RafflePress, how to run viral giveaways in WordPress

RafflePress is a WordPress plugin that will allow you to run viral giveaways on your own website.

You can do this to promote your business or new products, get new subscribers for your newsletter, increase your followers on your social networks, or simply get more engagement with your current customers and audience.

How to buy and install RafflePress

RafflePress is a paid plugin, and sadly, it doesn’t have any kind of free trial.

That’s why I’m writing this review, so you won’t have “blindly” buy it as I did at the time.

We will talk about the price at the end of the review because you can get different licenses with different features, so it’s important that you understand how the plugin works in order to decide which license you want.

In any case, the licenses are purchased on their website, using a really simple checkout.

As you can see you can use PayPal or a credit card to finish the payment.

Once the purchase is completed, you will receive an email with your username and password to log in to the RafflePress website.

From your private profile, you’ll be able to download the plugin and copy your license.

You will get a zip file that you will have to install on your WordPress from the classic plugins tab, by clicking “upload”, without unzipping it previously.

Once you have it, you must add the license, which can also be found in your profile on the RafflePress website.

And that’s all, you already have installed RafflePress on your site.

RafflePress basic settings

Once the plugin is installed, it will appear as another section in your WordPress sidebar.

The first thing I recommend you to do is to go to the plugin preferences, and in the general tab, set your default time zone so that all contests are created attached to this reference, and thus avoid errors in the future.

This is an important step.

All the giveaways you generate will have a start and end time and date, so you need to be careful with the time zone so everything starts and ends when you really want.

This is a detail that you can modify individually for each contest though, but having a correct default time zone will save you time and will avoid mistakes.

On the other hand, in the Emails tab, you can decide if you want Rafflepress to send you summary emails of the people who sign up for your contests.

My recommendation is to choose weekly updates, or directly disable them since the information they send is not very relevant either.

Finally, the Integrations tab will show you the email marketing services that you can connect to RafflePress to grow your mailing list, although to configure them for the first time, you will do it from a giveaway.

As you can see, currently there are not too many, but you’ll have access to the most important ones such as:

• Active Campaign,
• Mailchimp,
• Aweber,
• Constant Contact.
• Drip,
• And Zapier, a tool that will allow you to connect RafflePress to almost any email marketing platform, like EmailOctopus.

Remember that these are only the integrations related to email marketing platforms, in case you want to use giveaways to grow your subscriber lists.

This has nothing to do with RafflePress integrations with for example social networks (Twitter, TikTok, YouTube…) that will allow you to create actions to make your campaigns more engaging to your subscribers.

Step #1 – Add a New Giveaway

For creating a new giveaway, from the WordPress admin panel, on the sidebar, go to RafflePress > Add New.

Then, you’ll have to choose a name for the giveaway, usually, you will use the name of your price, but it can be anything.

As this is your first giveaway, my suggestion is for you to click on “classic giveaway” to start with a blank giveaway and learn all the steps of the process.

In the following giveaways, you could pick a template from the ones RafflePress offers you below.

Templates are just a way of creating giveaways faster (similar to templates on Thrive Ultimatum)

In this case, a RafflePress template simply has some actions already added.

So if you pick for instance the “Grow your YouTube Channel” template, you’ll find on your giveaway actions to invite people to watch a video or subscribe to your channel, but you could add more actions if you would like to!

Currently, there are 7 Giveaway templates:

• Grow your email list
• Refer-a-friend viral giveaway
• Pre-launch campaign
• Grow your Facebook Page
• Grow your Instagram Following
• Grow your YouTube Channel
• Grow your Twitter Following

All of them are basically self-explanatory, but if you want to see the actions of any of them, just click on the “Demo” button over them.

Let’s continue with the following steps for creating your giveaway!

Step #2 – Setup giveaway details

After selecting one template (even a blank one), you’ll get into the details tab.

Here you’ll have to add the name of what you are raffling, remember to also add a description and a photo to make the prize more eye-catching.

Remember to properly set the start and end dates of the contest, including the time, as you can’t have a giveaway running infinitely.

As you have already configured the default time zone previously, you don’t need to worry about it now.

When you have these basic details done, go to the “Actions” tab on the sidebar, but don’t forget to save your changes first!

Step #3 – Add the actions of your Giveaway

From the Actions tab, you will be able to configure everything you want the user to do to get entries for your giveaway.

This is a very important step in the giveaway configuration and is where much of the power of Rafflepress lies.

You’ll find several actions here, divided by categories:

• Get more subscribers
• Get more social engagement
• Get more traffic

Actions for getting more subscribers include:

• Visit us on Facebook
• Like our Page
• Follow us on Twitter
• Visit us on Instagram
• Follow us on TikTok
• Follow us on Pinterest
• Follow us on LinkedIn
• Follow us on Twitch
• Visit a YouTube Channel
• Join an email newsletter

Actions for getting more social engagement include:

• Refer a Friend – Viral
• View Facebook Post / Video
• View TikTok Post / Video
• View Instagram Post / Video
• Watch a video on YouTube
• Automatic Entry

Actions for getting more traffic include:

• Tweet a message
• Share on Facebook
• Visit a page
• Share on LinkedIn
• Answer a question
• Polls & Surveys
• Upload an image
• Invent your own
• Leave a Comment
• Write a Blog Post
• Subscribe to RSS Feed
• Subscribe to Podcast

As you see, almost 30 different actions that actually can be more, as you are able to invent your own!

The company keeps adding actions every year, for instance, the TikTok-related actions were included in 2022.

Step #3.1 – Configure the actions (Entry Options)

Adding the actions you want the user to do is one thing, but you still will have to configure them.

It’s impossible to explain all of them in this guide, as they defer a bit depending on the action, but you’ll see that they are really easy to set and indeed, have many parts in common.

For instance, this is the action for joining an email newsletter.

As you can see, there are many “email-related” settings (integration, APIs, confirmation checkbox…)

If you are on another action, for instance, the ones related to YouTube, you’ll find there, fields for adding your YouTube Channel, the video URL you want them to see, etc.

What is more important is to understand the common options:

• Value: number of “entries” that the user will get by doing this action (more entries, more chances of winning). Use low numbers for easy actions (watch a video) and high values for “difficult” actions, like signing up for a newsletter.
• Make mandatory: if you want the action to be mandatory in order to participate in the giveaway.
• Allow daily entries: if you want the user to be able to repeat the action each day in order to get more entries, and thus, more chances of winning. 

See also  Thrive Comments, improve the Comments on your WordPress

From my experience, the best results are obtained but making all the actions optional and using high values on the actions you really want them to do.

Step #3.2 – Configure the “login”

it’s important to mention that you will need a way to contact the winners of the giveaway.

You’ll configure this directly on the giveaway previewer:

This is a mandatory step, as you really need this contact information:

• Email is the most common way of doing this.
  • Remember: this is not an email for your email marketing list, this is just for contacting the winner(s).
• Facebook login is only available in some paid plans, and you’ll also need to get a Facebook ID.

Step #4 – Modify the Design

Before publishing the Giveaway, you slightly modify the design of it in the third tab of the sidebar, called Design.

Specifically, you’ll be able to change the layout (showing the image above or below the text), the font, or the main color used.

You’ll be able also to add a solid background or an image, and if you know CSS, even add your own code to modify what you need.

Step #5 – Rules & Important technical Setting

Before making your Giveaway go live, it’s important to go to the Settings Tab on the sidebar, and at least, check that everything will work as you have planned.

There are many things to check here, these are the most important:

• General section:
  • Hide the total entries if you don’t want the participants to be discouraged by seeing too many participants already
  • Limit to 3 sign pus per IPs address, to avoid cheaters
  • Hide the “by RafflePress” link if you want a cleaner design.
• Giveaway rules: add the rules of the giveaway. Could be legally required by your country.
• Email verification: decide if contestants must verify their email in order to participate.
• Success tracking: add Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel tracking script.
• Success redirect: where do you want the users to be redirected after completing all the actions?
• Social Login: configure the social logins.
• GDPR: add a GDPR checkbox.
• Recaptcha: configure a captcha in order to avoid spam.
• Webhooks: configure webhooks in order to integrate RafflePress with third-party apps.

Step #6 – Save and publish your Giveaway

Once you have everything ready, click on save, and go to the publishing section.

There you will find the different ways you can share your giveaway:

• You can use a Guttenberg block in the WordPress editor,
• You can also use a shortcode, to add the giveaway wherever you need (like in the sidebar of your blog)
• Also, you can create a specific landing page for the giveaway, but this is not a feature available on all the plans.

Step #7 – Ending the Giveaway

Ending the giveaway and picking the winners is super easy on RafflePress.

You just need to go to the Giveaways section (within the sidebar of the WordPress admin panel) and click on the “Need Winners” button.

Then choose the number of winners, and that’s it.

RafflePress will select them for you, taking into account of course, who has the most entries because has done more actions.

• Important!: RafflePress just picks the winners, you are in charge of contacting them.

RafflePress Pricing

As you can see, RafflePress is a very powerful plugin that can help you get a lot of awareness around your business.

Now that you know how it works, you can better understand the different paid plans available.

• Important note: except for the lifetime plan, all other plans will allow you to use the plugin forever, but you will only receive updates and support for 1 year.

So, what are the main differences between the plans? Which one should I pick?

There are mainly 3 plans available:

• Plus ($79, or $39.5 if there is a discount available when you are going to buy it)
• Pro ($199 or $99.5 with discount)
• Growth ($399 or $199.5 with discount)

The Plus plan ($39.5)

• Is limited to 1 site: so is a good plan for testing, or if you only have one online project/business.
• It lacks email integrations: you won’t be able to use RafflePress for growing up your email list. Because of this, the integration with Zapier is also not available.
• Some actions are also unavailable: Polls & Surveys, Submit Image and Refer a Friend (Viral).
• You can’t configure Mandatory Actions, repeat actions, redirections, social logins.
• You can’t see entry reports.
• You can’t auto-create giveaway landing pages.   

Besides the 1 site limit, the lack of email integration is the most limiting factor for choosing this plan.

But if you don’t use email marketing on your business (or is not the main purpose of the giveaway), and you just one to generate buzz around your site and/or products, Plus is a good choice.

The Pro plan ($99.5)

• Will allow you to use the plugin on up to 3 sites.
• Will unlock some of the limitations from the previous plan (email integration, polls & surveys, submit images, mandatory actions, and repeat actions)
• However, you still won’t be able to use Zapier, the reports, the Social Login, Giveaway Landing Pages, or the refer a friend action.

For me, this is the sweet spot.

The Growth plan ($199.5)

• Will let you use RafflePress on up to 20 sites.
• All the features are unlocked.

This plan is only recommended if you are serious about growth, because the most important feature here is the refer a friend action, although having landing pages for every giveaway process will also speed up your content creation.

The Lifetime plan ($499.50)

If you plan to use all the features of RafflePress for more than 2,5 years, or you want to use the plugin on your client’s websites (as you have unlimited sites), this is your plan.

RafflePress, is it worth it?

RafflePress is a plugin that may seem a bit expensive at first, but if you use it, and especially if you end up getting the lifetime version, it’s a tool that will pay off quickly, as it will help you reach many potential customers, and improve your engagement with those you already have, in a more economical way, and most important, is simpler than using advertising.

If you are looking for a way to reach more leads, and you don’t want to create content or invest in advertising, running giveaways is a quick way to achieve that goal.

If you don’t want the viral action, I recommend you to sign up for the Pro plan for a year, and see how you get along with the plugin and if it is useful for your business.

From your RafflePress profile you will be able to upgrade during the year to the higher plan and even to the Lifetime, so starting from the bottom is the smartest decision.