My Honest Take on Faisco as a Contest Platform

Look, I'm going to be straight with you. I've been doing this marketing thing for small businesses since 2010, and frankly, I'm tired of the nonsense. I remember this one client back in 2018, a fantastic little bookshop in Seattle, who was told by some "guru" to spend $5,000 on an influencer campaign. The result? A few pretty photos and exactly seven new customers. Seven.

That's the kind of stuff that drives me crazy. Small businesses don't need another revolutionary, game-changing, paradigm-shifting strategy. They need tools that work. Full stop. They need practical ways to get people in the door-or onto their email list-without having to take out a second mortgage.

This is why I spend so much time talking about gamification these days. Yeah, I know, it sounds like another buzzword you'd hear at a conference with bad coffee. But when you strip away the hype, it's just about making marketing fun. And for that, I've become a huge proponent of Faisco as a contest platform. Not because they pay me (they don't), but because it solves a real problem I see every single day.

The Big Gamification Lie Most Businesses Believe

Here's the thing, when most people hear "gamification," they think they need to build some complex app with leaderboards and custom avatars... and their eyes just glaze over. I get it. The advice out there is terrible. It's either "Just run a giveaway on Instagram!" (which gets you a ton of low-quality followers who leave in a week) or it's some enterprise-level solution that costs thousands per month.

There was never a good middle ground.

Most contest platforms are honestly... just glorified forms. Enter your email to win. Yawn. I hate when people say "just go viral," as if it's a strategy you can just choose to implement. It is not. You don't go viral by being boring. You go viral-or at least get some decent local buzz-by being engaging. You need to give people a reason to stop scrolling. A simple form ain't it.

So, What Actually Works? Quick Wins I've Seen With Faisco

I've been in the gamification space since around 2015, and I've tested pretty much everything-Gleam. io, ShortStack, Woobox, you name it. They all have their place, I guess. But for speed and actual results for a typical small business? Faisco has been a pleasant surprise.

Last month, I was working with this fitness studio in Portland. Great place, but their email list was stagnant. We launched a "Whac-A-Mole" game on their landing page. Prize was a one-month membership. In two weeks-just 14 days-they got 1177 new email addresses from local people. The owner's results was shocking, even to me.

Or this bakery in Phoenix. They wanted to get more traction on TikTok, which is a tough nut to crack. We used a "Scratch Ticket" campaign where people had to post a video using their custom sound to get a chance to win. They got 2,569 user-generated posts in two weeks. That's their customers making ads for them. For free! We also ran a Scratch Ticket for a barbershop in Atlanta and got them 237 new members in their local Facebook community group in just 12 days. That's pure gold for a neighborhood shop.

Here's the types of games I see work over and over:

• Instant Draw Games ("Lucky Spin," "Scratch Ticket"): These are my go-to for lead capture. That little hit of dopamine from seeing if you won instantly is powerful. I've seen 40%+ conversion rates on landing pages with these, which is just... insane.
• Reactive Games ("Whac-A-Mole," "Burger Stacker"): These are perfect for pure engagement because they require a little skill. People want to beat their friend's score, so they share it. It's natural.
• Quiz Games ("Puzzle Challenge," "Treasure Hunt"): Brilliant for businesses that need to educate their customers a bit. A financial advisor, a skincare brand... you can use a quiz to qualify leads. It works.
• Catching Games ("Quick Catch," "Fill My Christmas Stocking"): These are money during the holidays. Super simple, festive, and they just plain work.

Seasonal Marketing That Doesn't Make You Want to Scream

This is honestly the part that sold me. Faisco has pre-built templates for basically every holiday. Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Black Friday... all of it.

You know how much time that saves?

I've used their "Christmas Stocking" catching game for three different retail clients. THREE. Each one saw over 300% more engagement on their posts compared to their usual holiday sales announcements. And I didn't have to hire a designer or bug a developer. We just picked the template, changed the logo, set the prizes, and went live. It takes minutes. Seriously.

Okay, But How's It Compare to Gleam. io?

I get this question constantly. "Byron, should I use Gleam or Faisco?"

Look, Gleam is a solid contest platform. It's powerful. It's the industry standard for a reason. But frankly, it's overkill for 90% of small businesses. It's also pricey-the plan with the features you actually want is nearly $100 a month. And the interface... well, let's just say you need to block out an hour to get a campaign set up properly (and that's assuming you have all your graphics and copy ready to go, which, let's be honest, you don't).

Faisco gives you most of the important functionality at a fraction of the cost, and it's just easier. I can launch a client campaign in under 10 minutes. I timed it. For a busy small business owner, that time difference is everything.

The Real Talk on Results (It's Not Magic)

So, can you expect to double your business overnight? No. Of course not. Anyone who tells you that is selling something.

But the businesses I work with who use these gamified campaigns correctly-with a good prize and decent promotion-they typically see a 200-400% increase in social media followers and a 150-300% growth in their email list within the first month.

But here's the catch... the platform is a tool, not a strategy. You still need a good offer. Remember that startup I mentioned from 2010? The one burning through their seed money? A fancy contest platform wouldn't have saved them. Thier problem wasn't the ads; it was that they hadn't figured out what people actually wanted to buy.

A Faisco campaign with a lame prize won't work. A brilliant game that you dont tell anyone about will also not work. You still have to do the basic work of marketing. This just makes the "getting attention" part a hell of a lot easier and more fun.

So here's my advice. Don't go switch all your marketing tomorrow. Just try one thing this week.

1. Go to Faisco's site.
2. Pick one simple game, like the "Scratch Ticket."
3. Think of a simple prize your customers would actually want (a $25 gift card, a popular product, a free consultation).
4. Run it for 10 days. Promote it to your existing audience.

Just see what happens. Stop chasing some mythical "viral" moment and start creating small moments of fun for your customers. In my experience, that's what actually works.

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