New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Introducing RafflePress's new leave-a-review giveaway actions. Boost customer engagement and build trust effortlessly by incentivizing reviews in WordPress.
New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
Looking to boost your brand’s online presence and credibility? A review giveaway could be your golden ticket.
A review giveaway encourages your audience to leave product reviews and testimonials in exchange for a chance to win a prize. In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up a review giveaway in WordPress step-by-step.
The idea of running a giveaway to get reviews might raise some eyebrows. Is it ethical? Is it effective? The answer is yes, you can run a giveaway for reviews, provided you follow certain guidelines and best practices.
According to a study by BrightLocal, 98% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses, and the average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a company.
Reviews are a form of social proof that can impact your brand’s credibility and customer trust.
However, it’s crucial to note that you must be careful when incentivizing reviews to maintain integrity. Platforms like Google and Amazon have strict policies against reviews that are explicitly paid for.
That’s where a review giveaway comes in handy. By offering a chance to win a prize rather than a guaranteed reward, you’re encouraging reviews without directly paying for them.
So, yes, you can really do a giveaway for reviews. Still, it’s essential to be transparent about the process and to follow the guidelines set by review platforms and regulatory bodies.
When running a review giveaway, your chosen platform can make or break your marketing strategy. RafflePress is one of the best WordPress giveaway plugins, designed to make your campaigns as effective as possible. But what makes it the ideal choice for your review giveaway?
Let’s explore.
In a nutshell, RafflePress is more than just a giveaway plugin; it’s a complete solution for running effective review campaigns directly from your WordPress website.
Before you jump into setting up your giveaway for reviews, some groundwork is essential. Proper preparation ensures that your campaign is successful and aligns with your brand’s objectives.
Here’s what you need to consider:
The first step in any successful review giveaway is defining what you hope to achieve. This is more than just a cursory exercise; it’s about aligning your campaign with your broader business objectives.
Here are some questions to consider:
By setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals, you can create a focused and effective campaign. These goals will serve as the benchmarks against which you can measure the success of your review giveaway.
Selecting the right prize is crucial for your giveaway. It’s what you’ll use to incentivize participation, so you need to choose it carefully. While going all out is tempting, remember that your giveaway prize should be appealing and cost-effective.
Consider items valuable to your target audience but won’t break the bank. Gift cards, exclusive discounts, or a popular product from your line are often good choices.
Similarly, offering more than one prize can increase participation rates. For example, you could have a grand prize and several smaller consolation prizes to increase the odds of winning.
You can even consider non-material prizes. Experiences, special recognition, or exclusive content can also serve as compelling incentives.
Transparency is key to any successful review giveaway. Clearly outlining the rules and guidelines ensures that entrants know what to expect and how to engage with your campaign.
This includes:
For more information, see our guide on how to write giveaway rules like a pro.
Now that you’re well-prepared, it’s time to dive into the actual setup of your review giveaway. With RafflePress, this process is streamlined and user-friendly.
Let’s walk through each step to ensure your campaign is successful.
Before anything else, you’ll need to install and activate the RafflePress plugin on your WordPress site. For step-by-step instructions, you can see this guide on how to install the RafflePress plugin.
Note: RafflePress has a free version that lets you run simple sweepstakes and giveaways. For this guide, we’re using RafflePress Pro for its advanced giveaway features.
After activating the plugin and entering your license details, navigate to RafflePress » Giveaways from your WordPress dashboard and click the Add New button.
Here, you’ll see several pre-designed giveaway templates optimized to meet different giveaway goals. Choose a template that aligns with your objectives by hovering over it and clicking the Use This Template button.
This will serve as the foundation for your campaign and giveaway widget.
Your chosen template will now open in RafflePress’s drag-and-drop giveaway builder. You’ll see customization and configuration options on the left and a live preview of the giveaway widget on the right.
The interface is incredibly easy to use. Simply point and click to start adding your prize details, including the prize name, description, and photo, to make it more appealing to your audience.
You can also enter your giveaway duration on the same page. For instance, the start time, end dates and times, and time zones.
Don’t forget to click the Save button before moving on.
Now, let’s look at how to add entry actions to your giveaway widget. These are tasks that users will need to complete to qualify and earn bonus entries.
RafflePress has a wealth of actions for virtually any type of giveaway. You can find them by clicking the Actions tab in the left-hand sidebar.
The most obvious entry option for a review giveaway would be to ask users to leave a review. RafflePress has 3 actions you can use for this:
Click any of these actions to add them to your giveaway widget.
From there, you can customize the details by adding a link to your product page on each review site, making the action mandatory, choosing how many entries the action is worth, and even changing the action title.
When users choose to complete these actions, they’ll see a button to visit your product on the review platform and a text field to paste the URL to their review.
If your review site isn’t in the actions list, such as Google Reviews or Yelp, you can always use the “Invent Your Own” action. Simply rename the action, then include instructions for participants and a way to confirm the entry.
Here’s how this example would look on the front end to a user entering this giveaway:
Want to go a step further? Consider adding bonus actions for users to increase their chances of winning. For example, ask them to tweet a message on X (Twitter), leave a comment, watch a video testimonial on YouTube, or share the giveaway with their immediate family and friends.
Look back over your goals from earlier, and include actions that will help you meet them.
Once your actions are in place, you’re ready to customize the look and feel of your giveaway, so click the Design tab.
Designing your giveaway widget is a breeze with the built-in design settings. With the layout presets, you can arrange the widget elements with the image first or title first. You can also choose from several custom font options to keep your campaign consistent with your brand image.
Similarly, RafflePress lets you customize the key call-to-action (CTA) button color.
And if you plan on using the built-in giveaway landing page, which we’ll go into later, you can upload a custom background image.
After designing your giveaway widget, the next crucial step is configuring your settings by clicking the Settings tab. RafflePress offers comprehensive options to ensure your campaign runs smoothly and effectively.
First, navigate to the General settings to set your giveaway page permalink, decide whether to hide total entries, show winners, and limit signups per IP address.
Next, move on to Giveaway Rules, where you can answer a few questions to automatically generate the rules for your giveaway in just a few clicks.
In the Automation section, you’ll find the option to integrate your giveaway with Uncanny Automator. This allows you to automate various tasks and actions, making your campaign more efficient.
For example, you could deliver a coupon code after users enter, schedule a follow-up in your CRM, or even tweet a message.
Next is the Email Verification setting, which allows you to require users to confirm their email address. This adds an extra layer of verification and ensures you’re gathering valid email addresses.
If you want to redirect users after they’ve entered, use the Success Redirect option.
Here, you can specify a URL to which users will head, perhaps a thank-you page, another promotional offer, or related posts.
Don’t forget about GDPR compliance. In the GDPR section, you can enable a consent box and customize the text to ensure you comply with privacy regulations.
By taking the time to go through these settings, you’ll ensure that your review giveaway is engaging and optimized for your specific needs and goals.
Once you’ve configured all the settings, the next step is to publish your giveaway so that people can start entering. RafflePress offers multiple ways to publish your giveaway, each with its advantages.
Now that your review giveaway is live, the next crucial step is promotion. A well-promoted giveaway can increase participation and help you achieve your campaign goals.
Here are some strategies to effectively promote your review giveaway:
For more ideas, check out our giveaway promotion tips.
Once your giveaway has ended and the entry period is closed, you’re ready to choose a winner. To do this, navigate to your WordPress dashboard and open the giveaway you’ve been running. Here, you’ll find a “Needs Winners” link.
Clicking on this will reveal the participants who have entered your giveaway.
When you’re ready, click on the Choose Winners Now button. The system will then randomly select a winner from the pool of entries. This ensures that every participant has an equal chance of winning.
After selecting the winner, you can email them directly from the RafflePress dashboard. This is an excellent opportunity to congratulate them and provide details on how they can claim their prize.
It’s also a good idea to announce the winner on your social media channels and through an email to all participants, thanking them for joining in and encouraging them to stay tuned for future giveaways.
The conclusion of your review giveaway isn’t the end of your campaign; it’s an opportunity to gather valuable insights for future initiatives. Tracking and analyzing the results are essential steps in understanding the effectiveness of your giveaway.
With tools like Google Analytics, you can delve deep into the data to get a comprehensive view of your campaign’s impact. MonsterInsights, a powerful Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, can further simplify this process.
With its easy-to-understand reports and real-time stats, you can track page views and user interactions with your giveaway widget. If you’ve set up event tracking, you can even see how many times specific actions, like clicking the ‘Enter Now’ button, were taken.
Don’t forget to also review the performance of your promotional efforts. Check the analytics on your social media posts, email campaigns, and other channels you used to promote the giveaway. This will help you understand which methods were most effective in driving participation.
Lastly, compare the results with the goals you set at the beginning of your campaign. Did you achieve the number of reviews, website visits, or other metrics you aimed for? Understanding this will not only measure the success of this campaign but also help you set more accurate goals for future giveaways.
You’ve done it! You now have everything you need to do a review giveaway in WordPress and make it a raging success.
If you have other marketing goals, check out these other WordPress giveaway tutorials to meet them:
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