Tag Archives: capturing leads with contests

Tips for Lead Generation Campaigns

Tips for Lead Generation Campaigns
An effective lead generation campaign is made up of multiple elements working together. Here’s a list of these different ingredients along with ways to maximize them:

  • Tools

There are tools you can use to manage and store your leads. These tools will help you get to know your target market beyond names and email addresses. You’ll get access to crucial information, like what visitors do before completing a lead conversion form, and what they do after completing the form. You’ll know how they navigate the site, where they spend time, and what clicks they link. The best thing, some of these tools are free.

HubSpot Marketing Free lets you add contact forms and pop-ups to capture your lead’s information. If you already have forms, submissions will be automatically captured. Once a form is submitted, additional information associated with your lead’s email address will be gathered. You’ll see your lead’s public social profiles, giving you more insight on the kind of consumer they are.

Another free tool, HotJar, tracks visitor behavior through heat maps. These record movement on your website. You’ll see taps and clicks as they happened on your site. It identifies those parts of your site that are usable and intuitive, and the parts that aren’t. This can help you redesign your website to make it more user-friendly, especially for mobile screens.

  • Incentives

Creating engaging offers for every stage of the marketing funnel will help generate more leads. All conversions start out at the awareness level. They move down the funnel to the last level (which is advocacy) simply because they liked what they see at every stage and want to see more. So don’t ignore someone who’s looking around, in favor of someone who’s thinking of making a purchase. Treat both of them well.

The person who’s more interested in reading a brochure than signing up for a free trial may be persuaded to convert, but only if you nurture them from the start of the buyer’s journey.

Offers don’t have to be monetary in value at the early stage where people are looking for information. They’re not even thinking of buying anything yet, so deals like discounts won’t matter much. What’s important is relevant content, so offer e-books, whitepapers, checklists, or other resources they may find interesting.

  • Social media platforms

Many online marketers use social media to raise brand awareness. It’s not a surprise because it is effective. But it’s also effective for lead generation. Instead of posting links to articles, infographics, videos, and website content, you can post links to your landing pages with deals’. You can also post links to your best performing posts (a.k.a. those that generate the highest number of leads).

Use the unique features of your chosen platform. For example, Facebook lets you add a CTA button on your Facebook Page. With one click, it directs people straight to your website.

Twitter has Lead Gen Cards which generates leads within a tweet. When a user clicks on the CTA, that user’s name and email address will be sent to your form – all without them having to leave Twitter.

A lead generation campaign can go so many ways, but if you follow these tips, your own campaigns will blossom.

Best Practices for Lead Generation Using Sweepstakes

Best Practices for Lead Generation Using Sweepstakes

People like free stuff.  They do!

Whether it’s as simple as movie tickets to the latest blockbuster or as grand as an all-expense paid trip to the Caribbean. It’s for this reason why sweepstakes have always been a go-to method for marketers when it comes to generating buzz.

There’s nothing quite like a giveaway to get people engaged, make them click on like, write a comment, share a post, follow a page, subscribe to a newsletter, and sometimes even create their own content.

But it isn’t only a buzz that sweepstakes can generate. Contests generate leads as well, which isn’t a surprise considering the lengths people are willing to go to just nab an interesting prize.

Of course, the big question is whether you’ll get relevant leads that end in conversions — and not just casual passersby hoping to win (and with no intention of coming back again).

To make sure you get high-quality leads here are some best practices for lead generation using sweepstakes:

Give Away a Gift Certificate for your Products or Services

A cash prize will get lots of signups via your opt-in form. You can bet that most of them will unsubscribe once the contest is over. People are always interested in money even if they’re not interested in your business. By giving away a gift certificate for your products or services, those who’ll join are interested in what your business can offer.

Keep your Prizes Reasonable

If it’s too good to be true, then people will think your contest is a scam designed to harvest personal information for malicious purposes. Even if you can afford to give away a huge freebie, make your prizes tempting yet still believable. Like a $50 voucher to be used for your products or services.

Save the grand prizes for special occasions, like your business’s milestone anniversary.

Make Participants Work for it a Bit

Most sweepstakes just ask for a name and email address. Aside from being no fun at all, this can turn away great leads. They may think they don’t stand a chance to win (and can’t be bothered to join at all).

To get genuinely interested participants, make people exert a bit of effort before they can join. Ask them to fill out a survey or give a creative answer to a question. You’ll be able to filter out the non-relevant leads, and also get information from relevant leads. Just make sure your prize is worth the extra effort.

Allow Social Sharing for More Chances of Winning

People will be willing to share your sweepstakes with their networks if you give them referral incentives. Such as additional entries for every signup they get through their referral link.

Without this option, participants might not tell others about your contest in an attempt to keep the competition pool small. Fewer joiners mean higher chances of winning, after all. But with the assurance of added entries per share, they’ll have a reason to spread the word.

When it comes to sweepstakes for lead generation, everyone’s a winner — your business included. As long as you know how to do it right.  Plan your contests well and you may come out with the top prize of high-quality leads.

How to Use Contests to Generate Sales Leads

How to Use Contests to Generate Sales Leads

Marketing is important to every business. But its importance is more critical to start-ups and small businesses looking to increase sales. How do you get your company’s name out there and generate sales leads? Here’s a great way that utilizes the power of the web, incorporate contests into your marketing plan to spread your company name and help boost sales!

Where should your contest be held? Online using your website and Social Media!

Photo Contests

A picture is worth a thousand words and used properly can generate sales and reach more potential clients. Hold a social media photo contest. Ask your followers to post a picture of themselves with your product, and the image with the most votes wins. It’s a creative, easy, and fun way to get your customers engaged with your brand and get your name out to all of their friends.

It’s easy to run Facebook contests with Tabsite. TabSite allows you to easily create and manage custom apps and run promos on your website, blog and Facebook Pages. Users can add multiple custom apps and offer deals, contests, and more. TabSite offers both easy setup apps and a Drag N Build system for pixel perfect design without coding or programming. Powerful features include the ability to run Sweepstakes, showcase your YouTube Videos, add product slideshows, run Photo and Video Contests, share your Instagram feed on your Facebook Page, and more!

“Most Creative Idea”

This is a great way to get your creative juices flowing and incorporate your business’s individuality into your contests. The idea here is to encourage your Facebook fans to leave their own creative ideas in response to a question and the comment with the most “likes” winning a prize.

A good example for this (let’s say you are a pizza shop owner) is to post a status asking followers to come up with the most unique pizza topping combination. The person posting who gets the most “likes” wins and is then able to come get a free pizza. It keeps the winner happy and increases your brand name awareness. The end result? Hopefully a boost in sales. This is called a “Timeline Contest” that runs in the Facebook News Feed.

The Guessing Game

This can be custom tailored to fit your company, or whatever mood you’re in. Post a picture and ask followers to guess where it was taken. Something taken at odd angles or a different viewpoint will keep people’s interest to find out what it is. Send the winner a prize and enjoy the benefits of increased sales and word of mouth publicity from the lucky customer.

Like and Share

Another popular social media contest is the “like and share” game. The idea is to get your name out there to generate sales leads and increase brand awareness. Offer a free product to the customer whose shared post gets the most “likes”. It will result in contestants sharing your business page, and your company name will go out to all of their friends.

There are lots of ways to use contests to generate sales leads. It’s a wonderful marketing strategy to spread your business name, earn loyal customers, and bring in sales leads while your clients have fun. Incorporate one of these ideas into your business and watch your revenue grow. No matter what you choose to do, a contest is a good way to make sure your business stays relevant in today’s competitive environment.