times the cost per click. At $3 per click with one in five visitors entering, each entry would cost about $15. The actual result depends on the audience, the creative, the prize and how easy the entry process is.
Affiliate marketing has a similar challenge. A partner may have a list or a following, but that does not mean its audience knows or wants your product. Some people will see the offer, fewer will click, and fewer still will take action. Buying access to an audience is not the same as building trust with it.
And if your goal goes beyond entries to sales, the questions get tougher. Does someone arriving from a paid ad see enough value to consider a purchase? Does your business have enough credibility for them to press the BUY button? You know your customers and your sales process better than we do. Those answers should shape the campaign before you spend money driving traffic to it.
Paid campaigns also need room to learn. Your team should be A/B testing messages, images, audiences and landing pages, then adjusting based on results. That learning period can take weeks. A short promotion with no established audience may be over just as the marketing starts to improve.
Crawl, walk, run
We often turn down requests to take over all the marketing. It is not a question of whether we want the work or can do it. Your people should already be learning what content draws customers, which audiences respond and whether those people buy. If that work has not begun, it is usually too early to run a sweepstakes with ambitious growth goals. A large ad budget does not fix a weak understanding of the market; it can simply make an expensive mistake happen faster.
Our advice is to crawl, walk, run. Build useful content and your own channels. Test who responds and what they do next. Once you know you are reaching the right people, a sweepstakes can help you reach more of them. As an old friend of mine used to say, “There’s no point picking up speed if you’re going down the wrong road.” Every step on the accelerator costs more when the direction is wrong.
RAVEN5 can build and manage the promotion, including its website and entry experience. We also provide email marketing, SEO and paid search, affiliate marketing and social media services. We have experience across those channels. We are happy to support your marketing, and we will also tell you when your team is better placed to lead the marketing because it already knows your customers and has no learning curve to overcome.
Before launching, identify the audience you want, the channels you can reach today, the budget available to reach more people and the action you want them to take after they enter. Then choose a campaign length that gives the marketing time to work.
RAVEN5 is the world’s first sweepstakes marketing agency. With over 20 years in the business and more than 100 years of combined team experience, we will give you candid, practical feedback to help you reach your goals.
Planning a promotion? Contact RAVEN5 to talk through your audience, channels, budget and timing before you launch.