How Think Media’s SweepWidget Contest Drove Revenue Growth: Case Study

Last updated on April 11th, 2024 at 08:14 pm

Introduction to Think Media

Think Media is a beacon for creators and entrepreneurs looking to navigate the complexities of digital content creation and social media strategy. With a YouTube channel boasting millions of subscribers, Think Media has established itself as a leading authority on video production, camera technology, and content strategy. Their mission is to empower individuals and businesses by providing in-depth tutorials, honest gear reviews, and insightful advice on building a successful online presence.

Contest Results – Key Statistics at a Glance

• Opt-ins Exceeded Target: 8,403 opt-ins, far surpassing the goal of 5,000.
• Email Marketing Success:
  • Average Open Rate: 34.6% (Goal: 18%)
  • Average Click-Through Rate (CTR): 8.12% (Goal: 2%)
  • Peak Performances: One email achieved a 48.5% open rate, another a 23% CTR.
• Sales Conversion Enhancements:
  • Holiday Bundle Sales: 230
  • Order Bumps: 21
  • Upsells: 22
  • Video Ranking Academy (VRA) Sales: 42 (No predefined target)
• Revenue Impact: Achieved 1.8x the original revenue goal, with a projection to quadruple over the next year.

Overview of the Contest

In an effort to deepen engagement with their community and drive significant opt-in growth, Think Media orchestrated a meticulously designed contest leveraging SweepWidget. This contest was not just a giveaway but a strategic move to gamify the user experience, encourage interaction across multiple social media platforms, and ultimately enhance their marketing metrics. By choosing SweepWidget, Think Media aimed to overcome the limitations of previous platforms, offering a seamless, inclusive, and engaging contest experience for their audience.

Detailed Statistics and Outcomes

• Opt-ins: The campaign achieved a staggering 8,403 opt-ins, demonstrating the contest’s appeal and the effective call to action, far exceeding the initial goal of 5,000.
• Email Marketing Performance:
  • The average open rate soared to 34.6%, almost doubling the anticipated goal of 18%.
  • The average CTR reached an impressive 8.12%, vastly outperforming the goal of 2%.
  • Standout email metrics included a 48.5% open rate and a 23% CTR, showcasing the content’s relevance and the audience’s engagement.
• Sales Conversion Metrics:
  • Holiday Bundle Sales nearly reached the goal with 230 sales.
  • Introduced Order Bumps and Upsells contributed to 21 and 22 sales respectively, enhancing the overall revenue.
  • The contest indirectly influenced 42 sales of the Video Ranking Academy, despite no direct sales goal.
• Revenue Impact: The strategic integration of SweepWidget in the contest not only achieved but exceeded revenue expectations, achieving 1.8 times the original goal with projections indicating a potential to quadruple revenue over the next year.

These outcomes highlight the power of a well-crafted contest to not only meet but exceed marketing objectives, driving significant engagement, opt-ins, and sales. Think Media’s success story serves as a compelling case study for the potential impact of leveraging SweepWidget in marketing campaigns.

Q&A with Think Media

What motivated Think Media’s choice of SweepWidget, and which platform features were pivotal in this decision?

I liked the multitude of options to enter from our social platforms since we have a large community base on so many different platforms. It allowed us to use a variety of social outlets to help drive traffic to them while also giving giveaway participants the option to use the social platforms of their choosing. I also was inclined to use your software due to the ability to use hidden codes in our giveaway to help gamify our campaigns for our community. Lastly, the ability to embed our giveaway on the page of our choosing. This helped customize the feel of our giveaway and to help point the participants to the next steps we wanted them to take with us.

What specific goals did Think Media set for this contest, and how did SweepWidget align with these targets?

For one of our campaigns that ran a course of 12 days we had set a goal of achieving 5,000 opt ins for the giveaway and we got 8,403 opt ins. SweepWidget made it very easy for our participants to sign up for the giveaway.

What particular challenges did Think Media seek to overcome through this contest, and how were they addressed by SweepWidget’s capabilities?

The previous software we had been using often had issues when a user had an adblocker on their browser. Even though we would embed their giveaway on our pages, some people were unable to sign up due to the adblocker. We didn’t find this to be an issue when using SweepWidget which helped all of our users have a chance to participate.

Please provide key metrics such as follower increase, engagement rates, or other performance indicators that showcase the effectiveness of the SweepWidget contest.

In order to access the page with the giveaway embedded on it, we had people opt in on a sign up page. The goal of this was to vet out people who really wanted to participate in the giveaway and to make it clear the objective of the campaign prior to entering. We used hidden codes in our emails, livestreams, free webclasses. and social platforms to encourage people to visit those places and read or watch the content in entirety. Our email performance showed the highest yielding results. We had set goals for an average open rate of 18% and click through rate (CTR) of 2% but ended up with an average open rate of 34.6% and CTR of 8.12%, with one email achieving a 48.5 % open rate and another reaching a 23% CTR which is insanely high for email marketing.

What unique benefits did Think Media gain from using SweepWidget, and how did these contribute to the contest’s success?

The ability to enter multiple hidden codes throughout the giveaway gave us the ability to maintain engaged participants throughout the course of the whole giveaway. It allowed for a scavenger hunt type of dynamic and made it really fun for our community. The feedback we received from those who participated were very positive and the goodwill it built with them was impactful.

Describe the contest’s design, the entry methods selected, and their impact on Think Media’s campaign objectives.

We had a sign up page for people to opt into the giveaway. The next page had the giveaway embedded on it along with a sales page to our holiday bundle with a special discounted price for giveaway participants. We structured the giveaway to allow for multiple entries. We did giveaways throughout the course of 12 days, not necessarily every day though. Some days we gave away free courses or digital resources that everyone received via email. Other days we gave away tech and gear for video production, including full livestreaming kits, and those winners were pulled at random via SweepWidget throughout the promotion.

Codes were sprinkled throughout the emails, livestreams, free webclasses. and social platforms during this promotion window. Our webclasses are free for people to participate in but lead to an offer of our signature program we sell so we would wait to share the next hidden code until after we had pitched our offer on each webclass. The livestreams pointed to people joining our webclasses too. Social platform entries were also used such as visiting and engaging with our YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.

We were simultaneously trying to improve our social metrics but even more so our email metrics. Increasing our open and click through rates for email increases your email deliverability. A daily email went out sharing where they could look for additional codes to increase their chances of winning and that was where winners were announced as well. The prizes and giveaways in each email encouraged a higher open and click through rate consistently throughout the promotion. The holiday bundle included a ticket to a live workshop we held at the end of the giveaway where we pointed to our signature program again and the event served as a close to the giveaway as well as the end of our holiday bundle sale.

Outline the marketing strategies employed for the contest and how SweepWidget’s features supported these initiatives.

The primary strategy was utilizing gamification for this promotion. The hidden codes were embedded into our different content platforms (YouTube video descriptions, verbally shared on livestreams and webclasses, included in emails and social media captions) and leaving them for participants to find scavenger-hunt style. A daily email over the 12 days pointed to how to participate each day. We also leaned into engagement entry methods throughout the promotion window to include watching and commenting on YouTube videos and creating Instagram posts while tagging our social accounts.

Between all giveaway entry methods, each participant will have over 50 different opportunities to enter for a chance to win a giveaway!

How did SweepWidget’s entry methods facilitate increased engagement and interaction with the Think Media brand?

The entry methods gave us a variety of options for people to choose how to participate. Hidden codes was the main driving entry method but we were even selective in which of our YouTube videos would best serve our community in the giveaway and used those as a way to enter by giving them points for watching and commenting on our videos. Which in turn also impacted our videos’ watch time, average view duration, other engagement rates, etc.

Discuss the key performance indicators that were monitored, and the role SweepWidget’s analytics played in this tracking.

We measured how many email opt ins for the giveaway we captured, our email rates, and the conversions of our sales. While we primarily did this giveaway to drive holiday bundles, we were pleased to see the trickle down effect this campaign had on other points of sale. There weren’t any goals set for our signature program Video Ranking Academy (VRA) but we were able to attribute a lot of our sales during this time period to participants who came from the giveaway specifically. 

• Page opt ins goal: 5,000
• Final: 8,403

Email:

• Average open rate goal – 18%
• Average CTR goal – 2%
• Final avg open rate – 34.6%
• Final avg CTR – 8.12%

Conversions:

• Holiday Bundle Sales Goal – 300
• Final sales – 230
• Holiday Bundle Order Bumps Goal – 0
• Final sales – 21

• Holiday Bundle Upsells Goal – 0
• Final sales – 22
• VRA Sales Goal – 0
• Final VRAs sold – 42

We also brought in 1.8x of our revenue original goal and a 4x of our revenue goal projected over this next year.

Reflect on the user experience from both the administrative and participant viewpoints. How did SweepWidget perform in terms of usability?

Admin – Graham was so great in accommodating our needs as we were building out our giveaways. Everything he implemented was exactly what we wanted and functioned how I had described when requesting it! The analytics were useful to track our performance, we would love to see a filter where we can sort for analytics within a specific date range. Also, the ability to manually add entries to a user was useful but it would be great to have a feature where we can bulk add entries to a group of people, especially with the influx of support tickets we received. This could be done via a CSV where one column is the email of the user and the second column is the number of entries to grant. A CSV option would come in handy for entering in so many giveaway codes as we had rather than manually typing them into the text box. It was useful to be able to toggle whether to count an entry as valid or not but when the anti-spam filter marked an entry as an invalid response, it would be equally helpful to be able to change this directly with a yes or no dropbox. This would allow us to override any entries mistakenly marked as spam. Lastly, if we could sort the entries by validity that would make it easier to manage these “invalid” entries as well.

I think the UI is great and really clean. The layout of the entry methods is pretty straightforward and the convenience of watching the YouTube videos directly on the widget is also great. I think the anti-spam filter was too routine of a problem for most people. It seemed like even if an individual was able to submit entries successfully at first, it would at some point trigger the anti-spam filter and they would have to contact our team about having manual entries added to their account to make up for this. We received a lot of support tickets on this issue.

What strategies did Think Media implement post-contest, and how did SweepWidget assist in managing these?

We maintained communication with these participants via email. SweepWidget was useful in helping us pull the winner’s information for the giveaway fulfillment.

Could you comment on the quality of customer support received from SweepWidget? How responsive and effective was the support during the contest setup and execution?

Graham was so great! His prompt replies, thoroughness, and ability to project and articulate what we needed was huge in the success of our giveaways. Felt like he was reading my mind sometimes! His patience has been appreciated as we’ve been in between lots of campaigns these past couple of months and are busier than our norm. The end of the year and the beginning of the next year hold a majority of our momentum and highest revenue generating promotions so his ability to work with us during this time was a big win for us!

Can Think Media provide a testimonial on its SweepWidget experience for inclusion in the case study, highlighting satisfaction and results?

We chose to work with SweepWidget for its robust social media integration, embeddable giveaway widget, and hidden codes feature which helped us exceed our opt-in target for one of our giveaways that procured over 8,400 sign-ups, far surpassing our goal of 5,000. The platform’s standout features and engaging giveaway experience significantly boosted our email marketing metrics to include an average open rate of 34.6% and an average click through rate of 8.12% during one of our campaigns (significant numbers when it comes to email marketing)! On top of that, that campaign also is expected to generate 4x the revenue goal of what we anticipated. What truly made a difference was the exceptional customer support from SweepWidget. Their responsive and proactive assistance played a crucial role in the smooth execution of our campaigns, contributing to our remarkable results in engagement and participation. SweepWidget served as a great part of our marketing strategy and allowed us to connect with our community in a fun and interactive way.

Can you delve into the statistics of the contest’s reach, such as new followers acquired, engagement levels, and how these figures compared to previous campaigns without SweepWidget?

We didn’t track new followers or other metrics for our social platforms. The primary objective was our email marketing and holiday bundle sales. Social platforms were a nice way to switch up the entry methods and served as a secondary objective. Since we primarily targeted our current email contacts that had a history of being engaged with our list, this didn’t significantly grow in size either. We also had never done a campaign similar to this; it was a new idea we wanted to test out for adding value to our current leads. But it has influenced our decision to continue to incorporate more hidden codes in not only future promotions but even in our regular weekly emails to help more people read and click through them.