Doing better, bigger, braver. This is what I aim for this year. How do you feel? Have you dreamed of sending better emails? Or sending them to more people? I am sure you really want this latter one, and you are not alone.

To help you we created an infographic from the best ideas so you can start the year with a big bang.

12 Viral Contest Ideas: One For Each And Every Month Of The Year

Before going to the details, remember that the best part is that these promotions are fun to enter for the subscriber. Besides, who would mind a little bribe here and there? I am okay with being bribed!

Actually these incentivized opt-ins are common.

According to the research of Marketing Sherpa more than half of the most effective list building techniques include an incentive of some sort, like a whitepaper, a gift card or a coupon.

Another positive side effect of contests and sweepstakes are that they are viral.

Subscribers need to invite their friends to increase their own chances of winning, or to be eligible to enter. Facebook has some functions that help the promotion to spread (auto posting, sharing, etc.). That’s the natural space for your subscribers to share with friends.

Anyway, here are the 12 suggestions:

Okay, there are a lot of promotion types mentioned in this info-graphic. Let me shed some light on which one is for what reason: sweepstakes are mainly for lead generation, contests are more for engagement and reaching the friends of fans, and deals are mostly for driving sales.

For sweepstakes (quiz, poll, draw) you can grant bonus entry points after they invite their friends. The more friends they invite, the better their chances of winning.

For contests (video-, photo-, essay contest) the winner might be decided based on the number of votes they receive for their entry. So entrants will be asking friends to vote.

Over to you

What would you add to the list?

Do you use contests and sweepstakes as a form of lead generation? Here are some case studies on Antavo’s site that may help with inspiration (some of them are extremely successful … instead of being jealous please be aware that you can do the same).

Antavo is a Benchmark Email partner. The subscribers collected with contests and sweepstakes can by synchronized with your Benchmark account.

Author Bio:

by Zsuzsi Szabo

Zsuzsi Szabo is a co-founder and CMO of Antavo, a contest and activation suite that helps email marketers to grow their list.