Tutorial: Writing Contest – Easypromos - Online Helpdesk

Step 1. Create the promotion

1. Access the Easypromos Control Panel and log in with your email address and password to manage and create your promotions.

2. Create a new promotion by clicking the green button.

3. You’ll see a display of the different products available. Choose “Writing Contest”. This option creates a promotion with a user registration form. Users will be able to enter their text in the form to participate.

4. As a next step, set up the following options:

Organizing brand. As a first step, you should select or create an organizing brand for your promotion. This organizing brand is independent of any social network and works as a folder within your Easypromos account, in order to help organize the promotions that you create.
Template version. Select which template you want to use to create your promotion: Basic, Premium or White Label.

Note: Compare here the features and functionalities included in each template.

5. After clicking on "Continue" button, you'll get access to the Promotion Management Page. You’ll find all the options for setting up your promotion here. Here's a quick rundown of the most relevant sections:

Header. This contains the title of the promotion, the version you've picked and other relevant information such as the ID number of the promotion. You'll also see the Promotion status: Draft, Active or Expired. The status also shows if the promotion is about to start. Once the promotion period has ended, this field will be marked in red saying: Status: Expired. You can choose what users see on an expired promotion page.
Link to the promotion. This is the URL that you should use for sharing on all channels. Learn more about sharing here. There's also a button to automatically copy the link and make sharing simpler.
Activate Promotion button. When you have the promotion prepared and ready to launch, click this button to activate it. You'll be taken to the activation page, where you can also review billing information and make payments.
Side menu. This contains all your options for the promotion.
View tutorial. This tutorial guides you step by step through the creation and management of your promotion.
Date and timezone settings to control when different stages of the promotion will take place.
Languages indicates the default language of the promotion. You can edit this if you wish.
Localization allows you to limit participation to one or several countries. (Localization is included by default). Find out more here.
Next steps: Practical recommendations that will guide you through the creation and management of your campaign.

Tip: the promotion ID number (beginning with #) is a unique identifier for each promotion. Give this number to the Easypromos support team if you have any issues. This will make it easier for us to review your settings and fix the problem.

Step 2. Customize the text and images for each page

The platform comes with a range of pre-configured features, based on the version that you've chosen. Let’s take a look at how to customize text and images in the promotion, as well as colors and font settings.

1. Enter the promotion “Editor”.

2. Configure the text and images for each separate page of the promotion:

A) Welcome.

Change the provisional title for one that highlights the strengths of your promotion. These tips might help you if you’re not sure.
Format the text and upload images or videos to make the pages more dynamic.
Use the Description to explain the contest mechanism. Make sure that users understand the steps they must follow to participate. You can also customize the “Participate” and “See Participants” buttons.

B) Entry Form.

From this section, you can set up the Registration Form that users complete to participate in the contest.

Customize the text and header image of this page in the “Options” tab.
Add the fields that you want participants to complete. You can ask for their email address, telephone number, birth date, gender, city, and country. Also you can add additional text fields, dropdown menus, and checkboxes. We explain these in detail below.
Comments field. In the “Writing Contest” application, the “comments field” comes pre-configured by default. Use this field to ask participants for their text entries for the contest. Participants may write up to 65,000 characters.

4. [Optional] You can also add the “Media field”. Use this to ask participants for a photo/video to accompany their text. You can make the field optional.

You’ll be able to set up more advanced options:

You can ask users to participate with a photo or video.
You can also make the uploading of a photo or video optional.

C) Thank You.

Customize the final page with an image and a thank-you text.

Use the final image to give the contest a personal touch. Remind participants of the prize and encourage them to share!
Thank you message. Thank participants and tell them when the winner/s will be announced.
Facebook Page linked to the promotion. Enter your Facebook details if you want your Facebook Page to appear on the last page of the promotion.

You can also set up the following options:

A text encouraging users to share. To the left of the first “Share” button, there’s a customizable text. Use this to encourage participants to tell their friends and followers about the contest.
A text and link for the final button. Complete both fields to enable this second button, and lead participants who click on it to an external website.

D) Gallery. Configure how the public gallery of competition entries will look. In this section, you should be aware of the following tabs:

Contents: You can upload a header image to give the gallery a more corporate touch, and add an introduction message.
Layout: Contests use the tiled gallery layout by default, which allows you to present more than one text on the same line. This creates a more visually attractive collage.

You have the following options for configuring the gallery layout:

Decide if you want to use the Tiled gallery or the Vertical gallery.
Adjust the gallery to your liking. Find out how here.

3. Votes: Access this tab if you want users to be able to vote on competition entries.

By default, text contests come with the voting system enabled. In this section, you’ll be able to set up what type of voting system you wish to have in your contest. You can also disable voting, if you choose.

This section includes many more possibilities:

And there are even more customization features for this section:

Customize the name of each section, and the icon that identifies it within the promotion menu. For example, you can change the default name of "Welcome" page to "Start", and edit the menu icon to match.
Add new sections in the promotion menu to present additional content. This new section can be set up in two different ways:
- New page, for example, to present and explain the prizes of the promotion.
- External link, to drive traffic to your website or microsite.

Step 3. Customize the design layout

In the Design menu, you can completely customize the look and feel of your promotion to adapt it to your brand or product.

The "Design" section offers the following options:

Colors: Change the colors of texts and action elements (such as buttons) in the promotion.
Typographies: Select the font used for texts and action elements in the promotion.
Container: Completely customize the container by setting the style, opacity, height or position.
Background: Customize the background of the promotion with your own image or choice of colours. The background will be the same for each screen of the promotion.
Other: Set the style of the promotion buttons (outlined or solid), as well as the color of the button text. Also from here you can customize the background color of the pop-up windows of the promotion (for example: window that opens the terms and conditions, My Networks window, etc.)
Advanced (White Label only): Use your own CSS styles to completely customize the template.

Discover all the graphic possibilities offered by the "Design" module.

Step 4. Insert legal texts

In this section you can upload legal texts to display them in the promotion. Specifically you can upload the terms and conditions to explain all aspects of the promotion, contest or sweepstakes. Additionally you can also upload your privacy policy to explain how and for what purpose you will treat the data of the users that register in the promotion. Also possible to upload your own Cookies policy.

To add the terms and conditions, go to Editor > General> Legal content, where you will find the following sections:

Terms and conditions.
Privacy Policy
Cookies Policy

Note: Check here how to set up the consent of the legal texts of the promotion.

Step 5. Configure My Networks and the promotion footer

The “My Networks” module allows you customize the screen which users see when they end the registration process. This page is an opportunity for you to suggest that they like your Facebook Page. My Networks can be customized for Facebook pages, as well as Twitter, Instagram and Youtube accounts. Learn how to set this up here.

To customize My Networks, go to Editor > General > My Networks:

You can also customize the promotion’s footer text, or deactivate it if you prefer. The footer is a banner that’s displayed at the bottom of each page of the promotion.

To enable the promotion footer, go to Editor > General > Footer where you'll see the following options:

"Created by" field which will allow you to customize the name of the brand or company organizing the promotion.
Decide what elements you want to show in the promotion foot.

Step 6. Customize viral content

This section is very important if you want your contest to reach a large audience. Viral content is the message that will be displayed when participants share the contest with friends, or invite them to take part.

To customize the viral content of the promotion, go to Editor > General > Share:

You can customize your message for each channel that participants might use to share the promotion.

You should complete the following sections:

A) Generic:

Set up the generic contents of the promotion here:

Viral image: This is the image that will accompany the shared text. To optimize for social networks, we suggest dimensions of 1200px by 630px. The same image will be shared on Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. If you don’t upload a specific image for this section, the main promotion image will be displayed when participants share the promotion.
Generic content: This is the viral text that will be shared across social networks when participants use the share buttons on the main page, the registration form or the header of the gallery of entries. Learn how to configure this.

B) Recruitment:

This is the default content when users submit their entry and share with friends. Learn how to edit it.

C) Entry:

This is the default content which is displayed when users share an entry that has been published in the gallery. Learn how to set it up.

Step 7. Advanced Settings

Make sure you check the configuration of the following sections:

1. Editor > Pages > Entry Form > Options: here you can review the following options:

For a Writing Contest, we recommend the following settings:

Max. users: Decide if you want to limit the promotion to a maximum number of participants. By default, there is no limit on users who can participate.
Maximum entries per user: You can decide how many times a user can take part. For example, you might want to allow participants to submit multiple texts.
Enable premoderation: You can moderate entries before they appear in the public gallery.
Notification of new entrant: Enable this option if you want to receive an email whenever a new participant registers in the promotion.
Disable autofocus in first form field. By default, the “Name” field in the entry form has the autofocus activated so that the participants can begin to write without having to click on the field first when the page loads. This option allows to disable this effect to avoid that the autofocus scrolls down the page, which is useful in promotions that have a big header image.
Anti-fraud options: With the aim of helping administrators organize top-quality contests, the Easypromos platform contains a range of techniques and tools to minimize bad practices. View the options available.

2. Editor > Pages > Form > Social Login. From here you can enable identification with Facebook as a way to identify users and decide if you want it to be mandatory for the user to identify with this social network to participate.

3. Editor > Pages > Gallery > Options. Here you have the following extra options:

Anonymous participations. Activate this if you don’t want users' names and profiles displayed next to their competition entries.
Allow comments on participations. You can enable comments on entries so that a user, friend, or acquaintance can comment on the individual participation of the users who have registered to the promotion.

Step 8. Set entry restrictions

The application allows you to restrict access to the promotion for some users. Specifically, the platform offers you 2 forms of restriction:

Restriction by country: You can limit the promotion to a specific country or countries. Only users who connect from the selected country or countries will see the promotion. Learn how to enable country restriction here.

Restriction by age: Limit the promotion to users whose date of birth is higher than the one indicated by the administrator. This establishes a minimum age for participation. Learn how to enable the age verification window.

Step 9. Enable participation from Twitter and Instagram (optional)

Normally, users participate by accessing the promotion app and filling in the entry form. If you want to allow Twitter and Instagram users to participate directly, from within their social networks, you can enable Twitter and Instagram integration. Users can participate by simply posting with your chosen hashtag.

Step 10. Communicate with participants via the email platform (optional)

If you need to communicate with participants during and after the promotion, you can use the integrated email platform to create, customize, and send emails.

This tool is especially useful for Writing Contest. It enables you to automate emails to participants, with any one of the following objectives:

Thank users for participating, and give them the URL of their entry so that they can share it and win votes.
Remind users of how many votes they need in order to become finalists.
Send an email to contest winners.
Send an email to all participants, confirming that the promotion is over and thanking them for their participation.

Learn how to create an email with the platform, communicate with participants, and increase your promotion's viral reach.

Important! The email platform has “smart tag” functionality. This enables you to customize your emails. Use the “smart tag” {{user_voteme_url}} so that when you send emails, each user receives their unique entry URL.

Step 11. More options

If you want to run a contest with different categories, read this tutorial.
If you want to run a contest with several different phases, use the Dates section in the Editor.
If you want to create an image gallery that updates hashtag entries automatically, use Full Screen mode.

Step 12. Publish the winners page (optional)

Before publishing the promotion, or while it's running, you can publicly display the prizes up for grabs. The same page will show the winners of each prize, once they have been selected. You can decide to publish the prizes page from the beginning of the promotion, or you can wait until you have winners. To customize and publish the winners page, go to Editor > Pages > Winners.

Check out the Prize Management tutorial to learn about your options for prizes.

Step 13. Carry out a real test of the promotion

Before launching a promotion, it's important to make sure that the promotion shows and works correctly. To do so, all promotions includes the tool "Test Mode" which allows the administrator to carry out real tests of the promotion. This means that they can participate in the promotion just like the participants will do once the promotion is activated, and test that the promotion works as expected. That way, they can make changes to the promotion if necessary before launching.

Check out this tutorial where we explain how to test your promotion before activating it.

Step 14. Activate the promotion

Once you have configured all aspects of the promotion, you can activate it from the management page of the promotion. You can also make payments from this page. Get more information here.

Step 15. Publish the promotion

Although your promotion is now active, you still need to take the final step: publishing it.

When you created your contest, a microsite was generated to display the promotion, with a unique URL. This URL is the main link to the promotion. By default, it leads to the welcome page of the microsite, but you can change this. You can also, and not exclusively, publish the promotion on a Facebook Page or embed it in your blog or website. You can control where you wish to publish the promotion via “Buzz”. You’ll find all the information you need about publishing here.

Step 16. Share the promotion

It’s also important to share the promotion on as many different channels as possible. Always use the main link to the promotion, as it’s the only one compatible with all devices.

You can share the promotion via the following methods:

With the direct promotion link.
With the “Share” button on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Use Facebook Ads to give more visibility to the promotion. One of the most effective ways to improve the visibility of the promotion is through the Facebook advertising service, which will allow you to create an advertisement to promote the contest and generate traffic to the promotion. To do this, you must access the Facebook advertisers page and create an advertisement to promote the contest.
Making your promotion a Featured promotion. This option adds your contest to the list of Easypromos highlighted promotions. This carries an additional cost which is calculated per day of the campaign. If you’d like to Feature a campaign, consult this tutorial.

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Step 17. Manage the active promotion

While the promotion is active, you can monitor and manage entries from the management page. Click on the "Participants" section in the menu on the left side. You can also access the entries list from the "Statistics" section:

From the "Participants" section, you can view information on all participants and download it to Excel.

Note: Information about participants will be available even after the promotion has finished.

Step 18. View promotion statistics

Access the “Statistics” section to view participants' details and how they interact with the application. This information will be available from the moment the first participant registers, and will remain available even after the promotion has ended. Learn more about the information available in this section.

Step 19. Manage prizes and publication of winners

When the participation period of the promotion ends, you can use the integrated prize management system to create prizes and configure how they will be assigned. You can choose to assign prizes randomly or manually.

Randomly: You can run one or more sweepstakes among participants, or among a segment of participants, and obtain a certificate of validity with the results.
Manually: You can assign one or more prizes manually to chosen participants. For example, this is a useful option for contests with voting or quizzes. We also recommend assigning prizes manually if the winners have been selected by a jury, notary public, or the organizing brand.

Learn how to create prizes and select winners.

Begin the winner selection process from the “Winners” menu:

Step 20. Finishing up the promotion

The end of a promotion is controlled by the dates set up in the promotion Editor. When the "End of publication date" is passed, the promotion status changes from Active to Expired. By default, the promotion is unpublished and is no longer visible. If users try to access the promotion URL, a screen with the message "promotion expired" is displayed.

As administrator of the contest, you can choose to edit the content of this "promotion expired" screen. You can even republish the promotion so that it is visible again, show the winners of the promotion, or continue to display the gallery of entries.

Learn about your options once a promotion has ended.