Why Run A Competition Or Prize Draw?
Competitions and prize draws have been used to promote brands and businesses for years, but why should you run one? You might be considering putting together a giveaway on your website, blog or social media channel but have you thought about why you're doing it? Are you looking to boost your site traffic? Are you thinking about collecting leads? Do you want to promote a certain product and want sales? Or is it simply all about the likes and shares to enhance your social media channels? If you have a good reason for the giveaway then you have a target to ensure that it works well for you.
Why Run a Competition Or Prize Draw?
1. To attract visitors to your website or social media page
Getting traffic to your site is an essential part of being online. By offering people the chance to win something, you can generate interest in your business or brand. A competition can mean more visits and hopefully more customers. We all know that engagement is an important part of social media so running giveaways is a no-brainer. If people are offered the chance to win a prize then may follow your brand and/or share it with others. It's a great way to get noticed especially as algorithms on Instagram, X and Facebook regularly change.
2. To promote a special offer, sponsor or products.
Every visitor to your site is a potential customerwhether they're buying something from you or you're simply data collecting. A prize promotion is a useful way to highlight special offers and products. For example some brands will give influencers the opportunity to test and giveaway items. Many sites run giveaways at selected times of the year (Advent, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day) as a way to pique interest in visitors who might be shopping for special occasions.
3. To build a mailing list/newsletter/social following.
Having a newsletter can be a great way to communicate with your users so what better way to encourage people to join your mailing list than by offering them an incentive? However in today's world where everything is immediate social media has become incredibly important. Facebook are less keen on incentivising users to follow brands but you can ask people to follow you on X and Instagram in exchange for prize draw entries.
4. To reward your userbase.
Each week Loquax offers it's users the chance to win an Amazon Voucher simply for contributing to the website. Whilst a small reward it does help encourage participation. Other ways brands use prize draws as a loyalty tool is by running exclusive promotions via newsletters, in private social media groups, or limiting entries to recent customers.
5. To generate revenue for your website.
We'd all love to run competitions that generate revenue. But this isn't quite as straightforward as it seems although there are ways to monetise giveaways. Data collection, adsense and affiliate marketing are just some of the options promoters use to try and earn income.
6. To sell products.
Rules for purchase necessary competitions have changed in recent times but many retailers shy away from them possibly because they assume that no purchase necessary routes must be included. According to ASA "having to buy a product to enter a prize draw is unlikely to be considered a payment to enter, provided the cost of that product has not been changed to reflect the opportunity to participate". Waterstones are a good example of a retailer who embraces them as many of their giveaways require a purchase of a book to enter.
7. Link building and SEO.
For some siteowners though running a competition is purely about link building and search engine optimisation! SEOMoz have written a good article about competitions and SEO which is well worth looking into!
8. To build a business
Running competitions as a business is something that is growing in popularity. Elite Competitions, Bounty, That Prize Guy, Rev Comps and many more have created a whole new sector within the industry. These pay to enter sites are often known as raffle sites and there are more and more new ones each day. Most competitions these sites run are to make money, but they also run free ones to reward loyalty and build a new audience.
