You’ve seen them. Just give us your name and email and you could win a $100 gas card! They’re catchy, they offer a great prize, and entering is relatively painless. I’ve seen small- and medium-sized businesses run some great contests, sweepstakes and offers on Facebook that surpass everyone’s expectations. Then there are others that seem to fall short. Don’t get frustrated though. Here are some tips to help your next contest soar.
Why run a contest?
How is a contest viable? What’s the value? And how is this assisting our marketing goals? We are asked this a lot. There are many benefits of running a contest!
- It’s not just for funzies … You can actually gain sales from a Facebook contest!
- You will gain more fans/followers.
- You are increasing brand awareness.
- Your fans become more engaged and loyal.
- You generate more emails and leads.
Where do I start?
First, you need to make sure you choose a contest relevant to your company culture and the type of business you run. How does it tie back to you? This must be apparent. Second, come up with a catchy title, a logo/fangate image, rules and enticing prize. When coming up with a prize, be sure it is something worth giving up an email address. Admit it, you’re stingy with yours too. Prizes can range from a trophy with bragging rights to gift cards, to an iPad mini.
Once you have the basics gathered, you need to choose which contest application you want to use. There are many to choose from, just make sure it offers the type you want to run and is user-friendly. Our friends at Tabsite offer several different types (e.g., sweepstakes, photo, video, essay), they’re easy to run and cover all the details to help you make the contest look great.
Then it’s time to come up with a strategy on how you want to run it. Will it be run in phases? If it requires votes, can people vote more than once? How will the winner be rewarded and announced? Questions like this need to be addressed in advance to avoid any embarrassment later.
Ok. Your plan is in place and you’re ready to rock n’ roll. It’s a good idea to give yourself time to build up hype so people are aware of the contest before it begins. After all, it will only run for a limited time and you need as many followers participating as possible. A contest that’s too long will get old and annoying to followers. The best timeframe to run a contest is one to two weeks. It's not recommended to run a month-long contest.
Helpful Tips:
- Familiarize yourself with Facebook’s policies and guidelines.
- Make sure your rules are clear and specific (e.g., age requirements, location eligibility, timeline, etc.)
- Make sure the contest works well on mobile devices. Most Facebook users are mobile.
- Make sure the prize and contest are relevant.
- If you are a restaurant, give away a gift card to your restaurant. If you’re a school, give away a tablet or bookstore gift card.
- Keep it simple. Make it easy to understand, enter and participate.
- Prepare and promote. Plan in advance and promote on all platforms.
- Interact. Thank those who get involved. Actively answer any questions in a timely manner and in some cases publicly do a Q&A if you think others would find the information useful to better participate.
- Accept and consider feedback. Did anyone have problems, comments, or suggestions for you to consider for future contests? How did they perceive your brand?
- Take a look at the results. So how did it go? Was it everything you dreamed of and more? Or do you think you could kick it up a notch next time around?
One tip I would like to add from my own personal experience is to stay involved and have fun with it. When I help businesses run a contest I find that the more they get involved and add their own element of humor and creativity the contest goes from dull to stunning. So take in as many ideas as possible and HAVE FUN! That energy is contagious and your followers will love you for it.
Are you ready to try a Facebook contest as part of your savvy social media marketing strategy? Or looking for better results compared to past contests? The information and tips mentioned here should help you get going. Having a solid plan in place will help you run a successful Facebook contest. Good luck!
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