The ins and outs of Online Scavenger Hunts
The fun way to delight your audience and grow your list & bottom line
Guest Post by strategic copywriter & customer delight strategist Nadine Nethery
I have been serving online business owners as a strategic copywriter & customer delight strategist for over 7 years. Which means I’ve seen the same overdone style of promotions repeated over and over. And it’s left me feeling fatigued!
So in 2023, I decided to spice things up and go against the grain hosting an online scavenger hunt on my website to make quick-fire sales of my digital products, but also add a decent number of new subscribers to my list… while making it a whole lot of FUN for myself and my audience!
What is an online scavenger hunt?
An online scavenger hunt is usually hosted on your website. It involves hidden clues that reveal freebies, special offers or discounts on your 1:1 services or digital products.
Online scavenger hunts are the perfect way to gamify your audience’s interaction with your brand, website and offers.
What makes website scavenger hunts such a smart way to promote your offers?
Finding the clue (and a special offer) treats browsers to an instant dopamine hit. And it takes us back to the fun childhood games at your bestie’s birthday party.
As your browsers explore more pages chasing another dopamine hit, they spend a considerable amount of time across multiple pages, signaling to Google that your website is the ‘real deal’.
Not only do these extended session times and page visits boost your domain authority, your browsers also familiarize themselves with everything you have to offer in your business. And along the way, they come across offers they never knew existed.
They uncover your zone of genius on your about page.
They read testimonials and amazing reviews.
They see you as someone who dares to be different.
They’ll remember you for the right reasons.
And, of course, there are the immediate benefits such as new email subscribers, extra income from digital product sales and the incredible feedback you’re likely to receive from your audience.
How to run an online scavenger hunt on your website
Thankfully, running your very own scavenger hunt is surprisingly straightforward without complex tech tools or tech know-how. If you can make basic tweaks to your website, then you’re good to go.
All it takes is hiding your clues in strategic places on your website, revealing intentional clues on a redemption page and giving browsers an easy way to redeem the surprise either via a discount code or sign-up form.
And you’ll want to spread the word on social media and with your email subscribers to maximise the eyeballs on your clues.
I used Canva to whip up a number of graphics that made sharing my promotion super easy and on-brand. I also designed a fun clue icon to hide on my website that made people smile.
Personally, I promised a mix of freebies, discounts and exclusive access to my strategic copy brain. This blend of surprises meant there was something for everyone!
The verdict?
You can step away from the traditional, overdone approach to promoting your offers.
And you can absolutely have fun in your business while taking your audience along for the ride.
Running my scavenger hunt-style promotion in December 2023 added hundreds of subscribers to my list, sold plenty of digital products, landed me a summit speaking invite and even had people sign up for my 1:1 copywriting services as well as my membership, The Copy Confidence Collective.
And it blew up my inbox with incredible feedback sharing just how much fun this promotion had been.
What if you picked your scavenger hunt theme today and ran with it?
What if you had a swipeable scavenger hunt formula?
Hidden Gems is my actionable mini training that unpacks my easy-to-launch strategy and gives you everything you need to turn snooze-worthy promotions into bottom line-boosting moments of customer delight.
About Nadine Nethery
Nadine is the Founder of CAN DO! Content, and an audience-driven copywriter & customer delight strategist for savvy online business owners who want to intentionally attract, retain and wow their dream customers.
Her signature LEAN copy method turns every brand touchpoint into genuine connections that drive sales, celebrate loyalty and create loyal brand advocates who happily do the word-spreading for you.
Over the past 7+ years, Nadine has given hundreds of industry-disrupting online business owners the words to shine and the strategies to build a sustainable audience-centred business.
