#DIGITAL | 5 Ways to Grow Your List With Giveaways

by Anik Singal

5 Ways to Grow Your List with Giveaways.

List building can be slow work. I’ve seen more than a few aspiring email marketers get burned out from it.

But you don’t have to suffer with slow list building tactics forever.

There are plenty of ways to grow your email list, even double it, in just

a few days.

Here are 5 ways to do it with the help of giveaways:

Partner with Influencers

Even if you’re offering free stuff in return, a big part of your audience might need outside encouragement to offer up their email address.

Why?

Research by Nielsen found that 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals, even ones they don’t know, over brands.

Recruit the help of influencers to promote your giveaway. Influencers are:

People with a powerful social media or blogging presence
People who have an audience that would be interested in your giveaway
NOT your direct competitors

Brian Harris of Video Fruit used this method to promote his giveaway: a 10-year subscription to LeadPages.

He called in favors with friends and colleagues and reached out to people whose audiences would be interested, asking them to share.

The campaign overall got him 2,239 new email subscribers in 10 days.

Asking influencers to share your giveaway on social media or mention it on their blog will help you reach a larger audience, and give you that third party endorsement you need.

Partner with Other Brands

Partnering with other brands that complement yours can add some extra value to your giveaway. You’ll get exposure to their audience, and benefit from double the promotion efforts.

The Normal Brand, a clothing company, partnered with accessories brand Jack Mason to create a contest this way:

Bundling their products together allowed both brands to create a unique giveaway that they couldn’t have made on their own.

In order to get the most out of the partnership, try to find a business with a bigger audience, more authority, and wider reach than yours.

Make it Viral

I’ve seen too many giveaways wasted on just a few social shares for promotion.

If you want the investment you’re making to be worthwhile, you need to get more reach by spurring the competition.

Entrants want to win, and are willing to take extra steps to up their chances, like sharing the giveaway with others.

Femtrepreneur used this method to create interest in her webinar giveaway.

Everyone had one entry into the giveaway, but if they referred a friend, they got 3 more entries.

The result?

About 1500 new subscribers and $5,000 in revenue from post-giveaway interest.

This strategy creates a viral effect, essentially turning all your entrants into influencers themselves.

Take Advantage of Holidays and Events

Make your giveaway correspond to key holidays and events, and you could end up driving more than just email signups.

Here’s a great example:

JewelScent is a candle, hand wash and aromatherapy company. Their products include a hidden jewel inside, valued between $10 to $7,500.

They hosted a giveaway the week before Valentine’s Day.

The campaign’s timeliness paid off, leading to 3,431 new subscribers and $18,776.49 in revenue in 8 days. For the people who didn’t win the giveaway, the JewelScent products were still a timely suggestion for Valentine’s Day.

Encourage Customers to Promote

One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of giveaway campaigns is that they’re focused too heavily on just getting the email signup.

When you’re giving away something for free, there’s actually a lot more you can get out of your audience, such as spreading brand awareness.

For example, Moosejaw ran a giveaway offering a $1000 shopping spree and other prizes, but they asked more of their entrants than just offering up their email. They had to:

Comment on a Facebook thread announcing the giveaway,
Or re-tweet a message announcing the giveaway on Twitter

In addition to getting 2000 entries to the giveaway, Moosejaw also got 45% more Twitter followers and 31% more Facebook fans while they were at it.

You can sign up for a free trial of Sendlane™ to start growing your mailing list with giveaways. And when you do, I suggest incorporating some social sharing elements to get more reach.

Know any other great ways to grow lists with giveaways? Tell me in the comments!

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