One of the downsides of running a contest is that you will get fewer entries than you would for a sweepstakes. This is expected since a sweepstakes entry requires relatively little information from an entrant and is determined by chance. A contest, on the other hand, requires the entrant to put thought into the entry submission, whether it be by creating a drawing or photo or essay or video or a combination of those things, which then is judged against pre-set criteria. The additional effort and thought that goes into contest entry means fewer overall entries.
To generate additional interest in your next contest you might want to consider running a sweepstakes overlay. This is a separate promotion you run with your contest with a separate prize pool. Some popular types of sweepstakes overlays include:
- Sharing Sweepstakes
A popular type of sweepstakes overlay is to share about the contest to receive an entry into a sweepstakes. This can create a viral buzz about the contest as people who may not want to enter tell friends who may be more inclined to do so. The user is asked to share the entry on social networks or via email, and then those shares are tracked either by hashtag or unique url or other tracking mechanism back to the entrant so a user can get the entry and be contacted if they win. The only things to be aware of are that some social platforms don’t allow shares on their platform to count as entries, and contacting winners through a social platforms messaging system can be a tricky process, so you will need to familiarize yourself with the promotion guidelines of the social platform, or contact us for guidance.
- Sweeps Entry for every Contest Entry
Another method people frequently use to get more participation is to have a random prize awarded from all entries that meet criteria. This means that as long as people follow the guidelines set forth, such as proper word count or picture appropriateness, their entry, even if it is not anywhere near the best, can go into the random draw for a sweepstakes prize. This type of sweepstakes overlay works well for a contest where the average person may feel that they can’t compete with the entries already submitted – but they might have a chance anyway since there is a random drawing for one of the prizes.
- Voting Sweepstakes
A third method is to use a sweepstakes to generate interest in the voting stage of the contest and give everyone an entry for every vote for a contest entry. This helps sustain interest in a contest when the final entries have been narrowed down to a smaller number and fewer people are looking at the contest. A voting sweepstakes, where you get one entry per vote per day, will get people returning daily during voting to cast their vote and visit the contest site.
Whichever sweepstakes overlay method you want to explore, we can help you execute it. Contact us and we can get you started!
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