There are many fantastic social networks contest app platforms that exist, including those that are represented by a few of our factors (antavo and Binkd) along with one of our past sponsors (easypromos). And there are numerous others that exist. With the recent publication of my new social networks strategy book Optimize Your Social, I wanted to develop a social networks contest of my own. The problem, however, is that a lot of social media contest applications appear to be Facebook-centric in their platform or at least marketing, and I was searching for a platform that would enable me to be more holistic in engaging with audiences throughout social networks.
For that reason, I went on a hunt for social networks contest apps that were utilized by a lot of bloggers, and found that there seem to be 3 major platforms: Rafflecopter, Promosimple, and PunchTab. Although I take pleasure in the gamification and benefits element of PunchTab along with the reality that Rafflecopter is simple to use and is a well recognized brand, I chose to utilize PromoSimple for the fact that their co-founder actually reached out to me after I had actually checked out there tool and asked if there was any method in which he could assist. I decided to take him up on his deal, and in turn offer you all of the advice on running social networks contests that he provided me in addition to evaluating PromoSimple. Keep in mind: I was offered a complimentary 30-day trial to check out their platform, but that was not based on writing this evaluation. I am writing this because I am satisfied with their product and wished to share my experience with you.
Keep in mind: PromoSimple offers totally free and paid strategies. Some of the functions used below become part of the paid plan. Please see the PromoSimple Strategies and Prices page for more details.
Preparation Your Social Network Contest
When you realize that any social networks contest app is only there to provide you a platform and a picking system, the devil actually is in the details of:
What is the goal of your social networks contest
Who is your target market
What do you desire them to do in order to take part in your contest
What will you provide them to incentivize them to take part
How will your promote the contest
If it sounds easy it is, but clearly it requires an incredible quantity of creativity in the planning and energy and time in the promo! Among the key things to keep in mind also is, you attract what you provide, so if you are attempting to attract a specific demographic, concentrate as to what reward would be considered important to them.
Architecting Your Social Network Contest in PromoSimple
Utilizing PromoSimple, as soon as you have analyzed all of the above, it really just takes a few minutes to produce your project. A look at the listed below screenshot shows you the actual screen I used for my Maximize Your Social launch campaign. PromoSimple works you through a five-step process of social media contest creationm which begins on the first step where you get in the core details about your contest:
Your contest heading
The details of your contest
Total number of winners
Contest start and deadline times
The PromoSimple Campaign Home builder guides you through the 5-step procedure to develop and publish your social networks contest.
In the 2nd action envisioned below, you get in more specifics about the entry system for your contest consisting of:
Required information for participants
Entries awarded per entrant
Action 2 of the PromoSimple Campaign Home Builder.
Social Network Amplifications Options
Up until now there has actually been no reference of the social media amplification choices that PromoSimple offers. However it remains in Step 2 where we begin to consist of all of those social networks calls-to-action as either needed or optional parts to our social media contest. For my contest, as envisioned listed below, I just consisted of standard demographic information along with newsletter subscription as the mandatory things needed for entry, however the bonus offer choices is where I added numerous social networks amplification options into my contest.
PromoSimple Social Network Amplification Options
PromoSimple offers a variety of alternatives to assist you supercharge your social networks contest.
As you can see, there are a great deal of call-to-actions that you can include beyond Facebook in your contest! A run down of the imagined features would appear like this:
Newsletter subscription (built in integration with Constant Contact, MailChimp, and Mad Mimi-- for others consist of a link to a sign-up kind).
RSS Feed subscription.
Refer a good friend alternative, to enable participants to assist spread the word about your contest! The function works like this: Each entrant is given a special URL that they can promote on their social websites and directly through e-mail. The referrer gets an additional entry into the giveaway for each person who comes through their URL and goes into. The PromoSimple folks told me that whenever this function is deployed they normally see a 5-10% lift in special entrants.
Boost social media followers by obtaining Facebook Likes, Twitter Follows, Pinterest Follows, and Instagram Follows.
Boost social media engagement with specific contest-related material by requesting Pinterest Pins, Instagram Likes, Twitter Tweets, and Blog Comments.
Lead your entrants to any social media channel or site you choose through the Custom-made Entry. I utilized this to lead people to the Maximize Your Social book trailer.
There are also ways of engaging with your entrants by inquiring for their input in a range of ways: Several Option concerns, Checkbox surveys, or asking through a Drop-Down concern.
Every one of the above choices is personalized to a large degree, and each one can be personalized vis a vis how many points you want to give per entry. For instance, I put more value on the amplification through referring friends and real sharing of my messages than a mere follow, so I made them higher in point worth.
Publishing Your Social Media Contest.
While I wanted something fairly easy, it should be noted that before you publish, PromoSimple offers you a range of display screen and modification alternatives so that you can give your interface a truly special look-and-feel. I didn't spend much time on these options, but if they are very important to you, they exist.
When you have actually finalized whatever, releasing your contest is as simple as clicking one button! After that you are given a range of publication options as shown below, the most essential ones being:.
Code to embed into your own site.
Add an entry kind to your Facebook Page.
And that's it! This is what the outcome of my contest appears like (oh, and you can enter it yourself to get a better feel for how PromoSimple works before Monday, October 14 at midnight Pacific Time):.
But wait, there's more! In addition to the above publishing options, PromoSimple offers you a variety of other options to develop widgets that can appear in your website sidebar (see the top of the sidebar on Maximize Your Social to see how mine looks), a Facebook Widget, or a "Website Layer," comparable to a Hello Disallow which appears at the top of all of your pages.
PromoSimple Promotional Widgets.
PromoSimple provides you a variety of methods of showing your social networks contest on sites.
Promoting Your Social Network Contest.
Now the simple part is done and the hard work starts: Promoting your contest! It goes without saying that you want to make use of all of your marketing homes to press people to your contest. Paid Social, whether on Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn, is another great method to expose your contest to a really targeted audience.
PromoSimple likewise helps by including your contest in their own Giveaways Directory, which then assures that your contest goes out to the Giveaways Network, who's integrated widgets, directories, and emails have a combined audience of 10s of countless users. Lastly, one of the paid choices is to get featured positioning in the Giveaways network, including in the email newsletter that is sent out to a great deal of individuals. I was provided the opportunity to be included, and I can inform you that appearing in the newsletter will greatly increase the number of participants to your contest!
It ought to be noted that promo in the above directory site along with widgets, which may be included on 3rd party websites, is entirely optional as some of you may wish to target a highly focused/niche audience on your own.
Examining Your Social Network Contest.
What I truly like about PromoSimple is the reporting performance that it offers so that you can dig into any one of the following areas for analysis:.
Entrants by area.
Daily charts of entries.
Entries by call-to-action, so you can see which entrants did which actions.
You can drill down into the information, for example, to see which of my entrants really repinned my book image, for instance, and validate the outcomes. Furthermore, all of the data from any one of the call-to-action entries can be downloaded so that you can actually follow back or engage with those entrants that you feel may be influencers, for example.
At the end of the day, the ROI of your social networks contest will depend upon a lot of different elements. For me in accomplishing more comprehensive brand awareness for my brand-new book, my contest has actually currently been a success for the percentage of time and cash invested.
Have you ever utilized PromoSimple as your social media contest app? What have your experiences been running a holistic social media contest throughout a range of platforms? Are there any additional functionalities that you see missing out on in PromoSimple? Please share your experiences with us!