First things first. To make your campaign work, you must understand who you’re trying to target and clearly define your brand’s buyer persona. Once that’s established, you’re ready to put your contest or promotion together.
In order to launch a promotion aligned with your Inbound Marketing strategy you must clearly establish your target audience and the stage of the sales funnel in which you’re going to work. Put simply, the contest you launch should be designed with those two factors in mind.
Reward participants by giving them the best of you: reward them with your products or services.
An incentive is always the biggest motivation for participants to join any kind of online promotion. Therefore, if you’re looking to reach a wide audience, then incentivizing participation is a must.
But what prize is good enough for your customers? The prize should always be appealing and attractive to your target audience. It must be something they want or need, and it should definitely be linked to their preferences and likes. Why does your social media community follow you? Probably because they’re interested in your brand and product. And giving away prizes such as product samples, best sellers or discount codes is a fantastic product promotion tactic.
Are you prepared to fill your database with contacts that aren’t interested in your brand or what you offer? This will only make your newsletter statistics worse and discourage you. To avoid that make offer prizes that are attractive to YOUR target audience. Don’t give away gift cards to popular shops or cash prizes if you’re looking to promote your brand.
Let’s explore some of the prizes that are most suitable for an Inbound Marketing strategy. If what you hope to achieve is to encourage users to fall in love with your brand, then you should give them the best of you – reward them with your products or services.
Increase product awareness
Looking to boost product awareness? No problem! Promote your product by simply offering your audience a chance to win it. Make sure to share the promotion with your newsletter subscribers and most importantly social media followers to get a chance to convert them into qualified leads.
But if your objective is also to boost social media engagement make sure to launch a comment-based giveaway to reach new potential customers. Snuz is a baby product manufacturer that regularly runs Instagram Giveaways to energize their followers and reinforce brand and product awareness.
What do you achieve by giving away one of your products? Apart from increased product and brand awareness you also get to boost social media engagement, which leads to faster growing audience and reinforced social media presence. Put simply, more people get to see you and your products.
By offering such a prize you ensure that the participants are genuinely interested in your product because why would anyone want a baby crib if they don’t have a baby?
Work on customer loyalty by giving away gift boxes or hampers
This case is similar to the previous one, except the monetary value of the prize is normally greater. Once again, those who participate in this type of sweepstakes or contest will be those who fit the target audience profile, as they will be interested in the products or services offered by your brand. There will still be some doubt as to whether participants really are potential clients. But over time, if your Inbound strategies are successful, this will become evident.
Complementary products.
Another way to create better emotional connections with your customers is by showing them that you care. One way to do it is by rewarding your promotion participants with products that complement those provided by your brand. If your brand sells art material, such as brushes and paints, for example, you could give away sketchbooks to provide greater value to your products. Here’s an example from Tombow, doing exactly the same thing.
However, in this instance, it might not be so clear that participants are genuinely interested in your brand. This is a great way to improve brand recall and attract new potential customers to your brand.
Not all your participants will be ready to buy. You’ll have to continue to nurture them using strategies that encourage them to advance through the sales funnel. However, some may be ready to make a purchase and some may already be customers.
#Prizes such as discounts and gift cards are aimed at mature leads. #contests Click To TweetGive away discount and vouchers to boost sales
Promotional discounts, coupons, and gift cards are the best prizes if you’re looking to boost sales. They attract not only those interested in the brand’s products or services but also those who might be convinced to make a purchase after receiving a discount. Here’s an example of a coupon campaign launched by an aqua park. The brand expanded their mailing list, and in return, they offered 20% discount vouchers on entry fees.
The leads that you obtain via contests with promotional codes or vouchers are more mature and further along the buying process. They are potential customers or already existing customers ready to commit to a repeat purchase. Your relationship with these profiles will be different and the communications should be focused on encouraging an informed purchase.
Tap into customer’s loyalty with premium prizes
Offering a more exclusive or higher rate product, for example, packages with Premium versions, extended product guarantees, etc is a fantastic tactic to tap into customer’s loyalty. The most popular premium prizes are… getaways, trips and holidays!
The above promotion organized by Roadhouse Diner is a great example of how to build better customer relationships through attractive prizes. One lucky winner who shared their contact details with the brand won a 2-night stay, along with tickets to museums, restaurant vouchers etc.
As you can see, the prize is an aspect of your promotion that must be chosen with great care. Find out more about Inbound strategy or in case of any questions contact our Support Team!
