One of the most effective ways to generate buzz about your SME, products and services is to run competitions or giveaways that appeal to your target audience. It is a great technique for extending brand reach and visibility and building engagement and followers on social media.
Running competitions and giveaways has typically been an expensive, complex and costly exercise for small and medium businesses who have had to cobble it together using different types of technology that don’t sync together or rely on largely manual time-intensive processes.
It gets even more complex when applicants are required to tell why in 100 words or less they should win, or send in a video entry or TikTok showing product placement or for instance send in a sample of a beer, wine or spirit to win the best winemaker or ginmaker of the year.
In order to plan, launch and run competitions, SMEs need affordable, fast and easy to use solutions. The era of digital competition management affords many advantages, in particular to SMEs enabling them to punch above their weight and compete with the bigger brands with deep pockets.
Here are three ways to streamline the complexity in managing competitions in-store, online and across social platforms:
Leverage the power of SaaS
Software as a Service (SaaS) has completely changed the way competitions can be run and managed, with tools available to streamline engagement. With SaaS, there’s no need to build or buy software and install it directly on an internal server or a user’s computer, new team members can get to work quickly simply by accessing through a web browser.
As the software is held centrally, security and functional updates are instantly available to all users ensuring everyone is working with the most up to date tools. As well as reducing deployment and operational costs, SaaS tools make it far easier to share information so everyone is working with the most current data all the time, from anywhere.
Streamline the process for applying
SaaS-based applicant and registration tools make it faster, easier and more affordable to gather competition entries, communicate with the winners and capture applicant details for use in other marketing campaigns. SaaS tools provide the opportunity to offset the cost of processing and securely storing applications.
Leverage contacts for future campaigns
Running competitions and giveaways should be an easy and fast process. SMEs need access to end-to-end digital solutions that are cost-effective, easy to use and enable information to be retained and accessed so that applicants’ details can be used for future campaigns and promotions.
When considering the right software tools to invest in, look for ones that enable you to create personalised online application forms, so you can capture key details, add customised questions and request applicant photos, videos, and social media accounts if required as part of the entry.
SMEs need to look for solutions that provide applicants with the ability to enter using QR codes in-store and easy to use mobile-friendly web links. You also need to ensure that you have a solution that assures the privacy and security of personal data.
The management of competitions and giveaways was born in the analogue age, with printed forms customers would write their details on and insert into a box. But digital transformation is an opportunity to streamline these processes and make it much easier for SMEs to use in their marketing and sales strategies. It simplifies information sharing and workflow while allowing SMEs to execute faster, more securely and more cost-effectively.
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