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Posts Tagged ‘contests’
A checklist to ensure you are making the most of your contests
In the world of promotions, there are endless types of contests you can run. Cutest Baby Photo Contest, Battle of the Bands Video Contest, Best Music Album Bracket, Enter to Win Sweepstakes, and many more. No matter the contest type, certain tasks must be completed in order to ensure a successful outcome. Below you’ll find a checklist to complete before running an online contest.
- 1. Determine contest theme, name and dates. This step might seem like a no-brainer, but try to put thought into it and get creative. Go outside the box and run an original-themed contest for your players. Whether your contest is meant to attract a large or niche audience, make sure you choose a topic that will appeal to your audience.
2. Identify sponsorship packages and tiers. Before approaching potential sponsors, know exactly what you will offer and form different levels of sponsorship opportunities. Creating different sponsorship tiers allows you to build relationships with several advertisers and gives them options to choose from.
3. Brand your contest. Designing your contest is a critical part of your success. Design your contest and your promotional elements, including print, on-air, web and email ads to incorporate the sponsor’s logo and messaging. Your sponsors will love the additional exposure.
4. Add opt-ins on your registration page. Be sure to add an email opt-in to your registration page for your sponsor, as well as your deals program or newsletter initiatives.
5. Keep registration simple. Only ask information you absolutely need on your registration page. If you don’t need their birthdate and address, for example, leave it off. If there are too many barriers to enter, your players may lose interest.
6. Enable Social Settings. Consider adding your contest to your Facebook page and enable Like-Gating. Enable features like Facebook Connect, which increases the social nature of your contest as a player’s actions will publish to their wall. Enable the Social Boost referral feature on sweepstakes contests, which awards users for sharing the contest with their friends.
7. Promote through multiple channels. To spread the word about your contest, leverage every vehicle you have access to. While you certainly should promote the contest through your traditional media, whether on-air or in print, do keep in mind the power of online and social media sites. Promoting on your website and social media channels means that players are only a click away from entering your contest.
8. Test your contests. Register as a player to make sure everything is working correctly and looks good from the user perspective. Don’t forget this step. Registering as a user allows you to see exactly what the player will see and it is easy to spot glitches or typos from this viewpoint.
9. Experiment throughout your contest. After the first day of the contest, check the number of registered users to see where marketing adjustments are needed. Everything might not be perfect the day your contest launches so don’t leave your marketing efforts static if you are not seeing the responses you want. Test different promotional tactics and record what works to give you a head start on your next contest.
10. Celebrate your success! Contests are fun and running them should be fun too. Recognize your team members who went above and beyond to make the contest a success. Remember, you will want to track what methods excelled so you can start your next contest off on the right foot.
With Second Street’s Play Anywhere feature, publishing contests to a variety of platforms is easy and can be done with the click of a button. The Play Anywhere feature allows players to get involved with a contest through your website and Facebook page, plus on your mobile and tablet versions. During a recent webinar, Matt Coen – Second Street’s President – and I discussed why running contests on your or your advertiser’s Facebook page is a game changer for your contesting strategy. Here are the top 10 takeaways:
1. Why Facebook? Facebook has 200 million users in the U.S. alone. The average user has about 130 friends and likes two pages per month. (Facebook data as of December 2011.)
2. Killing two birds with one stone. By running contests on your Facebook page, it allows you to collect “likes” for your page and grow your email database.
3. Get sponsors for Facebook contests. Whether it’s one sponsor for the contest, or 10, having the contest sponsored will generate more revenue.
4. Make simple registration pages. Having a contest with low barriers to enter (i.e. as few fields as possible) is best for Facebook because you will receive more entries, plus players are more likely to share a contest if it is easy to enter.
5. Set goals for your contests. Each contest should have at least one goal. Some common goals include:
- Grow “likes” for your Facebook page
- Grow “likes” for your advertisers
- Drive new revenue
- Build your email database
6. Control your settings. Require users to “like” your page before they enter the contest. Now, your fans will get updates from your page. Also encourage users to “like” your sponsors page. Through “like-gating,” for every one person that “likes” a brand, 34 additional friends can also be reached.
7. Post relevant content during your contest. While users are visiting your page, encourage them to be interactive. Ask relevant questions about the contest. For example, if you are giving away a car ask,”Where is the first place you would drive in your new car?”
8. Promoting the contest. Promote your contest where your users are. This includes Facebook ads, sponsored posts, links to the contest from Twitter, promote the contest on-air and run banner ads on your website or an advertisers site.
9. How to measure success. Determine if your contest was successful by looking back at your goals. Did you gain “likes,” increase revenue, or build your database? Once you have established an audience, you will be able to increase your price for sponsorship.
10. Post a contest review. After the contest is over, evaluate the contest. Analyze your results and optimize for the new contest. Also, be sure to continue to engage your audience. Ask them what they liked and what they would like to see from you in future contest.
To learn more, watch a recording of our “Making Money with Facebook Contests” webinar.
February and March bring many contest opportunities for local media companies. It’s no secret that photo and sweepstakes contests are the most popular and highly trafficked types of contests, and the arrival of Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras bring parades, festivals, concerts, celebrations and retail spending in your local markets!
Holiday and seasonal contests are a fantastic way to engage your local audience and advertisers! There are several reasons why a seasonal contest may make sense for your organization. Not only are they fun and interactive for your audience but they can help obtain new customers, overcome seasonal sales slumps, help your sales team sell a higher percentage of retail, direct, or agency business. An integrated package can help you sell special inventory and increase the use and quality of sales presentations.
Some successful holiday contest ideas include:
- Cutest Couples Photo Contest
- Engagement Story Essay Contest
- Ultimate Valentine’s Day Giveaway (include dinner, flowers, chocolate, limo, giftcards to women’s and men’s retail stores, jewelry, movie/show)
- Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s Day Trivia Contests
- Mardi Gras Photo Contest
- Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s Day Sweepstakes (tickets to festivals, rides in parades, concerts and events that are hosted in your community)
- St. Patrick’s Day Photo Contest
Combining a Contest with Deals!
If you’re running a deals program, it would be ideal to package a holiday contest with a Seasonal Store. Imagine a Cutest Couple contest packaged with a Valentine’s Day store for your sponsors. Learn more about how Seasonal and Category Stores are a way to expand what you’re doing around a specific theme or season.
Categories: Contest Examples, Contesting Best Practices Tags: babies, contests, football, january, newspaper, photo, radio, sports, sweepstakes, tv
Who will come home with the little golden man (or men) on February 26, 2012? Now that the nominations are in, it’s time to capitalize on the excitement of Hollywood’s biggest night! The 2011 awards had 37.5 million viewers. How are you going to interact with these viewers this year?
Finding ways to engage your audience before and after the awards ceremony is key. A fantastic way to keep your audience engaged is to run a contest – have them predict who they believe will take away the award for each category. UPICKEM’s Red Carpet Movie Awards allows you to do just that. We create, manage and pick the winners for you. Your contest can be branded with one overall sponsor or several; sponsors can receive mentions in all promotions, both online and off. Your awards contest can be added to your sponsor’s Facebook page with a like-gate, email opt-ins for key user data and access to new clients, and “VIPs” that players compete against (company owners, for example).
With a variety of ad spaces on every page, your sales force can attract a number of contest-related advertisers. A few great advertisers to target are movie theaters, salons, spas and women’s retailers. You keep 100% of the sponsorship revenue. The contest has online, Facebook, mobile and tablet version that you can include in your sales package as well!
The 84th Academy Awards will be broadcast on ABC Sunday February 26, 2012. See you on the red carpet!
Top Takeaways from 2011 Second Street Awards
Last week, we hosted our 3rd annual Second Street Awards where we showcased our partners’ best contests and deals run on our platforms over the past year. In addition to specific contest and deal categories (for example, Best Facebook Contest or Best Travel Deal), we also honored partners, according to market size, who hit it out of the park with UPICKEM and Deadline Deals. Below, you can find the Top Ten Takeaways from this presentation. If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recording or see a full list of finalists and winners in each category.
1. Sweepstakes are great email database builders. Social boost, a feature that rewards entrants for sharing the contest, is a must-do for UPICKEM sweepstakes contests.
2. Service deals allow you to explore different price points, as well as pushing into higher priced deals. Our three finalists’ prices ranged from $29 to $1,850. Auto detailing is a category that’s been successful in many markets.
3. Our Fantasy Auto Racing contest could be your highest revenue-producing sports contest in 2012. With a 37-week lineup, Fantasy Auto Racing is one contest that keeps your users coming back to your site week after week.
4. Retail deals shouldn’t be too specific. The key to a successful retail deal is that it is open to all products in the store – avoid limiting the deal to specific products.
5. Health and Beauty deals are one of our top categories. Since this category of deal is frequently running, it is important to know what the market value is for your deal. Keep an eye on the competition and be sure you’re pricing your deal competitively.
6. Facebook contests are skyrocketing. Facebook contests are an excellent way to build your brand’s likes. Use the audience you build on Facebook as a selling feature to have contests run exclusively on your advertisers’ pages.
7. Don’t forget about national chains for restaurant deals. National chains are approachable – don’t be afraid to secure them in your market. A convenient location is key. For most local media sites, family friendly environments are best. Find what aligns best for your audience.
8. Photo contests work. Photo contests are still our most popular and most versatile contest type – kids contests were the most popular category in 2011, dethroning pets contests from their long-standing reign!
9. Travel deals, when crafted right, can usher in lots of revenue. Think regional, drivable from your location; Always try to work with the property directly instead of a third-party.
10. Recreation deals are inherently social. Whether you’re going to a theme park or taking a ski trip, you are most likely going with friends and family. This social aspect of recreation deals means more people will purchase if the deal is good. Anything entertainment-based will excite your audience.
Are your takeaways for contesting and daily deals different? Leave us a note in the comments to share what you learned this year.
Categories: Promoting Contests, Promoting Deals, Second Street News, Selling Contests, Selling Deals Tags: awards, contests, deadline deals, deals, enter-to-win, event deals, facebook contests, magazine, newspaper, photo, radio, second street awards, sweepstakes, top contests, top deals, travel deals, tv, UPICKEM
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