SweepWidget

SweepWidget runs viral giveaways and contests aimed at growing social media followers, engagement, email lists, website traffic, brand visibility and sales, with the vendor reporting more than 15,000 customers.

The mechanism that makes giveaways work is worth understanding before running one, because it is also what makes them fail.

Entrants earn additional chances by completing actions: following an account, sharing a post, referring a friend or joining a mailing list. That converts one entrant into several impressions and several new contacts, which is why the format persists.

The failure is equally predictable. A giveaway with a universally desirable prize, a tablet, a cash sum, a popular console, attracts people who want that prize and have no interest whatsoever in the brand. Those entrants follow to enter, unfollow after the draw, and leave a mailing list full of addresses that will never buy anything and will damage deliverability.

Prizes that only appeal to the intended customer produce fewer entrants and better ones. A giveaway for a year of your own product attracts people who want your product; a giveaway for an iPad attracts everyone.

The other consideration is legal rather than tactical. Prize promotions are regulated, and the rules differ by country and sometimes by state: what must be disclosed, whether a purchase can be required, how winners must be selected and what records must be kept. Running one without checking is a genuine risk rather than a formality.

Pricing is published with monthly and annual billing at $58 per month and $348 annually.