'Back to Basics' Sweepstakes

How a Simple Quiz Generated 6,400 Leads for a B2B Funnel

It's tradition: Every year, the B2B manufacturer SMP develops multiple sweepstakes, challenges, and contests to raise brand awareness. As a creative lead from 2015-2019, we generated tens of thousands of leads across dozens of contests. But one contest stands out.

Getting back to basics: In 2018, SMP’s senior leadership felt the company’s basic manufacturing story wasn’t getting enough attention. The story was a major differentiator and worth re-emphasizing. With that in mind, I developed a promotional quiz to spotlight SMP's basic manufacturing. I called it the Standard ‘Back to Basics’ Sweepstakes.

Pop quiz: To enter the sweepstakes, contestants had to take the 'Back to Basics' quiz. Here's how it worked:

• Seven multiple-choice questions
• Each question featured a photo of an SMP part being manufactured
• Contestants who correctly identified every part were entered into a random drawing
• The Grand Prize was a $2,500 gift card to Cabela’s
• Plus, we made 100 branded camo hats that were union-made in the U.S. (which aligned with our U.S. manufacturing).

Promotion tip: Create a barrier to entry to discourage non-customers from entering. For this quiz, if a contestant didn’t know what a fuel injector looked like, they weren’t the type of lead we wanted to generate.

360 approach: With our messaging and prizes in place, we got to work creating the marketing material. The very talented Emily Brady set the tone and feel of the contest with the printed flyer below. The outdoorsy setting emphasized the Cabela’s prize and played off the ‘back to basics’ theme in a fun way.

We converted the artwork to digital banner ads for placement on industry publications, newsletters, Google Display Network, and more. Next, I wrote a script, and the very talented Jose Ojeda brought the setting to life with a promotional video:

I used Woobox ($100/month for their Growth tier) to build the quiz page. I also drafted internal communications for our sales team, scheduled a press release, and prepared social posts and emails for the launch date.

A busy two months: The contest ran from April 2 to May 31. During that time, the ‘Back to Basics’ Sweepstakes became the most successful promotion of my tenure. Here's why:

• 19,700 people visited the quiz page
• 6,400 people completed the quiz
• 1,200 people answered every question correctly
• 23,000 YouTube views
• 10,000 Facebook views

And the winner is... Adding to the success of the campaign, the random winner of the $2,500 Cabela’s gift card was one of our existing customers. Our regional salesperson met the winner to deliver the prize and take a photo. Not only did we connect with new customers, we also strengthened relationships with existing customers.

For comparison's sake: The 'Back to Basics' Sweepstakes was one of six promotions that I oversaw in 2018. The other five promotions weren't as popular but they still generated an additional 2,000+ leads:

Takeaway: Regardless of what your budget is, you can run an effective contest, sweepstakes, or promotion. Make sure the contest is simple to enter, there’s a barrier to entry to discourage non-customers from entering, and you’re communicating a unique selling point. Also, don't only focus on the quantity of entries. When the contest ends, it's better to have 50 high-value leads than 1,000 low-value leads.

Get in touch: If you're looking for creative ways to connect with customers, shoot me an email.