Growing your email list and reaching new people is an on-going process for every business and thinking of creative new ideas can be challenging. Today we bring you four unique social media contests you can use to grow your email list and get new people engaged with your company. Each contest is paired with an app or online tool to help you create and manage your contest with ease.

1. Host a Facebook giveaway

One of the easiest contests to run is a giveaway on Facebook. Everyone loves a freebie. In exchange for entry, the participant provides his or her email address.

Giveaways are simple to manage and you can determine what the prize is. You can pick a winner at random and giveaway something that’s related to your business. Maybe a $100 gift card to apply towards your products or services.

Tool to use: Rafflecopter

Rafflecopter can help you run a giveaway on Facebook. After creating an account, you set up a simple graphic that lives on your Facebook page. To enter, participants are taken to an entry form where they fill out their name and email address. You can ask for additional information too, but you should keep the form as short as possible. You’ll see a running list of all the information that you collect.

Difficulty level: easy.

Cost: Plans for Rafflecopter start at $13 a month.

2. Offer a deal or promotion

Similar to the Facebook giveaway, you can also give away a deal or promotion. Ask people to provide you with their email address in exchange for a coupon code. Everyone’s a winner with this promotion.

Tool to use: Justuno

Set up an account with Justuno and a pop up will appear on your website. Customers click the ad and are asked to fill in a simple form with their email address. Once the address is submitted, a coupon code instantly appears. You can see an example on the BaconFreak website, just click on the pop up on the right.

You can promote the deal on all of your social channels with a link back to your website. And here’s the best part, when you use Justuno all of your new contacts are automatically added to your VerticalResponse contact list. You can learn more about how it works in our Integrations Marketplace.

Difficult level: easy.

Cost: Fees are based on the number of people who enter their email address. Prices range $0-40 a month for small businesses.

3. ‘Tweet to win’ contest

Get your audience to tweet a message about your brand. Participants click on the promotion and enter their Twitter handle and email address along with their own special message about your product or service. Once the form is filled out, the participant clicks a button to share the tweet on his or her feed. You select a winner at random and email the winner to explain how to claim their prize.

Tool to use: Binkd

Binkd can help you run your ‘tweet to win’ contest. Just set up an account and create the contest materials. The program guides the participants to the sign up form and gives you a list of contacts collected.

Difficulty level: easy.

Cost: The ‘tweet to win’ option is free through Binkd. You can also use this tool to run sweepstakes and photo/video contests. Prices range from $0-1.99 a day.

4. Facebook quiz

Set up a quiz for your audience to take on Facebook and let participants share their results on their Timeline. Quizzes are interactive and sharable, so they make a great contest component. Of course, to enter the contest participants will enter their email address. Participants can be entered into a drawing if they get a certain score.

Tool to use: Woobox

Turn to Woobox to help you create and share a visual quiz on your Facebook page. You create the questions, decide how the quiz is scored and let users share their score on their wall. Woobox will set up an entry page for you to collect email addresses. You’ll also get a URL to the quiz, so you can promote it on other social channels and your website.

Here’s an example of a quiz that Woobox is helping with on the Crystal Ski Resort Facebook page.

Difficulty level: intermediate.

Cost: Plans are based on the number of fans. Small business will likely spend $49-99 a month on this tool. Woobox can help with a variety of other social contests too.

Of course, there are a ton of contest ideas out there, but the ideas above are great for time-strapped businesses. With the help of an online tool or two, you’ll have a contest up and running while email addresses roll in.

Remember to check the contest rules and regulations for each social platform. Each social site has its own rules, so look before you create a contest. And, start off your relationship with these new subscribers right by sending them a welcome email that explains what value they will receive by being on your mailing list, how often you will email them and any other benefits.

Running email competitions can be a great way to boost brand awareness run a contest chance to grow your email list, reach new people, and grow your email list. One popular email competition idea is a photo contest where users are invited to submit their own photos in exchange for a chance to win a prize. Another idea is to run a video contest, where users can submit their own videos to enter for a chance to win a grand prize. Offering a prize is a great way to incentivize people to participate in your competition, and user-generated content is a great way to get your target audience involved and invested in your brand. To maximize the impact of your email competition, consider promoting it across your social networks and other social media channels. By doing so, you can increase visibility and reach a wider audience, helping you to grow your email subscribers and boost your brand awareness.

Have you created a social contest? Share the details in the comments.

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