We found ourselves asking this question while interviewing an UpViral user who did a two-week giveaway that:
- Collected a total of 4,552 leads
- Grew her VIP private Facebook group
- Helped kickstart her product launch
She’s a stay-at-home mom (an elementary school teacher by trade) who sells on Amazon. She just launched a new e-commerce business — which she runs by herself.
Who am I talking about? Rachel Ollen.
Here’s a screenshot of her campaign stats:
As you can see, 2,695 of her leads were direct sign-ups while 1,857 were referred to her campaign.
This is Rachel’s second campaign using UpViral. Clearly, she knows how to run a successful giveaway, although she admits that she can be a bit of a perfectionist.😉
If you are in the e-commerce niche, you might wonder if it’s possible to kickstart and nail your own giveaway as Rachel did.
Yes, you can.
Read the case study and learn the key strategies that Rachel used.
Setting Goals for the Giveaway
Before we get into the specifics of Rachel’s giveaway, we first have to talk about what her campaign goals were.
She said that she wanted to get as many leads as possible. After generating leads, she would then retarget those leads with Facebook ads and also reach out with offers that would lead up to her new product launch.
Another goal was to capture a bunch of people for her product testers private Facebook group — which she did get!
⭐Golden nugget: Always start your giveaway by setting a goal. Whether you have one or more goals, get clear about them because this will help you structure your entire campaign properly.
The Ultimate Prize Pack That Moms Went Crazy Over
Do you know why Rachel’s giveaway got a lot of attention?
Here’s why: PRIZE + TARGET AUDIENCE + TIMING. 🔥
Let me explain:
1. PRIZE
Rachel gave away an “ultimate prize pack” which was a bunch of toys for toddlers. This would be awarded to one winner, and that winner would be chosen at random by the UpViral tool.
This prize pack consisted of the following:
- Strider – 12 Sport Balance Bike (age 18 months to 5 years)
- Kids Play Tent
- Little Tikes 3′ Trampoline
- Sunny Days 6-ft Play Tunnel
- LEGO Duplo Disney Pixar Toy Train
- Munchkin Float and Play Bath Toy
- Hape Pound and Tap Bench with Slide Out Xylophone
- Sassy Wonder Wheel Activity Center
- Munchkin Fishin’ Bath Toy
- VTech Pull and Sing Puppy
- Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack
- VTech Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker
- First Builders Big Building Bag
- Baby Banana Infant Training Toothbrush
- Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes Musical Toy
- Fisher-Price Baby’s First Blocks
- The First Years Stack Up Cup Toys
The best thing about Rachel’s prize pack? Everything cost her only $350. (In a while, you’ll find out why it was super affordable.)
Where she got the prizes:
Rachel ordered all the toys from Amazon.com. She picked the top-rated products for toddlers and put them together as a prize pack.
2. TARGET AUDIENCE
As an elementary school teacher by trade and mom of a toddler, Rachel knew her target audience well — moms of small children or toddlers. This understanding enabled her to pick the right prize.
When asked whether she chose the prize to solve a problem or need, she said, “It was more about giving them something that they really want.”
What this teaches you: A giveaway prize should be largely decided based on one’s target audience.
⭐Golden nugget: But you don’t have to be a mom yourself (or be of a certain profession like Rachel) to understand your audience. Start by doing your research and creating a customer persona.
3. TIMING
Here’s why Rachel’s prize pack was super budget-friendly:
She took advantage of the sale which was in the period leading up to Christmas.🎄 It was a great time to take advantage of a bargain.
But not only that, but Rachel was also hitting two birds with one stone.
Aside from spending less money on the prize, moms were actively looking for the perfect Christmas toy for their little ones. Rachel took advantage of the season of shopping and gift-giving. This explained why her giveaway got the attention it needed.
⭐Golden nugget: Timing is key. It can increase the chances of your campaign to go viral. Pick a time period when your target audience is likely to engage.
Instant Rewards That Encouraged More Sharing
Rachel did not only entice her audience with an ultimate toddler prize pack, but she also offered multiple rewards to be unlocked along the way.
As you can see, she placed 3 rewards:
- Exclusive expert video interview with a SLEEP CONSULTANT
- Exclusive expert video interview with a POTTY TRAINING CONSULTANT
- Transcript of BOTH expert interviews
Multiple rewards are an awesome strategy to motivate people to stick around until the end of your campaign.
Here’s what Rachel said:
It’s also worth mentioning that in her first UpViral campaign, Rachel didn’t offer any rewards to unlock. She felt that it hurt the number of people who entered her campaign. (Because when you compare that campaign with this campaign, this one performed exponentially better.📈)
Rachel understood that multiple rewards would keep the shares coming. Her audience had a reason to earn more points.
(Imagine this: As soon as someone unlocks a reward, they’re delighted to know that another reward awaits then.)
On deciding those 3 specific rewards, Rachel asked herself this question — “What would make me want to share? What’s worth sharing?”
Like the main incentive which was the ultimate prize pack, she made sure that her additional rewards appealed to her audience’s needs and interests.
In this case, she knew that moms with toddlers often face the challenges of potty training and sleep. So she reached out to separate consultants in those areas and interviewed them.
Rachel asked all the tough questions that moms often ask on potty training and sleep. This helped her come up with resources that moms would truly value.
Luckily, the experts whom Rachel interviewed did not charge her for their time or expertise. Rachel also offered the experts at the beginning that she would promote them in the campaign to boost their exposure.
⭐Golden nugget: Make sure that your additional rewards satisfy these criteria: High value + low cost + addresses the needs of your audience.
Rachel’s Lead Capture Pages
People enter your giveaway on your lead capture page. Typically, giveaway hosts create just one lead capture page.
But as you can see from the screenshot below, Rachel created 2 lead capture pages. Why? So she can split test or A/B test them.
What split testing does: Split testing allows you to see which version of something (in this case, Rachel’s lead capture page) will result in better conversions.
Rachel wanted to know whether changing some of the wordings on the lead capture page will affect her sign-ups.
Here are the stats for her lead capture page split test:
Take a look at the number of leads collected for each lead capture page version. Note that there’s not much of a difference with the results. The conversion rate for first is 32% while the cloned version is 31%.
Since the results were similar, Rachel did not pick a winner.
Now, let’s examine each element of Rachel’s lead capture page:
1. Hero image
Rachel had someone from Fiverr create an impressive image of the ultimate prize pack which featured all the toys.
She wanted an image that her audience (moms) would want to click on. She said, “It gained a lot of attention. People saw this bike in the middle.”
One more thing that’s worth noticing is the beautifully designed text in the middle that says, “ENTER TO WIN ALL THIS! $450+ VALUE”
Not only does it catch the eye with its color contrast that makes the text stand out, but it also emphasizes the dollar value of the prize pack. This makes the prize even more enticing.
2. Brand logo
Rachel includes a small logo of her e-commerce business on top of the giveaway sign-up form.
💎Tip: You can use a small (but readable) logo and place it at the top or bottom of the lead capture page. It doesn’t need to be the focus of the lead capture page, but having it appear somewhere on the page can increase brand awareness. It makes it clear who hosted the giveaway.
3. Headline and Subheadline
Rachel uses a different headline for each landing page version. One reads, “ENTER to WIN the ULTIMATE Toddler Prize Pack” while the other version reads, “Do you have a TODDLER in your house?!”
She also uses a different copy for her subheadings. Version 1 has fewer words than version 2.
💎Tip: Craft effective headlines and subheadlines that grab attention and clarify what’s in it for your audience. Obviously, there are many ways to do it. For example, when writing the headline, you can give a direct command to enter your giveaway or ask a question.
4. Sign-up form
How did Rachel manage to get lots of sign-ups? Well, another strategy we observed was that she kept her lead form basic.
Too many fields can put potential leads off. Keep your fields to a minimum.
⭐Golden Nugget: If you want more details, you can ask your audience to fill out a survey or take a quiz. In exchange for their effort, you offer them more points. You’ll be able to do this using the Custom Actions feature — more on this later.
5. Further details of the giveaway
At the bottom of her lead forms, Rachel adds more details that participants need to know.
For instance, adding the closing date of the campaign gave a sense of urgency. She also made it clear that the giveaway was only open to US residents with a US shipping address. Another way of enticing people about the reward was to mention all the brands of the toys inside the prize pack.
Rachel’s Share Pages
You can see below that Rachel split tested her share pages.
The second version was wordier than the first. She tried to see if adding the words “Sleep Consultant + Potty Training Consultant” would trigger someone to have a closer look at the giveaway.
But like the lead capture pages, she didn’t pick a winner for the share page since their conversion rates didn’t have a huge difference.
When you look at Rachel’s share page, you can see the following:
1. Headline, subheadline, and copy
For the headline, Rachel experimented with:
Asking a question – “Want to get MORE ENTRIES and INSTANT ACCESS to 2 EXPERT VIDEOS?”
Making a direct command – “Get INSTANT ACCESS to 2 EXPERT VIDEOS! It’s EASY!”
For the subheadline, Rachel used one for version 2 of her share page, which says, “Share and UNLOCK these two EXCLUSIVE MUST-HAVE parenting resources! Sleep Consultant + Potty Training Consultant!”
Rachel also adds more copy in which she reminds her audience to share the contest so they can get more entries plus get access to secrets on potty training and sleep.
2. Rewards to be unlocked
Rachel uses UpViral’s share page template (Krakow template) that enables her to feature her 3 additional rewards:
The small blue circles to the left show how many points participants have so far and the number of points to be earned for the specific reward.
We also like that Rachel required people to earn 30-50 points to get the rewards. This range wasn’t too high and made it doable for everyone.
She said, “I wasn’t trying to make it too hard to attain the rewards. I just wanted to get the momentum going. And I did see that.”
3. Share buttons and Custom Action buttons
To the left of the rewards are buttons that correspond to different actions.
The first four buttons are for sharing the giveaway on social media in exchange for points. Rachel assigned 2 points for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Meanwhile, she assigned 5 points for sharing through Messenger. Here’s what she says about assigning those higher points:
✅Takeaway: When assigning points for sharing, assign higher points for those social platforms that are known to perform well for your niche or business. (For example, LinkedIn works really well for digital marketing.)
Now, about the last five buttons — they’re not “share buttons.” Rather, they’re Custom Action buttons — a feature of UpViral that enables you to give points for specific, unique actions that people complete.
Let’s take a closer look at how Rachel’s Custom Actions setup inside UpViral:
Basically, Rachel wanted people to like her business’ Facebook page, follow her business on Instagram, and join her VIP product testers Facebook group.
Her two remaining custom actions were about following the sleep expert and potty training expert on Instagram.
Rachel said, “I also wanted to do a thank you since the experts I collaborated with did not charge me for their time or expertise in exchange. I offered it from the beginning that I would promote them and encourage people to like their pages and follow their products and services.”
She also mentioned including a lot of custom actions in her first campaign. But this time, she wanted more focus for her brand with the three social media touchpoints plus those for the experts she collaborated with.
4. Unique referral invite link
At the top of the share and Custom Action buttons is a unique URL that participants can simply copy and paste anywhere — on social media or online communication platforms so they can invite their friends.
(Note that all share pages created with UpViral generate a unique invite link. Where the invite link is positioned depends on the template that you choose. In this case, Rachel chose the Krakow template.)
5. Leaderboard
By adding the leaderboard at the bottom of the rewards, Rachel’s participants will be able to see their current rank in the giveaway.
Yet, Rachel told us that she thinks the leaderboard elicits different reactions. Some people might get excited and motivated to keep sharing, while others are completely indifferent.
The Email Strategy That Gets Participants to Open and Read
It’s essential to keep giveaway participants hyped up, and that is why you need to send them multiple follow-up emails, with each one sent out after a milestone has been achieved.
Rachel wrote her emails in UpViral that would automatically be sent out emails after:
- A person successfully signed up for her giveaway
- Someone signed up through the person’s referral link
- The first reward was unlocked
- The second reward was unlocked
- The third reward was unlocked
- The Ultimate Toddler Prize Pack was unlocked (sent only to the winner)
- A suspicious activity was detected
Here is one of the emails that were sent (triggered when someone signed up through a current participant’s referral link). It had an open rate of 54.4%:
😎Why this email rocks:
Rachel:
- Makes her email personal by addressing each of her recipients as “fellow toddler parent.”
- Updates her audience with their most recent number of points.
- Encourages them to keep sharing to unlock the additional rewards and even specifies which channels work great — Facebook groups and Facebook Messenger.
- Adds an extra note at the bottom of the email to let them know that they will receive the same message only 3 times to avoid flooding their inbox. (Inside UpViral, you’ll be able to set a maximum number of your choice.)
- Creates a custom email signature that looks great and makes the email look more personal overall.
No-Nonsense Marketing Strategies That Drove Traffic to the Giveaway
Here were the two strategies that Rachel implemented to get people into her campaign:
#1 UpViral’s contest promotion websites resource
We had created a list of places (free and paid) where one could feature their contests on. These sites receive a good amount of traffic which Rachel could really use. Rachel told us that she leveraged the free ones and spent only a maximum of $100 for the paid options.
#2 Facebook Ads
According to Rachel, her best results came from Facebook Ads. She spent only as little as $50 a day and ran the ad campaign only for the first week of her giveaway.
Since Rachel knew her niche well, she was able to “niche down” based on the interests of her target audience. She targeted a cold audience — women of childbearing age and moms with toddlers in the United States.
Rachel didn’t use any advanced strategies. “I got such a good result as a beginner. So I can only imagine if I did some more advanced targeting,” said Rachel.
⚠️What Didn’t Work:
Influencer marketing may work well for others, but it had the opposite effect on Rachel’s campaign. Rachel spent $500 on an influencer who was in the same niche and had a great audience.
However, Rachel got less than 100 leads from the influencer and she also hoped for a better ROI. She said, “I would consider using influencers again, but I need to think of another strategy.”
The Ultimate Toddler Prize Pack Giveaway Was an Overall Success Because…
We asked Rachel what her thoughts were about her campaign — why it had such great results:
#1: The offer was good.
To pick the right incentive, Rachel asked herself, “What would people in a certain niche be prepared to give up their email address for the chance to get something?” In Rachel’s case, it was a pack of toddler toys for her target audience which were moms.
#2: The offer looked enticing too.
Recall that Rachel had someone from Fiverr create an attractive image that featured all the toddler toys. She used that image for her promotions. What was also cool about it is that it didn’t cost her much.
#3: Extra rewards (expert video interviews and transcript)
Rachel said, “You gotta have rewards in my opinion. Otherwise, you’re not gonna get the social shares. If there’s no incentive for someone to share, why would they bother?”
#4: Where the traffic came from.
As mentioned previously, running Facebook ads benefited her campaign. For Rachel, knowing the best source of traffic was a big deal because that would allow her to optimize for it.
#5: Time of the year.
Rachel did the giveaway during the holiday season. It was a time when people were more likely to go shopping (moms were on the lookout for presents to give to their toddlers).
💡What Could Be Improved in the Future:
If Rachel could improve her campaign, she would spend more on Facebook Ads. This was after getting great results.
Another thing that would be improved is influencer marketing. Rachel would still use an influencer, although she said she needs to research and learn a bit more to master it.
Lastly, Rachel is also looking to hire someone who could write her copy to make it more encouraging for clicks and shares.
Why Rachel Loves UpViral…
Over to You
Rachel managed to get over 4.5K leads in as little as two weeks.
She targeted the right audience (which she understood well). That allowed her to give away something that was super affordable that appealed to them.
Not only that, but there were also extra rewards that were attainable, super relevant, and valuable. These rewards pushed her audience to keep on sharing.
There you have it!
Now it’s your turn. Would you also run a contest or giveaway soon? Did you gain from this case study? Let us know in the comments. 👇
To build a quality audience and grow your business through incentivizing and referrals, choose UpViral. Cheers! 🙂
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