Why a well-planned sweepstakes can drive product awareness

A look at how creative giveaways can put your product in the spotlight – and your brand on the map

Sweepstakes are a powerful way of marketing. Unlike ads, they rely on the power of psychology, so they tap into several of our human behaviors to engage people. This makes them quite useful when building product awareness, as instead of using intrusive ads, you’ll be using people’s own curiosity.

When well-planned, an international or local sweepstakes can help give your new or existing product the awareness boost it needs to penetrate the market. In this guide, we’ll look at different aspects of the campaign you can maximize to boost product awareness.

Sweepstakes easily grab attention

You need to go where people are, and in today’s world, that’s social media. However, cutting through all the noise there is quite a challenge. Sweepstakes make this easy as they have an advantage that traditional ads don’t – a prize that grabs attention.

When a user is scrolling through their feed and they come across your sweepstakes, they’ll likely stop. This is because we are all wired to like getting something for free, especially when the entry barrier is low.

To make this more effective, ensure you promote the campaign to the right people. Use different social media channels, and probably partner with a few microinfluencers. This will amplify the reach and effectiveness, driving product awareness.

They turn passive scrollers into engaged participants

There’s a lot of content on social media, and sometimes, we don’t even know what we’re looking for. This has somehow affected people’s attention such that they don’t really engage with something they don’t totally relate to. Or when they do, it’s a simple like or share, and they never think about the post again – that’s why brands with many followers can get many likes, but the comments are usually minimal.

Sweepstakes are designed to change that. When the prize has captured a user’s attention, it then urges them to do something that will qualify them as a potential winner. This can be liking, sharing, tagging, or commenting. Usually, they’ll also need to provide a name and email address that can be used to identify them.

This sweepstakes strategy is much more important than a simple ad view that ends when the user continues scrolling. Through the interaction to qualify for the prize draw, the user’s mind will have assigned your product some value. And even if they don’t win, they are more likely to buy the product when they come across it.

They generate organic buzz (without extra ad spend)

Ad costs keep climbing. But then, the audience is increasingly tuning out to such promotions. They naturally ignore them, and more people are now using ad blockers.

Sweepstakes help go beyond this block. Instead of relying on ads, these campaigns create natural organic buzz, as when a person comes across something useful, they are more likely to share it with their circle.

Beyond that, a common sweepstakes strategy is to make it a requirement to share a brand’s post or have the user post about the product on their timeline. This helps reach a new audience, and it creates a chain reaction of shares, tags, and reactions. This is quite powerful in building brand visibility and trust, as people tend to look at it as a recommendation from someone they trust, not as an ad.

They collect valuable data for future marketing

One of the best things about sweepstakes is that when they end, they leave you with something even more valuable – high-quality customer data. Since these promotions are simple with have a free draw, they usually require the user to leave their names and emails. These are necessary for them to be contacted if they win, but they are also marketing gold.

After the campaign, you can always reach out to your participants and give them more information about the products or your offers. This should start immediately after the campaign, where you thank them for taking part, even if they didn’t win. You can also share a discount that makes them feel appreciated and gives them a reason to become a customer. When you launch new products or have a different campaign, you’ll have access to a market that you already know is interested in your products.

Looking to promote a new product? A well-run sweepstakes can get it in front of the right people, fast. We can help you set it up, spread the word, and keep the momentum going, even past the campaign. Reach out to get started in the right way!