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July 7, 2014

Rafflecopter – Host Online Giveaways

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Giveaways are a valuable component in the online marketer’s toolbox, however the logistics of hosting this type of complicated promotion can sometime start to outweigh the benefits. Rafflecopter is a web-based application that streamlines the way businesses host both online and offline giveaways.

Rafflecopter has streamlined the process of creating, hosting, and fulfilling giveaway promotions. Create your first giveaway and select the entry options for participants. You can require participants to enter their social media credentials or email addresses, conduct polls and surveys, or invent an entirely-new entry method of your own. Rafflecopter will take your data and generate an entry widget, which you can then embed on your website or blog. When your giveaway promotion is through, Rafflecopter will automatically pick a winner at random.

Of course, the real value in a product like Rafflecopter has to do with the information that marketers can collect about giveaway participants. Rafflecopter provides users with real-time analytics as entries stream in and makes it easy to export all of the data collected as a CSV file for processing offline. Although Rafflecopter offers a free plan, advanced features are available for users who select paid Blogger or Business plans.

Practical Uses:

  • Host a giveaway on your blog
  • Collect the email addresses of your giveaway participants
  • Encourage online fans to share a link to your website or Facebook
  • Reward your most loyal customers with product giveaways

Insider Tips:

  • Upload images into your giveaway and display them in your widget
  • Create both mandatory and optional entry methods for participants
  • Giveaway winners are randomly selected through a third-party number generator
  • Users can verify a winner’s entries before notifying that person about the win

What we liked:

  • Rafflecopter provides users with the name, email, IP, timestamp and entry options for each giveaway entrant
  • Giveaways automatically close when the pre-selected time expires
  • Entrants are encouraged to complete multiple entries on each giveaway

What we didn’t like:

  • Nothing

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: 2012
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Boulder, Colorado
  • Founded by: Justin Ratner, JR Patten and Greg Goodson
  • Web site: https://www.rafflecopter.com

Costs:

  • Free plan
  • Blogger plan is $7.99 per month
  • Business plan is $59.99 per month

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