How Authors can use Rafflecopter to Boost Engagement

Hello Lovely authors!

I have a lot of favorite tools to help me make an impact in my marketing strategies, but one of my favorite is Rafflecopter. It allows you to offer giveaways, build your audience, and protects you from accusations of favoritism for free. Plus, you don't have to set up a google form, which can be quite the hassle!

And I love their snark! But it takes a savy marketer to finagle Rafflecopter for free. Just like every app out there, they are looking for a way to make money. (Hey, we are too, don't hold it against them!)

But if I had to pay for every tool I use, I would never make money at this whole writing gig. I think you can sympathize!

So, let's get back to how to use Rafflecopter free to achieve your best results!

Once upon a time, every person who entered a Rafflecopter had to provide their email address to be notified when they won, and Rafflecopter would provide the host of the giveaway those email address. No more. They still collect the email addresses, but they don't send it to you. Thank Can-spamm for that. But there are still some pretty neat features and if you plan ahead, you can do some great stuff.

When you go in to start a giveaway, it asks you to tell us about your giveaway. To show a picture, you have to pay. Don't let this lure you in. You can simply put an image in the announcement that you do for the giveaway, so no worries!

After you enter the prize(s) you are offering during your giveaway, you enter the things that people can do to earn entries for the giveaway. Rafflecopter offers a pretty awesome list of options pre-established. Once upon a time, those were all free, but now most of them cost money. Sneaky, what they did there, right?

You can have them visit your Facebook fan page for free, but that doesn't really help unless they actually like the page (and thanks to Facebook's limiting features, that doesn't really do any good either. But you can add an Invent Your Own option asking them to visit your Facebook fanpage and comment. This will boost your page's reach.

You can ask them to tweet a message. This is pretty awesome, especially if you take advantage of hashtags. Enough entrants tweeting your event and you could trend! You can also have them follow you on Twitter and build your following there. You can get them to leave a comment on your Blog Post, boosting your blog engagement.

The rest of the features all require being paid. The best features, require paying.

Or you can creatively take advantage of that Invent your Own button and McGuyver a solution to your problem!

I prefer to use Rafflecopter to build my email list, and as Mailchimp provides a link for forms, I simply add that as part of the entry process. I have my notifications set up to show every person who subscribes, so I save this when I do a Rafflecopter so I can verify that they did actually enter if that is how they are chosen.

You can do the same for getting them to like your social media page, simply verifying they liked your page. There is no limit to what you can do for Invent Your Own options, except your imagination!

After you set your giveaway options, you need to set the date. Make sure this is planned well in advance, because once you set it, you cannot change it unless... you guessed it, you pay!

After it is all set up, their installation page provides you with a variety of ways that you can share your giveaway. Embed in your blog in website provides you the HTML code to be able to add the cute mini graphic. This is convenient for you to send to bloggers if you are doing a tour.

There is also a feature that allows you to add it to your Facebook page, so everyone on your Facebook page will know and be able to enter as well. Pretty nice, right?

There is also the option to share the Rafflecopter through a link.

And there you go. How to use Rafflecopter. Rafflecopter also provides a lot of marketing tips to promote your giveaways, and I enjoy their quarterly email, so you should sign up for that too.

Any questions about Rafflecopter? Let us know in the comments below!

What other help would you like with marketing? Send me a message and I will write a blog post for you!

Until next time,