How To Promote Your Blog Contests,Promoting a blog contest can be a little more difficult than it sounds, which is why many fail in the first place.
The best way to get people talking about your contests so they'll attract even more entries than originally anticipated is by promoting them through various means including social media channels like Twitter and Facebook as well as search engines like Google.
Not only does this help create awareness for what you're doing, but it also helps display your contest landing pages in front of even more targeted traffic than just your own network too.
Blogging contests are a great way to get traffic and recognition. Contests can be used for anything from art, writing, and photography contests to giveaways of your product or service.
If you've never run one of these types of contests before, it's important that you learn the best ways to promote your blog contests so that they will be successful.
Promoting a blog contest can be a little more difficult than it sounds, which is why many fail in the first place.
The best way to get people talking about your contests so they'll attract even more entries than originally anticipated is by promoting them through various means including social media channels like Twitter and Facebook as well as search engines like Google .
Not only does this help create awareness for what you're doing, but it also helps display your contest landing pages in front of even more targeted traffic than just your own network too.
Below Are Several Useful Tips on How To Promote Your Blog Contests Effectively.
Here are the tips:
1. Use Social Media to Market Your Contest
Social media marketing is one of the most effective strategies in promoting any contest. It can also help make sure that you get as much exposure as possible when running a blogging contest.
Popular social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr, Tumblr, etc.,
should all receive some focus in your marketing plan. One of the best ways to do this is by having an official contest hashtag that contestants and people interested in following the contest can use when tweeting, blogging, and/or sharing on other sites.
2. Use search engine optimization Tactics
The techniques you use to promote your contests should also include those used for search engine optimization (SEO). Using these SEO techniques will help make sure that as many visitors as possible are able to find out about your contests.
Promoting through social media channels can be very effective with these types of contests but it doesn't hurt to mix things up a bit with some traditional methods of advertising such as PPC campaigns and article marketing efforts.
All of these methods combined will help ensure that you get as much exposure as possible.
3. Only Post Contest Details To Your Blog Posts
When it comes to promoting, don't go overboard and start sending out mass emails and tweeting about your future plans for this contest well in advance.
The more you post about it before the actual launch date increase the chance that someone will try to copy or beat you to the punch.
They will also be able to take advantage of any knowledge they've gained from these early leaks regarding what types of prizes are available and how people can enter.
It's best just to keep everything under wraps until you're ready to launch. Then let everyone know exactly what they need to do in order to participate once you make the announcement.
4. Post a follow-up article after launching your contest
You should always include a call to action on your contest post-launch article. Make sure that you also make it known how long the contest will be going on and what the winner will receive as their prize.
You can then follow up with a blog post that covers everything else about the contest, including any changes that were made since the first article was posted if applicable.
This gives your readers all of the information they need to know about what's going on while boosting traffic from those who want more details after reading your initial post.
5. Post a pre-contest article
Before launching a blogging contest, you should create an article or page on your blog that goes over some basic information regarding this type of promotion. List out some of the benefits of running a contest along with the basic rules that will apply.
You should also go over some of the prizes you will be offering for winning and detail any other contests you've held in the past. This article should definitely include links back to your original contest announcement post, as well as any future posts about the progress of the contest itself.
6. Be sure to register your blog with Technorati
This is one of those free services that can help ensure that people are able to find out about your blogging contests easily. After all, having an entry on this site wouldn't be a bad thing even if it wasn't used solely for promotion.
The more exposure you receive through search engine optimization or social media channels, the better chances you have at creating successful contests that people will want to participate in.
7. Make sure your contests is diverse and inclusive
A blog contest that only focuses on a specific topic such as cooking will work for some, but not everybody is interested in this type of subject material. The broader the topic, the easier it will be to get an increased number of participants interested in entering.
Having a contest open to everyone also increases the chance of finding someone who has a higher interest level in what you're promoting and thus increasing the odds they'll share and promote your contest/giveaways among their own social network too.
After all, there's no better way to spread the word about your blog than through word-of-mouth advertising from referrals like these plus maybe even gaining some new subscribers in the process.
8. Remain flexible when setting your contest rules
If you're running a blogging contest, then you obviously want to do everything possible to increase the number of people who are interested in participating.
Always think about how you can make it more appealing for others beyond what's already been mentioned, without changing the main focus of what this promotion is supposed to be about.
You might even consider adding an entry option or two if you feel like things are too one-sided at this point.
Just keep in mind that anything extra might not be affordable depending on your budget and the resources available, so choosing wisely is very important.
9. Give blog participants multiple chances to enter
You should always include at least three different ways for participants to enter your contest, whether it's through social media channels like Twitter and Facebook or on your blog itself.
If you decide to offer something like a rafflecopter tool that can be used as an alternative entry, then this increases the number of ways people can enter even further.
The more chances people have of winning, the better their chances become of winning as well.
10. Plan out some fun contests for your readership
Having consistent blogging contests is always a great way to engage with new and regular readers alike. This also provides you with extra material to write about after launch day meaning less time will be needed searching for topics each week too.
Just make sure that you're having fun yourself during these events and not taking them too seriously or else things could become dull fast.
11. Make It Easy for people to find information about your contests
Every contest should have some type of landing page that includes what the prize is, who can participate, entry requirements, and details about how to enter.
If you want more traffic than just your own network bringing people in, then this is something you need to be willing to spend money on or at least take some time away from other activities so you can schedule posts on social media channels.
It's also a good idea to promote this landing page through search engines like Google as well since the more pages that link back to your contest entry page means additional SEO juice flowing through it too.
12. Have Contests That Everyone Will Want To Talk About
The best blogging contests are those that have a story behind them. The more interesting the subject material is, the more willing people will be to talk about it with their own networks through word-of-mouth advertising and sharing your contests on social media channels as well.
People want to know what all of their friends are talking about so they'll circulate the information just out of pure curiosity if nothing else.
This means that you might have to spend some money on promotions from time to time, but this extra effort can really pay off especially if you're running a blog in a very competitive niche already.
13. Keep Your Contests Balanced
Even though it's great having new contests available for participants every now and then, you need to make sure that overdoing this practice doesn't turn people away after a certain point.
Some of the most successful bloggers are those who aren't afraid to take a break or leave things as they are for a specified amount of time. This also builds anticipation since people will be looking forward to your next blogging contest before you even start working on it.
14. Offer Multiple Prizes During Contests
Instead of having just one prize available, make sure that you have at least two different awards up for grabs for participants each time around.
Making this adjustment can actually help increase the number of entries coming in too, but only if the prizes are appealing enough to entice others not already involved with your blog into entering.
Giving out more than just an Amazon gift card might involve some heavy costs depending on what you choose to offer, so make sure you budget accordingly.
15. Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help
Depending on how big your blog or social media audience is right now, asking other popular bloggers to share your contests with their own network can turn out great
results. Of course, this can also backfire if not done correctly since you might end up upsetting someone important who didn't think they were doing anything wrong by helping you out.
The risk is usually worth the reward since a lot of these popular bloggers have huge networks that help boost your own following too, but make sure to approach each situation carefully before asking for assistance with contests from anyone.
What Are The Benefits of Promoting Contests Online?
Promoting contests online has a lot of great benefits, but one of the biggest benefits is a stronger blogging platform.
Getting people talking about your blog through various means including contests helps establish yourself as an authority in your niche which will make it much easier to generate targeted traffic going forward too.
Not only this but hosting contests on your blog can help bring in additional revenue when done properly so there's never really any negative side to using them.
How Can You Improve Your Blog Promotion Process?
There are many different ways for you to improve your promotion process when it comes to running contests all over your blog, but some methods are better than others depending on what you're trying to accomplish.
Using search engine optimization techniques with posts that include special promotions like this is always a great idea, as is utilizing premium features like social media plugins and email lists to increase the odds of getting more entries.
Just make sure to do what's best for your own blog by keeping track of analytics and performing tests after each contest to see which methods are best used in the future.
Who Can You Ask to Help Promote Your Contests?
The answer here really depends on who you have connections with online, what type of contests you're hosting, and how big your current network already is too.
Some people will be happy enough just knowing that your contests exist at all, while others might require a little more incentive before getting excited about them - so take everything into consideration when it comes time to decide which influencers can help you out most.
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Hope you enjoyed this article and that the provided information was both useful and interesting to read!
