Contest marketing – one of the best ways to “win” over new users and brand advocates. In the rise of social media, the use of contests, sweepstakes and giveaways have evolved and become redesigned to suit our new online culture.
Both big and small brands are able to leverage contest marketing to amplify their brand message, gain new online engagement and bring their products to the forefront of potential consumer’s social media feeds such as Facebook contests or Instagram contests
While online remains king for contest marketing, there are a number of brands still effectively integrating traditional marketing and in-store contesting to help meet their needs. These types of contests are often integrated with some form of digital marketing or data collection.
Whether the prize is big or small, consumers love free, and they will be more inclined to put in work if the prize is worth it.
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what is contest marketing ?
Contest marketing is a marketing strategy that utilizes contests, giveaways, sweepstakes or lotteries to boost brand awareness and reach new potential customers.
Contest marketing capitalizes on the consumer desire for free stuff. The thrill and rush of winning the contest is a prize in itself and motivates many individuals to enter contests despite the low odds of ever actually winning. Contest marketing is an undeniable force in the world of experiential marketing and has significantly evolved over the years, particularly in relation to social media and online contesting.
There is no limit to the creativity that you can integrate into your contest marketing. Contest marketing can take various forms both on and offline. These several forms span both traditional and digital marketing, including: Social media contests on Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms
Website-based contests that gather consumer information through a collection form
Email and SMS based contests that gather consumer information through email marketing or texts
In-store contests
common mistakes brands make when running contests.
when you decide to invest in contests and give aways, here are few challenges we help you overcome.
Bad Prizing - Sometimes contests and sweepstakes have massive grand prizes that miss the mark attracting entries. Why? In some cases, the prize just doesn’t appeal to the target audience.
Too Complicated to Enter - The sign of a bad contest is including too many steps to enter. We see this happen all the time with “Instagram Loop Giveaways” where multiple accounts try to leverage the other.
Wrong Duration - The duration of a contest or sweepstakes could greatly effect its outcome. You have to give yourself enough time to promote the contest and reach your audience, otherwise it won’t garner much traction.
Poorly Designed - Design and content is extremely important in today’s digital age. Long gone are the days of the blank white paper ballots. Sweepstakes should excite and delight consumers, and effective imagery and design makes this possible.
Failure to Market Effectively - Your contest or sweepstakes could be amazing, but without proper marketing, you may not generate the expected results.
No Instant Rewards - The benefit of including instant rewards is the ability to collect more data about a customer. As we explain in #7, by splitting up your data entry across the experience, you’ll have greater success acquiring the information you desire.
Lengthy (Paper) Sign Up Form - No one likes entering their information into a form, especially when it requires more than 30 seconds of your attention. Usually consumers will make a little effort if there’s a chance to win something on the other side, but not always.
Best Practices for Creating Engaging & Meaningful contests and give-aways
Leverage Exclusivity It is a well-known fact among marketers that nothing generates curiosity as exclusivity does. So, to express exclusivity, you can provide freebies to the people who take part in the giveaway.
Get Ideas For Your Giveaway/Contest It is extremely important to create a giveaway that specifically targets your ideal customer. In fact, there are thousands of groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, and Reddit that cater to different kinds of audiences.
What’s Trending, Google? Google Trends, as the name suggests, can let you know what’s trending in a country and category. Depending on where you are situated and which category (health, entertainment, politics, etc.) of interactive experiences you want to create, you will get plenty of giveaway ideas.
Add Social Share Buttons Make it easy for people to share their results by adding social share buttons. You can also create a link with a pre-drafted tweet/message that users can share on their social networks.
Leverage Influencer Marketing 70% of millennial consumers are influenced by the recommendations of their peers in buying decisions.
Advertise It Interactive content is value-driven and works on the principle of instant gratification. Therefore, ads linked to interactive content are likely to get more clicks than those about products or services.
top reasons why contests and giveaways are very important for your business
Event-Based Contests are centered around specific occasions that occur throughout the year, such as holidays or special events.
Polls allow you to present several options which the customer can choose from. This is great for gaining information by asking simple multiple-choice questions that customers answer in pursuit of a prize.
Giveaways are a very simple contest marketing option where you simply choose who to give a free prize to, often through a random method of selection.
Quiz or Trivia contests offer your audience an opportunity to answer questions, have a little fun, and potential win a prize. People love feeling smart and accomplished, so make sure to have a mix of easy and hard questions to really engage customers.
Contests are a unique way to drive brand awareness and audience engagement without directly promoting yourself—they offer a fun and interactive way for people to engage with your brand.
Contests can drive lots of user-generated content and word-of-mouth advertising so your audience promotes your brand for you. This is especially important with social media since you can amplify and spread your message much more effectively when your audience is doing it with you.
why we are the best people to do this for you ?
We understand that you’re looking for partners, not vendors. That’s why we focus our energies on adding value to your content strategy. By treating every piece of work as a new challenge, we break it down to produce something that is innovative, strategically sound, and fun.
if you’re looking to measure the effectiveness of your digital creative effort, there are not too many tools out there to help you – but the main thing is that the right metrics and KPIs need to be selected in the first place, we help you set them and build flawless digital experiences for your customers.
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