Attracting Business through Giveaways and Contests
One way to attract extra traffic to your website is through having a contest or giveaway. Although it is true that a large portion of the new visitors you receive may just come looking to get something for free, there will create lots of good publicity that is beneficial.
Consider the products and services offered by your website and then use your imagination to create a fun contest that will appeal to the average customer you will be targeting with this promotion.
If your website is devoted to parenting issues, you could hold a contest where entrants describe their funniest parenting mishap or the most embarrassing thing their children said in public, etc.
Contests can also be used in conjunction with the release of a new product. Suppose you had a website for busy women which offers tips on how to manage time better and that you were preparing to present a new product that discusses what to do to make it through the holidays. A possible contest that you could hold is asking for funniest Thanksgiving food disasters or best tip for holiday shopping time-saving.
When it comes to finding prizes for your contests, you can offer up your own products or services, or you can solicit prizes from other website owners. The latter can be a win-win situation, as the prizes will not cost you anything and the person donating the prize will also get exposure (just be sure to mention on the contest page who donated the prize).
For the less creative, simply asking for visitors to submit their personal information and holding a giveaway choosing a random winner from the submissions is still a great idea. You can use the same system for prizes that was outlined in the previous paragraph.
Giveaways can be used to keep customers coming back for more from your business. In a service based business like graphic design, you could allow customers that have paid for your services to fill out a giveaway form each time they do so and offer a monthly prize. This might be added incentive for customers to return in an attempt to win your monthly prizes.
Promotion of any contest or giveaway is the key to success. Inform everyone on your mailing list of the event and advertise it on you site’s home page. Mention it in podcasts as well. You want to spread the word to as many people as possible.
There are many sites that allow you to enter your contest information, and this info can get picked up and publicized by other website owners. To find these sites, do a Google search on a keyword such as “contest submission sites.” You may also want to send in a few press releases.
Giveaways and contests can boost the amount of traffic your website receives, greatly benefiting your business. As you use them, think about the results and how you can adjust your ideas in an attempt to match your customers’ interests as well as possible.
Theo McLanahan :: Aug.29.2008 :: Internet :: No Comments »
