Sweepstakes
Sweepstakes
For business people who seek to make good use of marketing funds, sweepstakes are an advisable option. You would most likely launch a sweepstakes campaign during the preliminary stages of your business’ life cycle. As you do so, you need to go by the relevant marketing and advertising law.
Definition
Sweepstakes refers to sales promotion drives that seek to entice participants into submitting free entries into games of chance. The lucky dips are usually connected to service or product awareness. Some companies could come in to sponsor the sweepstake. Sponsoring firms issue the presented awards. Offered material prizes could comprise electronics, houses, attire, land, livestock, or cars. Cash prizes range from a few shillings to thousands of shillings.
No Entry or Claim Fee
Different from a lottery, a sweepstake does not require participants to pay any monies or to purchase some items. Winners in a sweepstake campaign are also not required to pay taxes or fees so as to receive their prizes.
Motivation
As a business person, you expect to derive several advantages from the sweepstakes initiatives you launch. Key benefits include:
- Creating consumer enthusiasm for your merchandise
- Growing your sales figures
- Gaining new consumers
- Directing increased web traffic to your company’s website
- Generating incentive responses amongst your consumers
- Gathering insightful information from your consumers
Sweepstakes Fundamentals
As in any other venture, you need to put careful thought into the design and roll out of your sweepstakes initiative. Major points to consider include:
- The target goal – leads generation or brand awareness?
- Your estimated budget amount
- The relationship of the sweepstake with your firm
- How to identify a valid entry
- What takes precedence – quality of participants or participants’ numbers?
- After registering, how do you transform participants into your customers?
- How to maintain a lasting bond with netted customers
- How to evaluate the short- and long-term success of the campaign
- How to publicise the drive – preferred communication media
- The implementers of the initiative – you or your Public Relations firm?
- How to manage the sweepstake on a day-to-day basis
Legitimate Sweepstakes
The Present Context
The current world is rife with deception, be it from politicians, businesspersons, or even physicians. Logically, any decent person would steer away from issues that are likely to taint their name. This is especially so because sweepstakes are basically interactive promotion initiatives. Your mistakes are likely to be speedily communicated among your consumers.
Guiding Principles
The search for authenticity brings us to the principles that guide genuine sweepstakes promotions. These values not only control participant expectations, they also ensure fairness for all. The principles you need to abide by include:
- Always prominently identifying your business and its address to customers
- Offering clear instructions on how participants can opt out of the promotion
- Clearly delineating terms, conditions, and entry rules
- Letting pure chance, not monetary inducements, to determine the winner
- Unless, skill-based, your sweepstake should not require participants to pay entry or processing fees
- Observing truthfulness when mentioning endorsers to avoid misrepresented endorsement announcements
- Clearly disclosing participants’ odds of winning
Written Rules
Apart from the above values, you need to put down the specific rules that will govern the sweepstake marketing promotion. Usually, sponsors create these rules. Your Rules document will clarify various pertinent issues in the sweepstake promotion. Key matters include:
- Eligibility criteria
- Entry procedure
- Prize claim process
Benefits to Your Business
As an astute businessperson, you would wonder what gains you would make from a sweepstake campaign. Actually, if properly handled, sweepstakes promise to benefit your business in more ways than one. Major advantages include:
- Creating a buzz around your business
- Drawing and retaining visitors on your business’ website
- Helping you to create your email marketing list
- Facilitating reasonably-priced advertising
- Providing useful market research information
Summary
We have learned that properly designed and executed sweepstakes drives constitute an important marketing channel. Through sweepstakes, you garner new customers, increase sales, prompt consumer response, attract visitors to your website, and conduct market research. To achieve these wonderful goals, you need to take into consideration certain key principles. Your sweepstake needs to be fair. It should have clear entry, participation, prize claim, and exit rules. Before launching your drive, you need to consider the anticipated cost, its expected impact, evaluation criteria, the benchmarks, as well as preferred publicity avenues. If properly followed, the above guidelines will enable you to gain much business mileage thanks to your sweepstakes campaign.
Simple Alliance, your digital solutions partner, will gladly handle any Sweepstake task on your behalf. We will streamline legal issues concerning your sweepstake. Using our lively web platform, we will publicise your campaign. For these and related matters, trust us to give you only the best in service delivery.
Follow Us