The benefits of growing an email subscriber list are too important to ignore. Maybe that’s the reason you’ve planned to run a contest or giveaway.
On top of increasing your subscribers, such campaigns could also potentially generate new customers. 🎉
But let’s face it:
Getting people to enter your contest is challenging enough. Many are reluctant to hand over their contact information to a stranger. That makes sense, right?
Now hang on. Stay on this article because we will be revealing ten tried and true tips that we’ve used (and our successful UpViral users swear by) to collect more email signups.
💎Free Guide: 6 Proven Ways to Double Your Email List Easily>>
How to Drive Email Sign Ups to Your Contest Landing Page
Follow the strategies below.👇
1. Choose the right incentive.
The reason people enter to subscribe is to get something in return. Therefore, your incentive has to appeal to your ideal audience.
For example, if you’re in the pet industry, a good item to offer as a prize would be a pet gift set or a personalized pet portrait. Your audience who happen to be pet parents will be thrilled to receive these freebies.
When it comes to picking the right incentive, it’s crucial to know who your potential customers are. What are they interested in or their hobbies?
Give away your own product or service if you already have one. This strategy helps you get more exposure to your brand.
Related: How to Choose a Contest Prize That Gets Qualified Leads
2. Start promoting your contest to your existing audience.
For your contest to reach new potential subscribers, make sure you promote it to your current audience. Then your current audience will spread the word with their friends.
- Does your website already have traffic? Add a banner on top of your home page or sidebar that’s hard to miss. Groove Watersports placed various calls-to-action (CTAs) all over their website — on the header, product features, and team page.
- Do you have a small email list? Leverage that. 💡Here’s a cool idea: In your email signature, link to your contest. You can track how well this technique works by using a custom URL. Bitly is a good option. But for UpViral users, take advantage of our Custom Tracking Links feature in the dashboard.
- Already running an online community? Maybe you have a private Facebook group or an engaged following on Instagram. Post consistently about your contest while adding urgency to your posts. Feature it in your stories as well.
3. Keep your email signup form short.
When it comes to email sign up form best practices, form length matters. The shorter, the better. Keep the number of email fields to one or two (maximum).
This contest signup form below from Rachel Ollen’s UpViral campaign, for example, requires no other information except for a person’s name and email address.
Please keep in mind that form length is by no means the only thing you should consider in creating a lead capture page. But to get more email signups, you’ll want to remove the possibility of your audience not doing it by limiting the number of form fields.
4. Showcase social proof.
Let’s face it: Getting strangers to trust you is no easy task. But here’s what you should know — people gravitate towards people and things that are popular. That’s how social proof works.
Near your email subscription form, add social proof elements such as:
- Giving away your product as the prize? Provide real testimonials from your customers to show how the product benefited them.
- How many followers do you have? Customers you’ve served? Individuals whose lives you’ve helped transform? Companies that used your product or service? Show off those impressive numbers.
- Case Studies. This is an excellent form of social proof for those in the B2B industry. A case study effectively convinces people to take action in trying your service.
- Previous Contest Winners. Not your first time hosting a contest? Let your audience know that you’ve done it before by adding a call-to-action, “View previous winner list” on the signup page. Max Rhymes used this strategy in their UpViral giveaway where they got over 7,800 leads:
5. Call out your audience in the pre-headline.
A pre-headline is a short sentence at the top of the headline. It gives a quick “heads up” or “warning” to the audience on what they’re about to read. The best pre-headline speaks directly to its target audience, drawing them further into the landing page copy.
Check out these examples:
- Attention Online Entrepreneurs!
- Giveaway For Stay-At-Home Moms
- Calling Out To All Dog Lovers!
Here’s how Gabe Schillinger did it in his contest to boost his email signups:
It’s one of Gabe’s strategies that helped him acquire an impressive 41,985 leads.
6. Show them what they’re getting.
Let your audience get a feel of the actual prize by featuring a photo of it. This is called the “hero shot.” Don’t make them guess what the prize looks like!
In fact, a video would be a more compelling way to reveal the prize. Show the product at different angles. Unbox it. Talk about it. Demonstrate how it’s used. Add a nice background music and perhaps short captions.
But sometimes, a hero shot can be a metaphor instead of an actual product. For example, if you want to paint a scenario of a great result that the winner can achieve.
7. Offer an instant reward.
Instead of letting people wait until the winner announcement day, why not also lure them with “instant-win” mini prizes? This keeps them hyped up until the big day.
Not to mention, it gives new visitors a reason to enter your contest because they know they can get something right away. Think immediate gratification.
Let them unlock a small prize (like a PDF download or video) for simply entering their email address or referring three friends into your campaign.
The key is to make it an easy win for them.
8. Keep your copy simple, straightforward, and engaging.
Picture this:
You land on a contest page with a headline that reads, “We’re Hosting A Giveaway! Get A Chance To Win Something Awesome.”
Then you land on another page with a headline that says, “Enter To Win A Tiny House Worth $8,000!”
Which one enticed you more? The second headline, right? This goes to show how important copy is to entice more people to sign up for your contest.
Write copy that your audience can easily read and understand. Tell them what they’re joining (a contest) and what’s in it for them (the prize you’re giving away).
Most people will decide whether to enter your campaign or not after reading just a few lines… so you’ll want to get it right from the start.
Related: How Writing Good Copy Can Boost Your Giveaway
9. Partner up with an influencer.
Don’t let the term “influencer partnership” throw you off. Unless you already feel confident with your email signups, you may need someone to recommend your company to their huge audience.
Research potential influencers to work with and see if you’re a good fit. Is the influencer’s audience aligned with your target audience? Are they actively engaged with their following?
When reaching out to the influencer, let them know what you hope to achieve through your partnership. Offer an incentive that will make them happy to promote your contest.
You can also mention in your email about how you can use UpViral’s custom actions feature to help meet some of their influencer goals.
10. Keep the page loading quickly.
A slow-loading website impacts your conversions. 40% of consumers will abandon a page that takes three seconds or more to load.
We want our visitors to have a positive experience on our contest landing page, regardless of the device they’re using — desktop or mobile. And that is why we should optimize for speed.
Take note that you have the option to build a contest landing page that’s hosted on UpViral. This ensures that your campaign pages load properly.
💎Free Guide: 6 Proven Ways to Double Your Email List Easily>>
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of ways to drive email signups for your contest. We’ve provided you with 10 tactics and we hope that you can implement at least one.
Experimenting with various prizes, copy, and other landing page elements will help you figure out what works best. We would love to know how your campaign goes!
Haven’t tried using UpViral yet? Explore the benefits of UpViral for growing your email list and business!
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