How to Create a Winning Strategy to Boost Your Sales
In the very busy online world, where clients are targeted constantly by emails, sms, online ads, publications, influencers and so on, capturing the attention of a prospect is a challenge and converting is even more like winning a battle, unless you use creative strategies that will increase your sales exponentially.
One tool that is impressively effective is using promotional contests and giveaways in order to capture the attention of your prospect. Most used as a lead generation or user base increase tool, promotional strategies can bring your business a great number of benefits and we list a few below.
Boost response rates to existing ads
Boost your referral business
Increase repeat and referral business
Improve client retention
Get more new customers
Brand awareness
They leverage the power of urgency to persuade action and satisfy our need for instant gratification and create an environment that taps into our strong desire to win.
A well-crafted contest marketing strategy understands the entire journey of your customer and it aims to impact the important milestones along that path.
How to create a contest-marketing strategy
While planning for a contest marketing strategy, it is really important to think ahead and make sure you went through all steps and guarantee you are targeting the desired client.
01 Audience
By defining your buyer persona you will target your relevant client base and not only contest entrants which will bring noise to your campaign.
02 Goals
You must set in advance an expected outcome from this campaign so you will be able to measure the results.
03 Budget and resource allocation
Know how much you can invest, what costs are involved and what resources you will allocate to execute your plan.
04 Think long term
Making a long term plan for contest marketing is one of the most important success factors you need to consider. Ideally your strategy should have a minimum of six months but preferably twelve. That way you can work with the events related to your business and plan the incentives accordingly.
05 Integrate with other marketing strategies
The strategic contest plan should be in alignment with your overall marketing plan so you and your team can work around the milestones of your business. For example, if you know you will have a product launch coming up, use a contest to follow the launch phase that will help boost exposure and generate early sales.
06 Choosing your Incentives
Now you have the plan in place, budget, resources and calendar, next step is to choose what are the incentives you will offer on your campaign. Choosing wisely is a key factor to guarantee you are connecting with your buyer persona and they need to be high perceived value with your clients.
They should somehow be related to your business, or high interest for personal use. Both will create a sense of urgency and motivate them to sign up for the contest.
07 Promotion and Distribution
The best performing contests are strategically promoted across multiple platforms. The promotion must be systematic and a repeatable process that generates fast and sustained engagement throughout the duration of the contest.
08 Email Newsletter
91% or consumers check their emails daily. Most businesses have an email base that was created over the time and a lot of them don't use emails properly. Promoting your giveaway via email not only raises awareness but boosts your chances of click throughs by potential participants.
09 Use your Website
Notices, tabs, landing pages and pop ups on your website are great ways to promote your contest to traffic that is coming to your site.
10 Social Media
Needless to say that Social Media is the crucial asset on contest strategy. You can use organic posting plus paid ads to increase visibility of your campaign. To decide on what platform to allocate more time and resources, you need to consider what are the habits of your buyer persona and on which social media they spend more time.
11 Branded Hashtags
While launching your contest on social media, creating a branded hashtag can boost your promotion and help with SEO. Your branded hashtag can be your brand’s name, the name of the giveaway or a catchy slogan.
12 Sponsored Ads
Advertise your giveaway with sponsored ads on Google by setting up the specific audience if you want to put your ad in front of the right people.
13 Optional Valuable Strategies
Recruit Influencers: Influencers are powerful ambassadors. With the combined efforts of your influencers’ fanbase and your own following, you now have a better chance at reaching people.
Blogs: You can write an entire article about it on your blog, providing links or images readers can use to enter right in your blog post. You can also drop links to your giveaway in the articles that will be live during your giveaway, giving people interested in your articles the chance to enter.
14 After Promotion
Your contest only ends when you announce the end of your giveaway and welcome your newfound followers. After your promotion, you can use user-generated content or create a follow-up post letting them know that they can look out for more giveaways now that they've followed your page or joined your email newsletter list. When your contest period ends, it's up to you to keep your new leads engaged. Try and share exclusive offers or discounts to former participants. Always measure your incentive giveaway results and analyze its performance to make sure that your next contest is just as successful - if not better.
I have the strategic plan, what's next?
Ok, so at this point you are probably motivated and ready to plan your Promotional Giveaway Strategies. Probably you must be wondering what gifts and incentives you should look for, what are the prices, how to handle delivery and many other details on how to make this real. And then you think, phew that’s complex. Where do I start?
Creative Marketing Incentives was created to solve that issue for you.
Aware that Promotional Contests and Giveaways are excellent tools that boost and convert sales, they created a program in which clients can have access to as many gift certificates as they wish, paying only a monthly fee.
Sound too good to be true?
Many years ago we might have agreed with you. But for the last fourteen years Creative Marketing Incentive Group, Inc. has contracted with world-leading hotel chains, cruise lines and travel companies to bring forth powerful incentives.
We Help in booking otherwise unoccupied rooms. Which hotels and resorts schedule as future sales. Reward your clients and customers with exciting vacation offers, Jumpstart sales and leads, growing your business through CMI's incentives.
Creative Marketing Incentive Group, Inc. has developed a successful program, allowing our members printing rights to unlimited certificates for a simple $99 a month.
FOR $99/MTH YOU CAN ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS BY CREATING EXCITING PROMOTIONAL GIVEAWAYS WITH AN UNLIMITED AMOUNT GIFT CERTIFICATES REDEEMABLE FOR:
The company now offers a free toolkit with customizable ads that you can simply include your logo and start promoting your giveaways. This toolkit is available for all customers and downloadable for free as you sign up.
There are many types of Marketing /assets to work with:
PROMOTIONAL MARKETING MATERIALS TO HELP YOUPROMOTE THE INCENTIVES TO YOUR CUSTOMERS
As leaders in this segment, we offer innovative and creative solutions focusing on long term relationships with our clients.
14 Years in Business
15.000 Clients Enrolled
4 Million Certificates Distributed
Hundreds of Thousands of Redemptions
Top Notch Customer Service
Licensed Seller of Travel CST #2091925
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
I have been a customer with CMIG for almost a year now, and I have been using the certificates for not only a "thank you" to close business deals, but as gifts to past clients as a "thank you" for their loyalty. I have had an overwhelming response from my clients that have used the certificates. The hotels stays are great and the restaurant certificates are a huge hit. Some of my clients call me once a month to tell me about how great their dinner was at a new restaurant that they tried out with their certificate that I gave them. I am really impressed about how easy it is to redeem the certificates as well. I truly appreciate the incentive program and what I like about it the most is that it helps me differentiate myself from others in my industry.
I have been using CMI for 6 months and have been so impressed with this company. I have used the incentives with my customers to encourage repeat business and referrals. It has always been a pleasure to work with my consultant, Robin. He calls me by name when we talk on the phone, and treats me like a professional and a friend. I have had several clients redeem their incentives, and all were incredibly pleased with them. Redemption is easy and fast. This strengthens my belief in CMI, and assures that I will use their services for a long time! I would reccomend CMI to all my business associates, and anyone who needs an incentive program to take their business to the next level.
I began using your program nearly two years ago to boost lead generation efforts for my company as well as my client's companies. Since that time, I have experienced a 63% increase in lead captures. And, even more importantly, conversion rates have increased as well. I believe this is due to my being able to provide a valuable incentive to the new leads, which helps covert them to paying customers. The ability to offer unlimited certificates is perhaps the best feature of the program, but the automation and website interface are also wonderful. I recommend CMI to anyone looking for an effective marketing tool to help expand their business and increase their income.
Creative Marketing Incentives has helped my massage business grow exponentially in the last 2 years. It is the easiest and most-affordable way to reward loyal customers, as well as, employees! Thanks CMI!
I was so happy to hear from one of our clients who was thrilled after she redeemed her certificate for a four-night hotel stay. She got the date she wanted and the hotel she chose. She has two kids and she got a three-bedroom town house that sleeps six, only three miles from Disneyland. They also had three pools and family activities. I have been with CMI for 8 months now and I have never had a complaint from any of our clients who redeemed their certificates. It is the best deal out there.