Competitions and challenges are win-win opportunities for consumers and brands. The consumers get to win something while the brands get a chance to market and improve their business. They are not the answer to every marketing challenge, but they should be included in your list of strategies to market your business. Competitions are not designed to only be external because you can use them to drive innovation within your workforce. For instance, you can create employee teams that will come up with compelling ideas that will be presented to an innovation committee. When done properly and effectively, challenges can bring many benefits to your business. Here is a list that best illustrates the power of running a competition or challenge for your business.
Competitions Help Build Your Fan Base
Online competitions and challenges help create brand awareness and attract interest in your brand. To accomplish this, you need to make social media following or liking a must requirement for the competition entry. In this case, anyone who wants to participate will become a follower. A contest that involves coming up with innovative ideas will require voting to determine the ultimate winner. You can further improve your fan base by shortlisting the best ideas and give your fans the opportunity to vote for the winner. You can even ask anyone who wants to vote to follow or like your brand page.
Consumers Do the Marketing for You
When you set up a competition that offers something of value, then you can be sure to see entries fly in. For such competitions and challenges that come with a prize, people will spread the word to their families, friends, and associates. This can also help build a community within your local neighborhood. Therefore, running a competition is of great value if you want your brand to sell more through your followers.
Research Benefits
Competitions and challenges also offer benefits from a research standpoint. Collecting data from an individual on a normal day can be challenging because people have become more suspicious and reluctant to give out their information. With a competition, however, collecting information such as name, email, phone number and address is a lot easier. In order to participate, people should first sign up by providing their basic information. You could also take this opportunity to learn more about your consumers and their views on your products or services.
Cost Effective
Depending on the setup and prize, competitions and challenges can be less expensive compared to other traditional marketing strategies. If the competition is research-oriented, careful thought should be invested into the preparation of entry forms that will contain adequate questions. Depending on your budget, you can invest any any amout toward prizes. In the end, you will spend less than you would have spent on other marketing strategies.
Increase Sales
Once you have built awareness and have had an increase in your subscribers, then the next most important thing is to increase your sales. A competition has the power to convert your business leads into loyal customers. You could, perhaps, ask people to try out one of your products and provide feedback or ask for ideas for enhancement. This is a great way of increasing sales of new products, moving you ahead of your competitors.
Enable You to Engage Your Audience
When done properly, a challenge will increase engagement with your customers and thus deepens your connection. You will get to interact with participants when they create, present and defend their innovative ideas. Competitions also promote customer-brand interaction and encourage conversations on online platforms. This is a better way to understand your customers and get their views and ideas on your products.
Just like other marketing tools, innovation challenges and competitions can be extremely effective when careful planning is put in place. Want to learn more about marketing your challenge? Download our white paper, "Ideas for Marketing your Competition, Contest, Challenge or Award Program."
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