How to Get Customers Excited to Shop Online

By: Sync Marketing | In: Marketing

While there has been a significant shift in consumer shopping habits due to COVID-19 as discussed in the Quantcast Blog, some consumers need more of a push to shop online. Today, I will discuss how to get customers excited to shop online by running a sweepstakes or contest.

Prizing

One of the most cost-effective ways to get customers excited to shop online is to incentivize them with a chance of winning a prize. What better way to do this than running a sweepstakes where your customers can win a gift card to your company or store? Many big box retailers have started  running sweepstakes to entice their customers to come online for a chance to win. While there, the hope is that they will see something they like and that it will translate into a sale.

In order to make the entry process “worth it,” it’s important that your prizing is up to snuff. We would recommend giving away several small gift cards (possibly one or more a day) with an overarching larger grand prize. This makes customers feel as though they have a better chance to win. Also, by giving away gift cards, you are encouraging them to shop online, and in most cases, they will buy more than what the gift card is worth. 

Surprise and Delight

Want to encourage more online sales? Offer a surprise and delight coupon to every person who enters the sweepstakes. Make the discount worth it at 20% or more.

Social Media Contests

Another way to get customers excited to shop online is to run a social media contest. Engaging with your customers is more important than ever.  Perhaps you can ask your customers to upload their favorite “lounge look” to Instagram for a chance to win. Julie Link Co-Founder of Sync Marketing wrote, 

“It’s not business as usual. Businesses are struggling to find ways to connect with their consumers while we are forced to “social distance” by staying home. So how do brands interact with consumers? How do they connect? A great way is engaging consumers with sweepstakes and contests.” 

Another way to encourage engagement is by including a call to action after entry. One way to share the sweepstakes and encourage engagement is to offer entrants extra chances to win by sharing on social media.

As we all try to navigate these times it’s important to continue to assess your goals and think of cost-effective ways to engage with your customers in a positive way. Sweepstakes have always been a great way to do that. If you want to brainstorm ideas on how a sweepstakes might benefit your brand, reach out to Sync today.

Why Should I Run a Sweepstakes?

By: Julie Link | In: Marketing

Why should I run a sweepstakes? Running a sweepstakes (or contest) has a plethora of benefits ranging from increasing brand awareness to engaging new and current consumers. Let’s break down the main benefits to see if this marketing tactic is right for you and your brand or service.

Customer Acquisition: Are you looking to grow your email database? Sweepstakes are one of the simplest ways to do so. The sweepstakes should either have an auto opt-in or ask entrants if they want to opt-in. If you’re collecting entries in California, you will need to be aware of CCPA. You can learn more about that here. At the end of the campaign, Sync Marketing will securely send you the email opt-ins to use for future marketing outreach.

It’s Cost Effective: Sweepstakes are extremely affordable compared to other marketing strategies. Using a platform like TurnkeySweeps by Sync allows you to run a full-service sweepstakes at an affordable price. While brands can put money into ad campaigns on social media, a great way to get free advertising is to ask entrants to share the sweepstakes for extra entries. While sweepstakes are cost-effective and provide great ROI, this article gets into the specifics of the best solutions for running cost-effective sweepstakes.

It Boosts SEO: If you are giving away a big prize and your sweepstakes garners a lot of views, it can significantly increase your SEO. Go a step further and tie your sweepstakes to a hashtag for another significant boost. The Content Factory agrees that sweepstakes are good for SEO:

“When a popular website links to your company, your site’s search engine ranking is improved. Ditto for tweets and Facebook updates about the contest that link back to your website. When more people are finding your website when the search online, more people are buying your products.” – Content Factory

It Creates Positive Interactions with Consumers: This is probably the most important. Especially during these times, it’s important to have positive interaction with your consumers. By giving away either cash, an experience, or a gift card, your consumers will appreciate your generosity and will continue to engage with your brand. Contests are also a great way to have a positive interaction with your consumers. By creating a skill-based promotion to win a prize, they will feel connected and invested in your brand.

If you have any additional questions about if you should run a sweepstakes, contact Sync Marketing at info@syncmarketing.net. We will answer any questions, provide pricing, and examples. We look forward to hearing from you!

Sync Marketing 2019 Decade in Review

By: Sync Marketing | In: Marketing

What a decade it has been. Sync Marketing opened in January or 2011 with the goal to offer clients a specialized service with acute attention to detail. It makes me proud to look back and see that we are still providing this service and haven’t strayed from who we are.

Our Clients

2019 was another great year for Sync Marketing. As we close on this decade we can look back and see enormous growth for Sync both personally and professionally. From the creation of our Turnkey sweeps platform, to receiving new accolades, 2019 was a year for the books!

We enhanced PII security for TurnkeySweeps by Sync by creating a new sweepstakes platform

TurnkeySweeps by Sync got a complete overhaul. The platform is now even more efficient, but most importantly, secure. While Sync never collects social security numbers or credit card information online, we have upgraded our system to meet and /or exceed the latest standards to protect PII.

2020 Top Shop!

Sync Marketing is honored to be listed among the greatest in the business as one of the Top 200 Marketing Agencies for 2020 by Chief Marketer. This is our sixth year receiving this award. In addition, this year we were names Top 10 B2C marketing agency.

Continued our NWBOC certification

Once again Sync Marketing renewed our certification as a business owned and controlled by a woman by the National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC), the first national certifier of Women Business Enterprises. The goal of the certification program is to streamline the certification process and increase the ability of women business owners to compete for contracts at a national level.

We are so excited to see what this new decade has to bring!

Sync Marketing 2019 Decade in Review

Solutions for Running Cost-Effective Sweepstakes

By: Jennifer French | In: Marketing, Sweepstakes, sweepstakes company, Turnkey Sweepstakes, User Generated Content

When running a sweepstakes, there are a lot of factors to consider. As you start to plan, think of your objectives, target audience, timing, and theme. A major factor that can determine the entire scope of the campaign is your budget. Many marketing teams have the fortune of having large supporting budgets to run their campaigns. Some on the other hand have limited budgets. Regardless, all are in search of running a quality campaign which achieves their goals. Below are a few suggestions for running cost-effective sweepstakes.

Social Media

One cost-effective sweepstakes idea would be to offer your method of entry on one of your social channels. This will require you to create a campaign hashtag to track your entries. It will also require that a full comprehensive set of official rules be created. The benefit of running social sweepstakes is that it can increase your social following and allow you to collect fun user-generated content. These types of sweepstakes however are not ideal for a brand who is only looking to increase their email database. This is because there is no personal data collected from the entrants.

Here is an example of a social sweepstakes that is currently running for REI. In this sweepstakes, they are asking entrants to take a photo of themselves enjoying the outdoors. In order to be eligible, entrants must use both #OptOutside and #Collegesweepstakes when uploading their photo on Instagram or Twitter. Here are some additional reasons to run a social sweepstakes.

Prize Provider

You may not have the actual funds to run a sweepstakes, but you may have plenty of compelling merchandise, travel elements, or services to trade with a company who is already planning to run a sweepstakes. Companies are often looking for a partner to provide the prizing. This allows them to save money, offer compelling giveaways, and it helps their sweepstakes. A lot of time, the prizing that you can offer is at cost so it is less of an investment for your company. In exchange for providing the prizing, the company can feature the merchandise you are providing along with your company logo and link to your website. You should also ask them to collect and provide email opt-ins on your behalf. In exchange, you can promote the sweepstakes on your social media channels and marketing pushes to help promote the sweepstakes. If you are looking to utilize the cost-effective sweepstakes idea of becoming a prize provider, contact Sync Marketing today. We can put you in touch with companies who are looking for this type of partnership.

TurnkeySweeps by Sync

If you are looking for a cost-effective sweepstakes option that is full-service, you should consider our TurnkeySweeps by Sync platform. These turnkey sweepstakes are an affordable solution that can launch within one week of receiving approval on creative. With TurnkeySweeps, not only will you receive programming, design, legal and prize fulfillment at a very competitive rate, our price also includes Sync’s personalized customer service and management. They are a low-cost solution that offers exceptional ROI. Here is some additional information about TurnkeySweeps by Sync.

We know that budget can be a concern for everyone who is considering a promotion. With that in mind, reach out to a team member at Sync Marketing who will be happy to discuss your options and provide pricing that will work for you.

Cost-Effective Sweepstakes

Why Run a Back-to-School Sweepstakes?

By: Julie Link | In: Ask Sync, Ask Sync Marketing, Best Practices, Contests, Legal and Prize Fulfillment, Prize Fulfillment, Sweepstakes, sweepstakes company, Turnkey Sweepstakes

We’re now officially into summer, and while most people bask in that fact, marketers are already looking ahead and making plans for the back-to-school season. This is a prime time of year to focus on consumer loyalty and brand awareness. This is especially true for retailers that carry merchandise geared for children and young adults. Back-to-school sweepstakes are an effective marketing tool to accomplish these goals. Today I will go into a few reasons why.

1. Deals, deals, deals.

This is a great opportunity to provide incentives to consumers to shop your brand. Back-to-school sweepstakes allow you to incorporate coupons and surprise-and-delight offers to consumers. This can be accomplished by offering these deals after they have entered for a chance to win. For example, once they receive the “thanks for entering,” message, offer them 20% off their next purchase. Not only is this optimal for reengagement but its also an invaluable way for you to obtain insights on your consumer. If you find that a high percentage of consumers redeem the coupon from the sweepstakes, then you will know that sweepstakes are resonating with consumers.

2. Consumer Loyalty

It’s a two way street. While you’re looking for consumer loyalty, so is your consumer. By running a back-to-school sweepstakes, you will in turn receive loyalty because you’re offering you consumer something in return. Once you receive their email address, the hope is that these consumers will keep coming back. If you are offering them incentives, like sweepstakes or surprise and delight offers, it’s even a better reason to return to your site. So, after you run that back-to-school sweepstakes, make sure to follow up with a pre black Friday sweepstakes and keep the momentum going! Check out some of our work samples for more inspiration on back-to-school sweepstakes.

3. Showcase your back-to-school merchandise

What better way to showcase your new back-to-school product than with a back-to-school sweepstakes. Through banner ad campaigns, social media posts and in-store POP, you will be able to promote your new products all while promoting the back-to-school sweepstakes.

When running a back-to-school sweepstakes, also keep in mind the prizing for your sweepstakes. Optimal prizing could be a daily awarding of your product or service with an overarching grand prize like cash or a trip. People love to start planning trips as soon as the reality that summer is over kicks in and cash offers consumers some hope of financial relief to offset some of the money they spend to send their kids back to school. To learn more about ideas for prizing and some of the best types to give away, click here.

As this year’s back-to-school season quickly approaches, consider running a sweepstakes. You will be sure to be top of your class with consumers.

Back-to-School Sweepstakes

Updated Pinterest Guidelines for Running a Sweepstakes

By: Sync Marketing | In: Best Practices, Contests, Marketing, Pinterest, Sweepstakes

Running a Sweepstakes or Contest on Pinterest is a great way for a company to market themselves. They are able to encourage consumers to “pin” a variety of their products and pages, which in turn increases engagement. This also results in entrants’ friends seeing the pins and therefore leads them to the company’s website. But, before running any promotion on a social media platform, it’s important to know what is allowed by that platform. Recently, Pinterest has made some changes, so today I will discuss the updated Pinterest guidelines for running a sweepstakes or contest.

All of these updated guidelines can be found in Pinterest’s Acceptable Use Policy. Previously, their guidelines stated that companies were not permitted to “run a sweepstakes where each Pin, board, like, or follow represents an entry;” require that people “Pin from a selection;” or “require a minimum number of Pins.” Within the new guidelines, none of those restrictions appear in the Pinterest Acceptable Use Policy.

In addition, the new guidelines state that companies who run campaigns should, “encourage authentic behavior, keep Pinterest spam-free, and be sure to comply with all relevant laws and regulations.” What does this mean for you and your brand? Make sure your campaign hashtag includes, “sweepstakes” or “contest.” This way consumers are aware that their friend is pinning that particular image for a chance to win a prize.

The new guidelines also state that companies who are running campaigns should not require participants to Pin one specific image. Furthermore, they acknowledge that requiring consumers to Pin from a selection is now allowed. This is a benefit to your brand because the more options there are to pin, the more diversity of images of your brand will be on Pinterest.

“Give Pinners the ability to choose Pins based on their tastes and preferences, even if it’s from a selection or a given website.” – Updated Pinterest Guidelines

Lastly, Pinterest is now requiring that there is a limit of one entry per person. This new guideline may affect entry numbers slightly, but know you are getting more genuine content.

What do the updated guidelines mean to companies running a sweepstakes on Pinterest? More brand exposure for you! Now that you can require pinning from a group of images, means your images will appear on entrants’ boards. With this change, you should definitely consider adding a Pinterest sweepstakes to your marketing plans. Not convinced? Here is an article giving five reasons why Pinterest is great for business.

As we’ve said before, social media platforms change their guidelines on a regular basis. Recently Facebook has taken out the language about not allowing shares for extra entries. This implies that this is now permitted. Here is a link to Facebook’s guidelines.

Regardless, it’s important that you make sure you’re up-to-date on all of these changes each time you run a social media campaign. Hiring Sync will help you with knowing you’re running a complaint promotion. Our team is in direct contact with the legal teams at all of the social media platforms. We are even alerted if there are any changes to their guidelines that could affect your upcoming promotion. Consider reaching out to Sync for your next sweepstakes or contest.

Updated Pinterest Guidelines for Running a Sweepstakes or Contest.

Marketing to Millennials with a Sweepstakes

By: Julie Link | In: Advertising, Best Practices, Contests, Facebook, Instagram, Marketing, Sweepstakes, User Generated Content

Marketing to millennials can be a challenge. They are currently the largest living generation and that’s a lot of people to target with many different personalities and habits. So, if you are a brand, how do you get their attention and stand out among all the messaging sent their way? Surprisingly, marketing to millennials with a sweepstakes or contest is an extremely effective method. Below I will break down a few reasons why this method works.

They Love to Share

Millennials love to share with anyone and everyone who will like, retweet or view their messaging. Whether it’s Instagramming a photo of their lunch, snapchatting a reunion with their best friend, or tweeting their opinion on the election, sharing is their impulse reaction. Why not take advantage of that constant need to share by inviting millennials to share their talents by snapchatting a video for their chance to win a prize.

Here’s an excerpt from an article on Marketingland.com on the subject:

“I didn’t expect that my daughter and her friends were looking for coupons but was a little surprised that they were willing to actively engage with the brand and even enter into a traditional sweepstakes (albeit via sharing a picture).” For the full article, click here. 

They Love to Engage

This is the next step that organically occurs after asking millennials to share. They in turn engage with your brand. When running a sweepstakes or contest, think about engaging with millennials rather than focusing on selling your product or service. Have your prospective customer tell a story with your hashtag. The more you engage with them by having them organically spread content about your brand, the better your content and relationship with that millennial will be. American Eagle’s latest #WeAllCan campaign is a great example of this.

They Love to Reach People

The natural step of sharing a photo on Instagram and an opinion on Twitter is to reach the masses. Prizing is an important component when running a sweepstakes geared towards millennials. Make sure that the prizing is something that will resonate with them. If your prize is an experience trip, have your winner share their experience through social media by using the campaign hashtag. Get them excited by telling them the winner’s experience on their trip will be featured on your social media channels. This is a great way to spark the interest of millennials. Knowing their experiences will be shared with thousands to millions of people is reason enough to enter for them.

If you’re interested in marketing to millennials with a sweepstakes, reach out to us today for a quote.

Prize Fulfillment Solutions for Your Next Sweepstakes

By: Jennifer French | In: Best Practices, Legal and Prize Fulfillment, Marketing, Prize Fulfillment

There are a lot of factors that go into running a successful online sweepstakes or contest. One of the most important ones is the prizing you award to the winners. A lot of companies who decide to run a campaign without the help of a sweepstakes agency often find that the prize fulfillment portion of the campaign can be very time consuming and costly if not done correctly. Below I will talk about prize fulfillment solutions for your next sweepstakes or contest.

Before I go further into the prize fulfillment solutions, I think it’s necessary to first touch on the importance of prizing. You may have great online creative and a healthy marketing budget, but if your prizes aren’t compelling, you run the risk of receiving low entries. Here are a few tips on the types of prizes to offer. But what really constitutes a compelling prize to consumers? A lot of times it simply comes down to the odds of winning. The more prizes you award, the better chance the entrant has of taking home a prize. This makes consumers feel like they have a better chance to win, resulting in increased entry numbers.

Okay, great, you’ve listened to your consumers and want to award a large number of prizes. Where do you start? What does that look like? This is where prize fulfillment solutions come into the picture.

Are you awarding physical prizes? If so, there are a few things you will need to take into consideration. You will need to securely warehouse, package and ship the prizes. A benefit of using a sweepstakes agency that handles prize fulfillment is that they will do all of the work for you. And, because they ship prizing on a regular basis, you will be guaranteed to have the lowest possible rates. Plus, packing and shipping hundreds of prizes can be a very time consuming job, which will in turn costs you money. Check out a list of prize fulfillment services offered by Sync Marketing.

Are you awarding digital prizes? This is definitely a more cost-effective way to award a prize. But, do you have the manpower to follow up with hundreds or even thousands of winners to make sure they’ve received their prizing via email? Leave it to the experts who have the proper programs in place to quickly and efficiently deliver your prizing and take this daunting task off of your plate.

Another thing to consider are the steps that need to take place before prize fulfillment; winner selection, notification and verification. This can also be a very time consuming process. And, if your prizes are valued at over $600, you will need to report this to the IRS and provide a 1099 for each winner. Hiring a sweepstakes agency to oversee this portion of your campaign will take the worry out of the project for you and ensure that it is being handled correctly.

Finally, no matter what the type or quantity of prizing you chose to award to your winners, consider contacting Sync Marketing to handle your prize fulfillment solutions. We will put together a cost-effective and time saving plan for your next campaign and do the “heavy lifting” so you don’t have to.

Prize Fulfillment Solutions for your next Sweepstakes

Finding the Perfect Sweepstakes Company

By: Jennifer French | In: Best Practices, Contests, Marketing, Sweepstakes, sweepstakes company

Not all sweepstakes companies are the same. They come in all shapes and sizes and offer different services, platforms and pricing. This article will touch upon finding the perfect sweepstakes company for your next promotion.

Identify your goals

The very first thing you need to do to determine the type of campaign you want to run is to consider your goals. Do you want to capture consumers’ email addresses? If so, then a turnkey sweepstakes on a microsite would meet your goals and give you exceptional ROI. Or, do you want to gather user-generated content? If this is the case, then an Instagram sweepstakes would be the right route to go because you will receive UGC and build your follower base. Determining your goals will help you in finding the perfect sweepstakes company because you need to first know if the company offers these specific services.

Budget

This is a key factor to consider when finding the perfect sweepstakes company because it will determine the type of promotion you are able to run and will narrow down the sweepstakes company based on their capabilities. If you are looking for a quiz or gaming element, you should make sure the sweepstakes company offers these types of platforms and clearly outlines pricing. If you have a smaller budget, but want the benefits of a sweepstakes, then a turnkey sweepstakes might be right for you.

Timing

Do you need your promotion to launch within a tight turnaround? Not all agencies are able to accommodate quick timing and require long lead times. Consider using TurnkeySweeps by Sync for your next promotion. Your sweepstakes can launch within one week of receiving approved creative. For more information, check out our latest blog article on the subject.

Legal Expertise

This is a very important factor when finding the perfect sweepstakes company. You should make sure that the agency’s legal team specializes in promotion law and stays up-to-date on all of the latest actions and changes in the field. Need more convincing? Here is an article on tips for hiring an agency for your legal and prize fulfillment needs.

Customer Service

If you are looking for one-on-one personal service, you should consider working with a boutique agency. At a minimum, you should always work with a sweepstakes agency that thinks of themselves as an extension of your team and holds your services to the highest standards.

Campaign Metrics

Campaign metrics are some of the most important aspects of a sweepstakes as they are the true indicator of whether you’re getting a return on your investment. When finding the perfect sweepstakes company it’s important to look for these services on their website. Some sweepstakes companies, including Sync Marketing, will provide campaign metrics as often as the client prefers. Or if the client wants access at any time, we offer a 24/7 password protected website to view metrics at a moments notice.

We hope these few tips will help you when finding the perfect sweepstakes company for your promotion. Consider contacting Sync for all of your upcoming sweepstakes needs.

Finding the Perfect Sweepstakes Company

Sweepstakes vs. Contests; What Produces the Best ROI?

By: Sync Marketing | In: Best Practices, Contests, Sweepstakes

ROI is definitely a major consideration when running sweepstakes vs. contests… but did you know that the majority of people don’t know the difference between sweepstakes vs. contests and think that the words are interchangeable. In most cases, companies are looking to run a “sweepstakes,” but are referring to it as a “contest.” Here is a good reference to differentiate between the two. Below I will take it a step further and discuss Sweepstakes vs. Contests: What produces the Best ROI?

So for those who are not familiar with the acronym, ROI is Return On Investment, which is a major factor when running any type of marketing campaign. Although I would love to be able to tell you which of the two would give you the best ROI, there are a lot of factors to consider. For arguments sake, let’s treat this as a boxing match, the main event; Sweepstakes vs. Contests.

In this corner, Sweepstakes. Here are the stats:

• Obtain large quantities of entries; Entering a sweepstakes is typically easy breezy, so that’s why the entry count is typically higher than with a contest.
• Inexpensively promote your product or service; You can run sweepstakes with very little investment, but make sure that your budget covers the legal components as well as the design. Here is a good reference to the importance of legal guidance on a sweepstakes. Even more affordable sweepstakes options can be found in the form of a social media sweepstakes or turnkey sweepstakes.
• Collect consumer data; A sweepstakes is a great vehicle to collect basic consumer data, preferences, and email opt-ins, but be careful, the more information you require from an entrant, the greater the chance of losing them before entry.

Here are a few tips to improve your ROI when running an online sweepstakes: https://www.syncmarketing.net/ask-sync-marketing-maximize-roi-running-online-sweepstakes/

In this corner, Contests. Here are the stats:

• Gain quality entries vs. quantity; People who enter contests are asked to take an extra step vs. entering a sweepstakes so you are getting people who are really interested in your product and/or the prize you are offering.
• Gather user-generated content; Your contest can require people to upload a photo which shows them enjoying your product. You can’t ask for better promotion than organic promotion.
• Reach people who are interested in your company; When a contest entrant opt-ins in to receive emails, you typically have a better email open rate than by someone who provided their email address thorough a sweepstakes.
• Create PR Buzz; Contests seem to excite the media a bit more than a basic sweepstakes because it’s a challenge and people love a good challenge.

Here are a few tips on running a successful contest: https://www.syncmarketing.net/ask-sync-marketing-questions-running-successful-contest/#.V2L0MI-cHyQ

In the end, you need to be your own “referee” when deciding on running sweepstakes vs. contests. They really are in different weight classes so to speak. Ultimately your goals (and budget) will determine which one you run and a sweepstakes administrator can help you decide. The results will show if your ROI was strong for you. For any questions, contact Sync Marketing at 323-596-7962.

Sweepstakes vs. Contests