Christmas is here, and there are opportunities abound for inbound marketers. This is the last push to generate new leads for 2018, and now is the time to start building the momentum for the new year.
Plan ahead
The first step is to figure out what your goal is for your last campaign of the year. Is it to generate new leads for the new year, increase brand awareness or market share, or simply to improve user engagement with your content?
Once you’ve figured out what your goal is, you can then focus on executing the idea. So, if your goal is to increase brand awareness or user engagement, you might consider running a photo-sharing contest on Instagram.
Before your kick off your campaign, you also need to consider who your target audience is. Once you’ve done this you can move on to working out the offer.
Quid pro quo
It’s a give and take relationship – what are you going to offer your customers in exchange for their participation? Consider carefully what sort of prize will motivate potential clients to get involved. Prizes should be proportionate to the relative convenience, or ease with which the user can participate with your campaign. For example, if you’re running a competition on Instagram for users to share photos of your product, i.e. a lipstick, the inconvenience of participating isn’t high. If your campaign, however, is asking for users to create a short video, the prize should be proportionate to the effort that is required to enter the competition.
The fine print
First, get all the nitty gritty details of out of the way. This means you should have all the terms and conditions set out. They should include all the rules surrounding entry including method, age and how the winners will be picked and announced. Then, it’s time to put your plan into action.
Promotion
Let your users know you’re running a competition. You can do this via social media, email updates, calls-to-action on your blog or even have a display instore. With these competitions, it’s also worthwhile considering getting paid advertising to draw more attention to your campaign. Make the most of it by ensuring that it gets the attention it deserves – you’ve put plenty of work into it after all!
Test and publish
This is a general rule of thumb for all content – make sure you test that your content works and runs smoothly on all devices. Anything that you publish is a reflection on your company, so ensure that all your content is of a high standard and user-friendly. Third-party applications can sometimes be unpredictable, so if your campaign includes, for example, a Facebook competition tab built by a third party application, then you need to ensure that you are able to publish it privately and have your employees test it.
Measure your success!
Once it’s all over, it’s time to collect all the data and use the metrics to gauge the effectiveness of your campaign. Learn from your mistakes and put the data you’ve collected to good use. Build customer profiles and analyse their engagement with your campaign. Expand your email database and nurture these new leads – you’ve already got a head start on 2016!
