Receipt validation is a key component to help boost the sales of a product when offered in a Sweepstakes.

In a Sweepstakes, customer receipt validation asks sweepstakes participants to upload a picture of their purchase receipt as a method of entry for a chance to win a prize. By offering a prize, you are incentivizing customers to make a purchase in order to participate for a chance to win. Additionally, sweepstakes help the brand obtain useful information like emails, zip codes, or mobile numbers that can be used for remarketing and brand engagement.

Here, we will cover important aspects of how to run sweepstakes with receipt validation, and their marketing, and sales value.

What is a Purchase-to-Enter Sweepstakes?

A purchase-to-enter sweepstake is a promotion in which one of the entry methods encourages customers to validate a purchase receipt to qualify for the sweepstakes. However, have in mind that all purchase-to-enter sweepstakes must abide by the No Purchase Necessary Law in order to keep the promotion legal. We highly recommend that you hire sweepstakes or a giveaway company. They will provide you with the legal tools you need to run legally compliant sweepstakes.

What is Receipt Validation?

Receipt validation is an important component of a purchase-to-enter because it produces sales that can be tied directly to the promotion. By using receipt validation, every participant, aside from the free entries, bought your product in order to enter and used the purchase receipt to show proof of purchase. The most efficient receipt validation method is the Physical Receipt Validation where customers take a photo or scan their receipt and submit it digitally by uploading the receipt as part of completing the Entry Form.

Physical Receipt Validation is usually done through apps that use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to validate the sweepstakes participant’s receipts based on the official rules established for the sweepstakes or when a winner is drawn, the receipt is verified. Another method for physical receipt validation is sending the images through text (SMS) to a designated number.

The physical receipt validation process has the following steps:

1. Participants visit the sweepstakes website.
2. Participants enter name, email, mobile, address and are asked to upload a picture of the receipt. 
3. Customers take a picture of their purchase receipt and then submit the image in the designated entry form field.
4. The participant submits the Entry form.
5. The participant is thanked for the entry and this message serves as the entry confirmation.

Why is Receipt Validation Important in Sweepstakes?

A receipt accompanied by first-party data obtained through a form or profile (i.e.: name, phone, address, etc.) can provide the organization hosting the sweepstakes with important information that can help foster customer loyalty and increase future purchases.

How to Use the Data Obtained in the Sweepstakes Contest?

Before implementing any strategy, your organization needs to determine what data they want to collect and how they will use it. 

Example: If you decide to collect your customer’s birthdays, you can use that to send birthday discounts or coupon codes.

Another important aspect to look out for when deciding what data to use is what products customers are mostly using. This could bring you insight on future product ideas, future benefits, or even give you an idea of what product communications to send off during marketing efforts.

Check out: What to Include on a Sweepstakes Survey

How to Enrich Data?

When thinking of first-party data, a good point to consider is how to enrich and add more specificity to the data. The more data you have, the more you can customize your communications with your customers. Examples of enriched data are communication preferences, gender, birthday, and other behavioral data.

There are a variety of methods that can be used to enhance or enrich data. The most commonly used is adding checkboxes during sign-up. These can be used to get customers to sign up for marketing communications. When implementing data enrichment methods such as opt-in checkboxes, make sure you always offer a benefit in exchange for the information that the customer is providing.

The data obtained from receipt validations is extremely valuable. When implemented correctly, it can help create customer loyalty experiences that increase purchases and build brand loyalty.

How to Use Loyalty Experiences such as Sweepstakes to Obtain Valuable Data?

Customers are motivated to be loyal to a brand or an organization when they are offered incentives. The chance to win cool stuff offers the opportunity to facilitate this. The data obtained from these incentives (e.g.: sweepstakes, giveaways, loyalty programs, etc.) creates engagement. This allows brands and organizations to identify consumer behavior such as what motivates repeated visits and purchases.

The Bottom Line: Receipt Validation is a Valuable Tool For Obtaining Data When Offering Purchase-to-Enter Sweepstakes

When a brand offers marketing programs such as Sweepstakes with the objective of increasing sales, Purchase-to-enter Sweepstakes with receipt validation offers an effective tool. Not only because it asks the participants to make a purchase for a chance at winning a prize, but it also captures valuable marketing information.

As a Sweepstakes Company, we encourage our customers to consider receipt validation for their sweepstakes. Not only will it help boost sales, but to capture valuable information for remarketing.

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

The post Purchase-to-Enter Sweepstakes: How to Use Receipt Validation for Your Sweepstakes appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.

Sweepstakes and contests are concentrated bursts of engagement that pay off for brands in multiple ways. By hiring a sweepstakes and contest management company, you can ensure that your sweepstakes or contest campaign is specifically designed to:

• Deliver a sales boost
• Increase brand awareness about your product or service
• Improve your company’s reputation
• Gather participants data

Also, running a sweepstakes with help of a sweepstakes company is pretty straightforward. Select a prize, give away a prize, and get lots of leads and sales, right?

However, once your sweepstakes campaign goes live, what happens?

More importantly, what should key performance indicators (KPIs) should you pay attention to? In fact, there are a lot of things that happen during sweepstakes management to get you results!

Here’s What Happens During a Live Sweepstakes or Contest Campaign

Discover everything you need know about what happens to get you leads and sales once your sweepstakes goes live with our Sweeppea Sweepstakes Platform or under full-service sweepstakes administration and what to track.

Your Fans Complete the Contest or Sweepstakes Entry Form

Sweepstakes entry forms make it easy for your sweepstakes participants to enter your promotion. They also can collect participant information, such as mobile phone number, email, and address. This participant data can be immediately used to welcome participants to your brand and your products and services.

The sweepstakes form template can be completely customized as a part of our self-service platform or our full-service sweepstakes administration which will enable you to collect the data that you need.

Also Read: Sweepstakes Management: Full Administration vs Self Service?

Participants Complete Your Survey

A sweepstakes or contest is also a useful tool for increasing survey participation because you can ask participants to complete a survey as a part of the entry process.

After your sweepstakes goes live, entrants submit their answers to your survey. Then you’ll be able to use the collected data to gain further insights into the demographics and behaviors of your potential and existing customers.

Also Read: What to Include on a Sweepstakes Survey

Participants Engage With Your Sweepstakes Follow Up Messages

Announcing your sweepstakes is only the beginning. Throughout your sweepstakes or contest, you need to be with your participants every step of the way.

With sweepstakes and contest management for your campaign from Sweeppea, you’ll be able to automate sharing updates and reminders with them via text message and email.

Also Read: How to Use a Sweepstakes or Contest to Build Your Email List

Why is this so important? Follow up messages keep sweepstakes entrants engaged and on the lookout for updates from your brand. Then when you send discounts, coupons and other offers during or after the campaign, participants will be sure to take advantage!

The easiest way to get tons of participants for your sweepstakes is to share it with your fans on social media. With full-service sweepstakes administration, your participants will be able to easily share your campaign so that it goes viral and attracts thousands of participants to enter.

Sweepstakes Participants Share Your Campaign on Social Media

The more people that see your sweepstakes, the closer you’ll be to achieving your sweepstakes or contest campaign goals. Now that you know what happens during a sweepstakes, the next step is to make sure that you are tracking your results!

Key Performance Indicators to Track During Your Sweepstakes Campaign

Not sure what to track during your sweepstakes campaign? Here are some examples of marketing KPIs to track during your sweepstakes campaign.

Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)

If sweepstakes participants are nurtured correctly, they eventually become sales qualified leads. An SQL is a prospective customer that is interested in making a purchase from your brand.

This is a useful marketing KPI for a sweepstakes because it can help determine how many of the leads you receive for a sweepstakes end up as prospective customers and actual customers.

This can be easily achieved by asking the participants a question like:

1. Are you interested in purchasing [product/service]?
2. Are you interested in learning more about our [product/service]?
3. Which one do you like the most?
4. Are you looking to buy a [product/service] in the next 30, 60 or 90 days?

Social Media Engagement

One of the main KPIs for social media is engagement. Sweepstakes are designed to be shared on social media so that you can spread awareness about your campaign, virally. Sweepstakes also help you to engage with your fans on social media.

As a result, you can track, shares, likes, comments, messages, tags or mentions. Any way that a fan chooses to interact with your sweepstakes campaign, you can consider it as engagement. 

Measuring the engagement of your fans over time can help you analyze the success of your sweepstakes campaigns and help you to decide when the best times are to run them.

Follower Growth

When it comes to sweepstakes that are advertised on social media, a helpful marketing KPI to track is the growth of followers of your brand. 

Most likely one of the goals of your sweepstakes campaign is to increase brand awareness and engagement with your social media audience. Measuring the increase of your followers is a great way to determine success for those goals.

Also Read: Guidelines for Running a TikTok Contest

Website Visitors

Website visitors is an important KPI to measure for a sweepstakes campaign because you’ll be able to determine how effective your sweepstakes is at turning fans into potential customers. 

For instance, if you are promoting a product launch, you should track the fans that both visit your website and subscribe to your social media channels so that you can reach out to these prospects first in your re-marketing efforts.

Event Attendance

If you’re running an event, such as a concert or trade show, then you’ll most likely track event attendance as a KPI. By tracking this, you’ll be able to determine how many people participated in your sweepstakes versus the number of attendees.

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how brands are doing sweepstakes. As you consider hiring a sweepstakes company to help you run a sweepstakes, what should you do differently this year to ensure that your sweepstakes is a success? 

Understanding the best sweepstakes to run in 2021 is critical to keeping consumers engaged and exceeding their expectations. The good news is that this year has offered us a wealth of insight into what is working and what is not working. 

Here are some ideas for sweepstakes to run in 2021.

1. Instant Win

When the pandemic hit, many shoppers dialed back on shopping at retail locations in favor of delivery services or buying online. As a result, brands had to double-down on their messaging in order to reach their customers who may never see their in-store sweepstakes promotions. 

The solution? Brands are now running more instant win sweepstakes than ever. By letting customers know that they can enter to win a prize on a monthly basis, recurring instant win sweepstakes help brands reach both online and in-store customers.

Also Read: What Instant Win Game Sweepstakes Rules Should Include

2. Staycation Sweepstakes Prize

With COVID-19 impacting global travel, certain sweepstakes prizes such as vacation packages, are simply too difficult to deliver amidst a pandemic. Brands are skipping out on the flights and exotic vacation destinations in favor of staycations by offering weekend “getaways” to local places that are close to where the sweepstakes winners live.

This helps keep sweepstakes winners safe and also ensures that the brand can actually deliver the prize once the sweepstakes has ended.

3. COVID-19 Vaccine Sweepstakes

Some brands are also pitching in to help with the effort to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccine sweepstakes are popular this year with brands offering sweepstakes prizes such cash, scholarships and gift cards.

The prizes are exciting and are attracting eager sweepstakes entrants who have gotten the vaccine. COVID-19 vaccine sweepstakes are also easy to enter because the official rules permit entrants who have been vaccinated to be automatically entered into the drawing pool of potential winners.

Hire a Sweepstakes Company to Manage Your Sweepstakes

The bottom line? COVID-19 has brought a lot of changes to promotional marketing. As a result, hiring a sweepstakes company to manage your sweepstakes is your best bet in 2021.

With many employees working remotely and job openings at an all-time high in some industries, brands are finding it harder to manage sweepstakes in-house. Sweepstakes management gives you everything you need to manage your sweepstakes professionally.

A sweepstakes company will also review your sweepstakes to ensure that it follows sweepstakes laws and is executed smoothly. Now you can look forward to a well-run sweepstakes that delights customers and meets your ROI goals.

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

The post The Best Sweepstakes to Run in 2021 appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.

Running a sweepstakes is exciting and a great way to engage customers and boost sales. However, there are a lot of steps required to run a sweepstakes so it’s in your best interest to carefully plan your promotion and choose the right sweepstakes administration company.

Here is how to prepare to start the search for sweepstakes management services.

1. Plan Ahead

A general rule to follow when planning a sweepstakes promotion for a holiday is to plan three months ahead of the holiday. By planning well in advance, you can ensure that you have covered all of the legal requirements for a sweepstakes.

Conversely, if you are running a monthly giveaway, going with a full-service sweepstakes management option can help launch a sweepstakes much faster. However, it’s always a good idea to give yourself extra time, especially if you will have to register and bond the sweepstakes.

Also watch:

2. Gather Details About Your Product or Service

If the purpose of your sweepstakes is to boost sales or raise brand awareness, your sweepstakes needs to do a great job of communicating this message. Start by describing in full detail the product or service that your company offers. Then spell out how and why it appeals to customers. As you might have guessed, you’ll be able to leverage these unique qualities in your sweepstakes to effectively market your business.

3. Sweepstakes Eligibility and Rules

Now’s the time to decide how you want your sweepstakes to work. Figure out where you want your sweepstakes to run (e.g. all 50 or 48 contiguous states or selected states ) and who is eligible to enter. This will give the sweepstakes management company something to work with so that they can start designing a campaign that’s customized to your business goals.

It will also help you to narrow down options when it comes to choosing sweepstakes administration services. Choose a sweepstakes company that has prior experience in the type of promotion that you want to run.

4. Research Your Options

Sweepstakes administration companies vary widely in the services that they provide to their clients. While full-service sweepstakes companies like Sweeppea will manage your sweepstakes from the concept to prize delivery and taxes, other companies may only offer partial services.

A good rule of thumb to follow is that if your brand has never run a sweepstakes previously or you are looking to maximize the ROI from your promotion, opt for a sweepstakes company that offers full-service sweepstakes management services. In this way, you can guarantee that your promotion is legally compliant and is also optimized for maximum results.

5. Hire a Sweepstakes Management Company

Now that you’ve taken the preliminary steps to plan your sweepstakes and research sweepstakes management companies, it’s time for you to make a decision. Here are a few questions that you’ll want to ask:

• Have you run sweepstakes in our industry before? What were the results?
• What type of sweepstakes promotion is best for the goal that we want to achieve?
• How can I track my sweepstakes while it’s running?

Next Steps

Let’s be honest: You’re busy and you’re focused on keeping your current customers happy and attracting new ones. A successful sweepstakes means happy customers. By taking these steps to carefully plan your sweepstakes before you hire a sweepstakes company, you’ll be on the path to a successful sweepstakes campaign!

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

The post What Does Your Brand Need to Have Run a Sweepstakes? appeared first on Sweeppea Blog.

You already know that running a sweepstakes is one of the best ways to get leads and sales. However, in order to launch a sweepstakes, you need sweepstakes management.

You can’t just launch a sweepstakes without the necessary official rules, and registration and bonding (where required by law). Instead, some planning and setup is needed. Sweepstakes management bridges the gap between the sweepstakes sponsor (company) and sweepstakes entrants (participants).

There are two main types of sweepstakes administration: full administration and self-service. Here is what you need to know in order to decide whether to choose full administration or self service.

Full Administration vs Self Service: What’s the Difference?

With full-service sweepstakes administration, you get the full package. Someone else is responsible for setting up your sweepstakes promotion, drafting the Official Rules, and taking care to make sure your sweepstakes is compliant with federal and state sweepstakes laws. In the past, full sweepstakes administration was the only option.

However, these days some savvy marketers opt for self-service. They reach out to us for help with drafting sweepstakes Official Rules and handle the rest of the promotion in-house or with use of our Sweepstakes Platform.

On the other hand, we recommend that companies that do not have the resources in-house opt for full service administration. This greatly improves your odds of a successful promotion because we can apply what we’ve learned from running thousands of sweepstakes promotions on behalf of the world’s top brands.

When to Consider Full Administration for a Sweepstakes

Self-service sweepstakes are great if you already have the resources in place needed to run a sweepstakes. However if that doesn’t sound like you, you may want full administration instead.

Here are some of the characteristics of companies that could benefit from full administration:

• Need guidance on conceptual development: With self-service, you are completely in charge of your promotion’s design. You decide the prizes, the sweepstakes advertising and marketing, and when to launch the promotion. If you don’t know where to start with any of that, full administration can make sense.

• Want to maximize ROI: If your goal is to maximize your results from your sweepstakes, it’s better to follow the blueprints that have already been established for how to run successful sweepstakes promotions. With full administration, our experts will apply this data in designing your sweepstakes.

• Don’t have the time or resources: If your company regularly outsources legal consultations or marketing help, then it’s likely that you will also need to outsource your sweepstakes administration as well.
  
• See Full-Service Pricing

When to Consider Self-Service Sweepstakes Management

On the other hand full sweepstakes administration may seem like more than you actually need as a company that has previously run sweepstakes and giveaways. If that’s the case, self-service could be a better choice for you.

See Self-Service Pricing

Bottom Line

Whether you choose full administration or self-service, you’ll be able to rely on a proven sweepstakes platform with Sweeppea. Carefully think about the potential outcome of your sweepstakes promotion and choose the sweepstakes company management option that is likely to help you make the most of your time and budget in the long run.

When Is It Best to Hire a Sweepstakes Company?

Need help with sweepstakes or contest management? Call 305-505-5393 or email us with your questions.

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