{"id":3977,"date":"2014-11-07T14:23:46","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T20:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/blog\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2015-09-18T06:16:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T11:16:48","slug":"marketing-giveaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/?p=3977","title":{"rendered":"How to use a giveaway to get 2,239 email subscribers in 10 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was\u00a08:15 a.m. on\u00a0Monday, September 15th.<\/p>\n

My day was completely planned out. I was gearing up to launch the Vault<\/a> in two weeks and was on a tight deadline.<\/p>\n

And then Twitter happened.<\/p>\n

I came across\u00a0a case study<\/a> by Josh Earl where he showed how he collected over 60,000 emails by\u00a0hosting a giveaway.<\/p>\n

60,000 email subscribers? In 10 days? That completely blew me away.<\/p>\n

So I canceled all of my plans and set up my own giveaway.<\/p>\n

3 hours later it was live.<\/p>\n

\"\"

I gave away a 10-year subscription to\u00a0LeadPages, a tool that I talk about all the time on this blog.<\/p>\n

One week later 2,239 people had entered the giveaway and subscribed to this site.<\/p>\n

\"\"

It’s easy to read about someone getting 60,000 subscribers in such a short time frame and call it a fluke.<\/p>\n

Will you get 60,000 subscribers by running a contest?\u00a0Probably not.<\/p>\n

But can you grow your list significantly? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

I used 13 different strategies to promote my contest\u00a0and make sure it was a hit. Today, I’m going to share with you\u00a05 of the most effective strategies\u00a0that I discovered.<\/p>\n

I’ve compiled all 13 strategies into an easy-to-reference training guide\u00a0you can download and follow when you set up your contest.<\/p>\n

[content_upgrade id=”2″]Click here to download all 13 promotional strategies[\/content_upgrade]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three Steps to Create and Promote Your Giveaway<\/h1>\n

I’m going to walk you through the 3 key steps you need to follow to set up and promote your first giveaway.<\/p>\n

Step #1: Create the Giveaway<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first thing you need to do is pick the prize you will be giving away. No amount of promotion will overcome a crappy prize.<\/p>\n

There are three characteristics your prize needs to have:<\/p>\n

1. Highly Desirable<\/strong>: Your prize needs to be something that your target audience\u00a0covets.<\/p>\n

For example, if you run a food blog whose primary focus is organic cooking, you could offer a $2,000 gift card to Whole Foods.<\/p>\n

OR<\/p>\n

If you are a self-help coach, you could offer free tickets to Tony Robbins’s next event (a $750 value).<\/p>\n

2. Shocking:\u00a0<\/strong>To maximize your giveaway’s reach, it needs to have shock value.<\/p>\n

In other words, when your target audience hears the headline of your giveaway, it needs to make them stop and turn their heads.<\/p>\n

Which of these giveaway headlines are more shocking to you?<\/p>\n

“Win a $2,000 Gift Card to\u00a0Whole Foods”<\/em><\/p>\n

OR<\/p>\n

“Win an Entire Year of Groceries from Whole Foods (a $2,000 value)”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In my contest I used this hook: “Win a One Decade Subscription to LeadPages.”<\/p>\n

I could have gone with a lifetime membership, but what I found was that many other giveaways in my industry use the lifetime angle. I wanted to be different.<\/p>\n

By using the “decade” angle, the\u00a0hook was unique and thus played a big part in my contest getting as much traction as it did.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Authority Leaching: <\/strong>Pick a prize owned by a company that will be\u00a0likely to\u00a0help you promote the giveaway.<\/p>\n

The entire purpose of the giveaway is to reach new people. Leaching off of the audience of the prize owner is an easy way to do that.<\/p>\n

I did this with LeadPages and was able to reach 3,099\u00a0more people via their Twitter account:<\/p>\n

Win @LeadPages<\/a> for an entire decade? So cool! https:\/\/t.co\/1nps88qGbI<\/a> via @Videofruit<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 LeadPages\u2122 (@LeadPages) September 25, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n