In this blog post, we look at how to use social media for promoting your food or drink company and generating visibility and engagement online. 

Run giveaways to spread awareness about your food and drink brand on social media

Have you spent months planning the opening of your new bar? Or maybe you’re ready to launch the food brand you’ve worked on for years? Start by making sure your target audience knows about your existence.

Apart from sharing attractive images of your location, products, or interiors, find a way to generate excitement within your audience. One way to do this is to put your mind to organizing comment-to-win promotions that will help you grow your following, spread awareness on social media, and generate visibility for your new project.

Marugame Udon is a Japanese fast-food brand popular all over the world. In order to promote the grand opening of the new restaurant, the Japanese brand organized a social media giveaway in which they raffled one hundred $10 vouchers. Participants liked the giveaway post, followed Marugame Udon, and tagged a friend who they wanted to bring along. 

Let us stay with Asian cuisine for a minute longer by taking a look at the following example from Harborview Restaurant & Bar.

The company wanted to celebrate the arrival of spring with their followers and so they invited everyone to participate in a fun Instagram giveaway. Users liked the post, followed the organizing account, and tagged three friends who love Dim Sum. In return, each participant got a chance to win one of five $25 e-gift certificates redeemable at Harborview.  

Food and drink social media promotions: increase brand awareness by giving away merchandise

Word of mouth is the cheapest and most effective way to spread awareness about your brand and products or services. Genuine recommendations from existing customers are more trustworthy than marketing campaigns and likely to convince hesitating potential clients. Well-planned social media marketing is also a vital part of any successful food or beverage brand, however, there is a way to take it even further. 

By giving away merchandise you turn your customers into proud brand ambassadors. Clients that wear t-shirts or caps with your logo or carry reuseable bags or pens with your slogan help you promote your brand to a wider audience. All you have to do is come up with a fun way to give away the merchandise so that you can generate more visibility for your food or drink brand in the meantime. 

La Croix is one of the best examples to show how food and drink brands can generate engagement for their social media channels. La Croix regularly launches comment giveaways on social media to raffle branded products like tote bags, yoga mats, magnets, or stickers. 

Each of the giveaways generates for La Croix more than 2000 comments – that’s roughly 1994 more comments than the regular posts that the brand shares.  

Food and drink promotion on social media: give away vouchers, coupons, discounts, and product bundles

DeeBee’s Organics is a freezer pop brand that shares creative and vibrant content on its social media channels. Apart from regularly resharing user-generated content that makes the brand more trustworthy, they also organize comment giveaways, which generate engagement and therefore help the brand stand out on social media. Take a look at the following example from DeeBee’s Organics to see how they raffled a month’s supply of their real fruit freezies, as well as a $100 Amazon gift card. 

This example is especially helpful as it shows a great tactic to target not only the existing customers but also those that haven’t yet heard of the brand; surely, many users were driven to the giveaway by the idea of winning an Amazon gift card, however, the winner also received Deebee’s Organics products. This means that apart from forming a valuable bond with the brand, the winner also got to try the product and who knows, maybe they became a new loyal customer!

However, Deebee’s Organics has also discovered another great way to promote the food brand on social media. They recently teamed up with Frieda’s Branded Produce, a brand that promotes healthy eating. Together, they ran an Instagram giveaway that promoted both food brands. Interested participants followed both organizing accounts, liked the giveaway post, tagged a friend, and shared which red fruit or veggie is their favorite. In return for helping the brands generate engagement and visibility, each participant had a chance to win a huge product bundle from both organizers. 

Collaborate with like-minded brands to grow your food and drink account

Growing your food or drink brand’s Instagram account can be difficult, especially if you’re only just getting started. However, there are fun ways to attract followers of other like-minded brands to your account. All you have to do is team up with another brand that has the same values as you. Otherwise, look for a brand that goes together with your products, like in the following example. 

Hereford Beef collaborated with Savernake Knives to together run a Father’s Day giveaway. Together they provided beef and knives right in time for Father’s Day barbeques and celebrations. All interested participants liked the giveaway post, tagged friends in the comments, and followed both organizing accounts. As the giveaway was also shared on Savernake Knives’ profiles, Hereford Beef got some new high-quality followers, and vice versa. 

Are you ready to promote your food and drink brand on social media? Don’t worry if you have more questions; our Customer Support team is ready to help! 

Let’s start by making sure we are all on the same page. The ultimate goal of integrated marketing campaigns is to maximize viewership and brand visibility by connecting with target audiences and getting their messages across via a variety of channels. 

So what digital channels do companies have at their disposal?

• Blog posts
• Social media platforms
• Paid ads and sponsored posts
• Email marketing
• Mobile applications and private customer areas
• Website banners, widgets, and pop-ups
• Visual and audiovisual content
• Offline marketing: in-store, packagings, invoices, posters, leaflets, etc.

Source: Medium

Therefore, marketing campaigns are integrated when organizing brands use several channels to disseminate their promotion. 

Now we will take a look at examples of integrated marketing campaigns launched with Easypromos. Let’s go!

Integrated marketing campaign launched with Easypromos: gamified promotion that boosted sales and grew mailing list

Interactivity is one of our favorite things, therefore, we start with an example of a playable promotion launched by Brightsun Travel, a British travel agency. The company wanted to boost everything about their brand; awareness, engagement, mailing list, visibility, and sales. And we’re about to show you how they managed to tick off all of these objectives with a fully integrated marketing campaign. Brightsun Travel created an interactive Spin the Wheel promotion.

Let us quickly explain the dynamics of this awesome prize roulette! Interested users filled in a registration form in order to access the prize wheel. They left their full name along with their email address so that they could spin the wheel. Apart from holiday and flight vouchers, participants also won Brightsun merchandise and travel gadgets, such as powers banks and travel adapters. 

But what makes this campaign integrated is how it has been communicated and disseminated. 

IMC: take it to social media

We’ve said it before: social media is where your target audience is. Therefore, taking your campaign to social media platforms is a no brainer, you just have to do it! It’s the best way to convert social media followers into qualified leads who eventually might become paying customers. So once you activate your Easypromos promotion, copy the link and share it across social media the way Brightsun Travel did.

The travel agency shared their January Sale promotion with their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter followers. According to Statista, almost 80% of Facebook users accessed Facebook only via mobile phones in July 2020. For that reason, all Easypromos applications are mobile-responsive, making participation easier and more accessible for social media users.

If you’re planning to share your promotion on social media make sure you launch your fully integrated marketing campaign with Easypromos to facilitate the participation process. All Easypromos applications – including games and quizzes – are mobile-responsive and can be viewed and accessed from any mobile device!

One more thing to have in mind is promotion incentives. If you’re looking to attract as many potential participants as possible, ensure that the prize involved in your promotion is appealing to your target audience. Online users are more likely to join promotions if there’s an attractive prize up for grabs!

Use banners, widgets, and pop-ups to promote your integrated marketing campaign

Let’s go back to the main purpose of fully integrated marketing campaigns. It is to maximize viewership and convert visitors into leads and paying customers. And what’s a better way to do it than target your website visitors?

Here you can see how Brightsun Travel captured visitors to their website. Right by the search widget on the home page, the travel agency placed a big attention-grabbing banner promoting their Spin the Wheel promotion.

Did you know that you can connect your Easypromos promotions with external tools like HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, etc? Find out more about Easypromos Integrations.

Create additional content for your IMC

The travel agency looked for as many ways to promote their January prize wheel as possible. As part of their integrated marketing strategy, they also created additional content to promote their campaign. They published a new blog post explaining the promotion, prizes and participation requirements. The blog post was then promoted via a newsletter sent to the whole database of Brightsun Travel.

Goals the brand achieved with the Spin the Wheel promotion

As you can see, clear and consistent content made it extremely easy to recognize the campaign across different communication channels. 

But can you see all the objectives that Brightsun Travel achieved with just one integrated marketing campaign? Apart from re-engaging existing customers and subscribers the brand also managed to grow their mailing list by converting website visitors and social media followers into leads. The vouchers and prizes distributed via the prize wheel tapped into customer loyalty and trust and strengthened the brand’s customer relationships. Isn’t that just great?

How to launch an integrated marketing campaign with an Entry Form Giveaway by Easypromos?

But mini-games are not the only promotions that can be fully integrated. Let’s take a look at a promotion launched with our Entry Form Giveaway app by an Australian shopping mall as part of their Father’s Day campaign. 

The promotion was launched for paying customers of Fairfield Forum. Customers of participating retailers simply had to fill in an entry form and attach a receipt proving their recent purchase. It was a great way to promote the shopping center and attract new customers. Apart from boosting sales and reinforcing brand awareness, Fairfield Forum also expanded their mailing list for future marketing campaigns. Let’s take a look at this integrated campaign in more detail. 

Promote the promotion on your website to directly convert visitors into leads

We’ve already mentioned this one before. Banners do their job! Apart from improving awareness of your campaign, they’re also a great retargeting tool. If someone hasn’t participated in your promotion or didn’t subscribe to your newsletter, you can retarget them with banners.  By the way, can you already spot that the visual identity is consistent? Simply put, the banner matches the typography and colors of the promotion’s welcome page. 

To be sure, to be sure… See how Fairfield Forum added another banner to their website! So if the visitor didn’t click-through before, here comes another opportunity to convert them into leads!

Of course, apart from using banners Fairfield Forum’s integrated marketing campaign also used social media and email marketing. 

Andrew’s Airport Parking gamified their strategy and ran an integrated marketing campaign with Easypromos. They connected with the members of their online community through branded mini-games. Check out the Andrew’s Airport Parking case study to find out more about their successful campaign.

Embed the promotion on your website or e-commerce site to facilitate participation and convert visitors into leads

You might be wondering why we still haven’t mentioned widgets! Well, here it comes…! 

Did you know that you can embed any Easypromos promotion directly on your website, e-commerce site, mobile app, or even customer area? 

Here’s an example of a Predictions promotion launched by Time Attack Nu. The brand asked their online community to predict winners of the upcoming races.

So why embed promotions? It is a great way to drive traffic, promote a certain landing page, and facilitate the participation process, as interested participants can enter the promotion directly from the website, without having to visit another page. In this case, it meant only one thing: more participants!

More examples of integrated marketing campaigns

Email marketing as part of integrated marketing campaigns

Would you like to reconnect with existing subscribers or customers? Or maybe you’re launching a campaign only for the members of your database? Then turn to email marketing! Let’s take for example the following promotional campaign by Unii. They launched a survey and looked to collect as many responses as possible. In order to do so, they sent out a newsletter inviting their subscribers to participate in the survey. In return, they could win $25 Sainsbury’s vouchers!

Offline marketing for integrated marketing campaigns

Yes, we said it! Offline marketing still works very well. Do you have hundreds of people walking in through your door daily? Are you new to social media? 

You can use in-store marketing to grow your social media channels or database. Encourage people to sign up to your newsletter at the checkout (we’ve all filled in a registration form in a beauty or clothing stores), decorate the stores with posters promoting your online promotion, spread the word about your contest by adding a short message on paper bags or receipts, or simply hand out leaflets promoting your social media giveaway, the way Novavenda did.

Novavenda is a Spanish supermarket retailer. The brand wanted to grow their social media networks, therefore they decided to launch a Multi-Network Giveaway. In order to attract their customers, each customer received a leaflet promoting the sweepstakes, along with their receipt. This action grew Novavenda’s social media networks tremendously!

It’s your turn to launch an integrated marketing campaign with Easypromos!

Can you now see how easy it is to launch an integrated marketing campaign with Easypromos? Simply combine the above examples with email and offline marketing and create a fully integrated campaign!

Do you have doubts or questions about IMC? Don’t worry! Online chat with our support team, they’re always ready to inspire and assist!

Yoga teachers, studios, and communities celebrate the day but they are not the only ones. Different types of brands and businesses are connected to the world of yoga and physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. All of these can boost engagement on their social media profiles by creating giveaways for International Day of Yoga.

Yoga teachers connect with their communities through giveaways

Nowadays, it’s a must to have social media profiles for any kind of self-employed. They use their online profiles for practically everything that helps sell their services. This can be a brand image, inspirational texts and photos, class and event announcements and reminders, and why not, giveaways. Like any business, it’s a good idea to use special days to create an action to generate engagement with the online community. Celebrating International Day of Yoga with giveaways is a great way to do that.

Yoga with Jamila used her upcoming birthday to run a giveaway on both her Instagram and her Facebook profile. She also took the opportunity to announce the launch of her new website. Apart from the two posts, Jamila also used a sponsored post to reach a wider audience. Then she used a Multi-Network Giveaway to pick the winners. She raffled different prize kits: a Home Yoga Kit, a Self Love Kit, and a Manifestation Kit. The winners were announced with a Show Mode winners video in her Instagram Stories. To complete the giveaway action, she also showed how she prepared the prizes to be shipped to the winners.

Yoga with Jennison also used a giveaway to connect with her followers. In her giveaway, participants could win an online yoga session for the winner and two friends. Users had to comment on the Instagram giveaway post and tell how yoga had helped/benefited them during the lockdown. Participants also had to tag two friends they would like to invite to the yoga session in case they won. The prize draw served to boost interest in Jennison’s offering of online yoga sessions. 

So, as you can see, yoga teachers can raffle their own “product”, yoga classes, but they can also raffle other types of prizes to celebrate International Day of Yoga with their followers.

Yoga studios attract new and old users with giveaways

Most yoga studios also use social media to promote their services and attract new customers. Using the International Day of Yoga to interact with the online community through giveaways is a no-brainer.

The shopping, dining, and entertainment destination Bella Terra Huntington Beach in California also hosts a CorePower Yoga studio. They ran a giveaway on their Instagram profile, giving away one month of unlimited yoga in the yoga studio. It was a great collaboration to draw more yoga students to the studio.

Optimum You Yoga & Wellness Yoga Studio in Market Harborough, UK, used a giveaway to announce the reopening of the studio after lockdown. Users could win unlimited access to yoga classes in the studio and online, plus a yoga mat for the first prize winner.

It seems obvious that yoga studios give away free yoga sessions. This can be a good way to attract new customers because they have the chance to try the classes before becoming paying customers. But it can also be a very nice treat for yoga students who are practicing at the studio, especially when returning to in-person classes after a break, like holidays, lockdown, etc.

Do you need a little help to get started with your giveaway for International Day of Yoga? We have prepared giveaway templates for International Day of Yoga for your Facebook and Instagram giveaways.

Brands connected to yoga also celebrate International Day of Yoga

Not only yoga teachers and yoga studios can use giveaways for International Day of Yoga to interact with their followers. There are many brands related to the world of yoga, like clothing, equipment, meditation, health. And many other brands can create a connection to yoga, for example, any brand that promotes health and mental health.

YAM Mala Beads sells malas, bracelets, and crystals for meditation and healing, practices, and tools closely related to yoga. The brand runs regular giveaways on its Instagram profile. They often run them in collaboration with other brands such as natural beauty brands, ecological clothing, yoga equipment, etc.

American sparkling water brand LaCroix obviously sells water, but they use other products as well to help build the brand image and brand recall. In their online shop, apart from water with different flavors, customers can also buy clothing, accessories, and collectibles. By creating and selling these products with a very clear brand image, the customers who purchase them automatically become brand ambassadors.

The brand promotes a healthy and active lifestyle and one of their special products is a yoga mat with their recognizable branding. They have given away 50 of these special mats to lucky giveaway winners on several occasions. One was for Pay it Forward Day in April, and the other in January to encourage their followers to keep up with their New Year’s resolutions. LaCroix has a big following on Instagram and with a single organic post, they achieve a large number of comments. 

Twitter giveaways for Yoga Day

Twitter is a social media network popular for its flexibility when it comes to running giveaways. You can ask participants to like your post, retweet it, reply to it, mention a friend, and follow your brand. So if you have an active follower base on Twitter or wish to increase visibility, opt for a Yoga Day giveaway on Twitter. The best news is that you don’t have to be directly linked to yoga! It’s all about promoting health and well-being.

Take a look at this example from The Range UK, a British furniture shop.

In this example, the British brand organized a giveaway right in time for the International Day of Yoga. Twitter users had a chance to win a yoga set.

Convert followers into leads on Yoga Day

If you want to take it further and rather than just engage on your social profiles, another option is to convert followers into leads through an Entry Form Giveaway. There are many other options, for example, a Puzzle or another game.

We’ve prepared a Yoga Day Entry Form Giveaway that you can use as is just by adding your brand name and changing the dates.

We’re ready to help you in our live chat if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing your Yoga Day promotions!

What is a “landing page”?

Broadly speaking, a landing page is a page within a web page where a brand’s new product or service is promoted. It is specifically thought to nudge the user into an action that the brand considers a conversion. For instance, sharing their data through a registration form that can be later turned into a marketing contact. In summary, landing pages have the sole objective of getting one specific action.

In order to achieve this objective, a landing page must have the right structure. The design has to be such that once users get there, they execute the action that was originally intended: download an ebook, try out or subscribe to a new service, etc. 

Getting there may require more than a few hours of planning and testing, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t get there right away.

This is an example of a landing page designed by Easypromos for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Notice the main 4 elements that make it up:

1. A highlighted title that matches the background image.
2. Price of the offer on a big display and in more than one line of text
3. Client conversion button in a contrasting color.
4. A banner featuring 4, clearly explained reasons to run football-related promotions on social networks.

The objective of this promotion was to launch an offer. Acquiring it meant saving almost €100 and unlimited promotions for the duration of the World Cup. 

It is very important that instructions are clear, easy, and intuitive, and that visitors know what they have to do at all times. Otherwise, the promotion might not be successful. 

Which graphic elements does a landing page have to include to make it effective?

Regardless of the field, there are some specific steps to follow when building a landing page.

A good title for the landing page

If the objective is to attract users, including an attractive title on the landing page is a must. Build a good claim that captures the attention of potential leads. A title must be short, the font has to be of a considerable size, and above all, it must be attractive. Additionally, the benefit has to be quickly identifiable.

An outstanding main image

The visual element is one of the most important to attract visitors. Whatever the offer, it must be showcased with one, or more, attractive images. They also have to transmit clearly what the offer is. This way, visitors will know what they are getting at a first glance.

Don’t use too many fonts on the landing page

For the landing age to be visually balanced, the recommendation is to use no more than two kinds of fonts to ensure a consistent style. 

Some fonts that should always be avoided, such as Comic Sans, Papyrus, or Mistral. These kinds of fonts have an informal style and will make the landing page look less serious. The same goes for any other font that looks handwritten as they are usually indicated for younger audiences. 

Include a good “Call to action” Un buen «Call to action»

Also known as CTA, these are brightly colored buttons or links with messages like: “Subscribe now” or “Download the ebook”. They are a fundamental element as they nudge the user towards the desired action.

Have an “Above the fold” area for relevant content

The “Above the fold” area is located on the upper part of the page once it has loaded fully. Statistics show that this is the best location to place a fill-out form, better than any other area of the page that requires the user to scroll to get to it. 

It is also the area where the main title, or if necessary, an image and a short description of the offer, have to appear.

Registry form with explicit acceptance of the privacy policy

This is a key element when the main objective is to capture a lead. It is worth mentioning that the best practice is to ask the user for as little information as possible. Asking for too much information can be annoying for the user. The fewer fields the user has to fill out, the easier it is for the user, and the more chances to capture a lead. It is always possible to request more information from the user in the future. Last but not least, follow regulations regarding data protection and display the information and checkboxes for permissions, privacy, and data storage.

Visual elements of the landing page

Using different graphic elements is necessary to stay away from visual monotony and to make sure users don’t get bored and leave the landing page. Banners, images, or graphic resources that explain the purpose of the page are very useful and give the page a more fluid feeling.

Additionally, include bullet points to point out the benefits and characteristics of the product or service on offer. This will make for a more pleasant visual experience for the user.

Include testimonials

Including users’ opinions is an effective tool as it gives more credibility and makes users feel more comfortable when filling out registration forms. If possible, a picture of the user next to their opinion or review can be included with the text.

Set up a “Thank you” page after carrying out the action of the landing page.

This kind of page comes up right after a user has been turned into a lead. Thank you pages are usual, but more often than not their full potential is wasted. Use this page to show users related content that could be interesting for them.

Additional recommendations

• Get rid of distractions. Only show the most relevant information and eliminate elements that might distract users such as additional URLs. This will give the user only two options: fill out the form or leave the page. 
• Think responsive. Frame the landing page to be visualized on mobile devices and tablets, a sizable portion of traffic will come from those.

But worry not, the platforms below all have the option to preview the landing page’s design on mobile devices.

Available platforms to design a landing page

Here are three examples of platforms to layout your next landing page. These are only three examples, there are plenty more available on the Internet.

Unbounce is one of the platforms most commonly used by agencies and online shops. It is easy to use, has many available templates, and also hosts the landing page.

HubSpot is a marketing software suite that offers multiple possibilities for creating landing pages as well as helping drive traffic and generate leads. It also allows adapting landing pages to specific marketing campaigns and following up on them.

Instapage makes creating landing pages easy for any kind of user. You won’t need any external help to set up your landing page.

Thinking about running a contest or giveaway and need to lay out the landing age?

With Easypromos you will be able to layout a great landing page for your promotion in no time and without previous programming skills.

Your promotion’s microsite is fully customizable with your background image and corporate colors. Alternatively, you can use our ready-made templates.

Additionally, you can play around with the position, colors, and transparency of the promotion’s container where the text, images, and buttons will be displayed. And best of all, you don’t have to worry about the mobile version, our platform adapts all the content automatically. 100% responsive!

Furthermore, thanks to our widget system you can embed the landing page anywhere on your website. This way, users can participate without leaving your web page.

Finally, you can also combine an externally made landing page and configure it so that the CTA button redirects users to the registration form made with Easypromos. All you have to do is disable the welcome page in the editor. It’s that easy!

We hope you find these tips and resources useful to create your next landing page. Get down to business and start working on that promotion idea! If you have any doubt or questions, contact our customer support team via live chat, we will be happy to help!

Gamification is defined as the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service. This principle can be applied to increase brand awareness, promote products, generate engagement, and more. 

Consequently, it should come as no surprise that most modern marketing strategies include gamified actions as a means of achieving marketing objectives.

Why are customized Slide & Match combination games a good idea?

Easypromos’ Slide & Match game has the same entertaining and engaging match-three combination mechanics as Candy Crush. The game consists of doing 3-way combinations of similar elements to score as many points as possible in a given amount of time.

The possibility of raffling prizes among the participants or awarding them to the highest-ranked players makes the game even more attractive. Additionally, it fosters competitiveness among users.

With this in mind, here are some examples to help you create a customized match-three puzzle game. We are sure it will be a useful tool to achieve your marketing objectives: engagement, lead generation, brand awareness, product promotion…

5 examples of customized match-three puzzle games

Display your products with a Slide & Match game

A slide & Match game is a fun way to showcase your product range. All you have to do is choose the products you want to display and use their images to configure the board game. You can use this feature to introduce new products or promote specific ones.

In this example, the Spanish frozen food brand Fripozo set up a Slide & Match game featuring their products. The brand carried out a prize draw among all the users that played the game.

Use your corporate image in the game to increase brand awareness

Take advantage of the time that users will spend playing the game to expose them to your brand image. Use your brand’s logo or products as part of the game’s elements to stay top-of-mind among players.

Here’s an example of what online course provider Logali did for their Valentine’s campaign. They configured a themed playing board where one of the elements was the company’s logo. The combinations made with that element scored higher than the rest. 

Another option is to configure the game with images connected to the brand. In this game, set up by the liquor company Clase Azul, the company used icons that represented the company’s values: honesty, teamwork, quality, attitude, and responsibility. This not only entertains the user but also builds on the company’s image. 

Here’s another example of a Slide & Match game that generated brand awareness and recall for Cussons Baby. To celebrate 500,000 Facebook fans, the baby product brand launched an interactive game in which they added cupcakes and cupcakes with their logo for better brand recognition.

Holiday themed Slide & Match to generate engagement

Holidays are a good starting point to organize promotional actions. Festivities such as the Chinese New Year or Christmas bring about a good opportunity to connect with your audience and generate engagement. Needless to say, gamification fits right into this formula. 

Take a look at this example of a board game set up to celebrate the Chinese New Year with related icons. Or the Christmas-based one by Turespaña. In both cases, players who scored highest in the ranking entered a final prize draw. 

Distribute discounts and increase sales with customized combination games

Every business’ main goal is to increase sales and earn profits. However, direct sales techniques have been losing ground to content marketing in recent times. Hence, gamification strategies are becoming an effective and fun way to increase sales and reward users. 

In this example, marketing and advertising agency Wilson created a discount-based game for Black Friday. 

Another effective example comes from Creality, a 3D printer producer; the tech brand launched a Back to School promotion in which they generated leads while distributing discount codes for their printers. Users registered in the game for a chance to win free printers and download attractive coupons for their purchases.

Use customized combination games to capture leads 

A Slide & Match promotion can be appealing simply because it’s a fun game to play. As much as the board game is fully customizable, that doesn’t mean it is essential to customize it. The game board can be configured with simple forms and colors and it will still be fun to play. What’s important is that users have to register to play. This in turn allows gathering data to nurture your database and provides valuable segmentation information. 

Easypromos’ ready-made templates to set up a Slide & Match game are configured with these geometric forms and colors by default.

We hope you find these examples useful when setting up your Slide & Match promotion. If you have any question or doubt, contact our customer support team via live chat, we will be happy to help!

Prize calendars are gamified actions for your clients and fans. These actions are grouped in daily games or check-ins in a digital countdown towards a set date, event, or festivity.

Prize calendars are fully customizable and have a set duration. They help to foster engagement and brand recognition as users participate daily and keep track of the games’ final results. Additionally, calendars provide new leads for databases as users need to register to participate.

Easypromos’ Advent Calendar app has advanced features that make it easy to configure. Some of the main features are:

• They are created from a preconfigured template. 
• Multiple options to distribute prizes: final prize draw, top-ranked scores, prizes for all participants, daily prizes, and more.
• All the screens and participation dates in the calendar are customizable. 
• Single registration for seamless participation. Users only have to register once, with direct access in the following participations.
• Secure data storage. Possibility to link to a database or CRM, or download the data to an excel file.
• Technical support via live chat. Quick and personal support to answer any question or doubt.
• Every prize calendar has a dedicated URL to share on social networks, websites, blogs, newsletters, or instant messaging to promote participation and advertise the promotion.

Easypromos offers several ways to run prize calendars or countdowns, we can divide them into 3 categories:

Countdown to an event or preset date

Generating anticipation is a marketing technique to engage the users’ minds and feelings so that the desire to learn more about a product, brand, or service increases exponentially with every interaction that they have with the brand’s communications. 

Therefore, if you wish to generate anticipation toward an event, a date, or a celebration, the countdown calendar is the go-to choice. Besides promoting and giving visibility to the event, a countdown will capture the attention of your audience and extend your brand’s exposure through the users’ daily participation. Thus, the goal is to create a countdown where users participate regularly.

Celebrating a change of season could be a good reason to create an online calendar to promote the new season’s products. For instance, requiring users to check in daily for 5 days before a set date to have a chance to win a prize. With the calendar prize app, you can program daily participation dates.

Did you like this idea to give away prizes? Try our Spring countdown demo!

Another example of how to use this app is to promote an event and get more registrations. Attendees can check in online and sign up for the lectures they wish to attend. Consequently, the organizers are able to collect the participants’ data and information on the attendance to every lecture. Special prizes or discounts can also be included in the check-in process.

Want to check out how this online check-in works? Try this online check-in DEMO and download the ready-made template to create your own.

Multiple giveaways or games along a period of time.

You can create marketing actions that include multiple games with the prize calendar app. For instance, you can do this in a countdown format leading up to an event or with daily actions focused around a specific celebration.

These kinds of giveaways or game calendars will keep users engaged with the brand for a given time. Hence, making communication with audiences more effective

In this other example, Carrefour aimed at engaging its audience and building customer loyalty for a 30-day period. As a loyalty-building strategy, they carried out daily prize giveaways among the members of their Clients Club. They also used it to promote the advantages of being part of the Club and to motivate customers to join. To participate, users simply had to check in once a day to enter the daily prize draw.

How about a calendar with a daily game for Easter? This action will help you to boost your branding strategy since the games can be fully customized with your brand image and adapted to fit the promotion’s theme.

Users have to play a game or complete a challenge every day to be eligible for a prize. Prizes can then be awarded through a final draw among all participants or the top-ranked players, etc. You can also set it up so that every participant gets a discount code or reward. It is entirely up to you how to distribute the prizes!

Are you considering a Multi-Game calendar for Easter? Try this DEMO and if you like it download the template!

Christmas Advent Calendars

In this section, we will go over the best-known modality for online Prize Calendars: Christmas Advent Calendars.  These calendars can be set up as a countdown to Christmas. Likewise, they can consist of daily check-ins or challenges for the users, depending on the objectives of the marketing action. Generally, these actions allow to promote products or services, distribute coupon codes to boost sales or carry out giveaways. Let’s take a look at some examples.

The first one is a Check-in Advent Calendar organized by Anaya Publishing. This promotion gave away one book every day. Participants simply had to check in every day and they would instantly know if they had won a book. This kind of dynamic is highly engaging as it involves the surprise factor.

Use our ready-made template to create your own Check-In Advent Calendar easily and in minutes!

Next is Kitoons Multi-game Advent Calendar. Behind every window, users found a game or challenge that they had to complete in the shortest time possible to score points for the overall ranking. At the end of the promotion, the top 3 scoring players won a set of toys. The calendar was fully customized with the brand’s products and characters. Therefore, promoting them among their target audience.

Try the Multi-Game Calendar DEMO here and inspire to create one for your brand.

Lastly, let’s take a look at a calendar that combines daily check-in with descriptive content. The descriptive content redirects the user to an external URL or the last page of the promotion. This feature is ideal to drive traffic to a website and promote products or services, or simply to showcase a prize differently.

Participate in a Prize Calendar with descriptive content in this DEMO that we’ve put together for you!

We hope you find these examples of prize calendars useful and helpful in finding the promotional action that best fits your brand.

Here are some practical cases to guide and inspire you to create an Easypromos’ interactive experience in a museum. These actions will help enrich the visit with an online experience to complement the exhibitions.

Family experience in a museum with online interaction

Let’s say a family with children visits a museum. We all know kids can look at paintings for a little while, but they will need more than that. So, we could include a Q&A game (quiz) that takes place in every hall of the museum. What’s more, the parents wouldn’t have to download any app and everybody will be able to enjoy a fun experience connected to the museum’s exhibition. 

In the first hall, they will have to find an object depicted in one of the paintings. For the second one, answer a question about a painter or a painting. In the third, solve a puzzle depicting an important painting in the room. Upload a selfie recreating the scene of a painting in the next one, and so on until the end of the visit. This is a way to keep the little ones entertained and participating in the visit. Finally, by the end of the visit, and having completed all the activities, a “Museum expert visitor” certificate can be automatically sent by email, along with a discount voucher for the gift shop.

Interactive visit 

It is not necessary to be a kid to enjoy the museum’s interactive activities. Along the same line as before, every hall or piece may have a QR code (or any other visual cue) that indicates the existence of an associated interactive activity. Visitors use their phones and participate in the activity without the need for any download. Hence, the activity can consist of a challenge, uploading a photo, answering a question, playing a game, or simply getting additional information on the exhibition through multimedia content. Additionally, participation can be incentivized through instant win prizes, discounts for future visits, or free entrances.

Advantages of implementing interactive experiences

Visitors’ information

The museum can collect general and contact information of the visitors that participate in any of the proposed online activities. Thus, by proposing a participative action, the museum achieves two objectives. From the visitor’s perspective, an enriched visit. From the museum’s perspective, the possibility of getting to know its audience better in order to prepare and segment its campaigns according to visitors’ preferences, interests, and needs.

Make the visits more memorable

Interactive dynamics get the visitor more involved in the exhibition. Multimedia games, quizzes, challenges, rallies, or fun facts about the artists or exhibition are different ways to connect with the visitor and reinforce the exhibition’s message. Therefore, and depending on how the action is presented, the whole experience doesn’t need to be circumscribed to the museum’s visit itself. The experience can be extended in time. For instance, once the visit has concluded, and since the museum holds the visitor’s contact details, it can send the visitor a link to a game that promotes the museum and gives away free entrances for the next exhibition.

Limitless autonomy and flexibility

With Easypromos, the museum’s curators and communication department have total autonomy to create itineraries or digital routes associated with the exhibition. There is no dependence on the technical department to create these digital experiences. Easypromos allows for the creation of complex dynamics without the need for programming skills.

There is no limit to the number of dynamics that Museums can create for temporary or permanent exhibitions or itineraries. Which is to say, temporary and permanent exhibitions can be covered with a single license. Furthermore, Easypromos is not limited to the creation of digital itineraries, the license includes all the platform’s dynamics related to communication objectives as well as customer acquisition, loyalty, and engagement.

How to create a virtual itinerary in 4 steps:

1. Create an Easypromos account. Creating an account is free and does not require any kind of payment. Once the account is created, you can access Easypromos’ administration panel.
2. Log into the administration panel, locate and press the “Create new promotion” button and select the “Multi-Game” option. This is the kind of promotion that will allow you to create an itinerary with a single registration and several stages.
3. When editing the Multi-Game promotion, you can add as many dynamics as you want. The dynamics that you can choose from are:
   • Games: Memory, Hidden Objects, Match it, Puzzle, Slide & Match, Timed Quiz, Word Search.
   • Spin the Wheel
   • Quizzes: Knowlegde Quiz, Survey. 
   • Multimedia contests, photos, videos, texts. 
4. The last step is to activate it and make the virtual itinerary available to the visitors. Provide an easy-to-remember URL or a QR code to the visitor or print it on the exhibition’s leaflet. Additionally, you could display the URL or QR on the museum’s signs to remind the visitors to access the virtual itinerary.

Try this DEMO of a virtual itinerary at the technology museum. Take a look at how to present challenges for each hall and get some inspiration for your project.

The creation of multi-stage interactive experiences is part of Easypromos’ White Label plan. Signing up is a completely self-service process but our live chat team and tutorials and templates are available to help you out. For more information, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to set up a conference call to give you more detailed information about the possibilities that Easypromos offers to enrich your visitors’ experience in your museum.

Key ideas to promote toys on social media

Before we focus in on the different social networks available, let’s set out some ground rules. Follow these guidelines wherever you promote toys on social media.

• “Friends trust friends“. Toy marketing relies on influencers and recommendations from other kids. Use a friendly, approachable style on social media, and encourage customers to share their experiences.
• Toys are made to be played with. Show them in action with videos, gifs, or photo carousels.
• Think demographics. YouTube is very popular with children, while parents spend more time on Facebook and Instagram. Tailor your posts to each audience, with age-appropriate content.
• Find your voice and style for each social network, too. Take a look at the examples in this post to see the contrast between YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter posts.

Experience has taught us that giveaways are an especially powerful way to get customer feedback, showcase your products, and reach out to new followers. In the following sections, we’ll discuss how to give away toys on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Create interactive content on YouTube

YouTube is an amazing channel for toy retailers. It’s completely focused on video, so you can demonstrate toys, create your own shows, and share behind-the-scenes insights.

Over time, YouTube users have developed their own unique video formats. People share videos of their shopping hauls, unbox new toys and games, film product reviews, and host livestreams. These videos are often highly interactive, as they respond to followers’ comments and questions.

A great idea is to organize an Entry Form Giveaway for your YouTube viewers. Here’s what you do: post a video, and invite users to participate in your YouTube giveaway. You just share the giveaway link in the video description and encourage subscribers to enter for their chance to win!

Follow your favorites on Instagram

Your audience on Instagram is a bit different than on YouTube. It’s an enormous and growing network, so you can reach out to both parents and children.

You have several options to run a toy giveaway on Instagram. Let’s start with a comments-based giveaway.

In this example, the brand asked parents to share their favorite book characters. Tying your promotions to annual events is a great way to increase reach, and in this case, the brand followed a World Book Day theme.

You’ll notice that the aesthetic of this example is quite different from YouTube videos. But next, we’ll take a look at an Instagram contest which is aimed at kids.

This contest was designed to collect user-generated content, rather than comments. Kids could join in on Instagram or Twitter when they posted a photo with the giveaway hashtag, and mentioned the organizing brand.

Mention + hashtag contests like this are extremely valuable. The tag and hashtag increase your brand’s visibility. And you can recycle user-generated content in your own posts and campaigns, as long as you have permission.

Use Instagram Stories to reach an even bigger audience. Learn how to promote a giveaway with Instagram Stories.

Connect with families on Facebook

Facebook is still the biggest social network around – and it’s a major hub for parents to share stories, advice, and support. Your content on Facebook should be accessible and family-focused.

Take this example from Fisher-Price, a leading toy brand. They started a conversation with parents by asking, “What’s your family’s favorite holiday tradition?”

They collected almost one thousand comments. This was a well-calculated question, because as well as starting a conversation, it produced a lot of valuable information about how parents organize and celebrate major holidays.

When you create a Facebook toy giveaway, try and think of a question which will produce informative customer feedback.

More and more brands use Facebook in combination with other social networks. Learn how to use the Multi-Network Giveaway app.

Boost your profile on Twitter

Last of all, let’s take a look at Twitter. You won’t find many kids in your audience on Twitter. But many consumers use Twitter for customer service. So your account should be up to date, and regularly monitored for any customer queries or problems.

Twitter is also a great place to run giveaways. Why? Because it offers more flexibility than any other network. You can pick a winner from among your followers, or base the contest on comments, retweets, or posts.

Giveaways for special events and holidays are always a success. Get creative ideas for a Children’s Day contest.

With a well-planned giveaway and the right prize, you can grow your engagement and audience on every social network. Start now – your first toy giveaway on social media is free.

Your website, an essential channel to draw traffic

In this day and age, not having an online presence is a synonym of failure. That is, brands without a website and social networks can lose up to 30% of their clients. Not having these channels can damage a brand’s reputation to the point of being considered old fashioned or even not be taken seriously. 

We are fully immersed in the digital era and most people spend a great deal of time on their mobile devices, laptops, or tablets. Hence, the objective is to veer to your web in order to turn them into potential customers. 

We all know we want to sell and be recognizable, but we don’t always know how to achieve that. What’s the use of having a website if users don’t visit? Or be present in social media if we can’t create an active community?

At this point, online promotions are an ideal tool to turn these visits into leads and, in so doing, boost brand awareness all the way to success. Include these actions in your website and you’ll see how your results improve while you simultaneously nurture your database  with the participant’s data. 

What is a banner and how to design one for your website

What is a banner

When we use the term banner, we simply refer to an online promotional creativity with some specific dimensions. It includes text, images, and even video or sound, and it’s embedded in a website. It’s objective is to generate brand awareness and give visibility to the website. As a general rule, the objective is that the user clicks on it and is redirected to a website. In this case, our contest or promotion.

Kinds of banners

Built-in banners

Built-in banners are fixed within the website. They are usually located on the laterals (vertical format) or at the top (rectangular format). This banner is well accepted by users as it doesn’t interfere.

Expandable banners

Expandable banners also have a fixed position, but they expand on the screen when the user performs a specific action, such as placing the cursor over the ad. These banners can be a little intrusive, so they usually have a visible “close” button.

Pop-up banners 

Unlike the previous banners, pop-ups don’t have a fixed position on the screen. Rather, they accompany the users as they browse the site. They also pop up unexpectedly and therefore can be considered highly intrusive. Given this, you should be extremely careful when using them.

How to design a banner properly

Banners have been a long-standing resource in online advertising and, despite their age, still yield good results. Hence, you can expect them to be around for the foreseeable future. Precisely due to their widespread presence on the internet, it is very important to make sure that this imagery stands out from the rest to capture the users’ attention. 

Almost everybody likes giveaways, so it shouldn’t be that difficult to draw attention to your banner if the message is clear. Thus, once the target is clear, the following steps are:

• Clear and direct language. Get to the point. If you’re giving away a trip for two, make it big. It should be the first thing the user sees. After that, in a slightly smaller font, you can give an overview of the participation requirements or dates. Depending on the image you are using, you can center the text or align it to the left or right.

• Mind the design. Choose an image that is related to the general imagery of your promotion, as well as the same fonts and colors. This will allow the users to make a direct connection to the advertising. In case you are running a Multi-stage promotion, the image can vary every time a new stage opens up.

• Embed the promotion. Add a link if you want users to participate without leaving your site. With Easypromos you can embed it as a widget. This will make your campaign more visible.

• Include a CTA. It is important to us a Call to action so users click on the participation button. If you wish to do so, you can use the same color as in the buttons on the promotion.

• Optimize the size of the image. If you use images that weigh a lot, they might take too long to load, something to always avoid. Whenever possible, use web optimized images (72ppp resolution).

• Check the link. Before uploading the banner to the web, check that the promotion is working properly.

Online tools to design a banner

Lastly, if you don’t have access to a graphic designer, or don’t have the means for one, there are alternatives available that will get you out of a pickle. 

These are three recommendable online design tools that you can use to design banners:

1. Canva. Canva is a simplified online graphic design tool. It uses a drag & drop format and has over 60 million images and 5 million vectors, fonts and graphics available to use and export. 
2. Adobe Creative Cloud Express. A tool from the Adobe suite that will help you create wonderful imagery in minutes. Choose a photo, add text, apply a filter, and your image will be ready to upload. Adobe Spark is available in website and mobile app versions. 
3. Desygner. Same as Canva, Desygner is a collaborative design tool offering easy-to-edit pre-configured templates. There are thousands of free-to-use vectors, stickers, and backgrounds.

We hope you will find these examples and tips useful when it comes to designing banners and imagery for your promotions. So give it a shot and get started!

If you have any doubts or questions you can contact us via live chat. Our customer  support team will be happy to help you.

Luckily for you, there is a variety of different ways to promote your new website. We’ve proven numerous times that digital promotions do magic when it comes to grabbing the attention of online audiences and (you’ve guessed it!) the same applies to new website launches. In this blog post, we take a look at how to use giveaways, contests, and prizes to promote your new website or e-commerce site.

Promote your new website on social media

Let’s start with the basics. What would be the best place to promote your new site launch? If you already have an existing webpage or a store that boasts success, that’d be the right place to start. You can begin by getting some leaflets, putting up posters, or even printing a fun message on the receipts. But this would mean that only the people that visit your store or website will be informed about the new mighty site coming soon… 

So think big and go to where your audience is: social media. Depending on your business, some customers might purchase from you only a couple of times a month or year. But many of them will be still actively following you on social media – looking for offers, discounts codes, special deals, and product news. Social media is where your potential customers are. 

Starfish Store is an education store from Australia that supports parents and individuals with or without learning disabilities. They wanted to add a fresh twist to their online presence: hence the new site and online shop that they promoted on their Instagram page. 

What’s the best idea for an Instagram giveaway that promotes a new online store or website? We’d always opt for a comment giveaway as it’s the easiest way to boost social media engagement, increase visibility and attract the attention of more users (one of your entry requirements could be mentioning a couple of friends). You can raffle free products, samples, gift boxes, or even discount vouchers.

Is your demographic more active on Facebook or Twitter? You can still launch a fun social media giveaway to promote your new website launch! All you need is a captivating image, giveaway announce text and you’re good to go!  

Drive traffic to your newly launched website with a prize wheel

Are you looking for more than just increased social media engagement? We’re thinking: new leads, more sales, and fostered customer loyalty… All of these objectives are important KPIs for your business and now they can be reinforced with an online prize wheel. By embedding a Spin the Wheel promotion – or adding a banner that redirects the users to your wheel game – you double, or maybe even triple, your chances of converting anonymous website visitors into qualified leads. Humans love to win! So by giving your audience a chance to walk away with gifts and discounts you automatically provide positive experiences that can only benefit you and your business. 

The following image shows you a fantastic example from Vidal – a Spanish manufacturer of confectionery. The brand launched a brand new online shop and they were looking for an interactive way to promote it. They activated a banner on their home page that redirected visitors to an online prize wheel, in which users had a chance to win prizes like discount codes, reusable cups, and backpacks. 

However, they first had to make sure that their target audience knew about the special promotion. To make sure their branded prize wheel went viral they turned to their social media channels to post a series of fun gifs and posts encouraging people to try their luck. 

Launch a giveaway with a registration form to promote your new website or e-shop

Have you ever entered an online giveaway or promotion? If the answer is “yes”, then what was your main motivation to do so? Let us guess – the prize. The better the prize the more participants your promotion will attract. If you want to boost your new e-shop or website’s visibility make sure you raffle incentives that appeal to the general public. 

Here’s an example of an Entry Form Giveaway launched by Stella’s Place to promote the grand opening of their new location. You can use exactly the same dynamic to promote your website or e-commerce.

Create organic and sponsored posts on social media to inform your audience about the new website launch and encourage them to visit your website to participate in your giveaway. Make sure you use widgets to embed it on your website – this is the best way to ensure that only those that really visit your new site participate in your sweepstakes. 

Send traffic to your website for a chance to win: quiz

The final idea – but not any less inspiring – is to launch a quiz to promote your website. You might wonder how that’d work… 

Use our Knowledge Quiz app to ask your audience a simple question about your new website or design and hold a random giveaway for all participants. You can ask a question like “What’s the main color of our new website design?”. The trick is that to answer this question, each participant will first have to visit your website! 

Do you have more ideas for promoting new websites with giveaways and contests? Or maybe there’s a question that you’d like to ask? Make sure to contact us via our live chat! 

Newspaper’s entertainment section: from paper to digital

The first step to connecting with your readers online is to invite them to participate in digital versions of your games; in other words, make them aware of your online presence. Placing a QR code in your newspaper or magazine’s game section might be a great place to start. By doing so you ensure that everyone that enjoys your challenges gets to see that there are more games online. The QR code will then redirect the user to a microsite with your online games. You can even customize the microsite’s URL so that it comes with your brand name.

Natural transition from traditional to digital

Before you redirect your readers to your online section with games, it’s important to ensure that the website is fully personalized with your corporate image – colors, logos, etc. Users will be able to see that the page belongs to your magazine or newspaper – therefore, more trust will be generated. Luckily, the Easypromos games allow you to personalize all the online game applications that we offer: typography, colors, background images, logos, etc. By using Easypromos you gain total freedom when it comes to your promotion design.

Get to know your newspaper readers

Let’s take a look at some main differences between printed and online games for magazines and newspapers. Users participating in the online version of your game must register by filling out a registration form. They can log in using their Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, or Twitch accounts, or simply fill out an online form. Users won’t have to repeat the registration process next time they access your online games; they won’t have to accept the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions more than once either. Participants also have the option to opt-in for your marketing communications, and therefore become new leads that can be directly added to your newspaper’s database or CRM. 

Once the user completes the registration process, they get access to your online games, crosswords, and puzzles. Easypromos offers more than 30 user-engaging dynamics but your imagination is the real limit! Each application can be used in a variety of different ways.

We strongly believe that you shouldn’t replicate the games printed in your newspapers but rather take advantage of online possibilities. Interactivity is what online users love – and they will surely respond well to some interactive online games!

Try our Multi-Game DEMO for newspapers and magazines to test the real user experience. You will get to see the registration process and different dynamics offered by Easypromos.

The most popular Easypromos games for magazines and newspapers

• Crossword: Crossword puzzles are the star of newspapers and magazines entertainment sections. Easypromos has not only taken this all-time star puzzle to the digital world, it also features an AI powered tool to create your own crossword in minutes!
• Word Shuffle: Challenge your readers to unscramble the hidden word using the clue or image provided.
• Puzzle: Use any image to create a branded Puzzle game. The application will divide your picture into puzzle pieces and shuffle them randomly. 
• Memory: Find matching pictures before time runs out.
• Hidden Objects: A customizable version of “Where’s Wally?”. 
• Word Search: A typical word search game but this time with the possibility to choose the difficulty level and time limit for completing the challenge. 
• Match It: Match pairs, for example, football players with their teams or writers with their books. 
• Minesweeper: Remember the classic Minesweeper on your first computer? With Easypromos you can launch a branded version of this game.

Apart from these classic games, you can also engage and entertain your readers to participate in online questionnaires that you can customize with pictures and videos that will generate more engagement and interest from the users, for example:

• Timed Quiz: Configure not only questions but also the dynamic. Challenge participants to answer all questions correctly, or to be the fastest entrant.
• Personality Quiz: Get to know your readers better by asking questions about their likes and preferences and display a personalized message based on their answers. Isn’t it something that we often see in magazines and newspapers?
• Logic puzzles and games:
  • Complete a mathematical sequence
  • Decode Egyptian hieroglyph
  • Chess: choose the best move after analyzing the board
  • Complete a mathematical sequence
  • Decode Egyptian hieroglyph
  • Chess: choose the best move after analyzing the board
  • Complete a mathematical sequence
  • Decode Egyptian hieroglyph
  • Chess: choose the best move after analyzing the board

Did you know? Easypromos has now implemented an AI tool to help you save time when creating games and quizzes!

Reward your newspaper readers with prizes

There is no way to know how many people solved the games printed in your newspapers or magazines. You also don’t have a way of rewarding the readers that complete all the games. But this changes when you incorporate online games! With Easypromos you can organize daily, weekly or monthly challenges with public ranking for each game. Reward users just for participating or give prizes to the best or fastest players. You can choose to:

• Each day reward the best player of the day.
• Give away a monthly prize to the participant that scored the highest number of points in all games.
• Give away direct prizes just for participating with winning moments. 
• Reward all users that have participated in all your games, no matter their score – they’re your most loyal readers.

Get in touch with your readers 

The Easypromos games are a great avenue for any newspaper or magazine looking to connect with their readers. Thanks to the registration form, you get to collect contact details from your participants; the form can be used to collect more information about the demographic or interests of your customers. And then come the games; by analyzing the way users participate in your crosswords and puzzles, you can understand more about your readers, for example, you get to know their likes and preferences, as well as their favorite games. Make use of the Easypromos email platform to launch personalized emails that will deliver quality content to the participants, for example, information about new games, or thank you messages sent after the user participates.

Convert newspaper readers into leads and attract new subscribers

Looking to increase the number of paying subscribers to your magazine or newspaper? Prepare a series of games for readers and another one for paying customers. Share information about the games for paying customers to make sure that the word gets out there! Make sure your audience knows about the prizes that can be won in the games – it’s a great way to attract more paying subscribers! 

The Easypromos Auto Login API can be a great solution if you’re an advanced user. With the API you can limit access to online games to subscribers only. 

Online games = another way of advertising

Online games are a fantastic way to boost brand awareness and visibility. Each game is fully customizable, which opens a new door for sponsorship agreements and paid collaborations. For example, you can use an online puzzle to promote a new product launch of a collaborating brand or to promote a tourist destination for an airline. As you implement gamification into your strategy, you will be learning more and more about your users with each game. It will help you learn more about their likes, favorite games, and preferences so that you can offer more attractive and effective advertising spaces to your collaborators. 

Would you like to learn more about the possibilities of online games offered by Easypromos? Don’t hesitate to contact us via our live chat where our customer support agents will be happy to assist and inspire! 

One of the most popular and principal objectives of any brand is to grab the attention of their target audience. That’s the reason why it’s so important to know who your audience is. Sometimes you might want to launch more targeted and specialized campaigns, for example, for customers that are likely to purchase certain products. However, if you wish to generate brand engagement, you might want to design a campaign that’ll appeal to a wider public. It can be your chance to generate leads, retain users, boost brand awareness and visibility, promote new products or even increase sales. 

So what would be a good campaign for a big audience? Participating in popular events is a great tactic to stay relevant and visible, and International Dog Day (or a National Dog Day in your country) is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with your customers and promote your brand. Ask yourself: How many of my clients own a dog? Of course, it’s impossible to answer this question but you can guess: a lot! And people tend to be very close to their pets, which makes it a great avenue for fostering customer loyalty and relationships. 

We will now take a look at how brands celebrate dogs and their owners, what prizes are popular, and what kind of online promotions work best for International Dog Day. 

Dog Day ideas: promote your products with Instagram giveaways

Nowadays, almost every single business has an active Instagram account. Take advantage of this viral social media network and organize an Instagram giveaway that targets dog owners. 

The key to success lies in an attractive prize like dog food, toys, or other gadgets and accessories that might come in handy in a typical dog’s life. The following giveaway from a dog gear brand is an outstanding example of how to present a dog giveaway on Instagram. 

Django teamed up with another dog accessories brand, in an effort to grow off of each other’s back – it’s a popular tactic between like-minded brands. In order to win prizes from both organizers, Instagram users followed the organizing accounts, liked the post, and mentioned three friends in the comments. 

Another dog giveaway idea comes from a popular Instagram account showcasing the life of… a dog, of course! The organizers teamed up with a dog snack brand and together they ran a comment sweepstakes for their followers. Like in the previous example, the aim of the giveaway was to grow the following, promote the products and increase brand visibility on Instagram. 

Note, that all these examples come from pet-themed accounts. However, ANY brand can celebrate Dog Day on Instagram because every brand’s customers have dogs! Just make sure you share a fun picture showcasing a dog and the prizes that you’ll raffle, the word “giveaway” is also a great way to attract more attention.

Do you need help launching your Dog Day giveaway on Instagram? Use our Dog Day Instagram Giveaway template to launch your sweepstakes in just a few minutes. All you have to do is edit the participation dates and describe the prize.

Ideas for Dog Day giveaway on Facebook

Do you believe that the majority of your target audience uses Facebook? Celebrate Dog Day on this social media channel! Just as Instagram giveaways, Facebook comment giveaways are an efficient and excellent way to generate engagement and user interaction, as well as brand visibility. 

Here’s how a handmade soap brand (no, they have nothing to do with dogs!) took it to Facebook to together with their community celebrate their four-legged friends. The soap producer collaborated with local pet products brands to together offer a bundle of dog products for one winner. To enter, users liked the post and commented with their favorite memory with their furry friend.

Planning to launch a Facebook giveaway to celebrate International Dog Day? Use our customizable Dog Day giveaway template for Facebook and launch your promotion in no time. 

Multi-Network Giveaway for International Dog Day

There are many pet product companies that have big online communities on different social media platforms, with thousands of users following the brand’s accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If you’re looking to engage users across all social media channels, a good idea would be to launch a Multi-Network Giveaway. It allows you to run one giveaway on different platforms, meaning that you can choose one winner from among all users that participated on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Masymas Supermercados organized a giveaway on Instagram and Facebook, in which they raffled a dog food bundle for one lucky winner. Apart from promoting the products, they also generated engagement and improved their visibility. 

Promotion ideas for Dog Day: photo and videos contests

You must admit that no person is as photogenic as dogs! Take advantage of your customer’s attachment and love to their dogs and organize a photo contest to celebrate Dog Day. It’s a fun way to not only collect user-generated content but also reinforce customer relationships, as what dog lover won’t feel more attached to a brand that wants to see shots of their fluffy friends? With Easypromos you can draw a random winner from among all the users that share their doggy’s pictures, or you can choose to enable the voting system; voting is a great choice if you’re looking to attract more visitors to your contest and collect further leads. 

Are you interested in finding out more about dog photo contests? Find out how a photography studio organized a photo contest to find 12 dogs to feature in a calendar. The promotion was a great success!

Ideas for celebrating Dog Day online: fun games and quizzes

Easypromos offers a 100% self-service platform to create customized branded games, fully compatible with all mobile devices and ready to be shared on social media channels. You don’t even need any previous experience in programming or coding. All you need is an idea and an objective set in mind, also when it comes to celebrating Dog Day online. 

Take a look at the following Knowledge Quiz organized by Vetscriptions. The brand looked to engage their audience right in time for Halloween and raffle a £25 voucher. Apart from collecting leads, the pet brand also entertained their audience. 

Would you opt for something a bit more visual? Here’s an example of a PhotoFun promotion, in which users designed a picture showing their plan for their favorite day with their dog!

What do you think about all these ideas? Are you ready to celebrate Dog Day with your online community? Remember, that in case of any questions you can Live Chat with us!

Many promotions on LinkedIn have a business purpose; they involve professionals in the representation of their respective companies. For this reason, as LinkedIn has matured as a social network, sweepstakes and giveaways have become frequently used methods for generating interaction between companies and professionals. It’s becoming more common to see promotions on LinkedIn, and we are increasingly being asked how to run giveaways on LinkedIn. So what are this social network’s policies regarding digital promotions?

LinkedIn does not have a specific promotions policy. However, the social network does indicate that all users must comply with the general User Agreement. According to these guidelines, when you wish to carry out a promotion on LinkedIn you must follow these two important regulations:

• Explicitly state that LinkedIn is in no way responsible for the promotional action.

• Do not use data scraping to obtain data from LinkedIn.

Promotional actions that you can carry out on LinkedIn

There are several types of promotions that could be suitable for your LinkedIn audience. We can divide these into two groups, differentiated by primary marketing objective: 

• Promotions based on interactions, ideal for direct brand and product visibility. 
• Promotions based on data collection through a landing page.

Deciding on the type of your promotion is important because the dynamics change depending on the promotion. In one, the focus is on the post itself and on seeking maximum diffusion for the said post. To achieve more complex objectives, such as attracting leads, the action will be developed from more sophisticated dynamics.

Promotions for brand visibility: looking for interaction with LinkedIn users

If you’re looking to generate interaction with your target audience – likes, comments, or mentions – you will probably write a post to announce your contest; for you, it’s an easy way to launch a giveaway while the participants easily discover entry requirements.

In the following example, you can see a LinkedIn giveaway that asks users to follow the brand’s profile, like the post, and mention two friends in the comments. This is a very popular and effective dynamic on Instagram. It’ll generate greater visibility for your post and brand, but you won’t obtain participants’ contact information.

On LinkedIn, participants are usually asked to like and follow the company’s profile. When launching the campaign, you must think about how you will make a list of all the participants. You have two options:

• If there aren’t many participants you can write them down manually and list them in a document to select a random winner. For example, by using our List Giveaway app.
• If you get a lot of participants you should use the LinkedIn API. It’s available for companies that form part of the LinkedIn Marketing Partner Program.

Easypromos doesn’t form part of the LinkedIn Marketing Partner Program. However, we still offer contests, giveaways, and promotions on microsites or landing pages outside LinkedIn. Our apps allow you to generate engagement, visibility and leads.

Brands often combine two actions: interactions and a data collection form. Participants like and share the post, and tag a friend in order to participate. In addition, they fill out a registration form shared via a link.

• Advantages: a list of users registered in your Entry Form Giveaway. You can easily select a random winner with our giveaway app.
• Disadvantages: you’re creating participation barriers by asking participants to complete a variety of different actions.

Promotions for capturing leads from LinkedIn using landing pages

One of the primary goals of giveaways and contests is to collect leads for your brand. It is important to attain this data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the current regulations of each country – and of the social network itself – in order to use them in marketing actions without running into problems. For this reason, most dynamics for capturing leads through contests and giveaways involve LinkedIn microsites or landing pages that have been specially configured for this purpose.

Let’s have a look at some ways of capturing data with this kind of promotions:

LinkedIn giveaway for new newsletter subscribers

One option for capturing data in a consensual way is to offer a prize for those who subscribe to a newsletter, as shown in the following example. This furniture manufacturer raffled a designer table among interior design professionals who signed up for the company’s newsletter. 

This dynamic is a good option for brands looking to grow their email marketing database. The main requirement – subscribing to the newsletter – should be clearly pointed out in the giveaway post, as well as in the terms and conditions.

It’s also important to explain how the winner/s will be selected. The List Giveaway app can help you with this if you follow these steps:

• Make sure that the link to participate in the giveaway goes directly to the registration form of your email marketing platform.
• After the participation period, segment the database of your email marketing list in order to collect those who have subscribed during your giveaway participation dates.
• Download this information in an Excel or CSV document and upload it to the List Giveaway app.
• In just a few steps you select random winners and alternates, along with a Certificate of Validity that will allow you to announce the winners in a way that is transparent.

Giveaway Landing with registration in microsite format 

Another professional and highly recommended way to run a contest or giveaway on LinkedIn is to display it on a microsite and share the URL on social media via a post or sponsored post. Check out the following example by Optoma.

The brand knew that the best solution was to launch an Entry Form Giveaway and announce it on the social networks that their target audience uses most. In this case, the link in the post leads to the company’s website where the contest guidelines and prizes are provided in detail, and the registration form is displayed.

Did you know that you can embed your promotion and entry form on any website or blog? That means you can share it across all your channels and obtain a single database with all the giveaway or contest participants.

Let’s go one step further. Because if you’re looking to organize a giveaway on LinkedIn it’s because you’re interested in the quality of its leads, and therefore you might be interested in making it closed and exclusive to profiles on this social network. In this case, you can use the LinkedIn login so that participants must identify themselves using their LinkedIn profiles.

Try our Giveaway with LinkedIn login to test the user experience.

The Easypromos entry form applications allow you to customize the contact form to obtain all the information that you require. Additionally, you can activate login with LinkedIn to verify their data and their presence in this professional network. Easypromos has modules to log in to LinkedIn and to share on LinkedIn. This enables you to generate exclusive promotions for LinkedIn users only. These plugins comply 100% with the permitted use of the LinkedIn API that specifically mentions their use for marketing actions, lead generation, and brand awareness.

Gamified giveaways on LinkedIn

Giveaways offer the possibility of winning a prize in exchange for filling out a form with your data; this already generates engagement between the organizing brand and audience. Even so, we can offer more entertaining and innovative dynamics to connect with our target audience.

Gamification techniques, common in education and training, are also gaining importance in the marketing world. It’s a far more dynamic and fun way of learning new concepts and skills, something that can be applied to all areas of society.

In an environment as professionally orientated as LinkedIn, gamification dynamics can surprise and attract the attention of lots of people. Try launching a giveaway among all those who play a branded game: a puzzle, a memory game or a quiz. You’ll generate engagement with your target audience, convert them into leads, and give them a fresh, positive perspective on your brand.

For example, in this Quiz with Timer, participants are tested on their geography knowledge. If you’re a company involved in travel or transportation, this can be a useful theme for connecting with your target audience. 

Here’s another example: an Australian University looked to collect contact details from potential students while generating high-quality engagement. The company organized a quiz that had to be completed within a time limit. This provided participants with an exciting challenge to overcome.

These types of dynamics are easy to set up. There’s no need for programming and there are plenty of options for customizing and personalizing the contest with the company’s brand image. The important thing about launching a game or giveaway is to plan diffusion on LinkedIn:

• Launch the game or giveaway by publishing it as a post on the company’s profile.
• Announce it to employees and ask them to share it on their profiles to help spread the word.
• Use LinkedIn Ads to reach the target audience.
• Set up the viral message and share button on LinkedIn so that participants can share it with friends and colleagues.
• Share it with newsletter subscribers to energize the audience and convert them into LinkedIn contacts.

What do you think of these options for launching your promotion on LinkedIn? If you’re keen to start interacting with your community on this social network but have a few doubts regarding how best to organize your promotional campaign, contact our support team via chat and we’ll give you the help you need.

Hence, we suggest you take advantage of the excitement and buzz that the Olympic Games generate. In this article we share the most creative Olympic Games online promotion ideas that will engage your audience, boost your brand, and increase sales!

Instagram Giveaway for the Olympic Games

This must be the easiest idea for engaging your audience right in time for the Paris Games. Wait for July 26 – the first day of this year’s event – and launch a comment giveaway for your Instagram followers; it’s a perfect opportunity to drive customer interaction and boost social media engagement. You can, for example, ask your audience to explain their favorite discipline or talk about their favorite athlete at this year’s event. To attract more participants, make sure you raffle a captivating prize (your bestsellers, product bundles, discount vouchers, etc.) and you can even ask participants to mention their friends in the comment section; this way you will attract more users and therefore boost your brand even further. 

Do you feel like running an Instagram Giveaway for the Olympics? Use our Olympic Games Instagram template for your promotion to save time.

We also have a Facebook template for an Olympic Games giveaway! 

Olympic Games online promotion: Entry Form Giveaway

Are you looking to share a giveaway across several channel AND gather data for your databe or generate leads? Use our Entry Form Giveaway to celebrate the Paris Games with your audience on any digital channel. The application creates an independent microsite with a URL that you can share on your social media, newsletters, website, and even in-store. All users that register their contact details automatically enter your Olympics giveaway while you expand your database. You can then draw a random winner from among all entrants, reward multiple users or distribute discount codes to all participants.

Wondering if celebrating the Olympics with a giveaway is a good idea for your company? Trust us when we say that any brand can launch a giveaway for the Olympic Games, as online audiences positively respond to promotions and incentives. Try our giveaway DEMO to experience the look & feel before launching your own promotion. 

Captivate your audience with gamified Olympic Games promotions

The Olympic Games always attract millions of spectators from all over the world. Some of them are true Olympics fans; they know everything about the most popular athletes, where the games were held, and who won the most medals. Grab the attention of the Olympics’ fans with a fun Timed Quiz where participants answer a series of questions against the clock. Try the Olympics Timed Quiz to see how much fun you can generate with this interactive app. 

Another dynamic that successfully engages online audiences is a branded Memory game about the most popular Olympic sports. As you can see, the Easypromos game applications allow you to easily organize fun promotions that not only boost your brand but also engage and entertain online users and expose them to your corporate image.

Apart from providing entertainment for your audience, gamification also allows you to maximize lead generation. Branded games help online businesses to convert social media followers into identified users, as well as convert anonymous website visitors into qualified leads. You can for example embed an Olympics Hidden Objects game and offer a discount code to all users that participate in your playable promotion. Apart from collecting new contact details you also increase your chances of boosting sales. 

Another dynamic that you can prepare right in time for the Olympics is a Personality Quiz where users answer a series of questions to find out how much a sporty person they are. 

Predictions as one of the fun Olympic Games online promotion ideas

Is your online community especially interested in one specific discipline? Or maybe they just enjoy guessing the final score or winners of sports events? One of the classic games that we often see during the Olympics is a Predictions promotion. Simply prepare one or two questions where you ask users to predict the total number of medals that your representation will come back with. If you want to make it more difficult, you can ask them to predict the number of gold, silver, and bronze medals. 

Try our Olympics Predictions promotion to see all the different possibilities available to you and your brand. Don’t forget to customize your promotion with corporate images, logos and branding colors. 

The best Olympic athlete of all time

Last but not least is the Tournament Bracket application and a battle between athletes. For example, you can ask your followers to vote for their favorite athlete of all time in various disciplines, or ask them to vote for their favorite tennis player.

Don’t forget to try our Olympics Bracket DEMO!

How do you like our Olympic Games Promotion ideas? Are you ready to launch your own game, giveaway, or contest? Don’t worry if you have further questions – you can always contact our Support Team!

As well as being featured on online travel agencies and booking sites like Booking.com, many hotels have adapted their own websites to accept online reservations, making it possible for them to obtain customers directly. But how can you attract customers to your website in the first place? There are a number of actions that hotels are already using on social media and digital channels to get good results. Get ready to give them a try! Take a look at our favorite hotel promotion ideas.

Instagram giveaway to promote a hotel or accommodation 

This is the easiest and fastest way to promote your hotel on social media: organize an Instagram giveaway with comments to generate more brand visibility. That’s exactly what this hotel did:

Find a theme for your giveaway and announce it on social media. Show users the prize on offer and explain what they have to do to take part. Easypromos always recommends that you make comments on the post the primary action for participating. It’s also a good idea to create some terms and conditions and share them on your social media profile. That will help you manage any incidents that may arise during the promotion.

Is your community also active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Strava, and Twitch? There are lots of ways of creating online giveaways and capturing the attention of your audience on social media. Choose the best option for your online strategy.

Giveaway with registration to capture data from the public

If you want to go beyond increasing the reach of your brand on social media to capturing data from interested users, entry form promotions are a great bet. The most common action is an Entry Form Giveaway, where everyone who fills in their data can register for the giveaway. When it comes to hotels, the prize couldn’t be easier to choose: a free stay at your hotel is the perfect prize to attract the attention of potential customers.

In the following examples you can see how easy it is to create a microsite displaying the prize and the contact form that users must complete for a chance to win. The URL of this microsite can be shared on social media or any other online or offline channel. All participants are added to the same list of registered entrants. The Easypromos giveaway tool enables you to select one or more winners and alternates from the entrants. In this way, the brand can announce that the winner has been selected with the reliable Easypromos prize draw system and certified by a public notary. As well as the Winners Page, the brand can also display a Certificate of Validity to give the draw even greater transparency.

The email platform can also be very useful for Entry Form Giveaways because it makes it possible to contact participants, confirming their entry, informing them of the results, or sending them discount vouchers. ByHours, a micro-stay reservation platform, organized a very successful Entry Form Giveaway. Participants entered their details for a chance to win a stay at a hotel. All participants received a 10% discount on the platform as well.

A prize wheel for fun distribution of discounts and gifts

Another way to capture the attention of your audience and convince them to share their personal data with your brand is to offer instant direct prizes. If you want to gamify this action, a prize wheel is a great option. You can distribute discounts, as well as other free products and merchandising. You’ll also be able to control the probability of prizes being awarded, and add “No Prize” boxes if you don’t want a prize to be awarded every time. 

In the following example, Hay Creek Hotels decided to launch a promotion to attract customers after a prolonged shutdown period due to COVID-19. They distributed discounts for overnight stays at their hotels, as well as for their restaurants.

Even more fun and interactive dynamic than hosting a final draw among registered users is to give away prizes with a Spin the Wheel contest. By distributing the prize instantly you’ll generate more engagement with users. Check out our tips for organizing a Spin the Wheel contest if you like the sound of this dynamic but aren’t sure if it fits with the type and number of prizes you want to distribute.

Games and quizzes for capturing user data through engagement

There is one type of promotion that generates an especially large amount of engagement and excitement: games. As Facebook Gaming states in its latest eBook, 86% of internet users play games on their mobile devices, and 80% of people who don’t consider themselves gamers play on their cellphones (according to the Global Web Index of Q3 2018). This means that it’s not only younger users who are attracted to gamified actions: a large majority of online audiences love them too.

An association of campsites in Girona, Spain, shared an online puzzle to remind their target audience of their brand, and also to encourage users to book their stays in the campsites that summer. Instead of doing this with a simple one-way message, the campsite association prepared a puzzle with a prize draw to win a weekend’s stay in one of the campsites.

There are several easy-to-configure game apps that enable you to include lots of branding elements while encouraging participants to have some fun playing a game. Here are some other examples with different types of games:

Ohai organized a “Word Search” game to highlight the qualities of their outdoor resorts and what makes them stand out from the crowd. 

The Lopesan Hotel Group regularly launches gamified actions during the. One of these was the Memory game in the image above. Participants had to find matching Halloween images. As always, making your prize stand out is key to a successful contest. Offering winners a discount on their next vacation is a great idea.

The Devonshire Hotel has used games on a number of occasions. For its Valentine’s Day campaign it organized a Match It game, which was very successful. The hotel was able to capture data from visitors to its website, while promoting the hotel on social media.

Quizzes also form part of this field of gamification, challenging users to take part in a game for the chance to win a prize.

Hotel promotion ideas: Photo contests to convert your clients into brand ambassadors

An important part of hotel marketing focuses on transforming customer experiences into recommendations that help brand notoriety and diffusion. That’s why it’s so important for hotels to take care of every last detail and provide customers with a superlative, setback-free stay. But how can this experience be capitalized on and turned into something specific to present to future clients? 

That’s where surveys, incentives and contests come in. They are a great way of converting customers into brand ambassadors who will happily recommend your hotel to others. One of the most common ways of doing this is to ask guests to fill in satisfaction surveys. Just remember to provide some kind of incentive and to make it easy for guests to fill in the form on their cellphones.

For example, you could run a monthly sweepstakes among all guests who share a photo of their stay on social media and receive at least five votes for it. You could also provide some specially designed frames, decorated with your brand aesthetic, which entrants can use to display their photos. In this way you’ll obtain two benefits: clients’ recommendations plus branding. Try the following DEMO of a photo contest.

You can propose this type of dynamic to your guests, as well as other potential clients. In the following example, Hotel Group Lopesan took advantage of Mother’s Day to organize a photo contest using personalized branded frames. Then they ran a prize draw for a free night’s stay for two people.

If you’re looking for something simpler, you could just organize a survey and run a prize draw between everyone who completes the survey each month. Remember, the most important thing is to achieve high levels of diffusion among your target audience by providing an attention-grabbing prize.

Do you like our campsite, tourist accommodation, and hotel promotion ideas? If you have any doubts, please get in touch with our live chat team. If you’re ready to try your first promotion, just set up your Easypromos account. Access is totally free and you’ll soon see just how intuitive it all is.