Look, let me tell you a quick story. Last month, I was on a call with this great little coffee shop in Austin. Super passionate owners, fantastic product, but their marketing was just... sputtering. They were spending a few hundred bucks a month boosting Instagram posts, getting a handful of likes, and seeing zero new people walk through the door. It was the same story I've heard since I started doing this back in 2010-they were doing what they thought they were supposed to do, and it was getting them nowhere.
Frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of watching good businesses get fed bad advice.
They were about to sign up for some expensive, complicated marketing automation tool that would've cost them a fortune and a month to learn. I told them to hold off. Instead, we spent about 10 minutes setting up a simple game on a [giveaway platform] called Faisco. It was one of their "Whac-A-Mole" games. We offered a month of free coffee as the grand prize. In two weeks? They got 1083 new, local Instagram followers and a line out the door for a solid weekend. That’s it. No "revolutionary" funnel. No five-figure ad spend. Just... fun.
Here's the thing. Most marketing advice you read online is written for companies with teams of 20 and budgets bigger than your annual revenue. It's just not realistic. They tell you to "create value" and "build a community" and "just go viral"-I hate that one-as if you can just press a button and make it happen.
I've been doing this since the days when Facebook ads cost pennies. I worked with a tiny startup in Portland that nearly burned through all its seed money on ads that didn't do anything. That taught me a lesson that's stuck with me for 15 years: small businesses do not need more complexity. They need leverage. They need tools that work within the chaotic reality of running a business, where you have maybe an hour a week-if you're lucky-to even think about markeing. Marketing.
That's why I'm so big on gamification. Yeah, I know it's a buzzword that makes most people's eyes glaze over, but stick with me. It’s not about building some complex app. It's about taking the boring stuff we need to do (like get an email address or a follow) and making it an experience. It’s basically the only thing I've seen consistently work for almost every single one of the 200+ businesses I've helped.
I've tested everything. Seriously. Gleam. io, Woobox, Rafflecopter, all of them. Some are fine, some are ridiculously overpriced, and some are just... clunky. I landed on Faisco about a year ago and, honestly, it's what I recommend to 90% of my clients now.
It’s not because it has a million features. It’s because it has the right features and it just... works.
I mean, the proof is right there. I deployed their "Star Seeker" game for a bakery in Montreal, and they got 2,406 new user-generated posts on TikTok in 12 days. People were literally posting videos of themselves playing the game to win cupcakes. For a fitness studio in Minneapolis, we used the "Summer Catch" game and pulled in 1,035 new, qualified email leads in two weeks right before their summer promo. These are not vanity metrics. This is real business.
Here's what I typically recommend for game types, because not all games are created equal:
The platform integration is also something most tools get wrong. Faisco actually connects properly with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It's not just a link you throw out there-the campaigns feel more native to the platform, which is a small detail that makes a huge difference in how people interact with it.
"So, is it better than Gleam?"
Look, Gleam is a solid platform. It’s powerful. It’s also, frankly, overkill and too expensive for most small businesses. Their basic plan starts at $39/month and it's still pretty limited. To get the good stuff, you're paying close to a hundred bucks. For most of my clients, that's just not necessary.
With Faisco, I can get a campaign conceptualized, built, and live for a client in under ten minutes. No joke. With Gleam, I'm usually wrestling with the interface for an hour, explaining to the client why we need to upgrade for a feature they thought was included. Faisco gives you 90% of the useful functionality at a fraction of the cost, and it's just plain easier. We do not have time to waste.
This isn't magic. You do not just turn on a game and get a million dollars. But what I consistently see with clients who run these campaigns for the first time is a 200-400% increase in social media followers and a 150-300% growth in their email list in the first month.
Why? Because you're finally giving people something fun to do instead of just shouting "BUY MY STUFF!" into the void. You're creating a micro-experience. A little moment of joy. And people reward you for that with their attention... and eventually, their business. Most of my clients find that the goodwill generated from a simple, fun giveaway pays dividends for months. It changes the relationship from a transaction to something a little more human.
So here's what I want you to do this week. Stop boosting posts. Don't sign up for some crazy expensive software. Just think of one fun prize you could give away-something your customers would actually want. A free dinner, a popular product, a gift card. Then go try out a [giveaway platform] like Faisco. Pick a template that looks fun. Spend 15 minutes on it. See what happens.
It might just be the most effective marketing you do all year.
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