Everybody is talking about contests nowadays as if they’re as easy to pull off as getting out of bed. Obviously, they’re nothing of the kind. It isn’t just a matter of somebody saying, ‘we should do a contest’ and then ten minutes later it’s all ready to go (at least, not if you’re trying to run a contest that works).
Instead, it requires as much planning as any marketing campaign – perhaps even more so, seeing as it’s a new field for most companies, which means there are often plenty of teething issues.
For that reason, this guide to help you come to grips with the problems and the solutions that are available, so that you are prepared and your competitions convert. After all, if you don’t then there are some pretty spectacular ways things can go wrong.
Step one: Why are you running a contest?
There are two reasons why you can run a contest. Let’s call them ‘short-term conversion’ and ‘long-term conversion.’ Both require different strategies as well as different measurements of when it is successful. Note that it’s not an on or off thing, elements of both can be included (and achieved) though you should pick a focus to keep everybody on the same page.
Short-term conversion is all about getting people to buy your product. Here the idea is that you use the contest to push up sales. This type of contest will most likely focus on somehow advertising the attributes of your product, getting people to buy it in order to participate or generating testimonials afterwards about how great it was to work with your product.
All of this means that in this type of contest your product is front and center. It forms the lynchpin of your efforts and most questions about the contest should be asked with in the background the thought, ‘will this serve to make our product look good’ or ‘will this make people buy our product.’
Success here is ultimately measured with how much money and time you need to invest in the contest and how big the sales bump is as a result of that investment.
Long-term conversion, on the other hand, is more about branding. Here the idea is to boost your brand and its appeal, so as to create a bigger following and a positive brand image, more in line with how you want it to be seen. And so your product, though featured, might not be the main driving force. Instead, it could be about getting your brand and product associated with fun times and funky concepts.
Often this is achieved by finding ways to show off how your customers and fans are using your brand and your product in ways that make it seem desirable, perhaps by getting people to take pictures with it or use it in a visible location.
Here success is harder to measure. It is best measured by the increase in your active and passive fan base as well as any content (such as submitted photographs and images) that you can use host on your website to give a good impression.
What will you call your competition?
The first thing to note is that your name is like your headline or your competition’s landing page, but then often without being able to give any more explanation after that.
For that reason, a well-chosen name can explain the nature of the competition, as well as trigger recognition and enthusiasm and can serve as an advertising platform all on its own. A poorly chosen name, on the other hand, will just get in the way – taking up valuable airtime that could be better spent on explaining what the competition is about.
Also, note that on platforms like Twitter, the length of the name will detract from how many characters you’ve got available for other things. So try to avoid using Shakespearean sonnets.
Where are you going to run the competition?
Most contests are run on social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, for example. There are two things you need to consider. First of all, obviously you should aim to use the bigger platforms where you’ve got the biggest following (and perhaps those platforms where you’d like to boost your following). Secondly, note that the different platforms have different audiences and are best used for different kinds of contests.
Also, note that each platform you add requires more monitoring and this isn’t just a linear increase. This growth is exponential. So make certain that you have the resources to handle all the platforms you decide to run the competition on.
Whatever or wherever you decide to run it, do not just run it on social media. Make certain that all the information is available on your site as well in a central location, where everybody can reach it. Make this the official page where everything is the most up to date and accurate and refer back to it often. This will avoid problems and confusions down the road and help boost your site as well in the SEO ranking.
What rules do you need to follow there?
Each of the different social media platforms has different rules that you need to pay attention to if you don’t want to get banned (which would be ironic and highly frustrating).
Some examples:
- Pinterest’s rules are the least stringent, they just want you follow their rules of crediting sources and that users must be authentic and respectful.
- Twitter requires that you follow the twitter rules, discourage the creation of multiple twitter accounts and not spam by sending multiple tweets twice#.
- Facebook has quite a lot of rules in place, such as that you need to use their official contest and sweepstake apps, that you indemnify and disassociate them from the contest, that they’re not the only platform the contest is running on and that you avoid using them for winner notification.
Of course, there are also legal concerns to think about, so make certain that you discuss the details of your competition with your legal team.
What do participants need to provide to take part?
There are a whole range of possibilities, from everyone participates, to only people that submit a project can take part. One important consideration, the more engaged the entry process, the less people will participate. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as the buzz people that participate and the projects that they participate with can be just as useful, but it is an important thing to think about.
You’ve got:
Sweepstakes: Everybody is automatically included and nobody needs to do anything
Connect: You have to like the company in order to take part
Like or share: Participants need to like or share a specific entry to register
Vote: They need to choose a preference, for example they need to choose among products
Create: They actually need to do something to enter, from take a picture of themselves to investing hundreds of hours in a project
Note that the younger your audience, the more likely they’ll invest the time necessary to undertake the steps to actually participate.
What’s your timeline?
The best way to decide how you’re going to do things is to build a timeline backwards. So start with the day you’d like to announce the winners and work out how much time will be required internally and by participants for the competition.
Competitions have several stages. These include:
- Pre-launch Where you create buzz and make the fans aware of what’s going to happen
- Launch where the event goes live and people can participate
- Last-chance Another big push for last-minute contributions and more buzz
- Completion Where the event is closed and you talk up how successful the event was as well as highlights people will enjoy
- Winners Big fanfare as the winners are announced
The initial push
Do not soft launch your competition! Social media can be exceedingly cruel to something that isn’t getting any attention and for that reason, it’s vital that you hit the ground hard and running when you do launch. So make certain that you’ve already created some buzz, by talking up the event beforehand through newsletters, posts on your blog and elsewhere.
You can even, in fact, use it as a method to get people to sign up to your newsletter. Just advertise how details will be revealed in newsletters on an earlier date, so that people that are signed up have a head start.
Then, when the event actually launched, invest some serious effort into getting it noticed and recognized across all the platforms. One valuable tactic to consider is to make certain that the public gets a vote in who wins the competition. By doing that, you’ll make those people who enter the competition have an interest in sharing news about it as far and wide in their social group as they can manage to enhance their chance of getting the prize and thereby giving your competition and your brand more exposure.
The all important prize
Last but not least, give some serious thought to the prize you want to give. It’s important that it is connected to your brand as much as possible and that it advertises either the product itself or the spirit of what you’re trying to do. Avoid making the prize something concrete, like an iPad or a car. These items will attract a lot of people that might not be in anyway interested in your product and who could well start disappearing again the moment the contest is done.
Instead, work on making it something that sparks the imagination and is related to what you’re doing. So perhaps consider:
- Offering your product itself
- An opportunity to pitch an idea to management
- A job inside the firm
- An opportunity to get to know and pick the brains of somebody important and influential in the field
Make sure it’s something that would motivate your fan base and give them the idea that there is a real opportunity here to get ahead, build a career or grow as a person.
The more people can fantasize about themselves with that prize and what they could do with it in the future, the more motivated they’ll become. And that energy is contagious and will spread, thereby creating exactly the buzz that you’re looking for.
Norman Arvidsson is an independent author. He is familiar with such areas as startups, small business, and marketing. His goal is sharing his experience with others through blogging. Considers personal and professional growth as the main goals in his life.