7 Ways Online Sweepstakes Grow Your Youth Customer Base

While contests and online sweepstakes are nothing new, they’ve taken on a new life with the continual growth of social media. Now more than ever, online sweepstakes are easy, affordable, and effective. As the marketing landscape continues to evolve, sweepstakes will serve as a helpful strategy to increase the number of people who interact with your brand and deepen existing connections.

When executed correctly, online sweepstakes create a win-win situation for brands and entrants alike. Most often, they are used for the following reasons:

Increase brand awareness and generate word-of-mouth “buzz”
Deepen engagement
Nurture prospective customers through email capture or text opt-in
Drive customer conversion and sales

If your brand is trying to engage with Millennials and Gen-Z, you must execute in a way that feels authentic and relevant. Below are eight tips for capturing the attention of these demographics, while also creating a lasting impression that will keep your brand top-of-mind.

1. Make It Easy

Don’t ask for too much from entrants. When utilizing an online entry form, minimize the number of form fields to increase completion rates. Only ask for the information that is absolutely necessary. The more questions you ask, the less likely your participants are to complete the form. When entering an online sweepstakes, your entrants will weigh the amount of effort against the value of the reward, and you want to balance that scale in your favor. Whenever possible, integrate a social sign-in option to further ease the process.

2. Ensure the Prize Feels Attainable

Wondering what factors influence participation? According to a report from HelloWorld, 72% of people will enter an online sweepstakes if the odds of winning are high. Sixty-seven percent of people will enter based on the size and price value of the reward. As you can see, it’s important to structure your sweepstakes in a way that makes the prize seem both attainable and valuable. Consider offering a higher volume of a mid-range prizes to increase the likelihood of participation (as opposed to offering one top-tier prize).

3. Bigger Isn’t Always Better

While second to the odds of winning, the actual prize is important. When choosing between gift cards, physical products, or experiences, it’s important to know who you’re targeting in order to align the prize with potential interest from the desired audience. To help inform your decision, you can simply survey a subset of customers on what types of prizes and incentives would motivate them to participate. And don’t worry if your budget is tight, the prize is not the sole driver of participation—a quality and meaningful prize is key.

4. Bring the Prize to Life

If Millennials and Gen-Z are able to physically see what they might win, it becomes more tangible. Consider announcing or promoting the online sweepstakes at physical events.

5. Lean into the Power of Social

In addition to utilizing your brand-owned channels to promote the online sweepstakes, you should also encourage entrants to share the sweepstakes with their social networks. If your budget allows, utilize relevant, brand-right social influencers to increase awareness within your target audience. Newer or small brands will especially benefit from the automatic validation of being associated with a well-known peer or public figure.

6. Optimize Your Entry Page for Mobile

Millennials and Gen-Z use their phones more frequently than their laptops, so having your sweepstakes’ entry page be mobile-optimized is critical. Don’t make the assumption that participants will be entering the sweepstakes on their laptop, especially if you’re collecting entries at a physical event. Make the entry experience both smooth and intuitive. If your website is confusing, people will likely drop off and participation will decrease.

7. Bit.ly or URL

On the topic of mobile, if collecting entries at a physical activation or extending the reach through social, ensure that the website is easy to access and remember. URL shorteners like Bit.ly allow you to shorten and customize the link, which also makes it easier to share.

Like other tactics, online sweepstakes can be extremely effective when used as a part of your overall marketing strategy. Consumer facing brands, as well as many business-to-business enterprises, can take advantage of sweepstakes by using the seven tips highlighted above.

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HOW CAN YMC HELP?

Want to engage the coveted Millennial and Gen-Z demographics? Finding the right partner is key to your success. Here at YMC, we’ve been helping brands connect with 15- to 29-year-old consumers for two decades—and we’d be happy to share our wealth of knowledge with you. Contact us today!

YouTube Influencers Are Changing the Face of Advertising

Let’s face it: traditional advertising just isn’t cutting it these days. Recent studies show that 96% of consumers prefer the genuine feel and appeal of influencer-generated content versus overt brand-generated content. More than ever before, brands are relying on relatable YouTube influencers to create authentic and engaging content on their social channels in order to stay top-of-mind with consumers.

With the value of print ads and traditional commercials decreasing, YouTube, in particular, has become a prime social platform for Millennial and Gen-Z influencers to share high quality and engaging content. User-generated content on YouTube gets 10 times as many views as videos created directly by brands. In other words, if you’re trying to increase brand awareness, YouTube is a prime medium to do so.

Here are four industries that are using YouTube influencers to change the game:

1. Consumer Goods

In the consumer goods industry, beauty and fashion brands alike are leveraging influencer marketing to help drive sales amid the shift in consumer retail behavior. Consumers most often search YouTube for product reviews and rankings from beauty and fashion gurus, to guide them to the right products.

As an example, watch this sponsored video for Sephora. YouTuber Kristin Johns tells a captivating story and effortlessly weaves Sephora’s latest lip products throughout the video in a subtle, yet effective way. It’s clear from the hundreds of positive comments left on her blog posts that her followers and fans appreciate this creative approach to sponsored content. Consumers also look to more traditional YouTube videos, like product reviews and rankings from beauty and fashion gurus, to guide them to the right product.

2. Travel

Millennials and Gen-Z seek travel inspiration from social influencers and are even selecting destinations based on the social content they’ve seen. Content creators use YouTube to share their adventures through cinematic video blogs (vlogs). One look at this vlogger’s trip to Bali and you’re bound to get the travel bug!

Pro tip: Combine branded content with a dreamy destination and watch the views roll in.

3. Food

With the rise in vlogging on YouTube, social influencers are sharing more about their lives than ever before—normal, everyday activities like a trip to Target or a coffee date with a friend are all recorded and captured in vlogs. Subscribers are anxious to know everything about their favorite YouTubers, including what they eat! Take this video by Lauren Elizabeth where she shares all of her favorite healthy snacks. Since consumers trust user-generated product reviews 12 times more than a brand’s promotional content, it’s a great time for the food industry to refine their digital marketing strategies.

4. Health & Wellness

Along with the rise of beauty and fashion influencers on YouTube, another huge genre of content revolves around the fitness, health, and wellness industries. Consumers look to fitness influencers not only for workout tips, but also suggestions on workout clothes, health and dietary supplements, and much more.

While we’ve seen a boom in YouTube content across these four industries specifically, any brand that is looking to target Millennials and Gen-Z would benefit from leveraging influencers. Not sure where to start or how to select the right influencer for your brand? Read our tips to find the perfect match.