As of December 2019, there are over 2.5 billion monthly active users on Facebook. This shows an 8% increase yearly. This makes the effort to earn the attention of users doubled for brands or businesses. Using relevant, interactive content included in a social media marketing plan to maintain engagement and generate sales amidst the chaos of social media management is important. One great way to get this done is through a Facebook contest. With Facebook’s update on the News Feed to help with engagement baiting, it is simpler to gain the attention of people with your contest as they scroll through their feed.
Facebook contests are relatively cheap and easy to run. You can achieve measurable results in your Facebook marketing goals. As a business or brand, you should avoid the intolerable or illegal means that exist to run these contests. Violating the clearly outlined rules or policies Facebook has provided is of no good.
The Benefit
Knowing how to run a well-planned Facebook contest are mainly to grow your business- increase engagement and improve sharing with existing audiences, increase brand awareness, bring in new leads, and have a high return on investment (ROI).
The Rules
Facebook updates its contest rules regularly, it is advised to stay informed or check in regularly. The most recent updates are in three parts:
- You are responsible for ensuring that you comply with all laws associated with running your contest.
- You are responsible for obtaining information on contestants and an acknowledgment that Facebook is not in association with your contest.
- Using people, their timelines, and friend connections to participate is prohibited.
If you must, ask people to like your page and find a method that is not suspect.
How to Run a Facebook Contest
You need to know how to run a Facebook contest before you get to it. To begin running a contest, you need to set up your business page Then, follow the tips below.
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Define your Goals
If you are going to take out the time to plan a contest, make it worthwhile. It should support the goals of your Facebook marketing strategy. And, if you feel like you cannot get this done, hire a company to offer the social media advertising services that can deliver the results you need to see. Some objectives to choose from for your contest include.
- Increase brand awareness by growing impressions
- Increase customer relationships by increasing engagement
- Drive traffic to your website through click-throughs to your landing page
- Collect user-generated content naturally for marketing in the future
- Collect feedback on products or services from your audience
- Identify and qualify leads by collecting email addresses
Defining your goals makes it easier to choose what kind of contest you want to run and how to go about it.
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Get to know your audience
You are setting up a Facebook contest to attract people and get them to engage with the touchpoints you have provided for your brand. These contests are not planned to reach out to everyone. Know what your target audience likes and how best to serve it to them. This should already be outlined in your social media marketing plan.
Start with choosing a prize people will be drawn to. Your product or service is often a great choice. Get your audience to consider winning a product item or package, they’ll appreciate it more. This can be an earned value. The prize should be valuable enough that people will be forced to pause all other activities and take the time to enter your contest. Do some research on why people care about your brand.
- What values do they identify with?
- What lifestyle are they pursuing?
When you are setting up this contest, consider geo-targeting your posts. This is because you don’t want to annoy fans who live in places that would not allow them to enter your contest.
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Make it Simple
The majority of Facebook users access the platform with their mobile phones. The design for your contest should suit different devices and operating systems for an exquisite experience. Carry out tests before you send them out to your audience.
If your contest requires a landing page, where users need to fill a form, keep it as easy as possible. Use at least 3 fields to be filled on the form. Don’t be greedy and ask for irrelevant information that will not really inform your decision o who wins the contest. Users will get tired and most likely drop out of your contest.
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Make it Hard Only if you Need To
You can make your contest a bit hard if you intend to filter out low-quality leads or content. Your entry can involve more than two clicks. This will most likely worry the average user, so do this only if
- You aim to gather user-generated content (UGC), including higher entries to filter out low-quality leads or information
- You want to filter out low-quality leads or content. Ask people to write a review, take a photo, or make a video is useful. Then the prize must be exceptional
- Your goal is to gather exceptional leads and make the task extremely relevant to the demographic you are targeting. Note that this will require in-depth research to ensure accuracy.
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Promote your Contest
Promote your Facebook contest to gain more reach. Leverage other marketing channels you use to redirect your audience to Facebook so they can participate.
Whether your contest is for Facebook alone or is running simultaneously on your other social platforms, make sure to create uniformity across all channels.
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Be sure to Follow-up
Promoting your content is not the end of the process. You need to check on it regularly and follow up at the end with your audience. You could use an app to pick a winner at random or choose winners yourself.
Don’t forget to announce your winner on all social media channels you promoted the contest. You need to show evidence to all who have entered your contest that it was real. In the end, choose and announce the winner(s). You don’t want to seem dishonest. This is because people would not be encouraged to enter the next time you run a Facebook contest.
Don’t stop engaging with the audience that has provided personal information during your contest. This is because you can turn leads into paying customers if you use your list wisely.
Types of Contests to Run
Now you know how to run a Facebook contest, do not forget that the goal is to attract people and get them to like your brand. To achieve this and your marketing goals, you need to know what good Facebook contests look like as well.
Some contests are well capable of pulling in more weight and can focus on one or more goals. Whatever the case is, be sure to understand the different types of contests and pick out which supports your goals.
- Giveaways & Sweepstakes
The simplest contest to run is a giveaway. Some tips to help you get it right are:
- There is usually a low entry barrier. Therefore, make your prize related to your brand. It is easy to filter the entrants to those only interested in your brand and the prize.
- Make your visuals attractive. Add your prize, brand logo, and other elements to the design. Your giveaway page must be clean, colorful, and professional. This influences the number of entrants.
- You can consider various prizes for winners over multiple days.
- Set your giveaway to coincide with a holiday or special event.
- Brainy contests
People love feeling smart in these times we are living in. You can use skill-testing questions, quizzes, trivia, and puzzles to satisfy people for a short time. Adding a prize to make people feel they have accomplished a goal will ensure a good number of people enter your contest. Although you can decide to skip the prize. This would mean you are engaging your audience for the thrill.
- Photo Contests
These contests boost activity on Facebook Pages. It is an organic source of user-generated content (UGC) to help your marketing calendar. All people have to do is publish a photo using a theme you have set up for the contest.
- Crowdsourcing
Sometimes this sort of contest is overlooked by brands but it can be used to gather insight into your business goals. Simply ask your users for feedback on a new product name or ideas for improvement. Get them to think creatively and reward them with a prize.
- “Refer a friend” Promotions
This campaign is one of the most effective marketing strategies. Referrers test your product or service and tell their family and friends to do the same for the chance of winning a prize. This automatically builds trust for your brand amongst multiple customers.
Knowing how to run a Facebook contest, can be self-learned or through help from digital marketing experts or a company that offers social media advertising services to maximize your investments in digital marketing.
