Almost every business has a social media presence these days. It’s a great way to connect with customers and create a community around your brand. But if you’re not using contest marketing, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what contest marketing is and how you can use it to boost your brand with social media. We’ll also give you some tips on how to run successful contests that will help you achieve your marketing goals. So read on for all the information you need to start boosting your brand with social media through contest marketing!
Contest marketing is a great way to connect with your customers and create a buzz around your brand. By running contests, you can engage your audience, build relationships, and grow your customer base. But before you start planning your next contest, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Here are some tips to help you run successful contests that will achieve your desired results:
Goals
Set clear goals for your contest. What do you want to achieve with this contest? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your website? Grow your social media following? Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can create contest rules and prize structures that will help you meet those goals.
Platform
Choose the right platform. Not all social media platforms are created equal. Some platforms are better for certain types of contests than others. For example, if you’re looking to increase brand awareness, Facebook might be a good option because it has a large user base. If you’re trying to drive traffic to your website, Twitter or Instagram might be better choices because they allow you to include links in your posts.
- Rules & Regulations
Make sure your contest is compliant with the rules and regulations of the platform you’re using. Each social media platform has its own set of rules and guidelines that you must follow when running a contest. Familiarize yourself with these rules before you launch your contest to avoid any problems down the road.
- Promotion
Promote your contest! Once you’ve created your contest, you need to let people know about it. Use all of your available channels to promote your contest, including social media, email, and even traditional methods like print or radio advertising.
- Event-Based Contest
Event-Based Contests are centered around specific occasions that occur throughout the year, such as holidays or special events. Holidays such as Halloween or Valentine’s Day and days with cultural significance (popular movie releases, Black Friday, etc) are good opportunities to run event-focused contests.
Polls
Polls allow you to present several options which the customer can choose from. This is great for gaining information by asking simple multiple-choice questions that customers answer in pursuit of a prize. This type of contest can be combined with a “pick a prize” option where contestants choose from a list of prizes they want to receive, doubling as a good market research tool.
Giveaways
Giveaways are a very simple contest marketing option where you simply choose who to give a free prize to, often through a random method of selection. Make sure customers meet some basic requirements for the giveaway as a method for driving engagement and even sales.
Quizzes
Quiz or Trivia contests offer your audience an opportunity to answer questions, have a little fun, and potential win a prize. People love feeling smart and accomplished, so make sure to have a mix of easy and hard questions to really engage customers. You can even use this type of contest to gain user insights about your customers’ level of knowledge on specific brand-related questions.
Define your audience
This is one of the most crucial aspects of running a successful contest. Take some time to think about your ideal customer demographic and how you can tailor the campaign to them. Your campaign should be built to attract and serve this slice of your customer profile. Based on the data you have about your customers, you’ll want to select contest types, prizes, and guidelines that are well-aligned to the particular group you’re looking to target.
Qualify your participants
You can avoid wasting time and energy on people who aren’t likely to become customers by using qualifiers in your entry process. Go deeper than just basic demographic information and ask questions that eliminate people that don’t fit into your ideal customer profile. Try to tap into their willingness to engage with your brand, share information within their social networks, and even their likelihood of making an actual purchase.
Build urgency
After you launch your contest, you’ll want to follow up with contest applicants as soon as possible. Let people know how the contest is progressing and make offers to the people who didn’t win as a concession to keep them in your customer base (e.g. think temporary discount codes or limited time consultations). Generate a unique offer that’s time-sensitive and motivates them to act right away. Customers should feel like they’re missing out on something valuable if they don’t take up the offer immediately.
Monitor, track, and test
Take the time to measure those results. You’ve worked hard. When your metrics tie back to your contest objectives, you should have a good sense of whether you’ve met your key goals at the end of the contest. Don’t hesitate to dig into the data for more insights. What you learn from one marketing contest should feed into your larger branding strategy and inform how you run future contests.
Build Your Fan Base
Running a contest is a powerful tool for building your fan and audience base. According to Hubspot, brands that ran contest marketing campaigns gained an average of 34% new fans per campaign. Creating a basic enter-to-win event that’s easy to join can provide a significant amount of followers, likes, and engagement on social media. Beyond engagement, you’re also collecting important customer information to help broaden your customer base.
Conclusion
Social media contests are a great way to boost your brand. Have you tried running a contest on social media? If not, now is the time! Contests can help increase engagement with your followers and grow your reach. In addition, contests are a fun way to get people excited about your product or service. At Artmeet, we’ve helped countless businesses run successful social media contests. We know what it takes to make your contest stand out from the rest and generate results. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you create a contest that will jumpstart your branding efforts, contact us today. Do you have any questions about contest marketing? Leave a comment below and we’ll be happy to answer them! And if you’re looking for more information on how to boost your brand with social media, check out our other blog posts on the topic. Thanks for reading!