Frederick Jace
Whether for lead generation, sales promotion, or image enhancement, sweepstakes are among the most popular direct marketing instruments and offer numerous advantages to both the customer and the provider.
Sweepstakes win over all age groups: consumers are captivated by an online sweepstakes’ interactive and multimedia elements. There are many possible uses:
- Seasonal competition calendars (e.g., online advent calendars / Christmas calendars, anniversary, Easter, or holiday calendars)
- Knowledge tests or topic quizzes
- Tip games, puzzles or mini-games
- Surveys and (customer) feedback
But to what extent are lottery formats relevant to a company’s success? We show five main reasons that speak for online sweepstakes.
Reason 1: You increase your attention and reach
If a competition is published on the website, blog, or social networks, users are encouraged to interact and are thus explicitly directed to a platform. This results in several advantages for companies:
- Increasing traffic and higher interaction on the website, the social media channels, or the company blog – depending on which platform is chosen for the competition.
- Community growth by gaining new subscribers, additional likes or shares
- The increase in attention and reach ultimately goes hand in hand with higher sales and is a fundamental success factor for online sweepstakes.
# Reason 2: You win customers and bind them to your company
Once the competition has attracted attention, consumers are quickly directed to the website or online shop. Therefore, they are not far from a full shopping cart, a newsletter subscription, or a phone call. The advantages in terms of customer relationships are apparent:
- Generation of new leads/addresses by collecting personal data (e.g., e-mail address, name) that is required for participation in competitions to win real money or products.
- Development and design of the corporate relationship with the customer, in which potential, as well as existing customers, can playfully familiarize themselves with the products. This is one of the most important factors you need to know about online sweepstakes.
Reason 3: You increase your sales
In addition to raffles, competitions are always accompanied by discounts. Voucher codes, discount coupons, or the “bargain of the day” motivate buying and boost sales. If the product is convincing, nothing stands in the way of the purchase. This is how sweepstakes ultimately lead to:
- A higher number of conversions
- Increase in sales
Reason 4: You promote awareness and image of your brand and products
Building brand awareness is another benefit of using online sweepstakes, whether launching a new product or promoting an existing product. In principle, this results in the following advantages:
- Promoting awareness of products and the company itself;
- Image and branding;
- Support for product launches or the relaunch of a product that is already on the market.
Reason 5: You recognize the interests of your users
Online sweepstakes are also used for market research purposes. The prospect of winning usually increases the willingness to participate in a survey and ideally even share it. The decisive advantage here is:
The collection of individual interests and wishes of users means that future marketing measures can be adjusted accordingly.
Achieve lasting success: Why likes are only half the battle
Playing by the rules alone does not make a successful competition. But what then? This question is not as easy to answer as it first appears. Because there are enough cases where sweepstakes go viral, get a lot of likes, and still bring little benefit. That happens especially when the users who react to the contest are not interested in your brand and your products, but only in the profit. Then even bulging digital leads folders are worth little.
Fortunately, there are strategies to prevent such a case. You can also ensure that your competition has “positive side effects,” independent of leads and conversions.
Successful online sweepstakes contests need good preparation
Good planning and preparation are central to all social media activities. However, in competitions, the temptation is great just to get started. In the worst case, what we mentioned above happens: You achieve a range of no use to you.
So think carefully about who you want to reach and how you can do that by tailoring content and prices to your target group or working with influencers. After all, it can’t hurt to give your contest as individual a character as possible. “Write any comment under this post” contents are plentiful. you can do better.
