Victory Vibes: Winning Strategies for Sweepstakes

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Welcome to today's episode.

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Today we have an exciting topic we're talking about how to be a winner in sweepstakes and in marketing, and we have a great guest who's going to help us talk through this Carolyn, welcome to the show.

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Thanks for having me.

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This is my favorite topic.

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All right.

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Well, we're ready to all be winners.

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Yeah, you do.

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That's the title of my first book.

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You can't win if you don't enter.

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You got to play to win, as the folks at the lottery say, or you have to enter to win, as the folks in sweepstakes say.

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So let's start off.

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Give us a little bit of background about who you are and what you do.

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So I actually graduated with a marketing degree, a business admin marketing major, and then I worked at every department like every job in a marketing department you can imagine.

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And in 2001, I got caught in the big dot-com bubble as all my experience had been in the IT industry, because it had been booming, so the jobs were plentiful.

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And then I couldn't find anything.

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And during this period of unemployment I read an article in Reader's Digest about a couple that entered sweepstakes as a hobby.

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I thought, oh, what a good idea.

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I'll have to work, I'll just win stuff.

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It does not work that way, it just enhances your lifestyle.

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But yeah, you can't earn your living winning because you can't control luck.

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But it is fun and it's both good for the entrants and the marketers, because sweepstakes is just one tool in a marketer's tool belt and personally I think the funnest.

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The most fun there was that movie.

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I think it was in the late 80s, early 90s Weird Science where there was that one guy who lived in the basement and he used one of the first computers to figure out how to win 30% of all the prizes and it showed him driving away to a motorhome full of TVs.

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Well, it has changed a lot since then.

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There's not as many mail-ins left and it's all computerized, so you can't do that anymore.

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That's a super bummer.

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Yeah, one per person per day.

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That's all you can do.

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They've gotten smart, but you have advised a lot of people on how they can win sweepstakes.

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Talk a little bit about that and some examples of that.

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That's interesting.

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Well, what's really interesting is the advice that I give entrants is almost the same advice I give to marketers, because they're mirrored right.

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So my number one tip to sweepstakers is to always read the rules, because if you don't, how do you know when it ends?

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If you're even eligible to enter, how frequently you can enter?

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If there's any special clauses, like is it a video contest or do you have to purchase a product and send in the receipt, like all the different things you have to know what you're doing, because if you make a mistake and break one of those rules, you're disqualified and you've wasted your time and the sponsors.

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On the marketing side, the marketers need to have lockdown rules.

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If you're a small business, don't get Uncle Joe, who's in that real estate lawyer, to write up the rules.

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There's actually promotional law out there.

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So hire someone to properly write your rules and make sure that they're airtight, because if you saw the documentary McMillions, where there was the scandal back in the day with the contest pieces, what did the prosecutor use in court?

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The official rules.

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So they're actually a legal and binding contract between the sponsor and the entrant, so they have to be right.

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And do.

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A lot of people do sweepstakes these days.

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Is it still a really common thing?

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It's actually more.

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The last step I had was 55 million Americans liked in our speech dates.

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Now I think that when they did the study, it was who did it once.

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Yeah, I've entered a giveaway here and there the people who do it as a hobby.

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It did increase since the pandemic because people had nothing to do and some of them were employed and so why not win stuff?

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But there was a huge decline for a while until things got back, like I remember going to contest pages and they were blank.

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It was awful.

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So, aside from reading the rules, what else can people do to be a winner?

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Okay.

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So I always suggest setting up an email address just for entering sweepstakes.

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That keeps everything separate.

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It's a much easier way to get organized.

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Then there's sweepstakes sites, because the number one question I get is where do I find all these giveaways that these wonderful companies are hosting?

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And there are sweepstakes sites.

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There are sweepstakes aggregates, because they aggregate all the sweepstakes into one spot, and there's a lot of them.

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I have a whole list on my website.

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I created contestqueencom as a hub of all things contesting, because when I started Phil an eon ago I'm almost at my 25th anniversary of sweepstaking In 2001,.

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When I started because I had a marketing background and I understood it, I organized myself because there was no place.

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And when I went to write my first book, I created the companion website and then just made it easy for people because they're like oh, here's a list of all the places I could go to, that list these giveaways.

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I made it easy.

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I don't have to hunt all over the internet like I did back in the day.

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There's a list and I tell people go and find the one you like.

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Some are in blog format, some are lists, some are forums, some are newsletters.

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There's all different types.

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So I say, go and find one you like, because when you're having fun, that's when you win.

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That makes it so much easier for people.

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So I'm going to link to your website so people can go check that out.

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But tell me, what are the hallmarks of a really good sweepstakes to enter?

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Is there specific things that you tell people to look for?

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Well, I always tell people start locally and then go larger, because your odds of winning locally are bigger.

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So this is a good opportunity for small businesses to host local giveaways.

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There's no reason, you know, your local restaurant can't have an Instagram giveaway and give away a gift certificate for people in the area to come in and eat in the restaurant Right, right, and that doesn't cost very much.

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And then you're only going to attract the people in the area.

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But you have to have even small rules on those Instagrams.

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So, for example, if you're giving something away, it could end up on one of these sites and then everyone nationally sees it.

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So there's lots of little things companies can do.

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And then the other thing people love when there's a giveaway is lots of prizes.

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So there's giveaways where they have a big prize and they're giving away, you know, lots of swag, for example, lots of opportunity to win different prizes weekly prizes, monthly prizes, different things like that grand prizes.

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One of my best instant wins was in when they had pin codes on caps.

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There's more and more companies are receipt based now and I instantly won a hot tub.

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That was very cool, or very hot that was hot that was hot, yeah, and we still use it.

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It's in the backyard, that was hot yeah, and we still use it.

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It's in the backyard.

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That's great Talk about marketers and businesses running sweepstakes of their own.

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What are some of the favorite sweepstakes in recent years that you've seen or that you've helped businesses and marketers plan?

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So there's different.

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You're going to see different levels.

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You get everything from HDTV giving away a home that of course, they're not doing it themselves, they've got an agency that runs it.

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There's millions of dollars spent on the promotion, on advertising, on execution.

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So they're giving away a $2 million home, but I bet you they spent anywhere between you know, $15 to $20 million on the whole promotion because they're paying the agency, they're paying advertising, they're paying to actually build the house, all the different aspects of it.

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Now, most businesses don't have that budget.

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Then you get the medium-sized ones that might run it in-house and they're smaller.

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So, for example, I've been working this year with a family-owned business.

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They're running fairly good giveaways.

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They gave away a Tesla.

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They're giving away a trip to the Winter Games.

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They gave away $10,000.

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Each quarter they have a different type of giveaway.

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So I'd put them in the medium category.

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They have, you know, the legals down, but then I've helped them viral market it and they're using a sweepstakes widget which a lot of companies like to use.

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Then there's a bunch of them there's WooBox, there's Glean, there's Sweep widget.

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I can't even think of all the different ones.

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But you can use those and embed it on your own website.

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You can pay for the service and that way it accepts the entries.

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It helps you do the drawing and you just have to make sure that you put the proper landing page in the rules, because a lot of those widgets have generic rules built into the program and then you can use those, have your lawyer look at them and then make them more robust.

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So it does save some money for these medium-sized businesses that are running giveaways, and then for small businesses like me, you can just host your own giveaways.

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There is a convention this year it was in Las Vegas, next year it's in Little Rock, arkansas and I had so much swag from these events I thought you know what I'm going to give it away.

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So I made a pile of swag and I took pictures of it and I put it on Instagram and I held a giveaway and then I just mailed it off to the winner.

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So here I'm getting engagement.

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First of all, I'm cleaning my office.

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It's great, stuff's gone and I'm getting social engagement, because companies are all like what are we going to post?

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So now I had content, I got engagement and I got rid of stuff.

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It was fabulous, and then the people that got the packages were happy.

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And companies actually do give out all these prizes Like they have to.

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They'll get in trouble if they don't.

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They do Right.

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They do, and there's always clauses in the rules they can change.

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So, for example, one time I won a monster guitar and the model that was in the rules wasn't available, so they sent me a guitar with a really nice note saying you know.

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Congratulations, however, but we think you're going to enjoy this one just as much.

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And because they had a price difference, they actually sent me a check for $200.

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So I got the price difference in the prize because they couldn't get it, and I was still very happy.

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It was for my boyfriend.

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He had a drum kit in the back and always wanted a guitar, so I was entering all those guitar giveaways.

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So how do you know if you've really won?

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You get a notification.

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That depends on where you entered, obviously.

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So if you're entering on Instagram, you're going to get a notification on Instagram.

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Or you're going to get a notification on Instagram or you're going to get a DM on Instagram or both.

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You know you have to always check those every day.

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I've had people that don't check them and have missed out on prizes.

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I've even seen posts from some sweepstakes friends.

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One said oh my gosh, this accidentally went into spam.

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I had two hours left to claim the prize because they usually give you, like you know, so many business days.

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And she said I had two hours left to claim the prize and she just managed to squeak in.

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So that's important to check your emails, check your socials, wherever you're doing that Entering is where you need to always be checking.

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And back in the day I remember traveling and logging into, like the hotel computer to check, because I didn't want to miss out on anything and we used to still get letters in the mail.

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So I had, you know, the neighbors checking our pursels and our letters to make sure I don't miss anything.

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But now it's all on your phone, so there's no excuse to missing a winning notification anymore.

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So from a business and marketer's perspective, does running sweepstakes really help grow a business, drive a business forward?

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Is it worth?

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doing.

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A lot of companies, I think, work backwards and you need to figure out why you're hosting the giveaway and then that's going to determine what you do.

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So, for example, if you're launching a product and you'll see this frequently you're actually oh, movies, when they come out, the big movies, there's always giveaways tied to the movie Because they're trying to attract attention to it so you could win a trip to the red carpet premiere.

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Some of these have changed since the pandemic now because, um, but those ones are coming back.

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I haven't meet and greets really went down.

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There used to be a lot of meet and greets.

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Now those have come down, but there's still a lot of other prizes.

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If it's, you know, depending on the movie, then there's usually swag.

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There's a lot of swag involved and it's to attract attention.

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A new, if there's a new something you know there's a new bread line, for example.

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They've come out with a new type of bread.

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They'll probably have a giveaway.

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So they'll be giving away a lot of coupons because they want people to try it and they'll have, you know, maybe some swag.

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So you'll get some bread boxes and you know, coupons, and maybe an apron and a bread knife and a cutting board.

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You know they'll do stuff that tends to tie in.

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I mean, I got a really nice set from Butterball last year.

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I won coupons for turkey.

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What's better than turkey, Free turkey, just saying Big cutting board for, obviously, for when you have a turkey A thermometer.

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And there was one other thing in there, oh, a basting brush Really nice, all branded, of course, beautiful set, and those are the things I use and love.

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And then I have a white paper.

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It's a little bit old, it's harder to get these kind of statistics now, but it was from ePrize that doesn't exist anymore.

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I think it got bought out three times since then.

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It was showing that sweepstakers make better consumers because.

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So, for example, a company launches a product, a lot of sweepers will go and try to win the prize or get the sample or get the coupon.

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I try it and they're like, oh, we'd love this, and they will continue to buy the product.

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Or if it's receipt based.

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You know I was all summer for the ginger ale.

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They went from caps to code, they went from codes to receipts.

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You better believe.

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Once a week I was in the convenience store and I was buying like five at a time and I'd be like I need all the receipts, so I'd be paying for all these things separately.

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I like seven receipts.

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I learned I took cash and I just kept doing that, so I would.

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Yeah, we had a lot of ginger ale over the summer and now I'm doing it with root beer.

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Amazing, amazing.

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So yeah, sales do occur.

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Yeah, so it can be a driver, you still have to have a good plot.

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I mean, I've seen it in Super Bowl ads, so with a QR code, things like this.

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So I assume it's working when marketers are doing it to drive awareness and to and to get people to try their product.

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Once you try it, the hope is they'll continue doing it, just like you are with ginger ale and now root deer, so that's so, that's awesome.

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So I'm just curious.

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Of the tools you mentioned so Rhino's Feepstakes is there a favorite that you recommend people check out?

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Well, I use Rafflecopter mainly because it's the one I started with and it's very inexpensive.

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But companies can use the other ones that are really popular, that are inexpensive, or gleam, depending on your budget.

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Woo box are are tend to be the favorites.

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All right, and then you can run.

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When you use those services, you can run as many giveaways as you want, so you can even do them weekly, and then you can do them on different platforms.

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You can embed some on your website.

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You can do hash tag giveaway or comment giveaways on Instagram.

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Then you can do them on different platforms.

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You can embed some on your website.

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You can do hashtag giveaway or comment giveaways on instagram.

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You can do.

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It's very cool that they have all these opportunities with them oh, you do have to pay attention and have a good set of rules if you're going to run a sweepstakes too.

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Right, so you don't get in trouble.

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The advice you're saying at the very beginning of the episode, right, right?

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Yeah, like I said, it's always good, but it's usually if you're running like an ongoing type of giveaway, you can usually do the rules once and then just keep changing the date.

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So if you're, every week for a year you're going to give away, you know, a coupon to your store, then you only need to do the rules once and just keep changing the dates, because you're doing the exact same thing over and over and over again, right?

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but if you're doing something different every time, then you want to just have somebody review what you're doing makes sense.

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Any final thoughts on sweepstakes for marketers or people who want to win them?

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that I didn't ask about 24 days of giveaways, 31 days of giveaways, holiday sweepstakes every, and I've seen them getting earlier and earlier.

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They used to start December 1st, Then it was Thanksgiving, Now it's like sometimes November 1st.

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I'm like hold on people.

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But you know, make sure that you make it part of your plan and you don't just do it because everybody else is doing it.

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Do it because everybody else is doing it, it's a tool in your tool belt.

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It's not like an overall thing just always attracting people in your business.

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What are you doing to do that?

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And a sweepstakes could be one thing on that list, not the list itself.

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It's a great tool on the tool belt, a very fun tool in the tool belt, in fact, fun tool and a tool that, in fact, thank you very much for being with us today, appreciate it.

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I'm going to link to your website and the tools you mentioned here and the show notes so people can get in touch and and check these out.

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Really appreciate you sharing these ideas and strategies with us today.

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Thanks, thanks for being on the show.