A Winning Contest Means a Lot! Let's Create it Through Social Media Let's face it! People love to "win" prizes and when this word is paired with an objective, the outcome becomes extraordinarily good. That's why online contests or sweepstakes often generate more sales, gains you more leads or whatever you are trying to get more of it. Contests have become a chief promotional strategy for decades, but the success of the online contests depends a lot on the volume of participation, a right promotional strategy is the key
Why Social media and Not any Other Platform? Because social media reaches you to the larger audience at simply a nominal cost! No wonder it's a superb outlet for the giveaways and contests. Moreover, it's easier to spread the word through social channels and it's quite obvious that if done right, contests can go viral in no time. People have always a nose for "contests to win". No wonder, if you run it through social media, you can expect a good volume of participation. Isn't it what you also expect? Let's share some great examples here! We will be basically talking about the format, so that it becomes easier to understand how should you promote as winning contest
Example-1 – Contest giving away gift hampers and Amazon cards Looking for some extra cash? Reach immediately at HubSpot. Currently it's giving away a $500 Amazon gift card to a lucky winner every day. For the Why's and How's click here… And that's not all. There's a grand prize of too. Those who will be posting the best photo and also blog about it will stand a chance to grab an iPad. So it's a Double Bonanza! Participate now to win.
Example-2 – Contest giving away cash prize Are you the one with a skin for adventure? Would you love to explore the unknown? Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is looking for web-savvy individuals to stay in the museum for a month and report his observations to the visitors. Get to win cash prize of $10,000, tech gadgets, and what not? The winner can also be an honorary member to MSI. So what are you waiting for? Participate now to win loads!
The Promotional Campaigns To create a buzz, you can create teaser campaigns. Post banners or run conversations in Facebook or Twitter to spread the word. The point is to interact with people and get them engaged. It will not only spur interest, but also help you get more participation, which in the long run helps boosting up the success rate. Let's talk with an example here. Suppose, you are soon to launch an online photo contest, where a lucky winner will get a DSLR camera. Such kind of contest makes a superb crowd-puller, but only when people get to know about it and feel interested. So, here's how we should go with the teaser campaign.
Day- 1 Let Your Love for Photography Be Prized! Stay Tuned to Know How! (Must be supported with a creative banner) Day- 2 3 Days to Go! Spread the word to the world! And a DSLR will be all yours! (Must be supported with a creative banner) Day- 3 The wait is over! Online registration for the Photography Contest is open. Click here to register now! *********** The grand prize is a few click away! ***********
These kinds of tips offs trigger a good deal of interest because , people get to know that something exciting is coming up, but at the same time do not know what exactly it is. Being instinctive, most of the people will revisit the space just to explore what it is. Some of them will also show an intent for joining, the others will probably try to get into the matter before signing up. Thus, a teaser campaign will win you some impulsive participants in the first place and also a bunch of interested folks who would like to know more about it. This way, your contest will get considerable social shares even before it gets launched. The result is an increased success rate.
THE TAKE AWAY POINTS As mentioned earlier, contests are a superb way to market your products or service. They are crowd pullers too. Here's some takeaway points that will give you a definite idea about running contests that will surely reap good outcomes in terms of sales. 1. Not on websites only, run contests in the social media Social media enables you to reach out to the wider audience within a short period of time. Thus, it's a more convenient and utilitarian promotional tool that definitely triggers a large volume of participation.
2. Promotion should be an integrated Strategy: Just because your traditional the test of time, it does not mean on that. Experts say, not to rely on With the traditional networks too. Recently, Timeline Contests and quite a buzz.
marketing strategies stood that you will exclusively rely one promotional outlet only. methods, use all the social Twitter Pools, Facebook LinkedIn Contests are making
3. Make Contests Sharable No matter how exciting is the giveaway, if the contest idea is not appealing, it won't have any far-fetched impact. So, you must have an awesome contest idea, a visually appealing creative backed by a URL shortener like bit.ly. In addition, there should be the links to share the contest in Twitter and Facebook, so that promotion becomes easier.
4. Generate pre-contest buzz: This is definitely a fantastic way to increase participation. Leverage the potential of social media at its best to promote your contest even before it officially starts. Pre-contest buzz always takes you a step ahead to increase conversions. 5. Keep a tab on your success: There should be a way to track the success rate of your contest. Get a unique tag or a phrase or link for tracking the contests. It can be a Twitter hashtag or an exclusive landing page right on your website that is meant for figuring out the results and the efficiency of your social media initiatives.
BEFORE WE FINISH‌
No doubt, contests play a key role in creating PR opportunities and reaching out to the target group effectively. At the same time, these are fun and entertaining way to involve customers. No wonder, social media makes a great tool for churning out great contests.