One of the most simple and effective ways to attract visitors to your site is to sponsor a contest. People loved games and free stuff. Why not give them one of your products or services free of charge once a week? Your cost is minimal (one prize per week and time to organize the competition), and the profit is very good.
A competition will always attract two types of visitors: those who love contests and those seeking free stuff. Correspondingly there are two types of competitions: competitions of skill and simple draws.
If you will organize a simple raffle you will attract only people in the second category. What is more important? The fact that, probably, they will never come back to your site. A skill contest that offers a prize for winner will attract both types of visitors.
Contests of skill in turn can be divided into two categories: objective and subjective. An objective competition is based on a question with one correct answer. In most cases you will have to make a drawing. A topic contest is one in which the evaluation of responses varies from one person to another. For example, you can ask “what is the best slogan for our new product.”
It may be beneficial for you to have a mixed competition, with both objective and subjective questions. You will be more fun, and visitors will come back for other contests.
Of course you’ll want to use data of your visitors they send. For example you would like to send different ads to those who have given you their email address. But instead of requiring all participants to subscribe to your newsletter, you should offer them the option to register as subscribers of yours. In a short time you will have a huge list of subscribers interested to hear what you have to say. This method is more useful than having a random list of people that they‘ll get bored anyway if you send e-mails.
It is a good idea to record your contest in as many directories as possible. Remember, you can promote your contest as a separate site. The higher your website will be listed in several directories, the better it will be.
There are also some directories specialized in competitions that will bring a high volume of traffic. Find them and try to list your owm contest. Do not forget to be polite. Flatter them a bit. It never hurts 🙂
Organization of contests
The contests creates an increased attention and repeat visits. At any time there are thousands of companies that organize competitions to attract people to visit pages. Awards can range from $ 1 million up to two free tickets to a baseball game. Some companies offer college students a hunt for “garbage” on the Internet and the chance to win funds for scholarship. Or you can create a contest for people who use a spcific software to design websites. This is a very good idea because it causes people to buy the program to have a chance to win. Competitions are most appropriate when the mission or values reinforce sponsoring company. For example, Amazon has organized a contest in which visitors had to write a short segment of a story begun by John Updike literary figure. The company offered $ 1,000 each day a winner and organized a raffle of $ 100,000 for all winners. They received more than 208,000 entries, which gives an average of about nine thousand entries per day! Other company organized a competition for adults that should draw works with their pencils. The contest was judged by children. The company holds regular competitions for children to create, for example, Mother’s Day cards. This contest encourages the use of the company’s products, a very smart marketing move. Contests can be simple, for example, by asking people to identify by completing a form with name, address, telephone number and e-mail in order to earn a draw or have an involved character that a challenge and a test of skill as in drew contests, and tremendous competition of essays and photographs. A smart strategy is to create a contest asking people to explain why they really need the product you sell. Another benefit of these competitions is that winners can be promoted in local newspapers and on television.
The more competition bind over both products and company mission , the overall result will be more effective in marketing to strengthen the mission. For example, drawing competitions to ask children to use company’s pens. This increases sales and use of company products. A contest that would require children to write an essay about using pencils in folk art would not be as effective.
Awards
The awards allow additional exposure sites, the company positioning itself as an authority in the field.
Freeware
Attracting visitors and their satisfaction is transmitted informally to others. If location, location, location are the three magic words in real world, than free, free, free are the three magic words in online marketing. People can be attracted to the site by the fact that they are offering free samples or information.
Firms that rely on information, such as those printing reports, can give a press release announcing an important product information. Firms that do not operate in the information area can transmit information to improve the lives of consumers and potential clients. Buyers and prospective customers can read free articles, and if they know that the site is upgraded on a regular basis, they will return regularly and will spread the word about the site.
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