B2C companies have been using contests successfully to promote their products for ages, but B2B companies are just starting to see the benefits. People love a good contest. The thrill of potentially winning a prize makes people very happy. So how can you use contests to help your business thrive?

1.  Set your Goal:  Contests can be used to bolster your business in several different ways. However, in order for your contest to be successful, you need to decide what your goals are for a particular contest before implementation.

If your goal is to gain followers on your social media platforms your contest will need to be able to track how many new followers you’ve gained as well as who is eligible for your prize. If your goal is to attract more customer testimonials it will be easier to measure who’s already a customer and use their testimonial as their entry. Other goals could be to increase your exposure, or share of voice for your company, or to get product feedback.

2.  Outline your Parameters: Whatever your goal is, once it’s defined you can set your parameters. These boundaries, which will become the terms and conditions of your contest, include the following:

• Define the audience and who can participate – will your audience be limited to a geographic area for instance?
• Set your budget – even the smallest budgets can produce a great contest
• Select the prize – it needs to be a prize that will motivate your audience. This does not mean that it needs to be expensive, or appeal to the masses.
• Decide what staff and resources you have to help run the contest – what departments can help out and what can they contribute?
• Set the time limit and how many winners there will be
• Choose the type of contest it will be – a Twitter hash tag contest, an Instagram or Facebook photo contest, a YouTube video contest. There are many different options.
• Determine how the winner will be judged and when will you announce the winner
• See if you can tie the contest to any other company programs like an upcoming event

3.  Promotion is Key:  Finally, during this planning phase, you will need to decide where you will promote your contest and how. Consider the following options for promoting your contest:

• Send a dedicated email about the contest to your customers and mailing list. If your list is not very large you could purchase a mailing list to promote your contest too.
• Add to your company newsletter – contests are a great item to include in a newsletter. This will take some planning as you’ll need to time the newsletter and contest appropriately.
• Share in blog posts – doing a series of posts about your contest is a good way to generate buzz. Plus, this makes it easy to link to the appropriate platforms or webpages where people can enter.
• Leverage social media – of course you’ll want and need to promote your contest on social media. This is also a great place to cross-promote. If you are hosting a Twitter hash tag contest, tell people on Facebook. If you want people to submit a photo on Instagram share it on LinkedIn.
• Promote at company events – setting up your contest around an event will automatically generate buzz because you will have an active audience. Don’t forget to remind the attendees to enter!

Contests are a great way to get all of your company employees involved. The more noise made about your contest, the bigger it’s chance of success.

Be sure to check out part 2 of this blog series to learn how to launch your contest, additional tips for cross-promoting, keeping your contest legal and how to wrap up a good contest.

Photo Credit: activerain

The post 3 Steps to Creating a Successful B2B Contest – Part 1 appeared first on Channel Maven Consulting.