3 ways to use sweepstakes to build an engaged audience

Sweepstakes are more than just a giveaway

Running an effective sweepstakes is one of the most powerful marketing tools to help you build an engaged audience for your outdoor brand. In today’s day and age, having a large audience or contact list is not enough. New privacy restraints from companies like Apple have caused major data discrepancies in the email marketing sector for marketers and brands alike leading to unreliable reporting due to incomplete data collection in your CRM, such as lower email open rates. The solution? Understanding your audience and speaking to them directly. 

Across industries, we see sweepstakes being launched to hundreds of consumers where companies are only requiring names, email addresses, and sometimes extra things like social media follows to enter. While collecting emails on your entry form grows your contact list, the quality of your audience will likely diminish to individuals just seeking free products and will be unlikely to engage with your emails or convert to a customer in the future. When you create your entry form for your sweepstakes, we encourage you to ask 2-5 questions that will give you better insight into who your audience is. 

While collecting emails on your entry form grows your contact list, the quality of your audience will likely diminish to individuals just seeking free products and will be unlikely to engage with your emails or convert to a customer in the future.

Understanding your audience is important so you can effectively curate your marketing efforts in ways that will resonate with your audience and improve the chances of success and engagement. Once you start speaking to your audience directly, you will show them that you understand their problems and improve your KPI’s while doing it.

Here are our top three ways to build an engaged audience through your sweepstakes:

1. Psychographic Data

The first key to success with sweepstakes is to collect psychographic data about your audience. The easiest way to do this is to ask 3-5 questions as part of the form needed to enter the sweepstakes. We urge you to be intentional in the questions you ask your audience so the data will be useful in the future. We recommend starting with basic demographic questions such as name, age and location. Next we suggest asking questions that will help you understand your audience and inspire future content. Our client Pond King, a pontoon boat and pond management company, asks questions about fishing habits, what activities they enjoy doing on the water, and purchase intent in the future. Since asking these questions, we have created valuable content and segments that have helped us understand their audience and boost engagement. 

2. Personalized Content

Once you have launched your sweeps and begun collecting psychographic data, it is time to build personalized content to help you stand out and improve your marketing performance. In today’s digital age where consumer’s inboxes are flooded with marketing emails, consumers appreciate a high level of personalization in the content they receive. Examples of personalization in email marketing can include: using the customers name in the subject line, sending them content that responds to the psychographic data you have collected about them, and tailoring your marketing emails to products or collections that interest them. Overall, personalization in email marketing will lead to increased engagement, higher conversion rates, and greater customer loyalty. 

3. Iterations

Building an engaged audience takes time and iterations. Once you’ve begun collecting psychographic data and personalizing content, you must analyze the data and feedback from your marketing campaigns and adjust as needed. This may mean refining your questions in your sweepstakes, adjusting your buyer personas to include new information, or building new informational landing pages that you can run advertisements to. The sweepstakes is not only meant for your current customers but also to attract new ones and build your customer retention. 

Running an effective sweepstakes for your outdoor brand requires being strategic in the creation of your sweepstakes. The best strategy is to ask meaningful questions to your audience to collect and utilize psychographic data. Personalizing your outdoor marketing content to the consumers needs and desires will create loyal and engaged customers that feel understood and attract new ones that will feel more connected to your brand. By following these best practices, you can improve your marketing performance and have a better engaged audience. 

Are you interested in launching a sweepstakes? Contact us today for a consultation.