Run Successful Giveaway Contests With QR Codes

Need a creative method to boost your brand awareness, increase social media engagement, or build your email list? Try using a giveaway contest in combination with QR Codes to get fast results and boost customer awareness. You’ve got the cool stuff to sell, we’ve got the tool to help you do it!

What is a giveaway contest and why would you use them?

While the concept of giving away stuff might sound a bit counterintuitive, there is a hefty backlog of the reasoning behind it. You might’ve noticed a Facebook ad for an ebook download, have received a perfume sample in the mail, or have noticed coupons in online shops when you sign up for their email newsletter. While this requires an initial financial investment on behalf of the company promoting these products, their purpose of using this tactic is part of a long-term sales and marketing strategy. Their goal is that those interested will engage with their brand, product or service because of this giveaway or freebie, voluntarily provide said company with their contact details (usually email), and then make subsequent purchases, or at minimum be open to retargeting.

Furthermore, you can take things up a notch from giveaways and turn them into a giveaway contest. So now not only is a company giving something away, but customers can only access for a limited period of time. It’s this added element of urgency that has been a tried and true sales method for ages (ever heard of Black Friday?). When people know they only have limited time, the offer becomes more interesting for them. And not only this, when you use a giveaway contest, you only need to give rewards to the winners instead of each giveaway participant, lessening the initial financial investment. 

To give some examples, a few reasons to do a giveaway contest would be:

  • To build an email subscriber list in a short amount of time.
  • To increase social media following and engagement.
  • To bring awareness to new or special products and services.
  • To increase website traffic and retain more of those customers.

Why your giveaway contest needs QR Codes

With nowadays marketing technology, many giveaway contests take place purely online, usually via email, landing pages, and/or on social media. In order for your giveaway contest to have the best results, you need to make sure it utilizes multiple channels, effectively conveys your brand and reaches the appropriate target market. If you’re searching for the optimal solution to do just that, look no further than QR Codes

Custom brand design

Because giveaway contests are often used to increase brand awareness, they can be a user’s first interaction with your brand. It’s important to give a good impression, as well as synchronize brand styling for all of your marketing materials. If you use QR Code Generator software, you have access to full-scale QR Code customization.

Demo of QR Code Generator PRO’s customization features
Demo of QR Code Generator PRO’s customization features

Easily customize the look of your QR Code to match any graphic design by using custom frames and edges, add a logo or image in the middle, unique brand colors, and a CTA (call to action). You can adjust the size and even file type of your QR Code to work with various graphic design materials – both print and digital. For help with your QR Code design, take a look at this guide.

Engage mobile and desktop users

Another awesome reason to use QR Codes in combination with giveaway contests is that they come with automatically optimized mobile content. So whatever you link to, users get the perfect view no matter the device. All linked content is also completely customizable for your brand and individual marketing needs. 

An example of a QR Code to promote a giveaway contest on a print brochure
An example of a QR Code to promote a giveaway contest on a print brochure

Furthermore, companies have opted for QR Codes in their marketing campaigns because they make the transition from desktop to mobile and access to digital platforms from print mediums extremely simple. For example, if you’re wanting to promote a giveaway contest through brochures at a conference, users have direct access to your links by scanning the QR Code instead of having to try to look it up later or typing the link manually.

QR Code campaign tracking

You can even optimize your giveaway contest with QR Codes. For any marketing campaign, we highly recommend choosing Dynamic QR Codes, because they come with essential tracking data. No matter whether you’re promoting your giveaway contest on print or digital platforms, you get access to QR Codes scans by location (city and country), time scanned, unique vs. total scans, and operating device used. You can use this data in combination with Google Analytics (find out how to integrate your QR Code campaign with Google Analytics here) to track your entire customer journey. Now you can understand the ROI (return on investment) of any medium you choose to promote (even print ones!), as well as make informed decisions about your strategy and budgets.

Update QR Codes without reprinting

Dynamic QR Codes come with another added benefit: the information linked to them, as well as the QR Code solution itself, can be updated without reprinting it. For example, if you’ve accidentally made a mistake in your link or need to change from an Image Gallery QR Code to a Video QR Code, you can do this at any time without changing how the original QR Code looks.

Pro tip: QR Code Generator has developed solutions for images, videos, social media links, digital business cards, and more. Find the complete list of QR Code solutions here

Giveaway contest ideas with QR Codes

Now it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty and actually implement your giveaway contest. There are many ways to do so, but the best one depends entirely on your business and what you’d like to promote. For inspiration on how this works, we’ve gathered some examples to help get you started.

Boost gym subscriptions

An example of a billboard ad with a QR Code promoting a giveaway contest for a gym subscription
An example of a billboard ad with a QR Code promoting a giveaway contest for a gym subscription

In preparation for the New Year’s exercise boost, gyms can create special offers to engage new customers for subscriptions. For example, you could create a giveaway contest for three winners to get a free membership subscription and promote it on social media, via email, and on billboard ads using a Dynamic URL QR Code. The idea is that enough people will participate by accepting email marketing campaigns, following you on social media, and checking out your website so that even if they don’t win, they’ll make a purchase later on.

Promote app installations

An example of a QR Code on a landing page to promote an app-related giveaway contest
An example of a QR Code on a landing page to promote an app-related giveaway contest

Let’s say you’d like to increase in-app purchases for a mobile app. You can create a giveaway contest for your social media following, on a landing page, and via email to direct all users to the mobile app, where they can then enter the contest by scanning an App Store QR Code. For those that don’t win, you’ve still increased their awareness of in-app purchases as well as directed more users to your mobile app in general (even when they view your content on desktop).

Increase brand awareness and product sales through product packaging

An example of a QR Code on lotion packaging promoting a giveaway contest through social media engagement
An example of a QR Code on lotion packaging promoting a giveaway contest through social media engagement

If you’re a new startup or a company releasing a new type of product, you can create a giveaway contest by adding a Social Media QR Code to your product packaging. People who initially buy the product can enter the giveaway contest by following you on social media and sharing their experience with your product. These QR Codes provide a list of all your social media accounts as well as a link to your website, where you could ask the user to opt-in for email marketing as well. Now you’ve both boosted your social media following and grown your email marketing subscriber list.

Build an email subscriber list for a financial consultant

Email marketing has taken the business and finance industries by storm. But an important part of email marketing is making sure that you first have permission to contact your subscriber list. Often a part of a lead generation strategy, financial consultants can offer something of value like an ebook, webinar, or a free strategy session to get more email opt-ins to build their subscriber lists to sell and promote their business services later on. 

An example of a QR Code promoting a giveaway contest to build email subscribers for a financial consultant
An example of a QR Code promoting a giveaway contest to build email subscribers for a financial consultant

For example, a financial consultant could create a multi-channel marketing strategy to send users to a landing page with a Dynamic URL QR Code where they opt-in for email marketing in exchange for a chance to win a free financial strategy session. This QR Code could be placed on social media, on billboard ads, and on print marketing materials at conferences or the next company event.

Author
Adriana Stein

Adriana Stein is a Freelance Content Writer for Egoditor GmbH and is originally from Oregon, USA. She is now based in Hamburg, Germany, and specializes in creating and managing SEO and content marketing strategies for businesses across a variety of industries. Feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn!

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