Make Your Contest a Win-Win for Your Website

Make Your Contest a Win-Win for Your Website

Patrick Wong | 5/12/2008

If you’re looking for a quick way to drive traffic, why not host a contest. Contests are relatively easy to setup and execute. When adequately promoted contests can bring a wealth of new visitors to your site. They are also excellent opportunities for collecting marketing data, generating leads or acquiring newsletter subscriptions.

If you are interested in hosting a contest, here are some tips for running your contest well.

Conduct Your Contest Legally
Contents are governed by various rules and regulations based on the type of promotion you run. It is your responsibility to ensure your contest is legally sound so ensure you do your research.

Offer an Appropriate Prize
Obviously, the better the prize the more interest your contest will generate. Your prize does not necessarily have to be expensive but it should be appropriate for your target audience. Runner up prizes should also be offered since they increase the odds of winning. Offering a hard to find item is sure to generate a lot of interest but ensure you can obtain the item before launching your content. You are likely to generate negative press if you are not able to deliver when the contest is over.

Advertise and Promote
Your ability to effectively advertise your contest is one of the key driving factors in its success. You can employ similar techniques as with other marketing campaigns such as banner ads and keywords. Of course, you should ensure your contest is promoted heavily on your site as well. Due to the popularity of contests there are numerous contest directories such as http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ and http://www.contestguide.com/. Most contest directories are free to post to and are a great way to get noticed. Consider including a feature that allows users to easily forward the contest details to their friends. Once the contest is over don’t forget to advertise the winners.

Get More from Your Entries
Your users must complete a few basic steps to enter your contest, even if it’s a simple as entering their contact information. Capitalize on this experience by asking users to answer additional questions that can be used for marketing purpose. This is also the perfect time to ask if they would like to join your mailing list or be contacted about your services. To further encourage participation, you could allow additional contest entries for completing these tasks or forwarding the contest to a friend. Do be cautions about how many steps your entry process requires or users may abandon the entry.

tags: Online Marketing ,  Online Trends ,  Web Strategy ,  Web Marketing