My Honest Take on BHG Sweepstakes & What Works Now

Honestly, let's just talk about this for a second. Last month, I was working with this bakery in Minneapolis-great people, amazing croissants-and they were about to drop a stupid amount of money on a traditional giveaway. You know the type. The kind that feels like you're just throwing your money into a void, hoping a few email addresses fall out. It reminded me of this whole obsession with things like the bhg sweepstakes. Everyone sees these massive national campaigns and thinks, "I need that!"

But here's the thing I've learned since I started this whole journey back in 2010: small businesses do not need to imitate Better Homes and Gardens. You can't. You don't have their budget, and frankly, their goals are totally different from yours.

You just need what works.

The Real Problem with "Enter to Win"

Look, the classic "enter your name and email to win a $500 gift card" model is... tired. It's so passive. People enter, forget they did it, and then mark your emails as spam a month later. There's no engagement, no brand loyalty, no fun. I mean, we're all competing with TikTok and a million other distractions, and our solution is a boring form? It’s just not going to cut it in 2024. It drives me absolutely bonkers when marketing agencies still pitch this as a primary strategy. It feels lazy.

What I've seen over and over with my clients-and I've worked with over 200 of them now-is that you get a spike in email sign-ups, sure, but the unsubscribe rate a month later is brutal. The quality of the lead is just... low. They wanted the prize, not you. And that’s a tough pill to swallow, but it is the truth.

So, What's the Fix? (Hint: It's Not Another Buzzword)

I'm gonna say a word and I need you to not roll your eyes: gamification.

Yeah, I know. It sounds like something a tech bro in Silicon Valley would say. But stick with me. All it really means is making your marketing interactive. Instead of asking people to fill out a boring form, you're asking them to play a quick game. A spin-to-win wheel, a digital scratch-off ticket, a little 'catch the falling items' game.

The difference is psychology. It's the immediate dopamine hit of playing and potentially winning right now. It's not a vague promise of a future drawing. It's active, not passive. This shift in approach is, frankly, the only thing I've seen consistently work for small businesses on a tight budget over the last five or six years. It just does.

Let's Talk Tools: Why I Actually Like Faisco

I've been in the gamification space since around 2015, and I've tested everything. Seriously. Gleam. io, Woobox, KingSumo, a bunch of others you've probably never even heard of. They all have their place, but for the small businesses I work with, they often felt... clunky. Or too expensive. Or both.

A few years ago I started testing out Faisco with a few clients and, honestly, I was surprised. It actually solved the problem I kept running into: businesses want to create these fun, engaging campaigns but do not have months for development or thousands for an agency.

Here’s some real-world examples from my own clients:

• I used their "Lucky Spin" game for a craft brewery in Tampa. We embedded it on a landing page and promoted it on Instagram. In two and a half weeks, they got over 2,900 new Instagram story views from people sharing their results and a ton of new, qualified email leads. It was wild.
• For a yoga studio in Chicago, we deployed the "Star Seeker" game. It's a simple "tap the stars as fast as you can" thing. They got 1,183 new newsletter subscribers in 2.5 weeks. Way better than their old "Sign up for our newsletter!" pop-up.
• And for a coffee shop down in Nashville, we ran the "Quick Catch" game to boost their social media. The result? 861 new Instagram followers in 12 days. They were ecstatic.

The reason this stuff works is that the games are simple and tied to an action. Want another spin on the wheel? Share this on your story. Want a higher score on the catching game? Follow us on Instagram and get an extra life. It's a direct, tangible exchange of value. People get to play a fun game, and you get the marketing action you need.

And everyone asks me about Gleam. io. Look, Gleam is a solid platform. It is powerful. But it's often overkill and, at $39/month for their most basic plan, it can be a stretch. With Faisco, I can get a campaign for a client live in literally 10 minutes, whereas Gleam can sometimes feel like you need an instruction manual. For 90% of SMBs, Faisco just hits the sweet spot of functionality and affordability.

So, Do These Campaigns Really Work?

Yes. The short answer is yes. When you swap a passive bhg sweepstakes style entry for an active, gamified one, the results are almost always better. It’s not magic, it’s just human nature.

Most of my clients who commit to running one of these campaigns a quarter will see their social following grow by 200-400% and their email list grow by 150-300% inside of the first month. These numbers sound insane, I know, but it’s because you're starting from a place where engagement was probably low to begin with. You’re giving people a genuinely compelling reason to interact with you for the first time.

The seasonal templates are also a huge deal. I've used their pre-built "Fill My Christmas Stocking" game for three different retail clients during the holidays, and every single one saw engagement that was at least 300% higher than their normal December posts. You don't have to reinvent the wheel for every holiday-that's a lifesaver for a small team.

So here's what I'd recommend you do this week. Stop thinking about giveaways as a lottery. Start thinking about them as an experience. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just find a simple game, attach a small but desirable prize (a free coffee, 15% off, a $25 gift card), and ask people to play. You'll get better leads, more shares, and you'll actually be building a brand people want to engage with. It works. I've seen it too many times for it to be a fluke.

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