How to Use Contests to Rank Higher, Get More Email Subscribers and Generate Sales
“Running a contest is one of the most underestimated marketing opportunities.” - Albert Einstein
Obviously, Albert Einstein didn’t say that but it’s actually true. Many people have been sceptical about contests and have never even tried running one. However, research shows that some people are getting 30 000 leads in 6 months, 10 000 leads in less than 3 months and 4,399 leads in 2 weeks.
If done right, contests can help you rank higher in Google, get targeted email subscribers and generate sales at the same time. This article will teach you how to do it.
What’s the secret?
I’m going to give it straight to you. In order to make this work, you will need to use a contest software such as this one. Vyper helps you create viral contests and giveaways and also encourages people to share those contests on your behalf. The best part is that it has a free lifetime option.
As this is not a review article, not all functions of the viral referral software are going to be covered. To put it shortly, Vyper handles the whole contest/ giveaway process for you - creating a contest landing page, a referral program, detecting people who cheat, distributing the reward and sending emails.
A Simple Demo to show you how it works
The contest landing page
To begin with, you will need to create a contest landing page. It should provide all the necessary information about your viral contest:
- how to enter
- what to do in order to win
- what the contest reward is
- how the winner is going to be chosen
- how long the contest will be
On the top of the contest landing page, you have to include a catchy headline so that you grab people’s attention. Otherwise, you may lose potential contest participants.
Then people will see the contest reward. Unfortunately, a great number of businesses choose to give an iPad or an iPhone as a reward. Yes, everyone wants those products but the goal of running a contest is to collect targeted leads, people who can become potential customers. The iPhone will attract random people who will never buy from you.
If you want to get targeted leads and high-quality traffic, you have to choose a contest prize that is both relevant to your business and something that your target audience wants.
For example, a tennis store can give away:
- brand new tennis shoes
- a tennis racket
- complete tennis equipment
If you are struggling to get contest/giveaway reward ideas, I have created a special list of 47 Contest Prize Ideas which you can download here:
http://bit.ly/47-contest-prize-ideas
How to make people promote your contest (the referral program)
As soon as people sign up to participate, they are redirected to another page which shows them the referral program. The more points a person collects, the higher his chances to win the contest.
If a person decides to share the link, share your facebook page, leave a comment, watch a youtube video, they get more points and increase their chances to win the contest/ giveaway.
The idea of this viral referral program is to encourage participants to promote the contest on your behalf. One participant will attract 5 others, those 5 will attract 20 more and so on. In the end, you have a perpetual source of traffic and you are getting website traffic for free.
How to use contests to get more email subscribers
Once people sign up to participate in your contest, they are automatically added to an email list. In this way, you collect thousands of email subscribers almost for free. This is a clever tactic for growing your email list.
What’s more, Vyper can also act as an email service provider. In other words, the software enables one to send newsletters, create autoresponder series and all kinds of email marketing campaigns. This feature will save you money as there will be no need to use MailChimp, Aweber or any other similar service.
For example, you can schedule emails directly through the software that people are going to receive 7 days before the end of the contest, 2 days before or whenever you want. Then you can start building a relationship with the contest participants and eventually convert them to customers.
How to use contests to improve your SEO
As you know Google takes into account many factors when deciding which page to rank higher. One of the components involved is link building. To put it simply, this is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own.
Running a viral contest or giveaway is the perfect opportunity to get people to share your website and improve your SEO. The activity created by your contest referral program is going to create a significant number of social media links (and not only) pointing to your website. Ranking higher in Google will just be a matter of time.
How to use contests to generate sales
The ultimate goal of every business is to generate revenue and running a contest is a clever way to do it. Contest participants have shown interest in the reward. If you have chosen the right contest prize, those people will also be potential customers.
For example, imagine the reward you have chosen is valued at 1000$. Needless to say, not all participants will win. However, while the contest is still fresh in people’s mind, you can send them a special 20%, 30% or 50% discount. Provided this is a good deal, at least a few contest participants will decide to make use of the offer and buy from you.
Final Words
If done right, contests and giveaways can be a total game-changer for your business. I know the process might be a bit overwhelming initially. That’s why if you sign up for Vyper (even for the free version) through this link, I will create the whole contest campaign for you for FREE.
Obviously, I will do it on a first come first serve basis so take action now before it’s too late.
