At this very moment, there are an estimated 12 million - 24 million eCommerce sites across the world. To put that number in perspective — if you launched 100 online shops every day, it would take 657 years to launch 24 million of them.
That’s a lot.
With so many eCommerce sites up and running, it can sometimes get challenging for yours to truly shine, generate leads and sales.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help you make your business stand out from the crowd. That’s why today we’ll show you 4 contest ideas to help you generate more leads for your Shopify store.
Important
Organic growth is the best growth. Spending $0 for marketing and organically grow your eCommerce store from scratch to $1,000,000/year is everyone’s dream. Unfortunately, this rarely (if ever) happens.
On the flip side, you also don’t need to be spending $1,000 for marketing or advertising to get $1,000 in profit back. There are better ways to grow your store. Ways that will help you grow your store faster, without constantly having to reinvent the wheel.
One of the best ways to do that is to incorporate a so-called “virality” aspect into your campaign. You know, like those Youtube videos that go viral because people start sharing them immediately after watching. Yeah, that.
With a bit of work, that aspect can be easily incorporated onto your webpage. This is how.
Prelaunch Waitlist Contest (Robinhood)
Let’s say you haven’t yet launched your online store, or you have a product that you’re getting ready to introduce to your store. Don’t wait until your launch day to start generating traction, do that right now.
With Prelaunch Waitlist, you can generate word of mouth faster by allowing people to sign up for your exclusive (make sure to mention that! ) waitlist and then giving them the chance to move up the waitlist by referring friends to it.
Take it even further by offering something exclusive to those that end up in the first place (or first ten places). That can be a free item from your store, a gift card, or something else. Entirely up to you, but make sure to make it worth their while.
One of the best examples of a genuinely successful Prelaunch Waitlist Contest was the campaign created by Robinhood.
Bonus Entry Giveaway
Every eCommerce site owner knows that deals, giveaways, and sweepstakes are the backbone of every online store.
However, because they’re the backbone and everyone is doing it, sometimes they take a while to truly take off. You might get a few entries, but giveaways typically die after a few of those. Bonus Entry Sweepstake is different because it has the virality aspect built into it and therefore prevents that from happening.
If you really want this campaign to work, make sure to put up a reward that people want. Like the best-selling item in your store. Or even a few of them, put together in a bundle.
When you create a Bonus Entry Sweepstake, you give your audience the opportunity to enter that sweepstake and then even earn additional entries and increase their odds of winning by either following your brand or referring friends.
Not only will you be able to grow your social media following using this contest, but you’ll also prevent your sweepstake from dying down by having people constantly share it with their friends. Win-win.
Email Opt-in Bribes
Sure, you’re selling physical items in your store, something people can touch and interact with. But why limit yourself to that when you can grow your email list and consequently increase your revenue using digital goodies as well.
Enter Email Opt-in Bribes.
With this contest, you’ll create a form for people to sign up if they want to get your super special digital download for free.
Growing your email list might sound counterproductive, but it’s the long game you’re playing here. With more people signing up for your list, you’ll have a bigger audience to market to using your weekly newsletter. A bigger email list = more sales.
We know what you’re thinking. What digital download could you even offer?
You can go as simple as offering them a discount when they sign up for your list. But why not make it even more enticing and provide valuable content where they can learn something about your products and how to use them.
For example — if you sell yoga mats, why not create a short PDF about a morning yoga routine everyone should start their day with?
If you sell fishing poles, you could create a step-by-step guide on how to catch more fish.
Just make it valuable, and people will come.
Shopify Rewards Contest
Running a contest that generates leads is great. But running one that generates sales is better.
That’s where Shopify Rewards Contests come in.
With this campaign, you don’t just drive leads. Your aim is to drive sales and reward those fans that refer buyers.
Most eCommerce stores put a lot of effort into those first steps that happen before a customer buys something. They develop a high-converting webpage, the perfect purchase flow, but most don’t really pay attention to what happens afterward.
If John buys something from your store, why should his journey end there and then? What if you would give him the opportunity to get something more in just a few steps?
Using Shopify Reward Contest, you can offer John to get something for free or a special discount for every dollar their referrers spend in your store. Just think of it — it costs John $0 to refer someone to your yoga mat store when they ask him about where he bought it, but he can get a sweet prize if he does that. Why wouldn’t he try?
Our only tip to make this campaign successful is for the end prize to be exceptional, like a free item from your store. The referrers John gets rewarded for aren’t just leads. They’re buyers. And the sweeter the offer, the more high-converting people John will try to bring.
Your Turn
With so many opportunities to truly make it with your eCommerce store, what will your next step be?
To see how KickoffLabs can help you grow your business with the mentioned campaigns, make sure to sign up for our free trial today!