Luring Customers with Contests and Competitions
Contests and competitions are great traffic builders. Some sites hold regular contests on a weekly or monthly basis to generate repeat visitors
Holding contests is also a great way to find out about your target market by requesting information on the entry form.
What type of contest you hold depends upon your Internet marketing objectives. If you want to attract as many people as possible to your site regardless of who they are, then offer items such as money, trips, cars, computers. If you want to attract potential customers from your target market, then give away something that relates to your products and industry.
You can simply request that people fill out an electronic ballot to enter the contest. If you want to find out something about the people entering, ask them to answer an appropriate question or two. If you want to do some market research, again, ask a question or two. Make it easy and unobtrusive. The more fields they have to fill out the fewer people will enter your contest. Be selective with the questions you ask.
If the prize is one of your products, consider asking entrants to write a short note outlining why they would like to have the product you are giving away. You can award the winner(s) with the product and follow up with the other entrants. These people might be in a position to buy your products, and you will have gained some valuable knowledge from the notes submitted.
If your product is appropriate for a prize that would be of interest to many different types of people, consider finding contest sites that are willing to offer your product as the prize on their site. This can generate brand awareness for your product. You can have the site show a picture of your product with a link to your site. The contest site should be more than happy to do this because you are offering to give something for free that adds value to that site.
You can turn a contest into a competition. If your Web site relates to cooking or baking, ask entrants to submit their best recipe using your food product. People will visit your site to see the winning recipes, and you might get some ideas for future marketing efforts. Other competitions might include things such as best photo with product X, best short story about product X, best drawing of product X, and so on. This creates better brand awareness and reinforces sales of your product. The closer the contest relates to your product, the better.
Instead of offering just one prize, offer a number of smaller prizes as well. This makes the odds look better and people feel they have a better chance of winning.
You might have contestants answer three questions relating to your product or service on the entry form. Of course, to find the answers to the questions, the visitor has to visit a number of pages on your site, and the three questions are marketing related.
You can have the contest one where you get information about your target market. When contestants enter the contest, have them rank what influences their buying decision. The information you request can also provide you with demographic or psychographic information.
Allow site visitors one contest entry per day—you’re happy to have visitors return to your site often. You might consider changing the information
on the contest Web page around the entry form on a regular basis. Provide links to other repeat-traffic generators such as your coupons or your e-specials.
Whatever type of contest you determine best meets your marketing objectives, be sure you encourage permission marketing (“Click here to be notified when we have a new contest”) and viral marketing (“Tell a friend about this great contest”). Leverage, leverage, leverage: “Tell five friends and receive an extra ballot for yourself.”
Make your contest conditional: “Sign up to receive our weekly e-specials and be included in our drawing for (something of interest to your target market).”
Before you go ahead with holding any kind of contest, find out if any legal issues concern you. There may be restrictions that you are not aware of (e.g., you might be required to purchase a legal permit to hold lotteries).
You should also remember to ask the entrants the e-mail address at which they want to be notified of the winner. This, again, grants you permission to e-mail them to tell them who the winner was, and also to inform them of the specials that you might have at your site that month.
You want to promote your contest through public and private mail list postings, newsgroup postings, your e-mail signature file, press releases, and links from contest sites.
Contests and competitions are great traffic builders. Some sites hold regular contests on a weekly or monthly basis to generate repeat visitors
Holding contests is also a great way to find out about your target market by requesting information on the entry form.
What type of contest you hold depends upon your Internet marketing objectives. If you want to attract as many people as possible to your site regardless of who they are, then offer items such as money, trips, cars, computers. If you want to attract potential customers from your target market, then give away something that relates to your products and industry.
You can simply request that people fill out an electronic ballot to enter the contest. If you want to find out something about the people entering, ask them to answer an appropriate question or two. If you want to do some market research, again, ask a question or two. Make it easy and unobtrusive. The more fields they have to fill out the fewer people will enter your contest. Be selective with the questions you ask.
If the prize is one of your products, consider asking entrants to write a short note outlining why they would like to have the product you are giving away. You can award the winner(s) with the product and follow up with the other entrants. These people might be in a position to buy your products, and you will have gained some valuable knowledge from the notes submitted.
If your product is appropriate for a prize that would be of interest to many different types of people, consider finding contest sites that are willing to offer your product as the prize on their site. This can generate brand awareness for your product. You can have the site show a picture of your product with a link to your site. The contest site should be more than happy to do this because you are offering to give something for free that adds value to that site.
You can turn a contest into a competition. If your Web site relates to cooking or baking, ask entrants to submit their best recipe using your food product. People will visit your site to see the winning recipes, and you might get some ideas for future marketing efforts. Other competitions might include things such as best photo with product X, best short story about product X, best drawing of product X, and so on. This creates better brand awareness and reinforces sales of your product. The closer the contest relates to your product, the better.
Instead of offering just one prize, offer a number of smaller prizes as well. This makes the odds look better and people feel they have a better chance of winning.
You might have contestants answer three questions relating to your product or service on the entry form. Of course, to find the answers to the questions, the visitor has to visit a number of pages on your site, and the three questions are marketing related.
You can have the contest one where you get information about your target market. When contestants enter the contest, have them rank what influences their buying decision. The information you request can also provide you with demographic or psychographic information.
Allow site visitors one contest entry per day—you’re happy to have visitors return to your site often. You might consider changing the information
on the contest Web page around the entry form on a regular basis. Provide links to other repeat-traffic generators such as your coupons or your e-specials.
Whatever type of contest you determine best meets your marketing objectives, be sure you encourage permission marketing (“Click here to be notified when we have a new contest”) and viral marketing (“Tell a friend about this great contest”). Leverage, leverage, leverage: “Tell five friends and receive an extra ballot for yourself.”
Make your contest conditional: “Sign up to receive our weekly e-specials and be included in our drawing for (something of interest to your target market).”
Before you go ahead with holding any kind of contest, find out if any legal issues concern you. There may be restrictions that you are not aware of (e.g., you might be required to purchase a legal permit to hold lotteries).
You should also remember to ask the entrants the e-mail address at which they want to be notified of the winner. This, again, grants you permission to e-mail them to tell them who the winner was, and also to inform them of the specials that you might have at your site that month.
You want to promote your contest through public and private mail list postings, newsgroup postings, your e-mail signature file, press releases, and links from contest sites.
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