Have you got a great idea for a competition to promote your business, but aren’t sure of the best way to get the word out, or the best approach to take?

Here are our top tips for how to approach creating a competition, marketing it and making it successful.

What are you trying to achieve?

First off – you’re going to be giving something away, so what are you planning on getting for yourself when running a competition?

Of course, running any competition is going to act as a brand recognition exercise, people see your marketing efforts and start to recognise you. This is great, but hard to measure and difficult to directly act on.

On a more tangible level, the ultimate goal of promoting a competition in your business is to drum up business, either immediately or later down the line through connections you make with potential customers (otherwise known as leads).

You can get leads by capturing a person’s email address or by getting new people to ‘like’ your social media pages.

This is so that you can include them in future marketing and convert them into a paying customer.

The email address is more reliable as more people will see your promotions about upcoming events, deals, and offerings which will increase the chances of converting them into paying customers.

However a page like on social media is a great alternative as it takes a little less effort on their behalf, and as long as you post regularly they will see what your business has to offer them.

What competition ideas can I use to promote my business?

Ok so here are some promo ideas, specifically for Valentine’s Day, but these ideas can of course be adapted to suit any occasion.

“Feeling the love? Tell us how you’ll be celebrating Valentine’s Day for a chance to win! Enter our competition now.”

“Get creative this Valentine’s Day! Submit a photo or video that best captures the spirit of love for a chance to win.”

“Love is in the air! Share with us your favourite love story or why you love someone for a chance to win.”

“Going all out for your significant other this Valentine’s Day? Share a pic of the two of you for a chance to win.”

“Make this Valentine’s Day extra special by entering our competition! All you have to do is share a message of love with us.”

Where to promote your competition

And here are some places for promoting your competition:

Social media

Create a series of posts for platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to reach a large audience.

Usually, 5 posts will do the trick and should include

• 1 x Introducing the competition
• 2 x hyping up the competition
• 2 x reminders the competition is closing soon

You can also share these posts in local Facebook groups too.

Find out more about our social media services, or get in touch to book a free 15-minute strategy session.

Email marketing

Send out emails to your newsletter subscribers about the competition. Again, using the 5-post strategy of…

• 1 x email to introduce the competition
• 2 x hyping up the competition
• 2 x reminders the competition is closing soon.

Influencer marketing

Partner with popular social media influencers to help spread the word about your competition.

This could include reaching out to other popular business owners (esp. accommodation providers and florists when it comes to Valentine’s), the local Council, any business or networking groups etc to help share and promote your competition.

A simple email to them with a link to your post could do the trick!

Paid advertising

Use Facebook and or Instagram ads to target specific demographics local to your business.

Where do your customers usually come from, and what distance do most of them travel? This information will give you what you need to know when it comes to targeting locations for your ads.

Remember, boosting a post is cheaper and reaches a larger audience, however, doesn’t convert as highly as using Ads Manager, which costs more but can be using for targeting and converts better.

For most smaller or free promotions, boosting a post will be perfectly fine.

Collaborations

Partner with other businesses to reach their customer base and increase the reach of your competition.

In-store promotion

Utilise your physical location to promote the competition to customers who are already there.

Make sure you have posters up to promote your competition, you could even pop an A-Frame sign on the road frontage if space allows.

Additional content marketing

Create blog posts, videos, and other content to generate buzz and interest in the competition.

For an example of something local to us here in Queensland, you could write a blog or create a video about the ultimate Valentine’s Day Out in Yeppoon, and it can all end with a dinner and show at the Footlights Theatre Restaurant.

Getting marketing support

We have covered a lot of ground in this article. Tying it all together is copywriting. Find out more about how our copywriting services could help, or get in touch to discuss your marketing needs.