Interactive promotions can yield amazing returns on investment … provided they’re executed thoughtfully and with enough attention to detail. Make sure to protect the investment you’re making in an interactive promotion—and get the best chance at incredible results—by avoiding the following common mistakes:
Ask any tenant what grates them about renting their home and it’s sure to be that once they move out, they’ll have nothing to show for years of paying rent. It’s money thrown away, or at least money that doesn’t lead to lasting value.
Something similar goes on with traditional one-way ad campaigns. Once the commercial ends or the newspaper page is turned, the only thing you can hope for is that your message got through during the brief time you had the consumer’s attention. Once it ends, so ends access to consumers—and the potential to engage them.
Wisely, most brands are shifting from one-way models of communication and toward multi-channel outreach with special emphasis on digital.1 The best of them have moved from “announcing” to “communicating,” and thus from short-lived gains to more lasting, meaningful results.
Brands making the most of digital are committed to a two-way value exchange with consumers. They provide incentives to engage with their brand, and consumers provide them with their emails and or mobile numbers and often more (e.g., participating in surveys, recommending the brand to friends). Ultimately, a sustained relationship ensues, with the brand gaining increased opportunities to sell their products and services not just once, but again and again. › Continue reading
The internet is a versatile medium that allows you, the advertiser to create promotions and branded content to engage, entertain and educate your target audience about your offering. Attracting an online audience however, can be challenging, especially when you consider the abundance of quality interactive content available on the internet. So how do you motivate people to engage with your programs?
One method is viral marketing. The internet is a highly viral medium and with the right strategy you can take advantage of its viral potential in order to maximize the reach of your campaigns. Here are four tips to help your viral marketing campaign succeed:
#1: Offer value to the user
Content is king when it comes to viral marketing. If your content isn’t good, people won’t pay attention to it, let alone share it with their friends. But how do you know what good content is? A great way to judge this is to ask, does this offer value to the viewer or user?
Entertainment is probably the most obvious form of value. But it’s difficult to get good viral marketing results with entertaining content alone. To do this, your content has to be unique, enlightening, or hilariously funny. Often you need to be edgy, off the wall, or even controversial. In short, you have to take a risk. If you’re not willing take a risk and create something that will stand out from the crowd, it is unlikely that your message will reach a large audience.
If you’re not willing to take a risk, there are other ways to offer value to your audience. Consider running a contest, sweepstakes or instant win game. These forms of promotion offer the user value in the chance to win a prize. Furthermore you can offer incentives such as additional chances to win, VIP content or status symbols to motivate users to spread the word.
#2: Don’t take on an “If you build it, they will come” mentality.
Regardless of how compelling your content is you can’t simply put it up on the internet with no media support and expect that people will find it, let alone start spreading it around. You need to get the ball rolling by seeding your site. Think about your target audience and the offering you are advertising. Seed your site on high-traffic blogs, message boards and social news sites that cater to your audience. Some blogs allow paid content so consider ear-marking some of your budget to paying for write-ups on relevant blogs.
#3: Leverage Facebook and Twitter
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have become a part of daily social interactions for most consumers. This is important for viral marketers because one of the key ways people sift through the massive amounts of content on the internet is by finding out what their friends are watching and doing; Facebook and Twitter are extremely effective and powerful ways for people to tell each other what they are up to online.
The question is how do you leverage these powerful communications tools and get people talking about your content on Facebook and Twitter? When you develop your promotion, plan to give users built-in tools they can use to post messages on their Facebook Walls, Twitter Feeds or through Facebook email. Provide generic banners and links that people can post on other social networks they use. The easier it is for people to tell others about your promotion the more successful you’ll be.
#4: Know that viral marketing is just one tool.
This last piece of advice applies to microsites and interactive promotions. When you’ve spent money to create a microsite, it’s risky to rely on viral marketing alone to get traffic to your site. To get the most exposure for your site, you need to employ any and all means at your disposal. Here are some inexpensive ways to drive traffic and awareness:
The internet is a great way to give your audience a truly interactive experience with your brand. A well-executed online promotion can educate, entertain and engage users in a way that advertising through traditional media can’t. If you want to take full advantage of the benefits of online marketing you need to think carefully about your content and your target audience. You also need to understand the viral nature of the internet and develop a viral marketing strategy. Effective strategies coupled with easy-to-use pass along tools will ensure that your campaign drives maximum traffic and engagement.
Today’s Nugget: Discontent is the first necessity of progress. Thomas Edison
Imagine for a moment the following scenario: every day, 5,000 people approach you to express just how wonderful they are and how much you need them in your life. Even though you might actually like some of them if you got to know them, there’s a good chance their sheer number—5,000—would overwhelm you and you’d ignore most of them. You wouldn’t have the time or patience to do otherwise. › Continue reading
Contests are an excellent way to motivate employees. If you need to educate your staff about a new product or service offering or you’re trying to push your business development team to increase sales, consider offering incentives to motivate them to help you reach your goals. Here are five tips for successful execution:
1. Execute Online
Executing online allows employees to access the contest from anywhere. For companies that have employees in more than one location executing online ensures your contest can reach all employees. Consider adding some fun content to your contest and employees may even participate from home!
2. Make sure your employees know about your contest
Be sure to use all available resources to drive employee participation. Send out a dedicated email blast with a link to the contest. Put promotional posters up on the wall and in meeting rooms. Mention it at all staff meetings. Create buzz by offering daily or weekly prizes and send out winner announcements. Be creative and don’t miss an opportunity to remind your staff to participate.
3. Content is king
Just offering a prize isn’t enough to drive the results you’re looking for. Incorporate some interactive content such as a quiz or a game to convey your messaging. If you make it fun for employees to participate you’ll get much better results.
4. Choose relevant prizing
Be sure to offer prizing that is appealing to your employees. If you’re trying to reach a diverse group, consider something as simple as a day off. If you have the budget trips and cash are always compelling.
5. Dot your I’s and cross your T’s
Make sure to have your contest plans reviewed by your HR and Legal teams to make sure you’re not breaking any contest/gaming or labor laws. Someone once said it’s better to be safe than sorry. That was sage advice.
