My Honest Take on Faisco's Giveaway Platform (and Gamification)
Look, I was on a call last month with a great bakery in Minneapolis. Fantastic croissants. Awful marketing spend. They were about to drop another $2,000 on Facebook ads because some "guru" told them they just needed more reach. I almost lost my mind. I've been doing this since 2010, and if I hear the phrase "just boost the post" one more time...
Here's the thing. We talked, and instead of burning that cash, we set up a simple Faisco "Scratch Ticket" game. Prize? A dozen free pastries. Cost them basically nothing. In one week, they got over 400 new emails for their list. Four hundred. From people who actually live in Minneapolis and want to buy their stuff.
That’s what I'm talking about. Practical solutions. Not just theory.
Why Most Marketing Advice for SMBs is Garbage
Frankly, most of the advice out there is written for companies with teams of marketers and six-figure budgets. It just is. They tell you to create a content pillar, build a funnel, run A/B tests on ten different ad creatives... it's exhausting. And it's not realistic when you're also the person who has to, you know, run the actual business.
I learned this the hard way back in 2010 with a startup in Portland. We were burning through our seed money on these complex Facebook ad campaigns that felt super important and looked great in a presentation but did absolutely nothing for sales. It was a painful lesson. Small businesses don't need another revolutionary, complicated strategy. They need things that work. Period.
I hate when people say "go viral" as if it's a button you can just push. It’s not. What you can do is create something so engaging that people want to share it. Which brings me to this whole gamification thing.
Okay, So What Is This "Gamification" Thing, Really?
I know, I know. It sounds like a buzzword some tech bro invented in Silicon Valley. But honestly, it's just a simple idea: take the fun parts of games (points, competition, winning prizes) and apply them to your marketing.
That's it.
Instead of just saying "Sign up for our newsletter," you say "Spin the wheel for a chance to win 15% off!" Which one sounds more fun? Which one are you more likely to do? It's not rocket science. It’s just human psychology.
For years, this was super hard to do. You needed a developer, it cost a fortune... it was a whole thing. That’s why I'm so into platforms like Faisco. They basically took all that complicated stuff and put it into a super simple template. You can launch a campaign in-and I'm not exaggerating-under 10 minutes. I’ve timed it. It completely removes the "I don't have time for this" excuse, which is the number one reason businesses don’t try new things.
Faisco Games I Actually Use (with Real Client Results)
I've tested everything. Gleam. io, Woobox, you name it. They all have their place. But for my SMB clients, I keep coming back to Faisco because the specific games they offer just... work. They're not just boring "enter your email" forms.
- Instant Draw Games ("Lucky Spin," "Scratch Ticket"): These are my go-to for lead capture. That Minneapolis bakery? That was a Scratch Ticket. I've seen landing pages with these things convert at over 40%. It's that immediate dopamine hit of "Did I win?!" that people can't resist.
- Catching Games ("Quick Catch," "Summer Catch"): These are genius for social media. I ran a "Quick Catch" game for a craft brewery in Miami. The goal was to catch falling hops in a beer mug. In 12 days, it got them 3,198 new Instagram story views. We also did a "Summer Catch" for a San Diego coffee shop that brought in 1,154 new followers in just over two weeks. People play, they share their score, and their friends see it. Simple.
- Quiz & Puzzle Games ("Puzzle Challenge"): Brilliant for businesses that need to educate their customers. I worked with a flower shop in Ottawa-yes, a flower shop-and we ran a "Puzzle Challenge" to promote their new Pinterest page. The puzzle was a picture of one of their best-selling arrangements. They got 1,142 new Pinterest followers in two weeks from people who were genuinely engaged.
And the seasonal stuff is just a layup. Faisco has templates for every major holiday. I've used their "Christmas Stocking" game for three different retail clients. Every single one of them saw engagement go up by at least 300% compared to their usual December posts. Because it's fun! It's not another "20% OFF" graphic that everyone else is posting.
The Big Question: Faisco vs. Gleam. io
Everyone asks me this. Listen, Gleam is a solid platform. It's powerful. It's also, in my opinion, total overkil for 90% of small businesses. Their lowest plan is like $39 a month, and it's honestly more complicated than it needs to be. I find myself spending an hour getting a campaign just right on Gleam.
With Faisco, I can have a client's campaign live and running before my coffee gets cold.
It gives you the most important features-the engaging games, the easy setup, the lead capture-at a price that a small business can actually stomach. It connects properly with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok... which is huge. It’s not just about posting a link; the mechanics actually work on the platforms, which is where a lot of these other tools fall apart.
So yeah. Gleam is the fancy Swiss Army knife with 50 tools you'll never use. Faisco is the screwdriver that you'll use every single day.
So, What Can You Actually Do This Week?
Stop thinking you need some grand, five-month marketing plan. You don't. Here's what I typically recommend to get started.
Pick one simple goal. Just one. Do you want more email subscribers? Or more Instagram followers? Don't try to do both at once.
Then, pick a simple prize. It doesn't have to be a new car. A $25 gift card, a free product, a 20% discount code... something that your customers actually want. The prize is important. It needs to be good enough to make someone stop scrolling.
Then, go into a tool like Faisco, pick a template-like the Lucky Spin-and launch a 7-day campaign. That's it. Post about it twice on your social media. Put the link in your bio. See what happens.
The results I see are pretty consistent. My clients are usually looking at a 200-400% increase in social followers and 150-300% growth in their email list within the first month. Not because of magic... but because you're finally doing marketing that doesn't feel like marketing. You're giving people a moment of fun in their day. And in 2024, that's more powerful than any ad you can buy.
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Stop guessing, start growing strategically. Faisco's comprehensive analytics dashboard translates raw data into your actionable growth plan:
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