Major Resort Uses ShortStack to Increase Online Raffle Entries by 78%

Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa has spent the last several years running online raffles in order to grow a strong email list.

In this case study, we’ve laid out the steps Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa used to plan and execute a giveaway campaign that resulted in a 78% increase in raffle entries and a 141% increase in campaign views compared to their previous average.

As Mountain View Grand learned, a marketing campaign is only successful if it motivates existing and potential customers to engage, and converts more visitors into qualified leads.

Here’s what you’ll learn from this case study:

• Why Mountain View Grand decided to run a giveaway separate from their Facebook Page.
• Where they decided to host their giveaway in an attempt to increase traffic and engagement.
• Why email is such an important communication tool for Mountain View Grand.

Here’s a step-by-step look at what Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa did to increase raffle entries by 78% and tips for how you can apply them to your own Campaigns.

Step #1: Recognize a Problem

Businesses run campaigns in order to reach a goal and solve a problem.

Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa had been running raffle giveaways for several years with the main goal being to grow their email list.

They were hosting their giveaways on their Facebook Page and asking their fans to enter through Facebook.

While their goal was focused, Mountain View Grand Resort’s execution had some flaws.

Every time they would promote their raffle to their existing email list Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa reps would receive feedback from users saying they did not have a Facebook Page and therefore had no way to enter.

Mountain View Grand was left to enter these people into the giveaway manually.

‍“We would constantly get messages that people wanted to enter the raffle but didn’t have Facebook,” said Leani Fogg, Marketing Coordinator for Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa. “We would have to maintain two entry forms. We’d maintain the second entry form through Adobe Form Central and would link to it from an email for those people who did not have Facebook”

‍It became clear that maintaining two forms was not ideal. Leani and her team needed a better solution.

‍The takeaway: Pay attention to where your audience is online.

Step #2: Adjust Strategies as Needed

Having been long-time ShortStack users, Mountain View Grand was familiar with the option to publish their Campaigns as stand-alone web or “landing” pages.

Once Mountain View Grand decided it was too difficult to maintain two data collection forms for each raffle, they decided to publish their form to the web where it would function as a landing page and give them one central place to collect entries.

From there, Mountain View Grand promoted their raffle giveaway from their Facebook page, their website, and their newsletter.

‍“We’re always looking for a way to grow our email database, keep things fresh, and change it up a bit,” said Fogg. “We wanted to find a way to reach not only the people on our email list but the people who come to our website who may not know about the email list, or people that may not come to our Facebook page.”

‍Mountain View Grand changed their publishing strategy because of how difficult it was for their audience to enter their giveaways.

However, there are some other reasons businesses might consider publishing to the web instead of to Facebook, including:

• you plan on having mobile visitors/entries
• you don’t want to deal with/comply to Facebook’s promotion guidelines
• you want more design flexibility
• you want all of your online audience to be able to enter your giveaway

The takeaway: Focusing on the user experience will result in more traffic and entries into your promotion.

Step #3: Analyze Results

After adjusting their publishing strategy, Mountain View Grand saw a 78% increase in entrants into their raffle.

In addition, they received a 141% increase in Campaign views compared to their previous raffles.

Mountain View Grand adhered to same the promotion tactics for this giveaway that they had for previous efforts: They used Facebook, their website and their existing email list to promote the giveaway.

The hotel continues to communicate with their email subscribers and even saw a higher click- through rate on their most recent raffle email.

“We had a higher open and click through rate on this email,” said Fogg. “We like to compare to our Summer raffle because that’s usually our busiest time of the year and the click rate for the Summer raffle email was 8.7 percent and for the Winter raffle email was 12.3 percent.”

Mountain View Grand’s raffles began as a means to collect email addresses and grow their Facebook Page.

Now, several years later, their goal continues to be to grow their email list, but they prefer to drive traffic to their website and use Facebook as a tool to do that.

‍“In 2013 we completely redid our website and since then our goal has been to drive people to the website because it has all the information that they need,” said Fogg.

“Our goals for social media have changed as well and they’re mainly to interact with our fans and drive them back to our website.”

‍By listening to their online followers and adjusting some of their strategies, Mountain View Grand was able to rework the delivery of their raffles, making it easier for their audience to enter.

Ultimately this made Mountain View Grand’s promotions more successful.

‍The takeaway: A business’s website should always be the main source of information and social media should be used as a tool to drive traffic back to the website.