Whether you organise social media contests or an in-store competitive activity, you can definitely benefit from this type of promotion. Giveaways and games boost engagement, get people to try products, they inspire virality and can result in enhanced customer loyalty,

To experience these benefits, you have to organise a content in the right way. The following guide will acquaint you with some of the most important steps.

Determine What You Want to Accomplish

The nature of the contest and the channel you’ll use for delivery purposes will both be dependent on your goal.

Do you want to increase the size of your email list? If so, a Facebook contest would be a good idea? Would you like to make your branding message viral? Opt for an Instagram campaign and create your own hashtag.

A contest can help you accomplish numerous other goals:

• Increase the popularity of your website
• Get people to try your products and services
• Get positive reviews and client testimonials
• Encourage people to share user-generated content with you
• Gain immediate sales and a revenue increase
• Maximize brand recognition
• Gain more insight into the popularity of your products and services

Ensure Relevance

Second, you need to make the contest relevant to the type of audience you’re attempting to attract.

People who visit DoULike.com are not the same as the people who visit DoULikeSenior. Hence, you cannot target both of these audiences in one and the same way.

First, you have to understand and determine your target audience. Are they young or older? Do they have an established profession? How about their marital status, nationality, hobbies and interests? Are you targeting men or women?

Answering these questions will make it easier for you to know what game characteristics and formats will work best.

There are sweepstakes, photographic contests, product trials, coupons, social media contests, essay contests, survey-style competitions, video contests, photo caption contests and many others.

If you’re targeting an older audience, you will have to opt for a more traditional and classic approach that the respective group of people will understand. Younger prospects are more flexible and open to social media experiments.

Keep It Simple

Both the design and the functionality of the contest matter. If you make things overly complicated, people are not going to participate.

It may be a good idea to get professionals involved in conceptualizing and creating your contest.

There should be no clutter, a simple sign-in process and an opportunity for multiple entries (if this is permitted by the contest rules). In some instances, it may even be great to develop a contest app that people can download to their phone and use for the dedicated purpose of participating.

Even if you opt for social media contests that are easier to plan and organize, you should still make sure that the rules are clear and there’s no ambiguity.

Offer the Right Prize

Why are people participating in branded contests? The answer is very, very simple – they’re interested in the award, the freebie or the incentive you have to offer.

To get optimal participation, you have to think about the right prize. In some instances, it may need to be larger. Investing in the relationship with prospects will always pay off in the form of enhanced customer acquisition.

Limited edition items, subscriptions, exclusive access to new products, experiences, packages and kits or your best product could all turn into a prize people would want to acquire. You can also feature a range of prizes that people will get to choose among in the event of winning.

A gift card is a final very simple and very rewarding option. Here’s simple example of a company that tried to encourage college room makeovers (targeting students) through a gift card-based game. Over 249,000 submissions were made during the contest.

Share the Win with Your Audience

Once you hand out the prize, you may want to provide your audience with evidence of the fact.

People are often sceptical about sweepstakes and games or branded contests. They may need evidence to believe in the opportunity and to stop questioning its legitimacy.

The easiest thing you can do is ask the winner to send you a pic of themselves holding the prize. Get their permission to publish the picture on your social media. It would be even better if you could craft a short interview or get a few comment lines from the winner.

The evidence of an actual person winning will excite other prospects and get them more eager to participate in one of your coming contests.

Track Performance, Analyse Results

Just like all other marketing tools, contests give you access to a ton of information about your prospects. Use this information to your advantage. It can help you enhance your marketing message and deliver it in a much more convincing way in the future.

Track key metrics – participation, engagement, demographics, the prizes that interest the audience the most, the time of the day when people are most active, etc.

If you can, follow up with a short survey to learn a bit more about the audience’s experience.

Don’t hesitate to experiment with contests. They’re easy to plan, cost-effective and highly engaging. Some of the simplest games out there produce the best results.

Even startups and home-based businesses can benefit from such opportunities, as long as some preliminary thought and research are put in the process.