While you can get subscribers by offering almost any gift or regular prize draw it is far more powerful to offer a highly targeted gift.
You want to give away a gift that indicates anyone who takes it is almost certainly interested in a product or service you’re selling.
The gift of a report: “3 Price Killing Mistakes Most Home Owners Make When They Sell Their Home” is a great example.
Only people who are thinking of selling a home or know someone who’s thinking of selling a home would likely want that report. The list you create by giving that report away will be highly targeted and filled with prospects who have a home and want to sell it.
You can also keep your lists laser targeted by creating a different list for every different type of prize you give away.
Here’s an example…
A bicycle shop gives away a top of the line racing bike as a prize. To enter, visitors to the shop (or its website) put their names, email addresses, physical addresses and phone numbers on a coupon in your store or in a form online.
The shop now has a list of people who are undoubtedly interested in that bicycle and probably racing bikes similar to it and high-end racing gear as well.
Before the prize drawing, the shop tells each contestant about all the amazing features of the bicycle… what makes it unique… who rides it… why leading racers prefer it.
After the drawing, a sequence of emails is sent to everyone who didn’t win offering:
- Congratulations to the winner (evidence that the contest was legit)
- A special, discounted price on that very same model if purchased by a certain date.
- Favorable payment terms (approval required) to buy their bike now.
- Notification that only 2 bikes are left so time is running short if they want to claim one.
- An offer of a lower priced bike that has many of the same features.
- A super budget bike that has a few of the same features. If the shop wanted some spectacular results they’d have the staff phone the prospects once or twice to make these offers.
By creating a unique list for the prize offer you can target in much more precisely on the offers that specific list is likely to respond to.
