NEWS

How contests matter to small businesses?

Remember the days when you have to mail your contest application form to join a contest?

Remember the days when you have to physically go to a venue (maybe in a shopping mall) to participate in a contest?

Well, there are still such contests nowadays but it’s rather a hassle to most of the people, unless the value of the prize is huge. Since the value of the prize has to be huge, why are we even talking about small businesses here? Thanks to the Internet and social media, contests are not only for big businesses now. Online contests via Facebook, Instagram or even Twitter can be and should be part of your small business marketing strategy in Sydney and Melbourne.

First of all, if you want a fan base, organise a contest. The number of likes and fans on your page will definitely climb up. Best type of contests for such purposes is just a simple enter-to-win competition with a low barrier of entry to capture fan bases online.

To stimulate and encourage engagement with your audience and brand, you need different type of contest. A UGC (user-generated content) contest will be the one. If you are a heavy Instagram or Facebook user you will know what I am talking about. It is a photo or video contest which users can upload their content and simply hashtag the specific contest hashtag, for example, #littlemarketingphotocontest, to join the contest. Usually the photo or video with the most likes wins! It stimulates traffic to view your company profile, increase your fan base and create awareness among friends of people who participated in the contest.

Contest is not just about giving something away. You gain a lot too. Use contests as opportunities to learn more about your consumers. Your instructions for people to join your online contest could be something like “upload your best selfie, hashtag #littlemarketingphotocontest and tell us how you heard about us”.

If your contests involves something like “the most votes or likes wins”, you empowering consumers to do some form of marketing for you. How brilliant is that! When people participate in such a contest, they will get their family and friends to like their photo. The number of likes one’s photo gets is the number of people he or she had spread the word of mouth to.

Online marketing may just be a small part of your marketing strategy but you need to bear in mind that the effects of it might be bigger than any other marketing tools.

 

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