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Working with Third Party Brands for a Contest
You should approach working with third party brands in a contest or sweepstakes with caution. Giving away highly sought after prizes like trips, electronics or gift cards, or running promotions on social platforms, may seem like a great idea to garner interest and new followers for your brand. However, if you are naming a specific brand name other than your own as part of your contest, you may need to ensure you are using best practices for using that third party brand. Ask for permission It is a good idea to obtain permission prior to offering third party products … Continue reading
Snapchat Promotion Guidelines: A Guide to Running Sweepstakes and Contests on Snapchat
If you are thinking of running a sweepstakes or contest on Snapchat, you should make sure you are following the Snapchat promotion guidelines. These guidelines make it very clear that any sweepstakes, contest, instant win game or other promotion (coupon, giveaway, etc.) MUST do the following: Be easy to enter. Have official, legal rules. Make it clear that Snapchat has nothing to do with your promotion and is not responsible or liable in any way. Follow all Snapchat guidelines, policies and terms of service. And you MUST NOT: Use Snapchat’s name, logos or trademarks in your promotion. Encourage … Continue reading
#Hashtag Contests 101
The buzzword in contests right now are hashtag contests (or hashtag sweepstakes). These types of promotions are easy to run, less expensive than setting up a contest web site, and don’t require a lot of lead time. The simplicity and low cost appeals to a lot of businesses anxious to expand their social channels, but you will still need to follow some best practices to ensure that you don’t run into any issues. What is a hashtag contest? A “hashtag contest” or “hashtag sweepstakes” is a promotion that requires users to post to a social channel using a unique hashtag. … Continue reading
Social Contest Platforms: Inexpensive, Easy…and Risky
Today I was sent a link to an article touting Platforms for Social Contests that will “launch and track your contest with ease.” The article then went on to list eleven platforms, all relatively cheap – well, really dirt cheap or even free – and all the wonderful features each one had. If I were looking for a way to run a contest and I didn’t know any better I would think that this contest business should be this inexpensive. Cough up a couple hundred bucks and we’re ready, right? But hold up. I know better. And you get … Continue reading
Father’s Day Promotion Ideas
Father’s Day is sneaking up on us. And if you have a product that speaks to dads, you should embrace all your dad fans out there by running a contest or sweepstakes to build up your fan base and increase brand loyalty. Here are a few promotion ideas to help your brand celebrate all the Dads out there! #DadLife Instagram Sweepstakes: New dads holding their babies. Dads coaching soccer games. Dads braiding their little girls hair. It’s all part of #DadLife. Ask people to share their dad life photos and short videos on Instagram that shows dads being dads and … Continue reading
How to Contact Winners in Social Media Contests
Running a promotion on Twitter or Instagram or other social platform is fairly easy. You basically follow the social platform guidelines, post rules, collect entries and select winners from valid posts or tweets or pins. The hard part can be contacting and clearing winners. In a traditional contest where a form is used to collect data you typically collect address and phone or email so contacting winners is easy. A small prize can easily be mailed straight to an address. A winner of a larger prize can be called or emailed. But in a social promotion all you may … Continue reading
Promotional Marketing Predictions for 2016
What will be the new thing in 2016 that will drive promotional marketing? Here are our predictions (with a bit of Zoltar’s help): Native ads will be booming – and promotions are part of that mix. As ad blockers become more of an issue for advertisers and brands, the only logical solution is to turn to more creative ways to get a product in front of people. And that means more native ads. Native ads simply mean using networks of bloggers or sponsored articles or social posts to get the brand-needed exposure without using traditional ads. The trick is … Continue reading
50 Reasons to Run a Sweepstakes or Contest
Looking for a reason to run a sweepstakes, contest, instant win game, rewards program or loyalty campaign? Here are 50 of them! To create an email opt-in list. To create a mobile opt-in list. To give away your products. To build your brand. To encourage brand loyalty. To encourage product try-on. To encourage product usage. To encourage product trial. To reward your loyal customers. To introduce your customers to a new product or service. To launch a new campaign. To gain new customers. To create a mailing list. To encourage user reviews of your products and services. To have … Continue reading
2015 Digital Marketing Survey Results
In May of 2015 we ran a Digital Marketing Survey and asked respondents to answer thirteen questions about their company’s digital marketing practices, both current and in the near future. For completing the survey, we offered a chance to win $100. Our survey winner was Ruby L. Congratulations, Ruby! A few things we discovered that we weren’t expecting: 1. Snapchat may be big, but brands aren’t ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet. Only 5% of our respondents said they used Snapchat – and only 5% were even considering using it for their brand. Why this surprised … Continue reading
Teen and Tween Trends for Back to School Promotion Planning
Just when we thought we were starting to enjoy the summer, the school bell starts ringing. Ding-dong. Time to plan your back to school promotion. So what trends should you know about as you plan for this back to school season? Here is where it’s at for kids, tweens and teens this year: Snapchat. Snapchat is the app of choice for today’s teens. This mobile app allows them to share photos with their friends without mom or grandma having to see (or worse – comment). There are ways promotions can be run on Snapchat. Check out our blog article … Continue reading
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