Summary – we sat down with Nick from Healy Sleep to talk about his recent VYPER campaign. He crushed his goal by 2x and collected 4,142 email leads from a single launch campaign. Not to mention the boost he got for his Indiegogo campaign and huge social media growth.

Take a look behind the scenes of a winning campaign as we do a super direct no BS question and answer session about what works, what didn’t and what Nick would do next time around!

4,142 New Emails & A Successful Indigogo Launch Using Viral Contests

1. Tell us about your business, what you offer, who your target audience is?

Healy Lab creates personalized herbal formulas for everyday ailments including, stress, poor sleep, PMS, adrenal support and more using patent-pending diagnostic technology.

Our newest product, “Healy Sleep” launched in September 2017 which is one of the reasons we turned to VYPER.

The product and purchase flow is: 

  1. Each customer fills out a smart questionnaire so we can better understand the specific symptoms your experiencing.
  2. We then create a custom herbal formula (capsules) for you.
  3. We ship it to your door.

Target audience:

People who have trouble sleeping in some way (falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up groggy/tired) and are hesitant to use drugs or other sleep aids that are accompanied by side effects and can create dependencies, such as Melatonin.

2. What other marketing campaigns have you tried but didn’t work?

We’ve tried working with micro influencers, but our lead quality was poor and our Cost Per Acquisition was usually too high.

3. What has been your top converting channel for collecting email leads to date?

  • Facebook and VYPER have been the best channels for collecting leads.
  • With less than $150 of Facebook spend we were able to collect over 4k leads through our VYPER campaign.

4. Why did you decide to run a contest?

We wanted to run a contest for a number of reasons but these were the main ones.

  • Generate buzz for our official Indiegogo launch
  • Leverage strategic partnerships (other sleep-related products)
  • Utilize the VYPER viral engine for easy growth
  • Increase exposure in our target audience segments
  • Generate warm leads (people interested in our product)

See contest HERE

5. What were marketing problems was your business facing?

When working with a limited marketing budget it can be difficult to acquire high-quality leads at reasonable prices. We needed a way to get free (or cheap) exposure and saw contests as a good opportunity.

6. What were your growth goals to deem the marketing campaign successful?

  • Our goal was to accumulate 2,000 or more email addresses
  • Spend less than $200 on paid media
  • Establish partnerships with complementary companies that we could work with again in the future.

7. Let’s get to the good stuff, what results did you get?

  • 4,142 new email leads
  • 378 email signups for our Indiegogo launch
  • 512+ Instagram followers
  • 804+ Twitter followers
  • 826+ Facebook followers

8. What are the top 5 things you learned from running a contest?

  • The type of prizes/rewards you use is paramount (people have to want them enough to work for them). Meaning put some serious thought into your prize structure.
  • Tiered contests with multiple winners are best.
  • Bundling products is an effective way to increase exposure.
  • Leveraging paid ads can result in a nice viral lift (use designed images like the ones below)
  • Communicate with your list to encourage more activity.

viral contest case study banner viral contest case study rewards

9. What would you do next time you ran a contest?

We worked with a dozen other brands. This was hugely helpful in that it made the rewards more attractive.

Unfortunately, only a few of our partners were helpful at spreading/promoting the contest.

It’s critical for each partner to share the contest on their social channels and with their email list. If everyone shares, it inevitably benefits everyone involved.

If no one shares, no one benefits so pick good partners and have a series of emails ready to send your partners. Include copy and images for them to use for their social posts and emails to make it super easy for them to do.

Add our Google Analytics code to our contest page to get more campaign insights.

10. How did you promote your contest and what worked the best for you?

  • Facebook ads
  • Facebook organic (posting)
  • Twitter tweet & engagement
  • Instagram posts
  • Partners help in promoting the contest on their social channels (could have been better with more of this!)
  • Several contest aggregators (not sure if this did anything…)

Used this image across social media accounts:

viral contest case study square

11. What are the top tools your business couldn’t run without?

  • Mixmax for email automation and organization
  • Mailchimp for mass email sends
  • Facebook for advertising
  • Droplr for file sharing and interactive screenshots
  • Wix for website management
  • Textexpander for creating shortcuts for common phrases

12. Where can we find you (website, social handles, links etc)?

There you have it, everything it takes to run a successful marketing campaign using viral contests. There are a few key takeaways in there.

The main one being put a little thought into your prizes and have multiple winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd place as well as a random winner and prizes based on a number of points collected.)

So if you are interested in growing your email list or crushing your next product launch take a look at VYPER viral contests.

Jack Paxton

Jack Paxton

Jack Paxton is the co-founder of VYPER, a marketing tool that helps brands build email lists, social followings, and revenue using viral giveaways, referral, and reward programs. After millions of dollars spent testing different marketing strategies at his marketing agency. He then also co-founded Hyax a fast, conversion & design-focused course and funnel builder for creators.

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