2014-06-03

Sweepstakes, giveaways and contests are a powerful way to boost your subscriber lists, engage with customers, and take your marketing campaigns to the next level.

And that’s why this month’s roundup is all about apps that help you use social media and contests more effectively in conjunction with your email efforts.

Thanks to your glowing response to last month’s list-building apps roundup, we’re using the same format to help you evaluate these apps and find the best fit for your business. Let’s see how these integration partners answered your top five questions …

Heyo

Nathan Latka, CEO of Heyo. Twitter: @Heyo

1. Who is Heyo best suited for?

Heyo is primarily used by authors, speakers, consultants and other small businesses to capture emails from Facebook. If your annual revenue is less than $20,000, you’re too small for Heyo. If it’s more than $20,000,000 or you have more than 20 employees, you’re too large. But if you’re an entrepreneur or small business in between, Heyo is built specifically for you.

2. What sets Heyo apart from other, similar apps?

Heyo contests convert fans into email leads at a higher conversion rate than many other apps. The platform is fully drag and drop, so you don’t need to know a single inkling of code. Additionally, Heyo contests are fully mobile optimized for Facebook, which means you can collect more emails without a lot of design legwork.

3. What benefits/results can marketers expect from using this integration?

Based on results our customers have seen, if you use Heyo, you can expect to grow your email list by roughly 10% of the number of fans you have. For example, if you have 5,000 Facebook fans, Heyo can help you capture 500 emails.

4. Why should AWeber customers connect to Heyo right now?

You should connect to Heyo to capture emails from your Facebook fan page. Don’t stress out about learning code, we do all the hard work on the back end so you can take all the credit and look like a genius.

5. What’s the pricing model?

Heyo pricing starts at $25 per month and offers a 7-day free trial. The integration with AWeber (considered a customizable widget) is available at the Grow pricing level, which starts at $50 per month.

Create your account with Heyo here

Get step-by-step help integrating AWeber with Heyo

ShortStack

Adam Hemler, Client Relations VP at ShortStack. Twitter: @ShortStackLab

1. ShortStack is best suited for…

ShortStack is a platform best suited for businesses interested in creating campaigns for social, web and mobile. Our customers use ShortStack to create contests and promotions that collect important user-submitted data.

2. What sets ShortStack apart from other, similar apps?

ShortStack gives you the ability to fully customize the look, feel and functionality of your campaign, including adding custom code and integrations. Most platforms only allow you to choose from a few templates or make minor changes to their default setup, but with ShortStack, you have complete control.

3. What benefits/results can marketers expect from using this integration?

Marketers can expect more user participation and increased data collection from their campaigns. For example, if your goal is to increase newsletter subscribers, a contest created with ShortStack can help incentivize users to sign up. Campaigns made with ShortStack can be promoted anywhere, across all social media channels, increasing awareness. Marketers can also create microsites or embed their campaigns into their websites.

4. Why should AWeber customers connect to ShortStack right now?

For businesses who are already using AWeber to collect email addresses from their online audience, ShortStack can make the user experience more engaging and interactive. Instead of just asking a user to give you their email address, reward them for it! With ShortStack, you can create contests and incentives that encourage participation. Once you create a ShortStack campaign with an AWeber integration, entries from that campaign will be imported directly to your AWeber database.

5. What’s the pricing model?

ShortStack’s pricing model is based on the features, the overall number of form entries received, and the number of campaigns that are active at one time. Pricing begins at $29 per month, with annual discounts available.

Create your account with ShortStack here

Get step-by-step help integrating AWeber with ShortStack

ViralSweep

Giancarlo Massaro, co-founder of ViralSweep. Twitter: @ViralSweep

1. Who is ViralSweep best suited for?

We built ViralSweep to be your life-saver for running sweepstakes. It’s for the marketer who needs to stay focused on the strategy instead of how to build the entry form and social sharing tools. It’s for the blogger who has a great gift for their audience but doesn’t want a tool that is confusing or difficult for their audience to use. We built ViralSweep to make sweepstakes easy, if not fun, to run. It’s for brands and people alike.

2. What sets ViralSweep apart from other, similar apps?

You can go from creating your account to having customers and fans entering your giveaway in under ten minutes. And if you have any questions at all, we are an instant message or phone call away. We allow for customization and tracking where it matters most: custom forms, lead tracking tools and referral source tracking. Every giveaway has social features built right in that allow your audience to earn extra entries for sharing, liking, following and referring their friends.

3. What benefits/results can marketers expect from using this integration?

ViralSweep takes the hassle and guesswork out of running viral sweepstakes. The social tools built into ViralSweep will help you build your list, grow your social profiles and generate sales. Because integrating with AWeber takes just a few clicks, everyone who enters your giveaway can easily be added directly to one of your AWeber lists. ViralSweep’s advanced features empower you to see real-time analytics and social data, and you can even track where leads came from to see what sources are bringing you the most valuable leads.

4. Why should AWeber customers connect to ViralSweep right now?

Social giveaways are a fantastic way to leverage your current list for generating incoming leads, consolidate your social media followers into a more engaging medium, and attract entirely new customers. ViralSweep helps you stay focused on the big details of your giveaway; we handle the little ones for you.

5. What’s the pricing model?

ViralSweep has a free plan and various premium plans with more advanced features. The integration with AWeber is available with the Business plan, which starts at $49 per month.

Create your account with ViralSweep here

Get step-by-step help integrating AWeber with ViralSweep

Contest Domination

Travis Ketchum, founder of Contest Domination. Twitter: @ContestDom

1. Who is Contest Domination best suited for?

Contest Domination is best suited to entrepreneurs and business of all sizes who value contests that generate more qualified leads and influence for their business. You don’t have to have a big audience to see the results, but those with larger audiences will see a larger return.

2. What sets Contest Domination apart from other, similar apps?

Beyond the laser focus on features that deliver more qualified leads to your business, our hosted contest app gives you push button access to working contest funnels, a next generation two-step opt-in process that looks great on mobile devices, as well as mobile ready Facebook contest pages.

3. What benefits/results can marketers expect from using this integration?

With a few clicks you can start automatically pushing new contest leads into any of your AWeber lists. The high conversion rates and virality of contests will help AWeber customers build their list quickly and easily.

4. Why should AWeber customers connect to Contest Domination right now?

Every day that you aren’t maximizing your list-building potential means another day that you’re leaving money on the table. These results compound over time, meaning that incorporating contests into your marketing mix is one of the highest impact ways to grow your list today.

5. What’s the pricing model?

Contest Domination offers two types of pricing: pay-as-you-go (pay for the contests you run), or annual plans with more features and unlimited contests, starting at $40 per month. The AWeber integration is available starting with the Business plan, starting at $60 per month.

Create your account with Contest Domination here

Get step-by-step help integrating AWeber with Contest Domination

Antavo

Andy Nemes, Head of Sales for Antavo. Twitter: @andrasnemesOOO

1. Who is Antavo best suited for?

Antavo is perfect for businesses that want to grow their email list with viral promotion campaigns. With these simple apps (draws, quizzes, photo contests and deals, etc.), you can engage and convert social and website leads to quality email subscribers.

2. What sets Antavo apart from other, similar apps?

Besides Facebook, Antavo focuses on creating engagement in different social channels and websites as well, including responsive design with a variety of customization options.

3. What benefits/results can marketers expect from using this integration?

As an AWeber customer, you can expect to grow your email list quickly and significantly (for instance, we’ve seen growth of up to 50% in six months), while collecting quality information on your clients.

4. Why should AWeber customers connect to Antavo right now?

Antavo is releasing its brand new platform on June 10th. With advanced game mechanics and customization options, we believe the new Antavo platform will be your top choice for contests and viral promotions.

5. What’s the pricing model?

Pricing for small businesses starts at $25 per month (Basic package), while larger clients and agencies can sign up from $199 per month. Antavo also offers a free trial version.

Create your account with Antavo here

Get step-by-step help integrating AWeber with Antavo

Rafflecopter

Greg Goodson, co-founder of Rafflecopter. Twitter: @Rafflecopter

1. Who is Rafflecopter best suited for?

Rafflecopter is best suited for online marketers and business owners who are interested in growing their email list and community engagement by running a giveaway promotion on their blog or Facebook page. To see how a Rafflecopter giveaway works, enter the giveaway on our homepage — you might win a t-shirt and other goodies.

2. What sets Rafflecopter apart from other, similar apps?

Rafflecopter makes the process of running a giveaway simple from beginning to end. Giving away prizes entices your audience to interact with you, sign up for your email list, tweet a message and so on. Rafflecopter makes this process seamless across multiple sites (blog, homepage and Facebook pages) simultaneously.

3. What benefits/results can marketers expect from using this integration?

Depending on how you customize your promotion, you can expect to boost your social networks engagement and grow your email lists! In addition, time is money, so if you’re planning on running a sweepstakes giveaway, the process of running a Rafflecopter giveaway has been streamlined to let you launch your giveaway with ease.

4. Why should AWeber customers connect to Rafflecopter right now?

Connect to Rafflecopter to immediately grow your email list and other social network followings, give back to your community, and have fun! Your fans will love the opportunity to win a prize, and it gives your fans another reason to sign up for your newsletter.

5. What’s the pricing model?

Rafflecopter is a freemium app, so you can run a giveaway from start to end on the free subscription. Additional features are available from $7.99 per month. Integrating with AWeber starts at the $59.99 per month Business plan, and includes unlimited giveaways.

Create your account with Rafflecopter here

Get step-by-step help integrating AWeber with Rafflecopter

What’s next?

Now that you have an overview of the leading social contest tools, you’re one big step closer to setting up and launching your next (maybe first?) campaign.

We’re adding more integrations all the time, seen here in our App Showcase, and in our monthly app roundups (May, April, March, January).

Which apps are you already using? Have you seen results, or had any issues? Which apps are on your radar? Drop us a comment and let us know!

Olivia Dello Buono contributed to this post.

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