Online contests are all the rave right now. Here are 10 reasons why you should give them a try and promote your brand online and on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n
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Regardless of what online platform you use to promote your\u00a0contest, you can encourage your customers to engage with your brand by either answering quizzes, asking them for their opinions, or asking them to submit content about your brand whether through photos, audio, video or in writing.<\/p>\n
On Facebook, promoting your Page with a contest for instance is a great way to encourage non fans to “Like” the Page in order to be able to participate in the contest.<\/p>\n
When entering your\u00a0contest, encourage participants to opt-in to your mailing list. Most businesses pre-check the opt-in box and in our experience it usually stays checked. Of course allow customers to opt-out at any time. We have experienced that on average at least 50% of participants opt-in and subscribe to the brands newsletter.<\/p>\n
If you have a well designed contest\u00a0and a good incentive to enter it isn\u2019t hard to get people to participate and to talk about it.<\/p>\n
Many online contests now have a strong viral component where participants are encouraged to promote & share the contest on social networks or by email to have more chances to win. For each one of their friends who signs up to the contest they will get an extra entry to the contest.<\/p>\n
Contests can be talked about on Facebook, Twitter, on your blog and promoted in your newsletters.<\/p>\n
There are many sites that compile contests so\u00a0contest\u00a0fans can receive a steady stream of updates on the latest contests running. For example: www.contestcanada.net<\/a><\/p>\n Traditional media can also be a good way to promote online\u00a0contests, just share a short and easy to remember web link (URL) on print, radio or TV campaigns.<\/p>\n In order to participate in your\u00a0contest\u00a0collect a modest amount of personal information about the contestant. Use the entries to discovery what demographic is interested in your\u00a0contest\u00a0and your brand.<\/p>\n You can easily measure your participation and conversion rate by tracking how many participants have accepted to register to your newsletter (which is often the primary goal of a contest for marketers).<\/p>\n You can also easily and affordably sign up for a social media tracking tool (such as www.socialmention.com<\/a> or Google Alerts<\/a>) which can help you to determine which sites, ads and users generate the most word-of-mouth traffic about your\u00a0contest. You can find out who is talking about your contest, where they are talking, and what they have to say about it.<\/p>\n Social media\u00a0contests in particular make it easy to get people talking about your brand as these online places are all about sharing ideas and opinions.\u00a0\u00a0A creative and fun\u00a0contest\u00a0with a great prize is going to lead to discussion especially if the entry ticket involves talking about your brand or product by sharing it with your friends.<\/p>\n Online contests, especially those involving social media, can be quick to implement. A simple Facebook based\u00a0contest (promoted on Facebook via iFrame or via a Facebook App) can be up and running within hours. A more complex contest\u00a0involving surveys or requiring uploading of content could be up and running in a week or just a couple days if you’re running recurrent contests.<\/p>\n Online\u00a0contests can be tailored to suit the goals of your business.<\/p>\n Are you simply looking to drive traffic to your site? Do you want to generate discussion and awareness of a new product? Or, are you looking for creative content generation from your fans? All of these are possible.<\/p>\n Time frames are also flexible. You can run your contest for as short as an hour or as long as you want.<\/p>\n If your creative team is feeling a little short on ideas for a new campaign or new product why not mine your customers for ideas.<\/p>\n Countless big brands are depending on their fans for their next product development. Vitamin Water, owned by Coca-Cola, sourced its fans using a\u00a0contest\u00a0for their next flavour. The winner? Black cherry lime. Read more here: http:\/\/everyjoe.com\/work\/vitaminwater-contest-has-5000-up-for-grabs\/<\/a><\/p>\n4.\u00a0\u00a0 Contests are an easy way to collect customer information<\/h2>\n
5.\u00a0\u00a0 Contest promotional reach and results are measurable<\/h2>\n
6.\u00a0\u00a0 Contests increase the conversation around your brand<\/h2>\n
7.\u00a0\u00a0 Contests are easy to setup\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
8.\u00a0\u00a0 Contests are flexible and malleable<\/strong><\/h2>\n
9.\u00a0\u00a0 Contests can be a source creative content<\/h2>\n
10.\u00a0 Contests can be inexpensive<\/strong><\/h2>\n