Advertising as we all know has never been a low-cost way of promotion, but with knowledge put in the right direction you can get it done for free or inexpensively. Other than putting up fancy billboards and paying influencers to advertise your contest, we have found the best and easily approachable ways to advertise a contest. Oh yes, they are certainly Low Cost.
Creating a Social Media Platform:
As we all know that Social Media is the next big thing to announce everything be it wedding dates, birthdays or contests. So, if you have a big contest in mind then you must make a social media platform to enlighten a community of people about it. Facebook and LinkedIn groups are ideal choices to make. Apart from that, you also have platforms like Instagram and Twitter to highlight your contest even more.
Do some Blogging:
Making a Facebook or LinkedIn group isn’t enough and so not is Instagram or Twitter. You have to show how active you are with your social media handle and highlight stuffs that engage more people. So, one must follow two to three blogging tips like defining your contest in brief with the right keywords. Using pictures that depict the idea state or the contest. All you need to focus on is to highlight your contest in as many creative ways as possible.
Some Q&A before the contest:
With the growing engagement of people on social media, it has become an evolving space with one or two new features coming up every week. If you have a working Instagram or Twitter handle, then hey you got it covered. You can engage people to answer some fun Questions and Answer by using the Q&A feature available both on Instagram and Twitter. This attracts more people and the existing ones find it fun to be a part of such a contest.
Use of Hashtags:
Hashtags has been the new season for literally every event and contests. And, why not? It is the new cool thing and people are already loving it. So, if your contest has a cause or a purpose then you might show it using the right Hashtag. Well, thinking and creating an awesome hashtag requires patience and creativity, but hey it’s free. Now use this Hashtag time and again with every post you make on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. When people like and relate to it, they start using it too and there your contest is “Trending”.
Email Marketing Campaigns:
This campaign requires creativity too as you don’t want your contest to flood into someone’s mailbox and then be spammed. So, make sure your stands out. Keep up with your mail list by updating it from time to time. Also, never send mass mails because they are a big turn off. Use your attendees or customer’s first name for attention. Also, distinguish the mailing list between the people who have signed up for your contest and the people who are yet to sign up.
Creativity requires Humor:
Going all serious with your contest isn’t the right method of advertising. Even if your contest is about spreading awareness about a disease like ‘Breast Cancer’, you can still insert some humor like some people blame under wire bras for breast cancer or any silly statements made by people against the same. Humor is not always about cracking insensitive jokes, you can display a random sketch that is totally sensitive and yet makes you laugh.
Social Media Ads:
When the whole purpose of making a contest is to advertise is the we shouldn’t ignore the powerful tools like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Not only ads on these platforms are inexpensive, they are very much easy to set up. The only thing you need to learn while using it is the right way to target the customer base or like-minded people through these ads. Facebook Ads however stand as the best option and also the cheapest one.
Get them deals:
The best way to make people sign up for your contest is to offer them free stuff. You can set up a little stall in a crowded place like a market or mall and offer vouchers to people that describes the free stuffs that people can get only if they sign up for the contest. This idea serves two purposes, one it engages more number of people and two people get to know more about your brand or contest (Promotion).
Get your contest published in a leading daily:
Newspaper is one big platform that can attract a lot of people to your contest. But then you must put your creativity to action by describing your contest in the best way possible, using the correct keywords, keeping it brief yet informative. It is an inexpensive technique only if you keep it short and very much friendly.
Plan a Giveaway:
Offering free stuffs for people who turn up for your contest is a good go only if you have something to spend. What else you can do is plan a giveaway for people who some enthusiasm and take part in the contests actively. It can anything like Snacks box, Nachos Bag, Chocolates, Dinner set etc. Because end of the day all you want your contest is to be a hit among people where they enjoy being a part of it.
The Content Creation:
Blogging and posting regularly on the social media platforms is what you need to know. But what you are supposed to do is create contents that are eye-catching, for example, videos and images that explain the purpose of your contest yet keep it a little secret so that people keep guessing till the day they attend your contest.
Learn to take feedbacks:
When you are running a contest and it turns out to be successful, still what you shouldn’t miss is to take feedbacks from the attendees. It is an invaluable thing to ask for as it is going to help you refine your approach just in case you didn’t exactly see what you expected. Also, it serves as analytics to plan future contests and trigger a growth.
Apart from the inexpensive or low-cost ways to promote your contest what else is important is to stay on track and work on the objectives. When you plan a contest you draw objectives, so stick to them. Use the right contacts like inviting people who have been to your contests earlier. Keep a track of the progress of your contest and report it to your team (if you have one). Also, look for ways to promote your contest offline too.