Running a contest is one way to entice a new audience. Games, however, can be tricky when creating the right experience for all users not to alienate or spam your potential customers. In this blog, I will give some tips on how you can run contests that encourage participation and help build strong relationships with both current and future audiences of your brand. Do you want to spice up your marketing plan with something new? Your existing promotions may be successful, but you need to change things up for the time being. Using the same marketing methods repeatedly becomes tiresome after a time.
One of my favorite methods to keep an audience interested is promotional competitions. This is a fantastic way to raise brand recognition and even develop an excitement for a new product introduction. The most effective promotions offer something free to those who participate. There are a few different kinds of promotions like this. Contests need some level of expertise. To win a contest, contestants will have to put up some effort. The contest winner is chosen by a panel of judges or a public vote. This is not the same as a lottery or sweepstakes. Sweepstakes do not need any expertise. Sweepstakes winners are chosen at random and depending on chance. For example, you may select a winner at random from among your Instagram followers because they follow your brand’s account. To be accepted into a lottery, a player must first buy anything. I’m not going to talk about sweepstakes or lotteries today. Contests are a preferable option since, when correctly set up, they stimulate user-generated content (UGC). User-generated content enhances the likelihood that your target audience will interact with your ads:
Encouraging people to share photographs, as shown by these figures, will also be advantageous. It’s only logical to use this knowledge while planning a contest. You may not know where to begin if you’ve never conducted a game before. That was the impetus for me to write this tutorial. I’ll show you how to run a lucrative contest that promotes user-generated content. Consequently, you’ll be able to produce more leads and, as a result, make more money. This is what you must do.
Steps to run a contest that encourages users:
1. Choose a reward.
The first step in organizing a contest is deciding on the prize for the winner. Although this seems to be an easy task, it does need some consideration on your part. People are more willing to contribute if the product is worthwhile. Giving out a t-shirt, for example, is unlikely to elicit much enthusiasm. It’s considerably more appealing if the contest winner gets something like a new camera, drone, or pair of shoes. I’m not suggesting you give away the most costly item your firm offers, but make sure the reward is worth the time and effort it takes to participate. This will assist you in gaining more engagement. Take a look at how the prize’s worth affects engagement rates:
In addition, your award must be acceptable. Consider the following scenario: you own a company that primarily caters to teens. You should probably not hold a contest for a free vacation to Las Vegas. It’s unsuitable for your target demographic and doesn’t speak to them. Giving away one of your newest items, on the other hand, is a far more fair reward to consider. Finally, ensure that the award is relevant to your marketing objectives. Consider what you want to achieve and advertise with each contest: a product, a service, or an event. Instead of being a random giveaway item, the gift should be aligned with these aims.
2. Set the ground rules.
Your contest should have well-defined rules. Describe how individuals may enter for a chance to win. Set a deadline for submissions. Limit the number of people who may enter your contest depending on factors like age or geography. For example, depending on the prize and your brand, you may only be able to reward citizens of the United States aged 21 and over. Make it clear that purchases are not necessary to join the contest and that making a purchase does not boost one’s chances of winning.
It’s also important to be clear about the standards by which participants will be rated. Consider the following examples:
- based on the judges’ debate, the best picture
- the picture with the most number of likes
- With the most likes, leave a remark.
- amount of retweets highest
- the most significant amount of shares
Instead of depending on a judge’s verdict, I like it when businesses employ factors like likes or shares to pick the winner. That way, everyone knows who won, and no one will suspect you of favoritism. But that’s something I’ll leave up to you to determine. You’ll also need to provide the chances of winning, any privacy regulations that apply to disclosing the contest winner’s name, and the day and time the winner will be announced. All of this must be made clear for the game to be fair and for everyone to understand the rules. Otherwise, there may be some ambiguity. Imagine you’re running a contest, and the remark with the most likes selects the winner. You, on the other hand, neglect to establish a deadline. You choose a winner, but someone else receives more likes on a fresh remark a few weeks later. What will you do about it? You will not deprive someone who has already received a reward. However, you would not want to inform the other person that it is too late since it may harm your connection. You may be compelled to give up many goods. If the regulations are clearly defined, there will be no misunderstanding.
3. Choose a platform.
What method will you use to conduct the competition?
- Snapchat
- Website
All of these alternatives may seem realistic, but keep in mind that your goal is to promote user-generated content. As a result, you must choose platforms that allow participants to see entries from other participants. For this, social media is the most excellent option. In addition, running a social media contest can help your account expand more quickly.
Email and Snapchat aren’t appropriate platforms for this sort of contest. You may still launch a UGC-based game on your website. Just utilize the forums area or a dedicated landing page for user contributions. It’s also possible to run the same content on various platforms and choose a winner from each. Alternatively, you may conduct the contest on only one platform while promoting it across all of your distribution channels. For instance, if you’re running a Facebook contest, you may advertise it via Instagram, Twitter, your website, and your email list. You want to choose the platform that will get the most attention. It makes sense to conduct your contest on Instagram if you have 1,000 Twitter followers and 20k Instagram followers.
4. Create a contest-specific hashtag.
Make use of hashtags as a marketing technique. It’s a fantastic approach for people to participate in your contest. Let’s pretend you’re holding a social media contest featuring user images. You’re pushing people to put pictures on their accounts. But how will you locate them to pass judgment on them? By requiring participants to include a hashtag in the description. This method offers several advantages. It will help you stay organized to conduct an open and fair event for starters. Everyone who enters will be able to see it. But it also collects all of those images in one location. Individuals who enter will now be able to view images provided by people who do not follow your brand or who do not follow the people who contributed the photo. This will help you build your social media following and raise brand exposure. If you’re having trouble coming up with an excellent hashtag, try using an online tool like All Hashtag to assist you out:
Keep things basic yet being innovative. For example, consider how readable your hashtag is. To make it simpler for readers to read and comprehend, uppercase the initial letter of each word.
5. Create competitions to encourage others to like, comment, and share your content.
This covers the component of competitions that involves user-generated material, which is your ultimate aim. This activity will not produce UGC if you hold a contest on Instagram and urge your followers to participate by sending you a direct message. However, encouraging others to like, comment, and share will undoubtedly help. You want people to do these actions on both your and their postings. Organize picture competitions or contests for the most significant comments. People who get the most likes or shares on their postings should be rewarded. These are all excellent methods for promoting user-generated content.
As you can see from these figures, user-generated content will eventually aid in the growth of your ecommerce sales. The figures above illustrate that user-generated content (UGC) boosts the likelihood of online consumers completing a purchase. This is because your advertising is still fresh in their thoughts. They may not visit your website daily, but social media users. The competition acts as a reminder of your company’s identity. People will notice it even if they aren’t engaging.
6. Encourage others to enter your contest.
You’ve announced your contest, published the rules, and established a deadline. That’s fantastic. Now what? Don’t simply put it on the shelf and forget about it. Continue to provide contest updates and reminders. For this, use all of your distribution channels.
- Make a video to promote your business.
- Make a blog post about it.
- Send an email to your mailing list.
- After a customer purchases on your website, please send them to a contest landing page.
- To generate excitement for your contest, use a live video promotion.
- On your Instagram story, provide daily reminders.
It’s possible that your followers didn’t notice your initial post from last week. Your tale, on the other hand, might act as a countdown and a continual reminder that you’re hosting a contest. All of these will help you attract the most participants and, as a result, the most user-generated content.
7. Make the most of your connections with social influencers.
Influencers can help you advertise your competitions by using their social media platforms. Your contest will now be seen by a new audience that may not be familiar with you or your company on social media. Encourage influencers to promote competitions in the same manner that you did. Inform them of the regulations, give them a deadline, and encourage them to use the hashtag. The goal of this method is to establish social proof:
People who follow actual people on social media are more inclined to believe and follow their advice. You may use one of two approaches to this strategy:
- Influencers might refer their followers to your page. They’ll use the same hashtag, guidelines for entry, and deadline that you’ve set.
- Allow the influencers to host their competitions. Then, for them to give away, create a new hashtag, deadline, and reward.
More individuals may now engage even if they don’t want to follow your brand. In addition, organizing several competitions boosts the number of people who participate and the quantity of user-generated material your firm generates.
8. Choose a winner.
It would be best if you took the time to announce the contest’s winner. Make it seem as though this is a significant deal. Please spread the word about the winning submission so that everyone can see it. The winner’s social media profile should be tagged. Ensure that all of these contest features are adequately described in your original regulations. You don’t want to infringe on someone’s privacy without their consent. There will be several advantages to announcing the winner. First and foremost, the winner will be overjoyed by the compliments.
Consequently, they will become a devoted client who is more inclined to purchase from you again. They could even publish a “thank you” message for their followers to view. Announcing the winner helps establish the legitimacy of your contest. Take a look at this Mint blog post, which tells the winner of a game:
Mint tagged the user profile and posted a screenshot of the winner’s message, as you can see. People now know that the contest was legitimate and that a genuine individual was the winner. Anyone may double-check this by going to the profile and looking at the entry. This also encourages more individuals to participate in future competitions sponsored by your firm. They’ll want to be praised and recognized in the same way this winner was.
9. Competitions regularly.
You’ll get a lot of UGC if you host a lot of competitions. Change things up a little. Experiment with various contest platforms to find which ones perform best. Your awards should be changed. After you’ve run a few competitions, you’ll be able to determine which ones received the most entries. Using your social media accounts for matches is in your best interests. It’s an excellent location to promote user-generated content and brand loyalty: People who follow brands on social media are more loyal to them, according to 53% of them. Those are the folks you want to reach out to. You may keep conducting such competitions until you determine which ones were the most successful.
Conclusion
Contests are an excellent approach to increase brand recognition. Running competitions that promote user-generated content, on the other hand, is much more beneficial since it may lead to sales for your company. Choose a reward with a high monetary value and relevant to your target demographic. People will not be motivated to participate if this is not the case. Explain the rules to everyone to be on the same page. This will save you time and effort in the future. Choose the platform on which the contest will be held. A contest might even be held across different platforms. Whatever you choose, you’ll need to advertise it across your distribution channels. Make use of social media influencers to help spread the word. Create a particular hashtag for each contest. Create competitions to encourage people to like, share, and comment. When you announce the winner, make it look like a huge thing. To gain the most user-generated content for your brand, continue to hold different competitions in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you encourage people to enter a contest?
A: We encourage people to enter a contest by suggesting the number of times they should share. For instance, if you want to win something that costs $100, recommend one or two promotional messages per day for three days.
How do you run a successful contest?
A: Running a contest is not tricky. It can be done with minimal experience, as long as you have the proper steps to follow and understand what that entails.
How do I run a contest giveaway?
A: It is easy to run a contest giveaway. All you need to do is post your contest results on our official Facebook page, and we will add them to this section for everyone to see.
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