April 19th, 2011 • Posted by Stephany Toman • Permalink
Almost 50 percent of online users like to enter monthly sweepstakes, and
those businesses that offer sweepstakes have twice as many fans,
according to Forrester Research. CoverBoom is making it easy for you to join the party with BoomTime's Sweepstakes for Facebook.
Why you want to run Sweepstakes
Growing a Facebook fan base is key to developing a healthy, active social media
campaign. We at CoverBoom really encourage you to nurture your social
media marketing. After all, it's where a lot of your audience is
spending free time, and you need to engage them while they're out there.
BoomTime Sweepstakes gives your fans a great incentive to enter, and to invite their friends to enter, too! The activity will raise the profile of your Facebook page and generate new fans with each Sweepstakes. Adjusting
your offer from Sweepstakes to Sweepstakes will help you figure out just
what triggers your unique Facebook audience to join so you can enjoy bigger
and bigger increases in your fan base over time.
You can monitor the progress of each Sweepstakes. At the end of the Sweepstakes the system will automatically choose a winner (or winners) and post their names in the
Sweepstakes record. No matter the size of your fan base you'll likely see big increases in the number of fans and their overall interest in your page.
How much should you give away in a sweepstakes?
The value of your Sweepstakes depends entirely upon your market. A good starting place is the average cost of a meal for two. Alternatively you might offer a week's cooking classes with your famous chef, valued at say $500. The key is to choose a prize that motivates your potential fans to 'like' your page and enter your Sweepstakes.
We've got to love a society where competitive cheffing is commonplace, and many of us spend more time watching the Food Channel than sitcoms in any given week, right? Work that to your advantage with a Sweepstakes letting an armchair chef experience time in a real restaurant kitchen!
How hard is it to set up?
If you can use an online calendar, you can set up a BoomTime Sweepstakes in CoverBoom. If you are already a CoverBoom client, Sweepstakes is a new 'Event' type.
Once you set up your Sweepstakes Event, you'll need to choose an image to accompany the Sweepstakes. Use the
Event content field to describe the Sweepstakes compellingly (after all,
you want people to participate!), and then you can even send an automated email to your clients telling them about your Sweepstakes.
The new 'Add Email' task in Events makes it super easy to create an
email campaign, and by default uses the copy you wrote to describe the
Sweepstakes in the Event, which you can add on to if you wish, or simply
let fly verbatim.
Any additional Events you have running can be included in the email,
too, so you have an additional opportunity to promote Events underway
while you're announcing your current Sweepstakes.
Who gets to use BoomTime Sweepstakes for Facebook?
If you currently have the CoverBoom Marketing Suite (all CoverBoom Dynamic Websites are automatically included), then follow our simple steps to run Sweepstakes.
If you are an Instant Gift Certificates client, you will
need to upgrade to the CoverBoom Marketing Suite to activate your
Sweepstakes functionality. It's easy, and risk-free. Send us an email or call us at 800.940.0451. We're here to help!
