How a Camping Website Captured 2,453 Emails with Heyo
August 15, 2014 | By Emily Goodrich | 3 Comments">3 Comments
Heyo customer Kenny Stevens and his wife Andrea are a camping power couple. They began their camping journey on their 1st anniversary and have been having adventures with their family ever since.
They started their camping website in December 2013 to provide a forum for camping enthusiasts and beginners to go for advice, tips, and tricks. Their goal is to help campers of all ages and skill levels share great stories, content, and products to the camping industry.
Kenny’s Facebook fan page is a similar Mecca for camping enthusiasts, with thousands of fans sharing their camping knowledge.
In July, Kenny decided to run a contest to reward his fellow campers with an Ultimate Fan Giveaway as part of his goal to offer great content to his fans. Because the I Love Camping brand is so new, this plan came with an additional goal of growing the email list for their camping website.
Kenny turned to Heyo to set up his Facebook Contest. Using the Heyo Sweepstakes Template, he created a simple, clean sweepstakes form, and clicked the nerve wracking publish button. The results were amazing. In two weeks, the I Love Camping campaign attracted 5,351 views and 2,453 new email leads for “I Love Camping.”
…For those of you doing the math, Kenny was celebrating a 59% conversion rate!
The success of the Heyo Sweepstakes template was not a coincidence, because the template takes into account 6 simple steps to capture emails.
6 Things Every Facebook Contest Needs to Capture Thousands of Emails
1. Strong Incentive: Give away something that is directly aligned with what your potential customers and followers are interested in. In the “I Love Camping Facebook Contest”, the incentive was an Ultimate Fan prize pack, including a tent, a pair of sleeping bags, a cooler, lantern, and t-shirt.
2. Brand recognition: By dragging and dropping the I Love Camping logo into the Heyo Sweepstakes Template, Kenny made sure the I Love Camping brand was highly visible. This branding is critical to quickly build trust with potential contest entrants.
3. Countdown timer for urgency: At any point in time a Facebook user could get distracted by a new notification or other social distraction. Kenny was smart to include a countdown in his Facebook Contest to drive the user to take immediate action. This was critical to getting a 59% conversion rate.
Pro Tip: We recommend running your Facebook Contest for 7 days or less (7 days or less on the countdown). If fans see “45 days” left, they may leave the contest and never come back.
4. Easy to follow opt in form: Most folks mess this up. Making sure your email form is highly visible and easy to enter is key. Using Heyo’s Sweepstakes Template, you can link up the opt in form with ConstantContact, Mailchimp, AWeber, or other email marketing platform to easily manage Facebook Contest opt ins.
Pro Tip: Put them in a drip campaign to build a deep, long lasting relationship!
5. Clear Facebook Contest entry steps: Kenny made it crystal clear how to enter the I Love Camping Facebook Contest. Using the Heyo Rich Text Widget, he told people that in order to enter they needed to follow steps 1-4 on the left side of the Facebook Contest. Make sure you make entering the contest simple and clear.
6. Smart URL: Heyo automatically created a Smart URL for Kenny so that when I Love Camping fans saw his update about the Facebook Contest in their Facebook mobile app, they could easily click on the link and enter. You’re likely missing out on at least half of your total potential conversions if you don’t use Heyo to make sure your Facebook Contests also work on mobile devices.
Bonus tip: By asking fans to “like” “share” and “tweet” using Heyo’s Sweepstakes Template, you’ll get free traffic to your Facebook Contest from your fans’ social networks. Kenny got 2453 views with little advertising spend.
Conclusion
Leveraging Facebook as a key part of your marketing plan doesn’t have to be a mystery. Following the 6-step system above, you’ll be well positioned to capture thousands of emails just like Kenny using the Heyo Sweepstakes Template to launch your Facebook contest.
Meet Emily Goodrich
Emily Goodrich is a Technical Writer at Heyo. She is a Senior studying Creative and Professional Writing at Virginia Tech.
