Everyone wants to win something. Most people play the lottery, buy raffle tickets and enter contests and giveaways in order to try and win a product or service. This can be a perfect marketing tool to bring attention to your company, even if what you are giving away is completely unrelated to your own products!
Recently on Facebook I noticed a local car dealership giving away concert tickets, and all I had to do was click the “Like” button to be entered, so I did. This is a clever way to get me to look at the advertiser’s page, a page I may never have looked at prior to the sweepstakes advertisement.
How to Get It on the Action
Think about what forum to use to reach people. Does your company have a Facebook or Twitter page, or do most customers just come into your business in person, maybe looking for Mustang steering wheels? Most businesses these days are using social networking to gain new customers and keep the loyal ones interested, and it’s a perfect way to reach a large amount of people for a sweepstakes contest.
What Can You Give Away?
What kinds of products or services do you offer? A spa can give away a spa day with massage and facial services. A store can offer a gift set with lots of new products. Also, you can give away something completely unrelated, such
as the concert tickets. A prize of this magnitude, such as tickets, a new car or boat or a weekend hotel stay will not go unnoticed. Most people will click on it without even looking or knowing what business is offering the sweepstakes; they just want in on the fun!
To make things fair, make sure people who want to enter the sweepstakes don’t have to jump through any hoops to do so. Clicking a “Like” button is harmless, but making people pay or buy something in exchange to enter the sweepstakes isn’t fair. Make it easy for people to play.
You do need to direct people to your business’s Facebook page or company website to sign up. While they are on your site, they may click around and see what you have to offer, and you may have sold some new Mustang engines to a customer you got by offering a sweepstakes promotion. It can be that easy to get people’s attention in a world where winning is everything!
Going Smaller for Constant Promotion
While giving away a big item is what most people think of when they think of sweepstakes, in reality, you can go smaller. To keep people’s interest, offer weekly prizes to your customers. Certainly you have been in a restaurant where you can drop your business card into a bowl for their weekly free lunch drawing, or maybe a salon that offers a free haircut prize every week.
Keeping consumer’s interests up with smaller promotions like this will likely engage your loyal customers as well as attract new ones, especially if you promote these weekly contests on your Facebook page, Twitter page and website. Also, setting up an e-mail newsletter to get to customers that don’t have a social networking page is a good way to reach people to let them know about your promotions.
Guest Author Byline: Now that you’re well-versed in sweepstakes promotions, you may want to know more about how to use social media to sell your goods, whether you offer Mustang steering wheels or fine jewelry. This post was contributed by Carly Fierro.
