Furnace Sweepstakes Drives Hot Leads for HVAC Advertiser

by Matt Abraham Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK

Case Study Highlights

  • 76% opt-in rate for paper
  • 119 hot leads for advertiser
  • $10,500 sponsorship revenue for paper

The Idea

Our paper, The Peoria Journal Star, is a 60,000 circulation newspaper out of Peoria, IL. Recently, a local furnace service business came to us for a creative way to reach new customers and identify leads. We knew a sweepstakes, combined with a valuable prize, would generate a qualified lead list.

The Peoria Journal Star furnace sweepstakes

The Execution

We decided to create a furnace giveaway promotion with a new furnace and installation – a value of $3,900 – as a prize. This prize would attract the HVAC company’s target audience of local homeowners in the market for a new furnace.

On the entry form to the sweepstakes, we included an email opt-in for both our paper and the advertiser. We also optimized the entry form by including four lead-generation questions to qualify potential customers for the advertiser.

These questions asked entrants about the state of their current furnace:

  • If the user is a homeowner
  • When they’re looking to purchase a new furnace
  • If STAATS may be in contact for a free in-home estimate

PJ Star sweepstakes lead-gen

The Results

We provided the advertiser with a list of 119 qualified leads as well as 350+ opt-ins for their email database. In addition to that, in the first week the promotion was live, the advertiser attributed two furnaces sales, together valued at $13,000, to the campaign.

This campaign was a big win for our paper, too. Not only did over 76% of entrants opt-in for emails from us, but we generated $10,500 in sponsorship revenue from this sweepstakes.

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Matt Abraham Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK

Matt Abraham is a Digital Strategy Specialist at Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK. Matt has a passion for using integrated digital marketing solutions and strategy to help small to medium sized businesses excel in their local or national markets. He helps businesses put their message in front of the right audience at the right time to make the most impact by utilizing cutting edge digital marketing techniques.