Social Media Marketing for Business

What if I told you that you could turn your Facebook Fans into leads at a 50% conversion rate? That’s exactly what Scott Gordon of the Press’d Sandwich company did with a highly engaging, yet simple, Sweepstakes contest. Read on to find out the 5 keys to Scott’s Sweepstakes success.

Press’d is a sandwich company with 9 locations in in Edmonton, Alberta. They focus on providing deliciously crafted sandwiches with quality ingredients. Each location has a bakery in-house so they can bake their own bread from scratch every day. They also slice their meats, cheeses, and vegetables in-house to keep things fresh. This high-quality food treatment combined with friendly service and a welcoming environment is why the Press’d Sandwich company is now looking to branch out to other communities across Alberta.

It’s also why they have a growing audience on social media, in particular, Facebook. Scott was looking for a better way to reach this untapped audience that loved his sandwich company and that’s when he turned to Heyo.

“I found Heyo simply by doing some research on companies that assist in social media efforts. I decided to use them because people only had positive feedback to give on their experiences with Heyo.”

Once he’d decided to go with Heyo, the simplified interface made it easy for him to do the rest.

“Once I had decided what we wanted to do, Heyo made it very simple to organize everything before going live. The templates and dashboard are very user friendly and its integration with Facebook and other social media platforms was seamless.”

With user friendly templates in mind – let’s take a closer look at the template Scott chose and why it was so successful.

Keep it Simple

Scott settled on the Sweepstakes template, the most tried and true template in the Heyo library. Why is it tried and true? Because it keeps things simple. There are 5 elements that all contribute to its success: 1) Relevant imagery, 2) a countdown for urgency, 3) an easy entry form, 4) simple social sharing options, and 5) relevant information.

1. Relevant Imagery

You only need two images to send the right message to your audience. Scott used his logo in the top left of the campaign. This is often the first place people viewing the campaign look and it’s best to use your logo here to build trust. They’ll feel much more comfortable entering when they understand who is in charge.

The larger image should be reserved for the prize. People will want to know what exactly they stand to win. This image should be kept simple and communicate clearly what the prize is. You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of your audience and this image plays a critical role in doing so.

Scott used a well designed image, with a delicious looking sandwich and large headline text announcing the prize.

Note: Choosing the right prize for your audience is critical to success. Scott chose a prize closely aligned with the interests of his target audience which ensured that the leads he gathered were of the highest-quality (just like his ingredients!). Check out this case study on picking the perfect prize for some tips.

2. Countdown for Urgency

Including a countdown on the Sweepstakes creates a sense of urgency. If you don’t give people a deadline, or if you set the deadline to a far off date, people will most likely leave the contest and never return.

It’s best to set a countdown to 1 week to create the greatest sense of urgency – you can even go up to 2 weeks but we don’t recommend going any further than that.

3. Easy Entry Form

An easy to use entry form is key to converting your audience into leads. Scott kept it simple by only asking for an email on this template. The less friction you create for the entrant, the higher their chances of entering. More friction is bad. That means that for every additional field you ask for (Name, Phone Number, Address) – you can expect less entries. Try to keep the entry fields to just an email, or an email and a name, if necessary.

4. Simple Social Sharing

The Sweepstakes template also comes with simple social sharing options. These are not required due to Facebook’s terms, but that’s a good thing – asking for permissions to require these would be a major hurdle to entering the Sweepstakes – remember, less friction!

However, these steps are highly encouraged with the friction-less design of the template. Their inclusion directly after the form entry makes it easy for the entrant to Like your Page and spread your campaign with a few clicks. This creates a viral effect for the campaign, bringing additional entries and growing your audience!

 5. Relevant Information

The text box just below the prize image is a great place to provide any additional information the entrant may need to know. It’s best to elaborate on the prize here and specify how/when the winner will be chosen and announced. You can also list or link to any specific rules you may have for your campaign. Remember that entrants will most likely not want to do a bunch of reading here, so keep it short and sweet!

Scott used the elements above to their full effect and in doing so, collected 250 emails at a 50% conversion rate. To break that down even further, that means 500 people viewed his campaign and half of them were compelled by his brand and his prize to enter! Talk about connecting with your fans!

Your Turn

You, too, can connect with your Fans and convert them into leads at 50%! Build a campaign exactly like Scott’s by registering here and choosing the Sweepstakes under Contest Templates.

Meet Brooks Tiffany

Brooks Tiffany is the Customer Engagement Leader and Technical Writer at Heyo in Blacksburg, VA. He's an Air Force veteran with a B.A. in English from Virginia Tech. He'll start pursuing an M.S. in Human Centered Design and Enginnering at the University of Washington this Fall.