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There’s nothing quite like giving something away for free to get people perked up. It creates an emotional charge that makes people feel they have the rare chance to get something of value. This is why a raffle campaign can work so well to create hype around your business.
Running a giveaway works on people’s emotions by creating hope, anticipation, joy, and excitement. It can even create the Fear of Missing Out or FOMO, a powerful incentive to get people to buy.
Using a giveaways campaign is a great way to grow your business in a very short time. In this article, we’ll teach you how to do a raffle online through a raffle plugin for WordPress. Let’s get started!
1. Start by Setting Goals ⚽
Before you learn how to run a raffle, it’s important for you to set clear goals for the contest. What are you trying to achieve? What area does your business need to grow in?
You need to determine these goals early on because they will play an important role later. The goals you set at the beginning will affect the decisions you make when you actually build your giveaway.
Here are some goals that you can achieve by setting up a raffle online:
- Build brand awareness
- Grow your website traffic
- Increase your email list
- Get more conversions
- Boost social media engagements
- Grow your social media followers
Of course, it’s possible to achieve more than one goal with a giveaway contest. More often than not, you’ll be increasing brand awareness when you carry out any other activity with a giveaway.
That’s the best thing about raffles. They help your business grow in multiple ways in a very short period of time.
[bctt tweet=”🌺 Giveaways can help your business grow in multiple ways in a very short period of time. #WordPress ” username=”thewpbuffs”]
Once you’ve figured out what you want to prioritize as your giveaway goal, you can move on to the next step.
2. Download RafflePress for WordPress 📥
Using the right raffle WordPress plugin can make all the difference to the success of your campaign.
Some people are intimidated by the idea of running a raffle because they think you need to know how to code to make it happen.
But there’s no need! One of the best WordPress plugins out there for creating giveaway contests is RafflePress.
It has a host of features that are user-friendly and makes it possible for anyone to run a raffle without a fuss.
Start by downloading RafflePress and activating it. It’s a good idea to upgrade to a premium version so that you can access its entire suite of features.
RafflePress premium allows you to fine-tune your contest, access branding options, and analytics. You have complete control of your giveaway from beginning to end.
Once you’ve upgraded to a premium version, you can validate your license and you’re good to go.
3. Create Your Giveaway Contest ⚔️
Once you’re all set up, it’s time to finally create the giveaway contest that will be visible to your audience.
Start by hovering over the RafflePress menu. Click on Add New.
You’ll be taken to the template section where you can choose between different types of templates.
These templates have been built to help you achieve very specific goals. You have options like the Prelaunch Campaign, the Grow Your Facebook Page option, and others. In this example, we’re going to work with the Classic Giveaway option.
Start by giving your campaign a name in the Giveaway Name field. Hover over the Classic Giveaway option and click on Use this Template.
You’ll now be under the Setup tab. Here, you’ll have a giveaway contest window with hints to fill in the actual details. The content you add here is what your audience will see.
Let’s check out the details you’ll be filling in here, starting with the Giveaway Prize Details.
Giveaway Prize Details
Click on the little pencil icon to edit the details on the giveaway.
You can click on the text on the giveaway preview to make changes. Give your contest a catchy name that captures your user’s attention right away.
Change the description section to talk about the prize that you’re offering. It’s important to offer something that makes sense to your audience and your business.
Here are some contest prize ideas that businesses typically offer:
- Gift cards
- Gadgets
- Discounts and coupons
- Ebooks
- Branded items
Make sure that you use more than just written content. Add an image to get your audience’s attention. You can do this by clicking on the Select Image button to add an image.
Click on Done Editing whenever you’ve finished adding all the details your audience needs to know.
Start and End Time
Below Giveaway Prize Details you’ll find options to start and end your giveaway.
You not only have the ability to set a start and end date, but you can also edit the exact time your giveaway starts and ends. It’s also possible to change the timezone as well.
You can use this to build excitement by setting a clear cut off for the day and the time the contest ends. And you can use this to your advantage by leveraging FOMO.
Once you’re done with the details of the prize, it’s time to head over to the Actions menu.
Adding Actions
On the same page where you’ve been adding prize details, you’ll find Actions on the left menu.
Actions is where you’ll choose the different ways users will participate in your contest. There are three main categories of Actions: Get More Subscribers, Get More Social Engagement, and Get More Traffic.
If your goal for this contest is to get more subscribers then choose the actions you want users to carry out from under the Get More Subscribers menu. This creates buttons on the giveaway window that users can click on to participate. These buttons will take them to your social media pages or add their email to your list.
Adding actions is one of the most important steps that you can take. This determines how users will behave and is what will get you closer to achieving your goal.
If you want to persuade users to choose one action over the other, you can add a Value to each entry action. So, if you add a value of +5 to the Visit us on Facebook option, users will know that doing so gives them five entries. This increases their chances of becoming the winner.
Once you’ve done setting the actions, you can focus on making it all look good. RafflePress makes your giveaway campaign look good on any WordPress theme.
Giveaway Design
Click on Design to begin designing your giveaway contest to look great.
You have control over the following design options:
- Choosing between two layouts with the image above or below the header and text
- Fonts
- Button color
- Page Background options if you’re creating a standalone page
- Custom CSS
You can choose specific fonts and colors so that the campaign matches your brand design.
Make sure you click Save when you’re happy with how it looks.
One of the last tweaks you have to make comes under the Settings option. This is where you configure different contest settings:
One of the final details you need to add to your giveaway campaign is the Giveaway Rules. You do this by clicking on Giveaway Rules which makes it easy for you to set up comprehensive rules and details for your campaign.
This brings up a form with details like Sponsor Name, Sponsor Email, Sponsor Country and more. Fill in these details and click the Generate Rules button.
This automatically creates informative content about the rules of the giveaway. You can use this to place restrictions such as the age and location of the participants.
You’ve just completed all the details you need. You’re ready to publish! Click on the Publish tab right at the top next to Setup. You have three options to publish your giveaway contest.
- RafflePress WordPress Block: Embed the giveaway in a post or page. This works with the latest block editor in WordPress.
- WordPress Shortcode: Embed the giveaway contest in the sidebar of your page.
- Giveaway Landing Page: Get a standalone landing page just for your giveaway campaign on your website.
Choose the option that makes the best sense for you. Each option comes with instructions underneath it on how to use it on your WordPress site. Click Save when you’re done.
4. Promote Your Giveaway Contest 📢
Your campaign is live, but you’re not done yet. You’ve made a fantastic giveaway contest that looks great and is exciting. But you need to get the word out as well.
You won’t have participants in your contest unless you promote your giveaway. Here are some ideas on how to get people to enter your giveaway.
- Send an email blast: A great place to start is with the people who are already on your email list. Let them know about the giveaway and ask them to share it with other people. A giveaway contest is also great content because it makes your subscribers feel like they are rewarded for subscribing to you.
- Use social media: Put social media and a contest together and you have a great recipe for going viral. Make sure that you’ve shared your contest on all your social media platforms. Encourage your audience to comment on your post, use relevant hashtags and respond to comments.
- Work with other blogs: Partnering or collaborating with other blogs can impact your reach significantly. Reach out to blogs that are based on complementary products or topics. You’ll be giving them good content for them to share with their audience. You’ll also be reaching an audience that’s likely to be interested in your business.
These are some of the different ways you can create a buzz around your giveaway. Make sure to start your promotional activities before and during the actual giveaway dates.
[bctt tweet=”🤞 Make sure to start your promotional activities before and during the actual giveaway dates. #WordPress” username=”thewpbuffs”]
If posting on multiple social media outlets seems like too much work, don’t worry! You can use social media management tools to manage your posts with ease. These tools allow you to post on multiple social media channels simultaneously, manage your posts, and schedule new ones!
5. Choose a Winner 🏆
Your raffle may be over, but there’s still a lot of steam left. You now have to choose a winner and let them know they’ve won. To choose a giveaway winner, here’s what you do.
Hover over the RafflePress on the main WordPress dashboard and click on Giveaways.
Find your giveaway campaign. It should show that it’s ended and needs winners. Click on Needs Winners. You can let RafflePress choose a random winner by clicking on Choose Winner Now.
You can now reach out to the winner and let them know that they’ve won! This is a good opportunity to continue your marketing efforts.
Ask the winner to share their win on social media with a picture and to tag your business. This creates social proof and creates engagement on social media.
Email all the participants and thank them for being part of the contest. This is where you can point the participants to content on your website. You also ask them to stay tuned for more exciting giveaways. By this time you should have increased your subscribers or followers significantly, so it’s time to introduce your new audience to the rest of your content.
Getting people’s attention online is hard, so make the most of your raffle and capitalize on that attention to create future customers.
Wrapping Up 🎀
Raffles make it possible to get multiple benefits at the same time. They are a cost-effective way to get traffic, boost conversions, and increase social media engagements.
One of the best things about using a giveaway contest is that it helps you reach people you wouldn’t have reached otherwise. It makes your business more likable and creates a positive impression, which means your audience is far more likely to remember you.
All in all, raffles are an extremely powerful tool to get the word out about your business and build a following in a short span of time. Now that you’ve learnt how to do a raffle online, be sure to take advantage of them!
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