10 Sweepstakes and Contest Marketing FAQs You May Not Know – Answered!

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Here at Sweepsify, we often get questions from brands about running sweepstakes and contests, and we do our best to answer all marketing FAQs. But it occurred to us that it also might be helpful for you to know more about some of the most commonly asked marketing questions we get related to sweepstakes and contest marketing.

So here are 10 sweepstakes and contest marketing frequently asked questions you may not fully know the answers to, answered just for you!

IN THIS ARTICLE:

• What are common sweepstakes questions?
• What marketing questions should I ask a sweepstakes company?
• What are the do’s and don’ts of sweepstakes and contests?

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1. How Much Does a Sweepstakes Cost? What’s the ROI?

One thing to be clear about – contest or sweepstakes marketing is never free. Even if you have your in-house marketing team assist with customer support and engaging sweepstakes participants, there is always a cost. The key is to ensure that you get the maximum ROI from the time, marketing, and ad spend that you put in to promote your sweepstakes or contest.

The cost considerations are numerous for sweepstakes and contests and include the following:

• Sweepstakes administration / Contest management
• Prize fulfillment
• Winner eligibility verification
• Registration and bonding
• State filings to alcohol boards (for alcohol companies)
• Drafting of Official Rules
• Legal compliance

You also have to integrate your sweepstakes or contest marketing tools with your CRM, analytics and data tools to ensure that you have a full picture of how your fans and customers engage with your promotion.

There is no guaranteed ROI. Your ROI will fully depend on your ability to design a promotional marketing campaign that is a winner with your audience. This is why you should work with a sweepstakes or contest company to get the answers to your marketing FAQs and ensure that their technology can be successfully integrated with your martech stack.

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2. Which Marketing Channels Work Best for Sweepstakes and Contests?

There is no set answer to this question because sweepstakes, contests, and raffles require that you have an established presence on social media and existing customer database. They will not get you followers or sales if you have little to no presence online. Furthermore, different businesses have different audiences.

So while one demographic might prefer to spend most of their time on TikTok, another really only engages on Twitter, and some even divide their time equally between three or more social media sites. Figure out where your customers are first, then use that platform as the primary marketing channel for your sweepstakes or contest marketing.

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3. What Makes for a Successful Sweepstakes or Contest?

Sweepstakes and contests should be designed to entertain and engage your fans and customers, not sell to them. The only way to attract them is by making it super easy to enter your promotion and giving away great sweepstakes prizes. Your sweepstakes or contest entry page should be visually appealing, with a clear call-to-action (“Enter to Win”), highly visible Abbreviated Rules, and link to the Official Rules for your promotion.

If the contest or sweepstakes advertising and entry pages are unclear or poorly designed, then people simply won’t enter. You need to use a contest or sweepstakes platform that makes the customer experience for your promotion seamless.

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4. What Are Some Common Sweepstakes and Contest Marketing Mistakes Businesses Make?

One of the worst mistakes is not ensuring legal compliance. Failing to follow all applicable sweepstakes or contest laws will land your company in hot water. Worse, brands that don’t use a contest or sweepstakes company to strategize or design their sweepstakes and contest campaigns may find them to be low- or underperforming.

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5. Sweepstakes Marketing FAQ: How Often Should I Run a Sweepstakes or Contest?

A sweepstakes or contest should not be thought of as a one-time promotion to run once. In fact, sweepstakes marketing should actually be done on an ongoing basis with you running multiple sweepstakes and contests.

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Running annual or monthly sweepstakes is the best way to maximize your ROI from sweepstakes. If you only run a single, one-off promotion to boost your brand, you will not be able to enjoy the full benefits of the increased engagement over time resulting from participants’ word-of-mouth marketing for your brand.

Sweepstakes and contests offer a rare opportunity for brands to engage with their fans without them feeling like they are being sold to. As a result, they will be more than happy to provide the feedback and survey answers needed for your brand to further personalize your products and services to your customers needs.

Then, as customers respond to the improvements that your brand makes over time, they will share your brand with their friends and colleagues. As more people get introduced to your brand via sweepstakes and contests, the more customers you will attract.

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6. Does SEO Work for Sweepstakes and Contests?

Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, can be used for sweepstakes and contests but only if you establish a permanent promotions page on your web site. Using SEO tactics, such as sweepstakes keywords, posting your sweepstakes to sweepstakes aggregators, and earning links you can help your brand site promo page to rank higher. Ranking higher means that you’ll get organic traffic that brings in participants and customers over time.

The majority of web traffic is generated by search, including on social media video platforms, such as TikTok and YouTube. By using keywords that your audience would use when searching for your brand, products, and services, you can optimize your sweepstakes content for search.

You can also pursue a variety of strategies to earn mentions and links to your social media and website pages where you will advertise your sweepstakes or contest. The three most useful ways to get visitors to your sweepstakes promo page or brand website are (1) UGC created by brand ambassadors, fans, and influencers, (2) sponsored content on media platforms relevant to your brand’s audience, and (3) consistently creating shareable branded content worthy of mentions and backlinks.

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7. Should Sweepstakes and Contests Be Designed Exclusively by the Marketing Department?

No. Granted that you don’t want to involve unnecessary parties in the design and planning of your sweepstakes. However, you should consider expanding your sweepstakes or contest team to include sales. This is how you optimize your sweepstakes or contest so that your promotions consistently deliver long-term, high value customers.

In addition to this, we recommend that you seek out legal counsel to review your sweepstakes promotion before it goes live to ensure legal compliance. A sweepstakes administrator or sweepstakes lawyer should handle all of the state filings and other documentation that is needed, such as Official Rules.

8. How Does a Sweepstakes or Contest Increase Sales?

The main way a sweepstakes or contest increases sales is by offering participants a convenient way to shop for products and services from the brand. A sweepstakes or contest should introduce new people to the brand by showing them the benefits and value of your products and services.

Pop-up offers on your brand site and special offers and discounts for participants sent via SMS or email can encourage your sweepstakes participants to become customers instantly.

A sweepstakes or contest also creates an enhanced incentive to buy as your participants will feel that you are giving them something for free (a chance to win a prize). As a result, you can quickly nurture participants to become first-time customers and reactivate existing customers simply with clear and concise call-to-actions.

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9. How Do I Measure the Success of Sweepstakes and Contest Marketing?

Ultimately, the success of your sweepstakes or contest marketing can be seen in the increase in brand awareness, boost in sales, and growth in your social media following. However, it can be difficult to track exact results as a consumer may interact with your brand before and after your sweepstakes or contest before finally deciding to make a purchase.

Sweepstakes and contest success is measured in specific metrics. So the key is to make sure that you establish KPIs for the sweepstakes promotion itself so that you can track the ROI of your campaign. Additionally, you should have analytics tools in place so that you can track customer behavior at every touchpoint in order to determine which touchpoints are the most effective at driving conversions.

10. Why Do I Need a Contest or Sweepstakes Marketing Plan?

If you want to make sure that you’ve gotten the answers you need to all marketing FAQs, starting with a contest or sweepstakes marketing plan will put you on the right track. The key is to define your KPIs, identify your audience, put together the right martech stack, and hire a giveaway company to assist you with your promotion. These are the steps to running a single sweepstakes or contest marketing campaign, but what about your long term results?

Build sweepstakes and contests into your business strategy so that it becomes an essential part of your customer acquisition and retention strategy. A long-term investment in sweepstakes and contests with a marketing plan that answers all of your sweepstakes marketing FAQs can payoff substantial over the long term.

Looking for a sweepstakes company to help you with your next promotion? Sweepsify helps you find top sweepstakes companies in seconds. Create your free Premium account now to get started.

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