Put Contest-Frenzy to Work For You

The ‘Net is going contest-crazy. There are sites out there (like iWon, iWin, and Jackpot) attracting tons of traffic because they’re giving away cash and material prizes. Because they’re doing this on a regular basis, there’s a sustained (one could say “growing” even) fervor for contests. Little guys to big guys are capitalizing on this enthusiasm by creating their own online contests because it can help increase your traffic, registration or email subscribership, and sales. Contests are not too difficult to run either, especially with some proper forethought, good planning, and timely execution. Today, let’s teach you how.

Define Your Purpose & Target Accordingly - So why do you want to run a contest anyway? If the purpose is to build awareness of your site, but your contest appeals to disinterested parties, you have a problem. Be sure to structure your contest so that it helps you achieve your goals, and then once you figure out what those goals are and who you want to target, go after them with a vengeance (see below for tips on promoting your contest).

Desired Action - The next step is determining what action you want the user to perform in order to be entered into the contest. You can simply require them to sign up for your e-mail newsletter, complete a form, register for some kind of service… whatever you conceive.

Define the Give-Away - Sure, you could buy something or use a cash award, but if you’re operating on a tight budget, we’ve got a better idea: contact a web site that manufacturers or distributes a product and offer to promote them in exchange for simply providing you with their product. You can them by featuring their web site on your contest sign-up and thank you pages, within the context of any ads you might be run, or on your site’s “Partners Page.” If their not hip to the idea of donating product, offer to swap instead, providing them with a free product or service from your company in exchange for one from theirs.

Make it Seasonal - Timing is a large part of running a successful online contest, and sometimes giving away seasonal items can help your response rate. Consider giving away a gift certificate at Christmas time, baskets and candy at Easter, or even flowers for Mother’s Day.

PROMOTING YOUR CONTEST

Utilize the tools of typical web site promoting to help spread the word about your contest.

Ad Swaps - Contact other sites that appeal to your same target market and sites that you have networked with. Negotiate placement in each others’ e-mail newsletters and auto-responders or trade placement on your contest’s “thank you” page in exchange for premier placement on their web site. If you run a web site with paid-for advertising on the site itself, you can swap that, too.

Submit to Contest, Sweepstakes, and Freebie Sites - There are a slew of web sites which do nothing more than list contests and free stuff. Many of these will promote your contest for free (since it keeps their listings fresh, which then keeps people returning to their site), but some will ask for reciprocal linking or advertising in exchange. You can manage this request by simply putting all such links and ads on your contest “thank you” page.

Insert a “Tell-a-Friend” Script - Why not have your users promote the contest for you? Add a tell-a-friend script into the contest pages and encourage them to tell everyone they know about your promotion! You may even want to offer them an extra entry for each person they sign up.

Promote It “In-House” - Use your own email lists, newsletters, and web site to promote your contest. And don’t forget about using the sig file of your e-mail, which is also a powerful promotional tool.

Once you get your contest up and running and promote it well, you should see a significant jump in your web site traffic. However, your traffic may reduce after the contest is over, so be prepared. In that case…. run another one!

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