How to Organize a Contest Online
To create a high-converting contest online you need a master plan. The advantage of online contests is that they let you boost your traffic with a zero budget. In fact, a well-developed plan of action will suffice to expand a community and if you’re lucky, generate new leads.
Crafting a plan for an online contest launch is a subtle art, though with many question marks popping up along the way. How do you create a brand image that captures a user’s eye at first sight? What should your promotional strategy focus on to get directly to the audiences that you’re following? How can one make the voting system engaging? Let’s start with the objective and some golden rules to keep in mind.
Define the objective of the contest
The common mistake here: many organizers focus on the contest itself, without considering a valid marketing goal that stands behind the incentive to launch an online competition. Instead of entering through the narrow road, approach your project from the big picture. Think of what the contest will mean for the product or service you’re working with and how it can influence brand recognition. Then, let your big marketing goals leverage on online contest objectives.
Important rules
Here are several secrets on how to make your online contest conquer the hearts and minds.
#1. Use juicy content.
You really need to dedicate your time to this point. By employing attractive wording, you’ll become eye-catching for the users. Write personalized emails and memorable teaser texts, create award nomination letters that’ll appeal to your targets.
#2. Leverage on social media promotion.
However, only on those that can bring you real profits. Establish the metrics and make calculations on ROI that you can reach by using specific social media platforms. Don’t waste your time on unprofitable promotions while organizing contests.
#3. Experiment.
Although there’s a skeleton that you can use to get your online contest to the public, every business is different. We recommend you look through the stages of organizing the contest, align them with the specific features of your project, and tweak the strategy to your liking.
The step-by-step tutorial to organize an online contest
Successful online contests are characterized by virality. To make an online competition go viral, you have to make sure that it’s in a good shape. Here’s a step-by-step guide to generating 90-60-90 contests.
Define a goal
Start with segmenting your goals. Large marketing objectives and smaller contest aims, immediate and post-contest implications – they all have to be sorted out. To make it easier, create a list of questions that you want to ask yourself in order to frame the online contest profile. The answers to these questions will basically be your aims.
TIP: It happens that the goals may appear very vague to you, especially if it’s your first experience with this marketing instrument. In this case, you shouldn’t hesitate to give it a shot. All online contests share one common goal – they build brand awareness. So with that goal in mind or without it, just try it.
Create a plan
Now you’re ready to create the first draft. Your initial plan to organize a contest online should touch upon each side of it. Mention:
- Reference benchmarks
- Contest duration
- The platforms for promotion
- Contents for email campaign and social media
- The prizes to be awarded to the winners
- Tools for evaluation
Don’t forget that your creativity always has a voting right! Experiment with your vision of an online contest and gain a chance for unbelievable success.
Online tools for organizing contest
You know what age you’re living in, right? Then you’re lucky to know that digital tools can make you achieve the marketing goals with incredible ease. This also applies to contest organization.
If you’re planning on setting up an online competition, use the services of cloud-based software that automates the processes of submission and judging. Infuse your strategy with the mobile responsiveness and engage the participating sides into intuitive platform use.
Lastly, social media is your first, must tool, for leveraging an online contest promotion. Enable your constant presence on the screens of your potential contestants and get on a winning streak!
Set a budget
Are you bootstrapped and your thin purse suffocates you? You’re not alone in this. Guess what, you can actually reach high traffic with an online contest, without substantial expenses. To reach the goal, just make sure you set a budget smartly.
To organize the online contest, you’ll need to know what you have to spend the money for before the launch. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What will be the value of contest prizes?
- Do I need to spend money on social media promotion campaigns? If yes, how much?
- Should I use an expensive software for setting up my online contest?
If you have all the answers filled out, you’ll make your budget work.
Implementation
When you’re all set, it’s prime time to shine. So get moving!
First, create an irresistible landing page with a no-look-away copy for your online contest. Use a headline that’ll grab people’s attention and won’t let it go.
Think of visuals and entry information.
Make a call-to-action button as vivid as possible.
Finally, prove your social media presence with the respective buttons.
Voila: your ingredients for success are in the pot!
Promote the contest
It all depends on you how many people will discover the online contest. To reach the top results, build a marketing strategy for promotion on three levels:
- Before the launch (to build anticipation)
- During the contest (to keep your audience engaged)
- After the contest (to retain your users)
We leave it to you to choose between the channels of promotion. The only protip here: use as many as you can leverage on to reach higher performance.
Post, tweet, and share – it goes without saying that social media promotion can turn thousands of followers and random users into real leads.
Don’t forget your subscribers. Create a newsletter or send a short contest announcement to those who know you already. By addressing the existent audience, you get a higher conversion rate than by focusing on random users.
Create a blog post and declare your presence on diverse forums and in relevant communities. Snag all opportunities for success!
Choosing the prizes
Let’s face it: a prize incentive boosts your online contest recognition. By rewarding participation and choosing the appropriate prize for it, you can gain benefits for both your marketing strategy and your audience:
- Select the prize that reflects well on your brand. Did you manage to showcase the product or service that you promote and satisfy the audience at the same time? – Sounds like a winner!
- Diversify the prizes. People love being treated individually. Choose several prizes for different winning categories and fire up your participants.
- Benefit from referrals. Allocate a prize to those, who’ll manage to engage with your brand as much as possible. Two birds with one stone: high traffic and brand awareness boost.
Find judges
The professionalism of your judges is going to determine the fairness of your contest, which shapes the overall impression for your audience. Approach the judges whom your contest participants trust or even ask the contestants to take part in determining who’ll evaluate the results. Your audience will appreciate the engagement.
You can learn more about how to find judges for your online contest here.
Conclusion
To organize an online contest that’s hard to beat, you need a reliable plan and a dash of courage. Develop your perfect strategy through dedication and creativity and impress yourself by results!
If you need a cloud-based software to simplify your contest planning, get started with Judgify for free.