You’ve likely entered a contest on Facebook before, excited about the super-size pizza or cute new t-shirt you might win. But those fun contests aren’t just about the prizes, they are a way to gain targeted leads on the path to business growth.
If you want to try running a contest as part of your Facebook marketing strategy, there are a few steps to include to help you capture those leads.
Decide What You’re Trying to Achieve: You may be running a contest just for fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re likely to gain brand recognition and build your relationships with your audience. But you may be after something more, like boosting the launch of a new product or building buzz around an event you’re about to host.
Design your contest with the goal in mind. For instance, if you’re launching a new product, maybe it’s the product you give away, or you may want to give a VIP pass to your event.
Set Up Your Timeline: This isn’t random. You need to set a timeline that encourages urgency and is appropriate to what your goals are. For instance, you may want to give away your new product the week before that new product launches to keep momentum around that date.
You can also think about doing a contest on a monthly basis if you offer a product or service that requires purchasing often. If you are a lawn care company, you’ll know that everyone who enters your contest at least has a desire to avoid lawn-cutting. You can give away a free month of lawn care and capture leads all summer from people who are looking for a way to get out of spending their Saturdays with a mower.
Decide How They’ll Sign Up: Are they just replying in the comments? Maybe you want them to fill out a form so you’ll capture more information. The better your prize, the more info you can gather.
Another popular approach is to enter any followers into the contest who tag two or three friends. This gives you a wider reach, providing hope that then those friends will tag additional potential leads.
Promote, Promote, Promote: Be sure to create eye-catching graphics that clearly communicate that this is a contest. You should consider color, text and wording and whether what you choose will stand out from the typical Facebook marketing posts.
Follow Up: Don’t make the mistake of going to all this work, only to let your new contact info sit untouched. Run another contest, send a promotional email, do something, anything! to keep the momentum going after your contest is over. If you’ve decided to do a monthly contest, be consistent in how you run promotions after each event.
Running a contest is a lot of fun if you have the time to do it! If you don’t, our team at SJC Marketing would love to help. We can do everything from helping you run a short-term contest to managing your entire Facebook marketing strategy. Let’s talk and find out what you need.