A few weeks ago, I stumbled on this giveaway from Taylor Davis, and was blown away by what I saw:
With almost two days left, she racked up over 3K entries, just by giving away a few CDs! All that social media action probably cost her $100 — $50 for the CDs plus shipping, and $49 to host the competition through Gleam.
My Gleam Giveaway
I knew I had to get in on that, but I didn’t have a new CD handy, so I partnered with ROLI to give away something even better: a Seaboard Block.
It made perfect sense for my audience, as ROLI gear and the Seaboard Block in particular appear in several of my little performance videos, like this one:
After two video calls and a half dozen emails, we came up with this:
You’ll notice I opted to hide the total number of entries. I don’t have any data to back up that decision, but as Han Solo and I always say, “Never tell me the odds!”
You may be wondering how we came up with those particular entry methods, out of the insane number of choices:
Our initial plan was to focus on Instagram, but recent API changes forced Gleam to remove follow actions for both Instagram and Facebook. Instead, ROLI opted for email signups and app downloads.
I went with Spotify follows and email signups. Spotify actions are available starting on the $49 Pro Plan, but I could’ve just as easily gone with SoundCloud for only $10:
Two other features of the $49 Pro Plan stood out to me:
- Smart Post Entry Emails. Each entrant receives an email to confirm their entry and let them know the other ways they can enter.
- Viral Share Action. Entrants gain extra entries by sharing a personalized contest link. It only counts when someone else actually enters.
We blasted a link to the contest out on email, our social channels, and even as a widget in the sidebar of Passive Promotion. A week and a few social media reminders later, here are the results:
The moral of the story? Put your most desired actions first! If I could do it again, I’d put the email signup options below the Spotify follow and app download.
Gleam selected the winner for me at random: Aaron Melon of Denver, Colorado. ROLI and I followed up with him by email to deliver the prizes.
After that, we emailed our new subscribers to announce the winner and to offer a discount code, since they obviously expressed an interest in the Seaboard Block and/or my albums.
And that was a wrap! Gleam made it painless. I expected to have to walk people through the entry process or even record a video demonstration, but I didn’t receive a single question or complaint.
Should you decide to give Gleam a try, please support the site by using my referral link. Don’t forget to share your results in the comments!
UPDATE 10/3/18: Gleam just posted a detailed case study on our promotion, with lots more details and plenty of advice for musicians.
UPDATE 1/31/20: After over a year and a half, 1163 of the 1693 who subscribed to my mailing list are still subscribed.
Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash
