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Believe it or not, yes we are talking about social media contest. A social media contest is an amazing thing when used correctly. And by using contest templates makes it simpler to arrange both contests and giveaway programs, effectively boosting your followers, engagement, and even sales growth.
Still don’t agree? Here are some facts.
Many companies when tried adding social media contests to their marketing strategy received a 35% increase in online sales. Another small company that started on Instagram with just 300 followers, grown into a massive 500,000. Do you what was their main strategy? Yes, you guessed it right, social media contests! Honestly, social media contests are among the wonderful things which could help in amplifying brand, products, and services. We all know that most of the people are choosing paid techniques to boost their brand, because of this the organic reach is on the decline.And, in this scenario social media contests are few effective ways to increase the brand online with a minimal promotional budget. Companies use Instagram Posts Scheduler to promote their contest on social media which helps them to grab more user attention & can help them to scale up their post reach.
Below mentioned are some of the best ways to use social media contests for your business. Let’s dig in.
1. Ascertain the intention of the contest:
First thing first, you definitely require to find out the purpose of launching a contest. Why are you launching this contest for? If it is for promoting your product and services or you want gain engagement on social media account, define the goal first. Setting a goal is really important as by doing this, it becomes very easy to come up with a robust strategy and effective contest ideas to achieve desired goal.
Whenever a brand is hosting a contest, the usual goals include-
- Building the Email list
- Increasing brand or product engagement
- Boosting reputation of a brand
- Converting visitors into leads
- Increase in followers
- Understanding customers better through surveys
- Increase in website traffic
- Growing social media presence
You should understand the fact that a campaign can accomplish all these things, all you have to make sure is you prioritize the goals, which are important to your business. Making a contest too complex and hard won’t let the customer engage with you. And, also consider a budget for the prize, promotion cost, and any paid services which you will use.
2. Cover your bases:
Don’t forget that legalities can come into action while making a contest online for your brand. So, act smart and hide your bases before time. This will surely prevent your business from getting into any unwanted issues. It is sure that you would want to avoid anything that is spam or against the law. However, there are many more things too which your business must be aware of while planning for upcoming promotion. All you have to make sure is that the campaign which you are running is legal and within the policy restrictions of the network where you are planning to run the contest. Moreover, be aware of the fact that each social media platform has its own set of guidelines and rules that must be followed carefully, if you want your contest to be booming.
3. Know your audience:
Running a contest can only be successful only when you know who your target customers are and how much time they are spending on social media sites. Once you get an understanding of your audience, you’re able to find out which platforms you should be concentrating on. Moreover, when you understand your customers, it will also help you know which type of prize or contest would make the sense. You should know the answers to questions like what would lure your customers to enter in a social media contest. What kind of action they are willing to take? Always remember one thing, the contests that you are running must cater to your visitors and target audience, not just potential participants. So, make sure to do everything so as to stay relevant for them.
4. Make appeal to potential clients, not just entrants
Now that you are all set with the legalities, now is the time to create a gainful social media contest. It is very important to design a campaign which looks bewitching to your target audience. Some of the ways to do it are mentioned below:
- Adding labels: One of the effective ways to do it is to add labels in your contest copy. This is perfect to address your target audience. For example, a food brand might choose “Are you a foodie? Enter here to win buffet lunch with your partner.” Or, an adviser might opt for “Marketers! Enter to triumph a subscription for year.”
- Shaping your promotion: Next, you have to tie your publicity to an event that is applicable to your target audience. For example, if you promoting your contest in Halloween, connect it with the episode of The Vampire Diaries, or the Twilight Series, only people fascinated in that event will enter.
- Choose goodies or prizes of value: The prize that you will decide for your target market must be of value. If you have an ecommerce business, you can choose a merchandise as your contest prize. And, if you’re a food brand, a discount coupon may work well.
5. Follow up emails:
You work doesn’t end with the end of the contest. Just right after a contest comes to en end, you can take the follow up with your contest entrants to know their opinion. One of the perfect times to make them think to participate in your contest again is right after the contest ends. It will give you a great chance to send them a follow up offer, and choose them for any extra thing which you wish to mail them right after the contest.
Conclusion
Follow these pointers to create a successful contest with thousands of entries. Creating contest is a perfect method by which you can easily increase your number of Facebook Likes, Twitter and Pinterest followers. More to that, contests are an easy way to generate social engagement and buzz by having people view and follow your brand on various social media channels.
So, have you created the contest yet? Let us know!
