Is there anyone who hasn’t tripped over a promotional contest while surfing any of the 60+ social media sites? I am sure most of you said ‘No’. Even though all brands co-exist peacefully, the competitive edge does sharpen inside. With the development of top-notch marketing strategy techniques every day, promotion on social media is one of the most widely used techniques to engage the audience.
And what better way than organizing a contest! Even though many consider this as a sales pitch. Well mate, running a social media contest can give you more benefits than all the unnecessary advertisements you’ve pasted on the walls of the city! Have a look-
- Community expansion
The most important reason for holding a social media contest is to expand the community of the brand. If one has heard about the brand from their relatives or friends, a contest gives them a reason to check out your site. With the amount of time a person spends on social media, he is bound to come across the contest sometime or the other. As most contests give away rewards on the basis of the number of shares or the number of people tagged, it is a great measure in building up a community for your venture. Display relevant content and the community is yours to flaunt!
- Creating brand awareness
Another important task performed by a social media contest is creating brand awareness among users. When a contest is organized, the news spreads like a wildfire among the netizens, resulting in traffic getting directed to your pages or accounts. More and more people become aware of your products, your existence in the market and ofcourse don’t forget to talk about your USP. It might not show quick results but gives a tough competition to referral marketing.
- Launch new products
Have you ever fancied holding a bottle of the newly launched shampoo before anyone else does? So now tell me wouldn’t you try your luck if this ‘fancy’ can turn into a reality? Ofcourse you would! Similarly, as a company when you decide to launch a new product, you can hold a contest to give away your new product to a few lucky winners. There is no second thought to the fact that a lot of people, randomly scrolling, get interested and your product gets the hype it deserves even before it is launched in the market. Is there any better attention you’d want?
- Attract new consumers
As we’ve already given you the course on brand awareness, where do you think all of it will be directed? On the feeds of new customers, of course. A social media contest can be quite beneficial for your customer acquisition strategy also. For instance, you can ask the entrants to fill up a form, having data which interests you, like their email so you could send them regular pamphlets and advertise your product or ask them to sign your newsletter. Although these strategies look like a hill of work, they have a list of benefits to offer. So, everything will be paid off when some of these very random users will end up becoming your loyal customers.
- Increasing engagement
Ever noticed the obviously large number of likes and comments on a contest post in comparison to the others? This is because the contest is not only credited with enlarging the number of consumers and awareness about the brand but also with increasing engagement of the audience with the management of the label. For instance, if you run a contest on Instagram, asking your audience to spread the word through likes, comments, shares, and tags, it helps your community connect with you, and this results in the increasing views on your Insta posts, pages, and accounts, and not to forget the new usernames following you now!
If you haven’t given a thought to running your own contests on social media platforms, you should consider it right away. Though Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the most popular sites to run one, using the others for the same purpose won’t cost you a hair. With advantages like the ones we’ve mentioned, what are you waiting for? Go rule the trend before it falls.