How to Use Social Media Contests to Build Your Email List
Social media contests are a great way to engage your audience and have fun by giving something away for free (usually). But, what’s in it for your business? Social media give-aways are not only a great way to build brand awareness, and earn social followers and engagements – but if the contest is structured optimally, they can generate a ton of referrals that can exponentially grow your email list – fast.
Using social contests to build your email list is a great strategy for adding new, relevant, engaged contacts to your subscribers. However, you’ll need to ensure that your contest is set up in a way that makes it easy and secure to collect emails. Then, in order for the contest to have effectively served its purpose, you’re going to want to make sure that you have a plan for nurturing all these new email subscribers.
Creating Social Contests
Most social contests are created with the end goal of increasing social following and engagement. However, if your goal is to use a social contest to build your email list, it’s important to ensure that the contest is set up in a way that makes this easy for both you and your entrants.
Not only that, but you’ll also want to make sure that what you’re giving away is worth it for your target audience to hand over their email address. Think about what you would subscribe to – are you likely to agree to weekly emails in exchange for a chance to win a mediocre prize? Probably not. So, you’re going to want to pick a prize that your target audience really wants.
If you’re looking for a little inspiration to get started, here are some social giveaway ideas for health and wellness brands:
- One month membership to your gym or studio
- A piece of health-technology that works with your services (like an Apple watch or FitBit)
- Set of fitness or wellness apparel or gear
- One month of free access to your software
This should go without saying, but when creating a social contest it’s very important to make sure that you’re following the laws of your state and the rules of the social platform on which you choose to host the contest. For example, Instagram requires certain disclaimers such as, “This contest is in no way affiliated with Instagram.” A quick Google search should tell you what you need to know.
How Social Contests Can Help Build Your Email List
In order to ensure that you’re using your social contest to build your email marketing list, you’ll need to make sure that entering an email is a necessary step for entering the contest. This means that you’ll likely want to host your contest on a hosting platform that makes email collection easy and secure.
In this case, you’ll want to consider which social platforms are best used to promote this contest – you’re going to want to pick one (or a few) that make link sharing easy and effective (in other words, Instagram may not be the best place to host this contest unless you have the swipe up feature in Stories). I’d recommend Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, depending on where you have an established profile and where your target audience is most likely hanging out.
How to Nurture New Email Subscribers
Now that you’ve hosted your contest and collected a list of new email marketing subscribers, how are you going to communicate with them in a way that is both aligned to their phase of the buyer journey and that makes them want to stay subscribed to you?
I recommend creating a customized welcome series that only goes out to these new contest-entry subscribers. Meaning, everyone who gave you their email through the contest will get a set of emails packed with value and resources that they would benefit from in order to start building authority and showing off your expertise.
If you’re looking for a little extra guidance in creating a next-level social contest that can actually grow your email list, get to know me here and reach out to schedule a free 15 minute consultation with me at this link.