Competitions as promotions

As a business owner, it isn’t always easy to find effective and affordable ways to tell more people about your business and products/services.

One way to gain extra exposure for your business is to offer prizes to people through competitions. You can do this by running competitions yourself, or by donating prizes to other organisations for their competitions.

Advantages The prize you offer has a set price and will often cost less than advertising options you otherwise consider. Yet, your business can be seen by many additional people, especially if you offer the prize to someone else for their competition.

If your business relies on people becoming aware of the quality of your goods and services, then you need more people to actually try your product so they can start the word of mouth process and provide you with testimonials.

By offering prizes to community groups and support organisations, you can support worthwhile causes whilst also helping your business. It can also give you a community-spirited and generous image.

Competitions through other businesses and websites can be chosen to match your target audience. For instance, if you sell nappies a competition prize for a parenting website will be seen by parents who need nappies and if you are a masseur, offering a prize to a local sports club is likely to result in more clients.

Benefits By offering competition prizes, you can benefit in a number of ways.

* The prize winner will be happy with you and is likely to mention your business and/or product to others, thus giving you some word of mouth promotion * During the competition, your business name will be spotted by all entrants, and others who decide not to enter. And, of course, the more people who see your name, the more potential clients you have.

* An online competition will link to your site which may increase your page rankings.

* If the prize is a consumable, or requires consumables from you, you may find the winner makes repeat purchases which will more than cover the cost of the initial prize.

* The prize winner may give you a testimonial for your product/service which can be used to gain future clients.

* If you have offered the prize through someone else’s competition, you are also likely to be viewed favourably by them and thus gain more word of mouth advertising.

* For the sake of entering a competition, more people will visit your site than otherwise so it is an effective way of increasing traffic to your site.

* You can grow your mailing list by making that a condition of entry, and a larger mailing list can lead to many more sales.

© 2006, Tash Hughes Tash Hughes is a professional and skilled writer who makes technical and otherwise boring information accessible for everyone a business needs to communicate with. Next time you need a media release, webcopy, articles, newsletters, reports or any other business document, visit www.wordconstructions.com to see how Tash and her team can help your business succeed.



Competitions as promotions - To learn more about this author, visit Tash Hughes's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

E-Mail | Print | More

Related Articles
Competitions as promotions
	An inexpensive and effective means of marketing your business may be offering prizes in competitions. You may be surprised at how many advantages there are to this process.
The Right Way to Give Promotions
	There is a right and wrong way to promote employees. Being too lax in your decision making could be disastrous for your company. Read how to successfully promote your employees.
How to promote your business
	As you know, customers are the lifeblood of your business. Without them, your business doesn’t stand a chance at success – and will crash and burn along with the many other small businesses that don’t survive their ...
Online Branding
	You may think that creating a website that features your company’s logo is as far as you have to go with online branding. Well, if you want to go no further, you could stop there. But, if you want to truly create a ...
Here is a Method For Managing Your Friends In The Workplace - Follow these 7 Simple Tips
	Are you a new manager? Have you been promoted recently to management? Is some of your staff also your friends? Do you know how easy it is to loose all respect when you show favoritism? Here are 7 quick and simple ti...

---

Related Forum Posts
	Max's offbeat (off the wall, crazy, super) marketing ideas
	Re: June Contest Winners, New July Contest!
	Young electrical engineer
	Make a reasonable pricing
	What's Your Website / Online Marketing Budget %?
	The two important steps for internet marketing
	Prospects in animation business in coming years.
	Useful tips