How to Promote a Contest

In 2010, Carnival Cruise Lines was a pioneer of super viral social media contests, collecting the Top 100 Firsts from over 400,000 Facebook users across the U.S. The significant value of this campaign was driven by the idea of people getting a chance to realise their dreams, try something new, and, as a bonus, win a cash prize. As a result, the contest helped the company gain more than 1 million likes on Facebook in just a few months.

When we look at the landscape of online contests today, we see a whole new world of unique approaches and advertising strategies. We’ve put together a collection of the most up-to-date techniques for successful contest promotion in 2018.

When to run a contest? When to advertise a contest?

When it comes to contest promotion, the primary question you should start with is “when”.

The right timing can help you capture the attention of the target audience and drive maximum registrations. So what’s the best day of the year to launch an online contest? Actually, there isn’t one. You should start a campaign the moment you need to increase the number of clients, drive traffic, or introduce something new to the target market. According to Social Media Examiner, the time frame of a contest is dependent on the value of the prize you offer. The bigger the prize, the longer you should let your contest run.

To get the most out of advertising, start spreading the word about your campaign several weeks before the launch to generate a buzz.

Determine your goals

Ask yourself what you’d like to achieve and document the key goals, along with the contest KPIs. Ensure that you have objectives for every stage of the event. For instance, if you’re running an online contest focused on a new product launch, your pre-event goals might cover the development of UGC, the creation of an online presentation, etc.

What’s the prize?

To pick the right prizes for contest winners, you should learn the CRV rule: Creativity-Reference-Visual. Delivering maximum value to a user is determined by how creative your reward strategy is, how well it resonates with real-life conditions, and whether you can use a visual reference for it. Here’s a good example of how RIDE365 featured the image of a contest prize in its sweepstake:

What about the incentive?

Because of a strong reliance on technology, 45% of millennials claim they are much more impatient today than they were around five years ago. To address this problem of consumer impatience, think about providing them with some kind of instant reward. From a free resource to a discount, it can be anything as long as it resonates with the contest theme.

Types of advertising channels

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.” – Steuart Henderson Britt.

It’s through advertising that you tell the world about your contest. How do you choose promotion channels that you can align with a contest idea and use within your budget? Have a look at the top trending free and paid advertising channels:

Free

• Content sharing. You can use contest submission sites like Contest Bee, Reddit Contests, and Any Lucky Day, or share the information about your contest on content platforms.
• Blog posts. Fresh and relevant content can be the best attention grabber. Create at least one post that will be linked with a contest landing page to inform your existing clients about an event.
• Social media. Utilise the latest Facebook advertising ideas along with the strategies for promotion compatible with other social media. Play with hashtags on Twitter, share a prize image on Instagram & Pinterest, change a Facebook cover image… the list can go on and on.

Paid

To reach out to the new target audience, you can also leverage numerous paid advertising platforms:

• Google AdWords
• Facebook promoted posts
• Reddit ads

Set a budget plan

Don’t panic. Even a bootstrapped business can run an excellent online contest these days. To understand how much your idea will cost your company, analyse the following expenses:

• Contest prizes
• Paid advertising
• Contest management system

Plan your advertising activities

No matter how much money you spend on contest advertising, it’s not going to be successful if you don’t plan your promotion activities. Develop a schedule and benchmarks for all promotional campaigns that you’re planning to run. For example, if you do email marketing, decide how many subscriptions you’d like to generate from a contest, and plan the time frame and the number of email campaigns you’ll create.

Craft awesome copy

Brevity and clarity make great copy. To prove it’s worth signing up for your online contest, create brilliant copy that reflects the following aspects:

• The idea of your event
• Entrance requirements
• Contest prize

Create dedicated landing pages for capturing leads

With a huge variety of custom website building tools, you can easily create dedicated landing pages to capture leads. Incorporate a catchy design, an attention-grabbing headline, and a short entry form into the landing page to maximise engagement.

Here’s a good landing page example from Urban Planet:

According to ExpressPigeon, over 50% of smartphone users grab their phones upon waking up. What if they spot your contest ad? Ensure that the dedicated page you create looks perfect on mobile.

Contest promotion ideas

Whether you choose to combine multiple strategies or go in one specific direction, you can leverage the following ideas for contest promotion:

• Use social media for contest promotion. To prompt virality, promote a contest on Facebook, creating 2-3 catchy posts every week. For the B2B sector, use LinkedIn to promote a contest with both professional groups and individuals. Want to showcase your beautiful contest visuals? In this case, Pinterest is the right destination.

• Use email marketing for contest promotion. Strong email marketing is a win-win for you, as it can both generate contest sign-ups and build your email list. Create personalised emails that include a targeted message, a clear CTA, and catchy visuals.
• Use AdWords/PPC for contest promotion. Want to throw in some money? Facebook-promoted posts, Pay-Per-Click advertising, and Google AdWords will help you out.
• Use offline advertising for contest promotion. Especially for local contests, the goal of which is to drive foot traffic, it might be a good strategy to employ offline advertising. Cooperate with local stores, organise in-house events, and drive word of mouth to maximise interaction.

Conclusion

Choosing the right contest management system and promotion ideas is vital because they have a direct impact on the number of sign-ups, company recognition, and the effectiveness of outreach in general.