Creative Contests, Profitable Promotions

Conducting a contest (and making sure it succeeds!) requires
a lot of hard work, plenty of planning, and a significant
share of your marketing budget.

So why am I recommending that you TRY it?

Because when done creatively and none too quietly, it can be
your MOST EFFECTIVE tool for reaching huge numbers of
potential clients at any given time -- and even for getting
free publicity for your business as well!

But out of all the "enter & win" / "click & join"
competitions already out there on the web, is there really
any chance of YOUR standing out from the crowd and making
fresh new waves on the Internet?

The answer is YES, in four easy steps:

1. Capture their imagination!

Because the last thing you want is for people to hear about
your contest and shove it to the back of their minds,
simply because it's something they've already seen, heard
about, or joined before.

So be creative, be exciting, be interactive!

Invent the kind of contest that doesn't just promise a
prize, but also an experience:

- the chance to interact with other surfers
in the same industry

- the adventure of trying something that few
people have ever tried before

- or simply the opportunity to have fun and
be entertained for just a few minutes in
their day.

If there are two things any harried business owner would
welcome any day, it's the chance to be entertained AND get
something useful out of it for free...

...and your creative contest can instantly do both!

2. Challenge their skills!

People are also competitive in nature, and the chance to be
called "the best" at what they do is often reason enough
for them to join anything.

So challenge their intellectual, physical, and even
emotional capabilities and give them the chance to show
off.

Ask them to answer questions, give birth to creations, or
delve into strange situations. Take off from the
traditional polls, quizzes, and essays, and give them
something to really think about and talk about.

Then watch as your contest takes on a life of its own.

3. Explore their personal interests!

What are your target clients' interests besides their work
/ their business / their job?

Do most of them watch the same television show, subscribe
to the same print magazine, or patronize the same chain of
restaurants or cafés?

Work these other interests into your contest, and you
would've captured their attention as well as their
friendship, even as you're promoting your own product &
website.

(PLUS! You can even propose profitable partnerships with
the local distributors/owners of their favorite show,
magazine, or café -- creating more benefits and
opportunities for both you & your clients.)

4. Promote for profitability!

So you've come up with a cutting edge contest idea, you've
challenged your target clients, and you've even tapped into
their interests & needs.

The last thing to do now is to make sure people hear about
your extremely exciting contest -- not just the
participants, but the spectators and the media, too!

Top off your contest with a catchy name, a funny theme, a
memorable jingle. Announce it in your mailing lists, in
flyers, in press releases and on the radio.

Make people so intrigued & interested in your contest that
they can't wait to visit your site, call your number, or
sign up for your mailing list.

And if you've put in all the needed preparation & planning
to make everything flow smoothly, the rest will simply
become history...

...marking an upturn in your PROFITS, and your prominence
on the web.

From the ancient Roman gladiators to today's "Who Wants to
Be A Millionaire," contests have always drawn hordes of
participants & spectators alike, and can bring much needed
activity, traffic, and profit to anyone who needs it.

So it only makes perfect sense to add history to creativity,
and turn contests into profitable promotional tools for you
AND your business TODAY.

© Tatiana Velitchkov