What are the advantages of holding a blog contest? A blog contest can increase traffic to your site, generating new leads and subscribers. It can even facilitate better business relationships with other bloggers and influencers. But how do you actually go about organizing one successfully?
Here are some helpful tips.
Choose the Right Prize
Honestly, most people enter contests for the prize. So the prize you offer should be something your target audience will actually want.
For example, if your target audience is new moms, then a prize pack of baby products would be an appropriate and popular prize. Or, if your target audience is small business owners, then a prize pack of office supplies or a gift card to a popular business retailer would be appreciated.
Come Up With Eligibility Requirements and Rules
It’s a bad idea for any contest to be open to just anyone for good reasons. For example, there’s a danger of being overwhelmed by too many entrants. Also, it will be hard to judge fairly among vastly different people. So it’s best to come up with rules and eligibility requirements.
There are a few things to consider when coming up with rules; you’ll want to consider the age of your participants, where they’re located, and whether or not they’ve entered your contest before. You should also come up with a way to verify that participants have actually completed the entry rules.
As for eligibility requirements, these will be specific to your contest and what you’re looking for in a winner. But some common requirements include being a follower or subscriber of your blog, sharing the contest on social media, or leaving a comment on a blog post.
Pick the Right Topic
The writing prompt or topic for a blogging contest is important for two reasons. First, it’s only fair that all participants have a set structure to follow. Second, an interesting or even controversial topic will greatly increase publicity.
When coming up with a writing topic or prompt, make sure it’s something that can be completed in one blog post. A prompt about nitrogen generators can be completed as such, compared to a prompt about string theory.
Have a Social Media Strategy
Your contest is not going to be successful if no one knows about it and a social media strategy is the most effective way of promoting any contest.
For example, creating a custom hashtag for your contest will make it easy for people to find and follow it on social media.
Post about your contest on all of your social media channels – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Preferably with eye-catching visuals. Then, reach out to influencers in your niche and offer them an incentive to promote your contest.
Organizing a successful blog contest is not as difficult as it may seem. By following the steps outlined in this post, you can ensure that your contest is a success.
