Episode 15: Breakthrough Marketing Ideas – The Giveaway Funnel

Hey everyone. This is Alex Branning, and I am here talking about breakthrough marketing ideas. Today I have probably the most famous idea that I have ever come up with. It has worked consistently to generate leads across industries, regions, and even countries. Let’s dive in and talk about the giveaway funnel.

Alright. A lot of people come to me and say, “Alex, I just don’t know how to get more people in the door. I don’t know how to get more people to my website. I don’t know how to build my list.” My default idea is the giveaway funnel. Here’s what it is. The giveaway funnel is a mini website that uses a small prize as an ethical bribe to get people into your funnel. I’ll give you some examples of how we use this.

We’ve had an insurance company, they’re an insurance broker in Southern California. They were going to give away four $25 gift certificates to the mall during the month of October. There were four chances to win. The way that the giveaway funnel worked for them is, on the first page the person would be asked for their name, their email address, and their phone number. Underneath that form there’s a stern warning that, “If we try to get ahold of you and can not get ahold of you, then the prize will go to the next person.” What that does is it means that you are getting their absolute best contact information. Because they want to make sure that if they win, that they are going to get the prize.

On the next page of this giveaway funnel, they have now entered into the contest to win. On the next page we ask the person qualifying questions to determine if they’re a good lead. Now the qualifying questions will vary depending on what industry you are in. I’ll give some more examples later on in this podcast.

For this particular customer we simply asked a yes or no question. We said, “We will double the chances for you to win, we will add your name in another time if you give us an opportunity to quote out your auto insurance. Are you willing to have us give you an auto insurance quote? Yes or no?”. They got over 400 entries into this giveaway funnel, and out of those they had, I believe it was close to 100 people say, “Yes. I will let you give me an auto insurance quote”. Isn’t that amazing? I was able to help this insurance company get on the phone and stay on the phone with three to five people a day giving auto insurance quotes. They closed so much business, it’s unreal. It was just a phenomenal success and we had so much fun doing it and seeing how well it worked. It was great.

Let’s go over the giveaway funnel from a high level, and then let’s talk about how you can take action and use it in your own business. One of the things that I get asked when I present the idea is, “Alex, why use a gift?”. Here’s, the harsh reality is that for most of us, the general population is not going around looking for our product or service. They certainly weren’t looking for auto insurance. But my customer needed to sell more auto insurance, and so we used this giveaway funnel as a way to bring people in.

For real estate. This works really really well for our real estate agents. People generally don’t go on Facebook looking for their next house. They go to Zillow or somewhere else. But the giveaway funnel puts you in the conversation. I also get asked, “Alex, am I going to break any compliance laws?”. Financial planners and insurance agents and real estate agents and other regulated industries have concerns. I want to assure you that while the rules are different in different states and industries, my legal team will be more than happy to look into your particular situation so that we can make sure that we are not breaking any rules. I believe in marketing with integrity. I believe in marketing within the rules that we have been told to live in. Whether that is a state regulation, federal regulation, or company rules. I don’t believe in breaking the rules in doing any sort of marketing.

If you have questions on your particular circumstance reach out to me. However, if you are a solopreneur and you are not tied into any particular company, then most likely your state will allow you to give away a prize, as long as it is not tied into them doing business with you. In other words, you cannot say, “You will win this prize if you are also a customer”. When you do that then you start stepping on a whole bunch of toes in different industries and different states. We want to make sure we don’t do that.

Another thing I hear is, “Alex, what good is it if I get 100 people but only 10 of them are good leads?”. That’s a great question, right? Number one, I want to make sure that you’re only spending your time talking to the people that are really interested in doing business with you. The reason why we ask those qualifying questions after they enter in is so that they can self-qualify themselves to make sure that they’re a good lead for you.

I was in Spokane. It’s amazing to me how many different businesses can use a giveaway funnel. I’m going to share with you some ideas that I had for some of the people that I met in Spokane. If these trigger anything for you, then let’s jump on a phone call and get this going for you.

There was a financial planner. He calls himself the Marriage Saving Money Coach. Super cool dude. He could run a giveaway funnel for a date night out, have that ad go to married couples in his area, and then after they entered into the contest he could ask them, “Would you want a free consultation call to make sure that you are maximizing your income and on the fastest path to debt reduction? For a free call just enter in the best time for me to call you”, or something like that. I bet he could set multiple appointments.

There was another company that was represented in this mastermind in Spokane. It was a juice bar. How cool would it be to win a $100 gift card for juice? Now some of the things that we gave away that are consumer products, we don’t necessarily need, anybody who enters in is potentially raising their hand saying, “I want the product”. We do a lot of giveaways for gyms. We do a lot of giveaways for restaurants that are giving away their own gift certificates. Everybody who enters into winning a gift certificate to one of those places is already saying, “Yes. I want your product”.

Now going back to the juice bar, he was to give away a $100 gift card. Number one, everyone who enters in wants juice. He can send every single person that enters into that contest a $1 or $2 coupon to go in and get a cup of juice, and they’ll all be walking in the door with their coupons. Now on the other page, on the second screen, as a way to qualify them he could make them an offer for one of his continuity programs, because he is starting a continuity program for his juice bar where you become a member and get a certain number of cups of juice per month. Kind of like what Cinemark is doing with their movie passes. That’s how a juice bar can use it.

Another company that was represented in the room, he is a roofer. He’s opening up a roofing business, which is super cool. For them, that’s kind of a tricky one, right? But check this out. What if you were to give away gift certificates to the mall, and so they’re initially entering into the contest to win a gift card to the mall. But then on the next screen you say, “Are you a homeowner?”, yes or no. If the answer is yes then he could say, “If you are experiencing leaks or”, I don’t know exactly how they would determine if they have a roofing problem if they’re not seeing leaks. But, “If you would let us come over and inspect your roof, then we will give you a $10 mall gift card right away, just for the opportunity to inspect your roof and let you know if there’s any problems”.

What that does is, that puts him on the roof of many potential customers to kind of see what’s going on. I looked at it in the same way as a car repair shop. For them, as long as they can get the car in and lift it up, they’ll be able to find some things that are maybe causing problems for the car. In the same sense, for the roofer, if he can get himself up on the roof of these homeowners, then he could probably find some way that he can service them get his foot in the door so to speak.

I share those ideas because I want to inspire you. I want you to start thinking about how you can use a giveaway funnel for your own business. I want to help you execute this. If you’re listening to this right now going, “Alex, I am all in on this idea. I want to see what this can do for me”, give me a call. Go to alexbranning.com/call and let’s set up a time to talk about this. Because I believe that no matter what industry you’re in, I believe that no matter where you are located, I believe that these giveaway funnels will drive revenue into your business.

Now, one of the other cool things about giveaway funnels, they are fun. They bring good will into the community around you. It’s just a great way to build your list. Even if the people don’t buy now, you’re building your list so that you have an opportunity to sell them later. There are so many cool things that happen when you run a well-executed giveaway funnel.

If you are interested I would love to talk with you about this. I want to share a free resource for you. I really believe in educating yourself so that you can become a better marketer. I want to share a book. It’s called the Dot Com Secrets by Russell Brunson. You can grab a free copy if you go to my website. In the book he talks all about internet marketing as a whole. It’s a really well-done book that goes over all the different aspects of a well-run marketing campaign. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with the giveaway funnel because he doesn’t talk about that directly. But you can see and learn what a really well-run marketing campaign looks like. That way, as you’re setting up your next marketing campaign or looking to hire another marketer, you’ll be able to evaluate whether or not they have dotted their I’s and crossed their T’s.

My name is Alex Branning. I am your marketing coach, thanks for listening!

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