My Honest Take on Using a Free Online Contest Platform

Look, I want to tell you about this one client. A fantastic little bakery in Minneapolis I was working with last month. They make these incredible croissants, but their social media was... well, it was a ghost town. They were posting pretty pictures, doing everything the "gurus" tell you to do, and getting maybe 10 likes and one comment from the owner's aunt. They were frustrated, about to give up, and frankly, I don't blame them. We've all been there.

This is the exact situation I've been seeing since I got into this game back in 2010. Small businesses, pouring their heart and soul into something, only to be told they need a "revolutionary" marketing funnel that costs five grand and takes six months to build. It's nonsense.

Honestly, they don't need a revolution. They need a tool that works.

Why Your "Good Content" Isn't Enough Anymore

Here's the thing, and I'm not trying to be a downer, but nobody cares about your content as much as you do. Harsh, I know. But we're all swimming in a sea of information, and a pretty picture of a latte just doesn't cut it anymore. People scroll right past it. I've been doing this for 15 years, and the biggest change I've seen is the absolute collapse of our collective attention span.

So what do we do? We have to give them a reason to stop scrolling. A reason to engage.

And this is where I get annoyed. You'll hear these marketing kids, fresh out of college, talking about "just go viral." As if it's a button you push. I hate that advice. It’s like telling someone who's broke to "just win the lottery." It's not a strategy. What is a strategy is giving people a little dopamine hit-a quick, fun interaction that makes them feel something. That's gamification. And before you roll your eyes at the buzzword (I used to, too), stick with me. It’s basically about making your marketing less of a lecture and more of a game.

Okay, So How Do You Actually DO It? Meet Faisco.

I've tested everything. I mean everything. Back in 2018, I spent a client's money on a super expensive enterprise platform that promised the world and delivered... a clunky interface and a huge bill. I've used Gleam. io, Woobox, you name it. They're fine. But they're not built for the bakery in Minneapolis. They're built for companies with marketing departments.

That's why I'm so high on Faisco lately. It’s a free online contest platform that actually understands the assignment. It’s not about having a million features you'll never use; it's about having the right ones that get results fast.

I'm not just talking theory here. Here's what I've seen with my own eyes:

• An Ottawa fitness studio: We ran their "Lucky Spin" game. Simple. Spin a wheel, win a prize (like a free class or a discount). In three weeks, they got 1,080 new email addresses. From people who wanted to be on their list.
• An Orlando bakery: They were struggling with TikTok. We set up the "Summer Catch" game-a simple game where you catch falling items. The prize was a coupon. The requirement to enter was posting their score to TikTok with a specific hashtag. 1,937 new user-generated posts in 10 days. The bakery owner couldn't believe it.
• A Milwaukee bookstore: They needed to revive their dead Facebook page. We used the "Whac-A-Mole" game. It was quirky, fun, and took 5 minutes to set up. In two weeks? 1,016 new, real page likes.

The results for my clients has been pretty consistent. It works because it’s not asking for much. It’s giving people a moment of fun in exchange for an email or a share. A fair trade.

The Games That Convert (And Why)

Don't get bogged down in picking the "perfect" game. The whole point is to be fast. Here's what I typically recommend to my clients... and what actually works.

Basically, for lead capture-getting those emails-the instant gratification games are gold. I'm talking "Lucky Spin," "Scratch Ticket," or a simple "Lucky Draw." I've seen landing pages with these embedded convert at over 40%. It's that slot machine effect. You just have to see if you won.

If you want engagement and shares, you need something with a bit of skill involved. Reactive games like "Whac-A-Mole" or "Find Differences" are perfect for this. People get competitive. They share their score and dare their friends to beat it. The "Crazy Karting" and "NBA Blitz" type games work amazingly well for brands targeting a younger crowd or sports fans for the same reason.

And the seasonal stuff... this is where Faisco is just brilliant. They have templates ready for every holiday you can think of-Halloween, Black Friday, Christmas. I used their "Fill My Christmas Stocking" game for three different retail clients last December. Three of them! And every single one saw their social engagement jump over 300% compared to their normal holiday posts. It's a no-brainer. You do not have to reinvent the wheel.

Faisco vs. Gleam. io - The Honest Comparison

People always ask me this. "Byron, should I use Gleam?"

Look, Gleam is a solid tool. It's powerful. It's also, frankly, overkill for 90% of small businesses. Their cheapest plan is like $39/month, and it's a bit... clunky. I can get a client's campaign completely live on Faisco in under 10 minutes. No joke. With Gleam, I'm usually setting aside an hour to navigate all the options and settings.

Faisco gives you what you need without the fluff. The core functionality-running a contest, collecting leads, getting shares-is all there. And the integration is better, I mean, it actually connects properly with Instagram and TikTok, which is where so many of these other platforms just fall flat. They just give you a link to share, but Faisco's games can feel much more native to the platform. That stuff matters.

So, What Can You Do This Week?

Stop thinking you need some massive, complicated marketing plan. You don't.

What I tell my clients is this: your customers are bored. So, un-bore them. That's it. That's the whole strategy.

If you do anything, do this: 1. Go to Faisco. Pick one game. Just one. Don't agonize over it. Pick the "Lucky Spin." 2. Think of a simple prize. A 15% off coupon. A free coffee. A downloadable guide. Something easy. 3. Spend 10 minutes setting it up and then post it to your best social media channel.

That's it. You'll probably get more real engagement and more new leads from that one ten-minute task than you did from your last month of posting pretty pictures. The businesses I work with see this all the time-200-400% bumps in followers, 150-300% growth in their email lists. Not through magic, but by giving people a simple, fun reason to pay attention. Give it a shot. What do you have to lose?

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