Looking for strategies to boost donations to your TapKat sweepstakes? A flash contest or flash giveaway is a great way to incentivize and reinvigorate donors to enter (or re-enter!) your sweepstakes.

In today’s blog post, we’re going to look at flash contests and flash giveaways, how they’re different, why they work, and explore some fun ideas to get you thinking about how this kind of promotion can work for your TapKat sweepstakes.

Why Run a Flash Contest or Flash Giveaway?

When you run a TapKat sweepstakes, you may notice that you see a big spike in donations when you first launch your sweepstakes, and again when the sweepstakes is about to close. Makes sense! Donors get excited when they first learn about the prize. Later, when they know the contest is about to close, they’ll often re-enter the sweepstakes, feeling excited about it again and wanting to increase their chances of winning.

That’s all great! At the same time, this is a fundraiser for a great cause, after all, and we want to keep donors engaged throughout the duration of the sweepstakes. A flash contest or flash giveaway is a great way to keep donors interested, build on the fun of the sweepstakes, and make sure that your TapKat sweepstakes stays fresh.

When you run a flash contest or flash giveaway, you’ll see a spike in donations as donors jump in on the fun. The Shelby American Collection is a car museum in Boulder, Colorado that makes great use of flash contests and flash giveaways. In the graph below, you can see a representation of the donations they were bringing in before the flash contest, then during the flash contest. There was a big jump when they sent out an email for their flash contest.

In this particular situation, their grand prize was a Shelby Mustang GT500, the perfect prize for a donor base that loves Ford sports cars. For their flash contest, they chose to offer up a car poster that was featuring famous race car driver Ken Miles, an item that they knew their base would really love (more on flash contest and flash incentive prizes, below).

This one flash contest ended up raising over $64,000 — so you can see how effective they can be!

What is a Flash Contest for TapKat Sweepstakes?

A flash contest (different than a flash giveaway) is essentially a sweepstakes within a sweepstakes. Your nonprofit can offer an additional (smaller) prize that’s up for grabs when donors enter within a certain timeframe. The flash contest prize will often be something related to the grand prize you’re offering, which is a great approach to make sure that you’re appealing to your donor base.

So, you might tell your donor base, “Everyone who purchases an entry to our sweepstakes between now and next Sunday at midnight will also be entered to win this $300 gift certificate to Massage Envy!”

At the end of the time frame, you get to pull a winner for the gift certificate and announce it to your email list and on your sweepstakes site. Whoever won the flash contest is still eligible to win the grand prize. See how this kind of mini-contest can stoke excitement among your donors?

How to Choose a Great Flash Contest Prize

There are a few key elements to a great flash giveaway prize:

It must be desirable, and there is only one flash contest prize.
Preferably an item or experience that a person might not purchase for themselves normally.
It should somehow relate to your grand prize.

Say your grand prize is a new Corvette Z06. Your sweepstakes will naturally attract Corvette fans. So when you’re choosing a prize for your flash contest, it’s a good idea to select a prize that you know Corvette fans will love. For example, how about a cool jacket with the Corvette logo on the back?

If you’re giving away a trip to Costa Rica, a good flash contest might be a gift card for high-end swimwear, or a deluxe travel bag, or a gift card to Sunglass Hut. All these prizes relate back to the idea of traveling to a tropical paradise.

If you’re giving away tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, perhaps your flash contest would be for a framed signed album by Taylor, some kind of Swiftie memorabilia, or a Taylor-themed gift basket.

You get the idea! Flash contest prizes should be fun, light-hearted, and capture the imaginations of your donor base.

How to Set Up a Flash Contest

Once you’ve selected your prize for a flash contest, setting it up in your TapKat dashboard is easy. Select the “Menu” button under your sweepstakes image your TapKat dashboard, and then “Flash Contests”. From there, follow the prompts to include information about your prize, set the duration of your flash contest, and establish the start and end dates. You’ll also see the option to draw the winner when the flash contest ends.

Pro tip: Make sure to add a promotional slide featuring the flash contest to your TapKat sweepstakes site images so that donors will learn about it right away when they visit your sweepstakes site!

Don’t forget to add a promo code to your flash contest. This way, when the contest ends, you’ll easily be able to see how many donations were generated as a result of the flash contest, information that will help you put together strategic promotions in the future.

What is a Flash Giveaway for TapKat Sweepstakes?

Flash giveaways are similar but not the same as flash contests. The difference is that with a flash giveaway, everyone who enters at a certain donation level within a specific time frame will also receive a flash giveaway item. Good examples of flash giveaway items include:

Keychains,
Mugs,
T-shirts,
Posters.

When thinking about flash giveaways, it’s important to remember two things:

Remember that someone on your team will be responsible for mailing out the flash giveaway items.
Keep your costs in mind to ensure that you’re still actually raising funds when you implement a flash giveaway.

For instance, if your flash giveaway is a mug, do a little math before offering it up. You may learn that you can order 100 custom mugs with your nonprofit’s logo on them for $4.50 each. You’ll also need to know shipping costs. So, if the total cost of each mug including shipping within the U.S. will be $12.00, then you’ll want to set some parameters around your flash giveaway. You can say, “Everyone who donates $100 or more between now and the end of the month will also receive a limited edition mug!” This way, you know that you’ll be making at least $88.00 each time someone receives a mug.

Add a promo code to your flash giveaway. This way, you can easily export the list of donors that used that particular promo code, and you’ll know exactly who needs to receive one of the giveaway items when it comes time to ship them.

Inspiration for Flash Contests and Flash Giveaways

Need a little help picturing a great flash contest or giveaway for your TapKat sweepstakes? Check out these examples, below, given away by the Shelby American Collection…

The Shelby American Collection did a flash contest for a chance to drive a Shelby Mustang GT500 on a real race track in Las Vegas, Nevada. This flash contest did really well, raising over $80,000 for the museum.
They did a flash giveaway for a metal keychain with the museum logo on it. Everyone who donated at least $50.00 also received a keychain.
They ran a flash contest for this neon sign, which was a hit with donors, who are big fans of Shelby Cobras and Mustangs.
These mugs were the perfect prize item for a flash giveaway.
This branded hat was part of a flash giveaway promotion.
This framed poster signed by Carroll Shelby was a highly valuable flash contest that their donor base loved.

Notice how all the prizes relate back to the grand prize for a Shelby Mustang GT500? The donors love these flash contests and flash giveaways, and they help keep the base engaged throughout the duration of the sweepstakes.

If you’re ready to get started with a TapKat sweepstakes, apply for an account here.

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