The title of this post sounds like the makings of a heroic email marketing love story. Oooh! Find out what happens when Social Media meets the Luck of the Draw — all for the chance to spend three nights at a resort tucked away in the rolling hills of Illinois!

For Harpole’s Heartland Lodge, this was indeed the scene of a successful match when they launched Social Sweepstakes on Facebook earlier this year.

Sweepstakes are attractive to people because they don’t have to do much for a chance to win something awesome. There’s no skill or purchase required and it’s the lowest barrier to entry, which is why running this type of social media contest can be a great way to engage your audience on Facebook and grow your email list.

With 48 percent of Facebook users following a brand because of a sweepstakes or promotion, bet you’re curious as to how you’d go about structuring one? Generally it works something like this:

1. Decide on a prize (or prizes) of great value
2. Pick the opening and closing dates for when you’ll receive entries, as well as the drawing date
3. Promote the contest, prize, and rules
4. Receive oodles of entry forms with contact information (i.e. email addresses)
5. Randomly select and announce prize winner

Now, hold up! Before you go galloping off into the sunset with your fantasy of thousands of email addresses, just know there are lots of rules around sweepstakes. I know, wah wah, rules, but they’re for everyone’s protection. This is why it’s worth considering having a company like Deluxe, run the sweepstakes for you. You get a team of social experts helping you make the right decisions, navigate all the legal stuff, and run and promote the contest.

So, what were the results of Heartland’s Social Sweepstakes? In less than 30 days, for a chance to win “The Ultimate Romantic Getaway”, the Facebook campaign generated:

• 2,290,267 people reached
• 11,678 emails collected/contest entries
• 94,897 promotion views
• 22,621 total engagements on Facebook
• 304% increase in website traffic during the promotion
• $7000 in immediate sales

And the rest, as they say, was history.

© 2015 – 2018, Linzi Breckenridge. All rights reserved.