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Whether you are looking to create a bigger list of prospects or generate an increase in your company sales, contests are a great catalyst to accomplishing your goals.

Contests come in many forms and can be done both online and off. The possibilities are endless. Below are just a few ideas to get you started:

Drawings – entrance requires a form to be filled out that just includes a name and email address. You can always ask for more later, but asking for alot of personal information up front will reduce your entries.

Q & A – ask a simple question that must be answered in order for an entry to qualify. Again, do not ask for more than a name and email address (and of course the answer to the question). When using Q & A online, changing the question daily will encourage people to come back. They return daily to have another entry in the contest, but they will also return for the question!

Trivia – this type of question requires more thought. You may ask something related to your business. This may reduce the number of entries you receive compared to a simple drawing and because the answer is specific to your business, it may discourage some. You can, however, choose to be more general in your question.

Scavenger Hunt – hide graphics or a specific word on different pages within your website. Provide clues from one item to the next. Don’t make them too hard or people will give up. If you provide good clues people will be able to keep moving all around your site to find them all. You can make things even more interesting by placing a letter on each graphic and requiring that the contestant unscramble the letters to form a word.

Running a contest can be a great traffic booster, a way to grow your subscriber base and can also increase sales. Once you have decided which type of contest your are going to run and have put all the details together, be sure to get the the word out to your customers and prospects and through social media. And don’t forget to publicize the winner once the contest is over. You will surely be happy with the results you receive.
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally

Nothing in life is free. Or at least that’s what I tell my kids… I often use this phrase to teach them to look deeper into something versus taking it at face value (or based on what the T.V. commercial says).

Earlier this evening, I had the privilege of participating on an ad-hoc advisory board. I had this opportunity a while back and really enjoyed it, therefore I was looking forward to this one. The true value I saw in both was that they were both designed as a focus group. Both included a mix of trusted business associates, clients, staff and friends where the business owner respected and valued their opinions. While I, and everyone else that participated, would have probably done so for “free” -both host companies made sure we were compensated.

Now most people reading this will hear compensation and think money. However, compensation does not necessarily mean monetary value. And often compensation can mean so much more when it’s not cash. In both instances food was provided. They were both informal and gave the participants a chance to meet and network with each other. One provided gifts for each participant that attended and one utilized raffle tickets and awarded several prizes. Both made sure to acknowledge their appreciation for the help and input offered. I can only speak for myself, but I believe that all the participants felt honored to be included as a part of these elite groups.

Obviously, there were benefits to everyone involved. The business owners received invaluable input and advice for their business and the participants received food, prizes and/or gifts and the esteem compliment of being invited follow by a sincere expression of gratitude and appreciation. Truly a win-win situation for all.

Want more information, read “Creating an Advisory Board” by Susan Ward on About.com
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally

Your business needs a fish bowl!

One of two thoughts may have just crossed your mind; 1) We have a beautiful aquarium in our lobby, why in the world do we would we want a fish bowl? or 2) My business is online, what do I need with a fish bowl?

Once again, if you are in business your business needs a fish bowl! …and no I am not trying to sell fish bowls.

First off, for those with a retail location -although a fish bowl may hold fish that’s not the type we are suggesting here. You should have a fish bowl available to your visitors that says, *Drop your business card in and win a “deluxe widget”. The obvious reason that you want to be able to collect their information, you want to be able to send them information, you want to be able to educate them about the benefits of your products and services, you want to be able to ask them to come back in.

It’s really not that different if your business is online. A ‘fish bowl’ for an online business is an op-in form. Either way, you want to know more about your visitors. You want to be able to get people who don’t necessarily purchase to give you information about themselves.

Information is valuable and the best way to encourage your visitors to share theirs is to have a drawing for that “deluxe widget”. Note that it’s a “deluxe widget”. Don’t short change yourself here by choosing to give away something that has no value. Your visitors will see right through the hype. Make sure to choose wisely -the wrong choice will not produce the results you are wanting, either in the number of entries or in the value of coming back to your business.

Whether your plan is to give away 1 or 20 or make every one that enters a winner, after the drawing is over take some time and publicize the winner. Put their picture up, send a story to your local media and make the most of the event. Not only will the PR be good for your business, the winner will love the attention and be sure to tell their friends.
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally

Imagine… Your name was just called, you are the lucky winner of the raffle, you rush to the front of the room to claim your prize. It’s an envelope and you wonder what’s inside as you excitedly walk back to your seat. You can’t wait to open it to see what you won. Is it a gift certificate to a restaurant, a gift card to a local store??? Guess again – it’s a discount on products or services…

If you’re like most, your mood just went from happy and excited to disappointed. You went from winning a special prize to getting a discount. If you are lucky, it just might be for something you were planning to purchase anyway. However, that’s not usually the case – now, to claim your ‘prize’ you have to spend money you had no intention of spending to get your reward. Or… you do nothing and you won nothing – bummer. What a waste!

Now let’s look at this same scenario from another angle. You are representing your company or the one you work for. You are the person giving the door prize away – you need to market your business, right? Offering a discount or credit towards a purchase will bring in a sale. What’s the problem?

The problem is not in offering a discount or a credit towards a purchase, these are great ways to market your business. The problem lies is using a discount as a gift. Gifts are just that – gifts. They should not require the recipient to have to do anything in order to get their gift, especially not have to spend more money. They should not have strings attached.

Giveaways, raffles and door prizes are a marketing expense and need to be treated as such. When marketing your business the last thing you want is for a potential customer to go from being excited about receiving something from you to sheer disappointment. Obviously this is not good for business.

Invest the time, and the money, into selecting gifts that people will want to receive. Choose something that will have them go from excited about winning to ‘Wow! This is really cool!’ While it’s true that offering a ‘cool’ gift does not guarantee the recipient will ever do business with you, they will talk about what they received. They will tell their friends. They will remember. And that is good for business.
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally