How I Use Viral Contests To Build My Email List, Brand + Revenue :)

Have you ever heard the saying: “The money is in the list?” I am sure you have, but not sure if you realise that this is 100% true. I have taken part in several affiliate marketing contests with massive prizes to be won and one thing that I always found super perplexing is the fact that a lot of the times those that win these massive affiliate contests – you don’t see them doing any marketing whatsoever. There is no blog article, no marketing video, nothing. So how do they win these contests if they do no marketing, write no blog articles, create no videos?

The answer to this perplexing question is that these winners built massive email lists throughout the years and all they do whilst everyone is spending hours on hours creating promotional videos, blog articles etc. is to sip on their cup of coffee while sending out email after email within minutes to their massive subscriber lists. All that is left for them to do is to count the massive amounts of money they made through these targeted emails and to collect their huge affiliate prizes at the end of the affiliate competitions.

The problem however is that you first need to build these big email lists and it can take a very long time to do so. So what is a smart way to build email lists, your brand and revenue quickly?

One quick way to do this is through viral social sharing contests in conjunction with giveaways. I have seen proof of one such contest generating 251,472 page views, 124,493 followers and 62,354 email leads within one single contest.

The secret to be super successful with this strategy, especially seems to be, when collaborating with other companies/marketers and to also collaborate when it comes to the prizes that will be given away during the social sharing contest.

As you all know that there is massive power in numbers. So what if you can get an army of people that will happily and willingly share your brand on their social media, day after day. Can you imagine how viral your brand/business can go in quick succession ... and the more your contest is shared with others the more subscribers you will gain as everyone that signs up to the contest automatically subscribes to you in order to access the social sharing actions and to be notified when the winners are announced.

There are several options here as these social sharing contests does not necessarily only have to be in the form of social sharing contest/leaderboards etc. but alongside such a contest you can also run a lucky draw contest should you wish or even apart from all this a loyalty/reward program. You can also in the process get your fans/followers to build your brand by creating user generated content of how they use your product/software etc.

PS. These are just some thoughts that I thought some of you as marketers may find interesting. Some food for thought. Should you wish to have more details on exactly how this work or any recommendations, feel free to comment below or to send me a PM.

Oh just another random thought. I just thought about a massive gym clothing company "Gymshark" that started out here in the UK some years ago and today it is a billion dollar company. Guess how they grew their brand? By sending models, sport stars and celebrities gym clothes for free and asking them to wear it while doing posts of them wearing it on Instagram etc. Social media can be a incredibly powerful tool if you know how to use it correctly.

Wishing you the very best of success with your online business!

Best wishes!

Schalk