Running a social media contest is an excellent opportunity for your business to raise brand awareness and optimize its lead generation strategy.
We’re going to give you the seven steps for running a social media contest that converts, the best social media contest tools, and more!
Because 54% of social browsers use social media marketing to research products. And, by the start of the year, there were 3.96 billion users on social media. It’s easy to see how a social media campaign would work.
Put lead generation software on hold for a minute and save your pennies.
Let’s run a social media contest!
A social media contest is when brands stir up a tremendous amount of social media buzz by asking users to follow specific rules to enter the contest for a prize.
These rules include:
After some time, the contest will end, and then the winner is announced!
Social media contests involve creating a post that garners engagement when people enter the contest, and generates buzz when they share it with their network or tag friends as part of the contest rules.
Social media contests are excellent for increasing engagement, increasing brand awareness, and generating leads.
TLDR: WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST?
A social media contest is a marketing technique that involves the brand creating a contest that their social media followers can enter by following a set of instructions that involve actions that generate engagement and awareness for the brand in the process. For example, a product giveaway contest could count shares, likes, tags or posting with a unique branded hashtag as a contest entry.
Social media contests are an inexpensive way to attract enormous masses of consumers to your brand. And that’s because everyone enjoys winning!
These are a few reasons businesses run social media contests:
Before starting your social media contest, you need to develop SMART goals.
S-Specific
M-Measurable
A-Actionable
R-Realistic
T-Time-bound
SMART goals will help you achieve your ideal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Check out video by Develop Good Habits for more on SMART goals:
Although a determined business can accomplish multiple goals, start by prioritizing the one or two that are best for your business. Doing this will help you build a contest that is not convoluted for your business and participants.
Once you have SMART goals pinned down, move on to your budget. When determining your budget, for a social media contest, consider these points:
As a tip for your determining your costs, always work with the “worst-case-scenario” figures. This will help you be prepared if the contests cost more than you estimated.
For a victorious social media contest, you need to offer an exciting prize that participants can’t refuse.
The primary goal is to gain contestants who will convert. So, you have to WOW them from the start.
Not sure what prize to use?
When you know what your prize is, it’s time to consider a hook. Your hook is going to be a short, catchy line that draws attention to your contest.
“Enter your details to win x”, just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Look at the example below of Mad Millie’s hook for their contest.
They used three words: “Win Your Wishlist” and not only does that hook sound exciting, but it sums up the entire contest concisely too.
It’s time to decide where you’re going to host your contest and how you’re going to manage it.
You don’t have to choose just one social media platform. But host the contest on platforms that your target audience is most active on.
To stimulate all your social media platforms, offer participants a higher chance of winning for responding to your contest on various platforms.
Furthermore, you need to figure out what kind of contest you’re going to run, what the entry requirements will be, what social media automation tool you will use and what your T&Cs are.
Different contest types require varied entry requirements and T&Cs. For example, the rules for a photo contest will differ from a voting contest in terms of entry and how you choose the winner.
Also, for photo contests, your rules would have to be more specific as photos are a more exposed medium than voting.
Understand your social media platform’s regulations around social media contests, too. Having this information will prevent you from breaking rules you weren’t aware of and placing your social media account in jeopardy.
Besides complying with the rules of social media platforms, you also need to comply with your local government’s laws around social media contests.
How long will your contest run? And how many contests will you host?
You want to determine the length of your contest according to the size of your prize.
Larger prizes require more time. But take too long, and users won’t feel an urgency to enter. Typically, run a contest for about two weeks.
On the other hand, for small prizes, your contest doesn’t have to exceed three days.
Additionally, you don’t have to run several contests a year. But if you’ve received positive responses from your first contest, it might good to host another.
For large, premium prizes, the frequency of your contests should be relatively low, like quarterly, bi-annually, or annually. But for smaller prizes, you can host contests weekly or monthly.
However, this depends on how much you can afford to giveaway.
Now that you’ve completed the last of your contest, it’s time to spread the word.
Get on those social media platforms you chose at step 3 and start promoting your contest.
Use powerful, captivating words to grab your audience’s attention. And use clear, concise wording, so users instantly understand what your contest entails.
Ensure the rules and T&Cs of your contest are exposed and accessible to eliminate any uncertainty.
And although your entrants will share the word of your contest, be sure to exhaust as many marketing techniques as possible.
Create count-down newsletters for your email list until the day you announce the winner. Count-down newsletters will add anticipation to your contest and convince your subscribers to participate.
If you practice partner marketing, get your partners to spread the word about your contest. Find as many lead generation sources as possible because every contestant is a potential customer.
Finally, engage with users who interact with your brand to motivate others to interact.
Does all this sound like a lot of work? Don’t worry!
We have social media contest software coming up shortly to ease the load!
You can announce the winner in the following ways:
Social media contest software often includes a random winner generator. And a template with the winner’s name on it. Alternatively, you can use Canva for an appealing template!
When you announce the winner, be sure to thank all the participants, to show customer appreciation. Encourage everyone to subscribe to your newsletter to stay connected and let them know about future contests.
Also, mark the end of your contest on social media to avoid confusion.
Another smart marketing technique is to offer an exclusive deal after the contest to further convince users down your sales funnel.
When the contest has concluded, you need to evaluate how well it performed. And if you achieved your KPIs and business objectives.
After going through those questions and gathering the essential data, you’ll have the resources you need to continue to improve on your social media contests.
To date, Upviral powers over 25 000 businesses around the world. And this social media contest tool allows you to create viral gateways, contests, and product launches.
Upviral allows businesses to take one lead and effortlessly turn it into many. But is this tool as powerful as it claims? Let’s see!
Upviral is currently having a sale: $1 for any of their plans!
But usually the prices are:
Website: upviral.com
Outgrow is a popular tool for running social media contests, and the software lives up to its hype. Focusing on lead generation and audience engagement through quizzes, polls, personalized recommendations, and contests Outgrow helps any business.
But is this established software what you’re looking for? Let’s check it out!
Outgrow has two different pricing structures: one for solo-creators and another for teams.
For solo-creators:
For teams:
Via Zapier, you can integrate the following tools to Outgrow:
Accurate and in-depth tracking.
Website: outgrow.com
The primary focus of ShortStack is to help businesses create incredible landing pages, run high-converting contests and optimize their email marketing.
Using ShortStack, businesses have access to a vast array of customizations most of their competitors lack and extensive contest capabilities.
Let’s see what ShortStack is about!
Website: shortstack.com
Marketing itself as the easiest marketing platform available, Wishpond provides a business with all needs for successful marketing.
This includes social promotions, email marketing, lead management, and much more!
Lead generation and nurturing is possible through Wishpond but does this software suit your brand’s needs?
Let’s check it out!
Website: wishpond.com
Helping over 5000 customers around the world, Gleam enables businesses with features to run contests, increase their email list and reward their consumers.
Gleam is a flexible tool for social media contests that is ideal for small businesses.
But let’s look at what Gleam offers.
Or you can buy each app individually:
Website: gleam.io
SUMMARY – THE TOP 5 SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEST TOOLS ARE:
Because of social media contests, generating leads doesn’t have to be as challenging. Following the seven steps to build a social media contest, this guide outlines that you’ll create a social media contest in no time!
You need the right software, dedication, and innovative marketing practices for a successful social media contest. And the quicker you find software that works for your business, the sooner you can enjoy the perks of running a social media contest.
Within the social media contest tools we’ve reviewed, small and large businesses can find software that suits them.
Remember to keep your contest as personal to your target audience as possible and thoroughly evaluate your contest’s performance!
A social media contest is when brands stir up a tremendous amount of social media buzz by asking users to follow specific rules to enter the contest for a prize. Read this article for a step-by-step guide to creating social media contests.
Social media contests are an inexpensive way to attract enormous masses of consumers to your brand. And that’s because everyone enjoys winning! To find out more reasons for social media contests and how to create one, read this article!
1.Determine Your Goals and Budget 2.Choose Your Prize and a Fun Hook 3.Pick Your Social Media Platforms and Contest Structure 4. The Length and Regularity of Your Contest 5.Promote, Promote, Promote! 6. Announce The Winner 7.Monitor Your Results and Reflect. Read this article for all the details to create a social media contest.
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Backlinko: Social Network Usage & Growth Statistics: How Many People Use Social Media?
Small Business Trends: Running a Contest? Here’s How to Get More Entries
EasyPromosBlog: How Users Share Online Contests They Participate in – Infographic
Tailwind Blog: How to Do a Giveaway on Instagram Successfully (+Ideas!)