Six Benefits of Running a Branded Contest

There is a LOT of talk about the potential of social media contests these days. Holding a contest on your Facebook or Twitter page can be helpful to bring in more followers, but there are better options to help build your business. Why not hold a contest on your own website?

We help design, build, manage, and run branded contests on your website. The benefits of a branded, on-site contest are sixfold (or maybe probably definitely certainly more).

Bring in New Traffic

So, let’s say you run a social media contest. People visit your Facebook page, some like the page, and even fewer visit your website. We set up a sub-domain (like contest.yourawesomesite.com) and build the infrastructure of the contest. Since the contest is run on your site, all traffic from social media outlets, press activity, and traditional marketing go directly to your own website (instead of Facebook), which increases site traffic and the likelihood that people will visit again.

Reward Your Current Customer Base

When you hold a contest on your own website, the likelihood is that current customers will be the first to participate. Rewarding your dedicated customer base (if you haven’t yet, make sure you build a customer base) is just a tertiary benefit of creating a contest on your own site. Rewarding the customers you already have, however, is essential for keeping them.

Build an Email List

There are a million and a half ways to build an email list. Not all of them are great; not all of them are even legitimate. With voluntary entry of data for a contest, businesses can quickly grow their email marketing list. Absolute Web Services takes care of building contests from design to documentation (so we have you covered when it comes to the legalese of growing that all-important email list) .

Free Crowdsourced Photos

It’s not always easy (or cheap) to find or create good images of customers using a business’s products. In fact, it can be downright frustrating. With photo contests that take place on a company site, the right terms and conditions and rules and regulations can give you access to all the photos uploaded. Use them for marketing, product catalogues, or just to boost content management.

Engaging Customers

The strategies and activities that actually engage customers are changing. Just having good customer support and sending out a newsletterevery now-and-then is no longer effective. A contest that makes the customers or clients actually DO something is a great way to turn up the heat on engaging customers. Interactive websites and great graphic design can go a long way, but actionable events like contests are even better.

Creating Actionable Activity

Ah, the holy grail of content and advertisement creation. A call to action. A call to action or two is a great thing, but an entire contest designed to lead visitors to action is even better. Well-run contests lead participants directly to the main site to make purchases and buy products. Absolute Web Services takes care of contests from design to final delivery of the grand prize.