Competitions
Competitions
Running Customer Competitions/Contests
A competition or contest is a great way to boost customer engagement and promote your company at the same time. However, there are both creative and legal elements you need to consider before you start one. Contests allow you to reach new customers and reinforce the loyalty of your existing customer base but take a lot of work to set up and track. Running a contest should have a lower cost when compared to other forms of advertising/marketing.
Let’s first look at the laws you will need to follow to ensure your competition remains above board especially if you are giving away something of momentary value.
Sweepstakes and Contest Laws in Canada
A competition will fall under the same laws that apply to contests. A contest must involve an element of skill and cannot solely use the chance to award the prize. Often a “skill-testing” question is used to get around this law and is still a requirement even if you are just giving away merchandise.
Other legal considerations should also be made, the contest cannot be misleading or require an entry fee as this is prohibited by the Criminal Code of Canada. In order to avoid punishment under the Criminal Code, a contest must have a clear set of rules available for participants to read that outlines exactly what is being given away and how it will be given away.
Finally, those who do enter a contest still have the right to privacy and their personal information cannot be used without express consent.
Announcing the Winner
To avoid defrauding consumers, you’ll also need to let your winner know they’ve won. This is to make sure that businesses can’t run competitions and avoid giving out prizes. You’ll need to do the following things to ensure a fair competition/contest is held.
(1) Notify the winner/winners directly in writing.
(2) Share who has won everywhere you advertised the competition in the first place. In the digital age, this will likely be on your Social Media outlets.
(3) Leave the name of the winner up on your social media sites and website for at least thirty days.
Effective Kinds of Competitions or Contests
Any simple game will work for your competition, the point is engaging with as many customers as possible. You can also get more creative, but keep in mind the harder it is to enter the contest, the fewer people will enter unless it has a very enticing prize.
Here is a short list of some events you could run:
1. Surprise Random Follower/reviewer
2. Comment to Win
3. Simple Photo Contest
4. Photo Voting Contest
5. Short Video Contest
6. Simple Trivia Contest
7. Guessing Game Contest
8. Fun Caption Contest
9. Refer a Friend Contest
10. Logo Redesign Contest
11. Selfie Contest
12. Blog Post Writing Contest
13. Sporting Event Contest: Guess The Winner
Pick a Goal for Your Contest
What are you trying to drive with the contest? Is it to boost followers on Facebook, gain a favorable reputation within your community, or simply get more people on your website? With your goal in mind, you will be able to craft a competition/contest that achieves your goal.
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