The Magic of Sweepstakes Momentum: Why You Should Launch Your Next Sweepstakes on the Heels of Your Current Sweepstakes
The best time to launch your next sweepstakes is the moment you announce the winner from your current sweepstakes! Donors are excited, engaged with the fundraising process, and since they’re presumably very interested in the prize, chances are they’ll enter the next sweepstakes — so long as the prize is similar in nature.
Let’s look at some effective ways to kick off your next sweepstakes with a bang!
Keep Your TapKat Sweepstakes Momentum Going Strong
Momentum is a powerful thing. Perhaps the most exciting and high-energy moments of your entire sweepstakes campaign will occur around drawing the winner. Whether you do this at an in-person event, streaming over social media, or some other creative way, you can bet that your donors are deeply interested in finding out whether or not they’ve won.
Capitalize on all that energy by preparing and launching your next sweepstakes right after you’ve drawn the winner, and chances are good that donors will be eager to enter again very quickly. When this happens, you’ll be able to build on the momentum of the current sweepstakes rather than trying to build up excitement from scratch weeks or months later.
How to Announce Your Newest TapKat Sweepstakes
When you’ve selected your winner, it’s really important to make an announcement to your donor base. Ideally, your nonprofit will send out an email to all the donors that includes the winner’s name so they can see that your fundraising operation was legitimate.
In the best case scenario, you’ll be able to share a photo of your winner taking home their prize, but sometimes that isn’t possible, and that’s okay. Look for ways to show your base that you’re taking meaningful steps to give the prize to a winner, and that you’re grateful for everyone’s support.
In the same email that announces the winner, we recommend making a big splash about your next sweepstakes, and including a link to your new sweepstakes site so that interested donors can enter right away. TapKat makes it very easy to set up your next sweepstakes site in the weeks leading up to drawing the winner of the current sweepstakes so everything is ready to go when you send out your winner announcement email.
In 2024, the Shelby American Collection ended their sweepstakes for a Shelby Mustang GT500 and announced their new sweepstakes for a Shelby Mustang GT350R on the same day. In their announcement email, they included everything they needed to get the donors excited to enter the new sweepstakes. They even gave their donors a fun promo code (“FIRSTDIBS”) to keep things playful. Within 24 hours, they raised $10,000 for the new sweepstakes — they were off to the races!
Here is the email template they used:
The Shelby American Collection closed their sweepstakes for one Shelby Mustang and wasted no time in announcing their next sweepstakes.
Choose a Similar Prize from One TapKat Sweepstakes to the Next
Perhaps most important to launching your next sweepstakes successfully is to select a prize that will appeal to the list of donors you have cultivated. For many nonprofits, this means choosing a prize that is a “variation on a theme.” For instance, if you gave away a beach vacation to Cabo San Lucas, consider another exotic beach location for your next sweepstakes, too.
Remember, the vast majority of your donors didn’t win, which means that the allure of the previous prize is still alive and flourishing!
Prepare Your Marketing Materials in Advance
Aside from setting up your TapKat sweepstakes site for the new sweepstakes, make sure that your marketing materials are ready to go as soon as you make the announcement. That means:
Have your email ready to send,
Create social media posts in advance with photos of the prize and links back to your sweepstakes site,
Make sure the new sweepstakes is live on your website,
Prepare any promo codes that you will need to launch the new sweepstakes.
When everything is ready, you can create a seamless launch from one sweepstakes to the next and ensure that your nonprofit continues to enjoy incoming cash flow without interuption.
Build Ongoing Cash Flow with TapKat Sweepstakes
Launching your next TapKat sweepstakes right away to take advantage of momentum is all about creating an ongoing source of cash flow for your nonprofit organization. The more strategic you get with your sweepstakes, the more opportunity you have to maximize the power of sweepstakes for your cause!
Ready to launch your TapKat sweepstakes? Apply for an account today!
