How Smart Strategies Helped OneSeed Expeditions Summit the Mountain of Success

If a trek through Patagonia or reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro is on your bucket list, the people at OneSeed Expeditions can get you there. OneSeed Expeditions is an organization building a community of adventure seekers by offering guided expeditions and customized adventures. By partnering with the communities they travel to, they have a positive financial impact on local entrepreneurs.To grow their audience, they constructed the Explore with Purpose Giveaway and offered a prize no less epic than the expeditions they guide - two spots on a trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal. If that weren’t drool-worthy enough, the lucky winner and chosen travel buddy were outfitted with all the gear they needed for the trip.

OneSeed’s smart planning and execution of this giveaway earned them over 6,300 quality email addresses to add to their email list. What makes this data particularly valuable is the level at which these leads are qualified (i.e. likely to convert to customers). To boot, they were able to employ several other data collecting strategies to help them further market their business, and learn more about the audience they were building.There were loads of clever elements in OneSeed’s approach. A few that we’ll highlight in this article include:

• a goal to gather targeted leads,
• collected data that revealed the geographic location of participants,
• a simple entry form,
• a big deal prize, and
• a smart follow-up plan.

Any business can duplicate these same strategies and execute a successful campaign. Let’s take a deeper dive into each strategy to learn how to implement your business’ next contest or giveaway.

The Goal

The goal of the Explore with Purpose Giveaway was simple - to grow their email list. But the adventure organization took great care in collecting the right email addresses, ones that were highly targeted. They appealed to those who had an interest in travel - either those who have traveled before, or had it on their bucket list to take that big, life-changing trip.To do this, OneSeed offered a prize that separated the ‘party in Vegas’ type travelers from those that were looking for a real off-the-beaten-path adventure. A trek to Everest Base Camp isn’t for everyone, so those that entered to win it were the exact type of customer OneSeed was looking to market to down the road.To summarize, the goal was to build an email list full of potential future customers, and that’s exactly what this giveaway was able to do.

The Giveaway

Whether you’re a big brand, or a small business, when constructing a giveaway, it’s smart to keep it really simple. The Everest Base Camp Giveaway did exactly that - participants filled in an entry form and were encouraged to share with friends. That’s it!Perhaps, more than keeping the barriers to entry at a minimum, the most important element in a giveaway is the prize you offer. And this giveaway’s prize was a doozy! As mentioned previously, by entering via a simple form, participants were given the chance to win two complimentary spots on an Everest Base Camp Expedition. (The winner could choose a less strenuous trip if they preferred.) On top of winning a life changing trip, both adventurers would be outfitted with loads of gear including two pairs of Keen shoes, two Aircontact Lite backpacks and accessories from Deuter, and two $200 gift cards for Sherpa Adventure Gear.

The simplicity of the campaign coupled with the weightiness of the prize is typically a recipe for success, and one that can be duplicated by any business looking to run their own giveaway. It’s simply the best way to collect quality data.

The Promotion Plan

It’s not enough to build a giveaway, right? You have to get people to enter. For major brands, one Facebook post could yield 10,000 entries, but smaller businesses may need to work a little harder to get worthwhile results.OneSeed employed a brilliant strategy to work smarter, not harder, and acquire 6,300+ entries. They partnered with other complementary brands to entice entrants with more prizes and help get the word out. Each partner promoted the giveaway to their own audience, exponentially increasing the reach of this campaign.

Each successful business has invested time building an attentive audience. Why not use that to your advantage when running a contest or giveaway? By partnering with complementary brands (not competitive brands) you can target those with similar interests, offer better prizes and, as we mentioned, get the word out to more people.

The Data

As I mentioned before, the tangible data that this giveaway accumulated was over 6,300 email addresses. But OneSeed was smart to collect more than just an email address from each participant - they also gathered the geographical regions in which their audience lived. To do this, they added a simple zip code field to their entry form.

Learning the geographical location of your audience can be hugely beneficial when planning a marketing strategy. For example, promoting a Bahamas cruise may appeal to East Coasters who have been battling snow all winter long, whereas pushing ski packages may appeal more to those living in sunny Southern California.When analyzing the zip code data they had collected, OneSeed was surprised by the results! They had predicted that most entries would come from those living in large metropolitan areas, but the participants were actually evenly distributed across the US. This allowed them to tailor their marketing communications accordingly.

What’s Next for OneSeed Expeditions?

Armed with this new geographical knowledge and a fresh list of targeted leads, OneSeed plans to use this data for future promotions, deals, and ongoing email campaigns.Keeping the communication going is a crucial and often missed step when running a giveaway. After all of the campaign effort and excitement is over, keep up the momentum and use your list to continue the conversation. Staying on the forefront of your customers’ minds is imperative to converting them to a loyal customer base.OneSeed has plans to run another giveaway in the near future, which is yet another smart move. Email communication is great, but running regular contests and giveaways helps your business keep their audience interested and enthused.According to OneSeed, their next giveaway, as well as their goal, will look a little bit different - they will focus more on encouraging engagement through participation. Perhaps a photo contest is in order! Here at ShortStack, we’re excited to see whatever comes next.

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