Giveaways and sweepstakes are a great way to grow your business and get people interested in your brand or blog, but contests can also be great for other reasons. Lots of people group giveaways, sweepstakes and contests into one category, but the truth is that contests have one very different trait. Instead of having a winner generated randomly, contests typically involve some kind of skill, and therefore, their winners are generally chosen manually (which you can do easily with PromoSimple).
Running a contest comes with its own benefits that might interest you quite a bit. One of those benefits is the fact that by running a contest, you’ll be generating quality content that you can use. The success of your blog or company may rely mostly on quality content, and as you most likely know too well, quality content takes time and can also be expensive if you’re doing some outsourcing. But by running a contest, you can get your audience to do some work for you in exchange for some things that they’re bound to enjoy, like:
- A shot at winning a fabulous prize
- The opportunity to be included in your publication or to get a shout out for their great work
- Bragging rights, should they win
- The fun they’ll have participating in your contest, along with others who share common interests
Now that we’ve touched on some of the reasons why your users would want to participate in your contests, here are some of the reasons why you’ll benefit from running them.
- Contests Create the Kind of Content You’re Looking For
Whether you’re looking for recipes, stories, photos, or videos to feature, contests can be a great way to encourage your audience to share them with you. Create a great theme that works well with your brand or blog, then create a contest that fits well with that theme. For example, maybe you’re a food blog that wants to run a recipe contest for Thanksgiving. Get users to send you their best recipe ideas. Perhaps one of those recipes will win, but maybe many of them can be featured on your site or in a free ebook that you create.
- You’ll Get More Attention from the Almighty Google:
If you’re relying on a lot of organic traffic on your site, user-generated content can really help you out. Fresh content is important to Google, and when you have content with keywords that others are searching for, you’ll win favor with Google and therefore drive more traffic to your site. And user-generated content about the right topic can not only help you get more people to your site; it can help improve your page rank as well!
- Contests Help Your Users Engage with You and Each Other
It’s important that you cultivate a community of people who care about your brand, product or blog. In a giveaway, people may be giving you their email address for the chance to win a prize, but in a contest, they’re actually taking the time to interact with you. Whether they’re sending a picture, video or some text, they’re investing time to your cause. And with all the content that’s being generated, your entrants are able to see what your other fans are up to, thus increasing engagement all around.
As a bonus, if you’re trying to grow your social media outlets, contests are a great way to go. People are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest because they love sharing their thoughts and ideas with others, and also hearing/seeing what others have to offer. Giving your fans an outlet for sharing is a great way to generate buzz and increase engagement.
- The People Submitting to Your Contest Are Likely to Promote for You
If your contest involves the need for votes, which you can do with several of PromoSimple’s entry methods (Multiple Choice, Checkbox, Drop Down, etc), entrants are likely to do a lot of the promoting of the contest for you. And when entrants share your contest with others, you’re easily getting the word out about your brand or blog.
