Putting Your SMS Contest in a Winning Position

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Key takeaways

• Hire experienced SMS experts to guide your contest. They bring tested methods, real-time advice and reduce costly mistakes.
• Don’t run an SMS contest as a standalone tactic. Cross-promote it across channels to maximize reach and opt‑ins.
• Use a high‑value grand prize (free products, event tickets, etc.), bigger prizes drive excitement and participation.
• Give every participant something (discounts or coupons on opt‑in) so everyone leaves with a positive brand experience.
• After the contest, conduct an open evaluation using participant feedback and social responses to improve the next campaign.

Introduction

SMS campaigns came in a variety of shapes, sizes, and approaches – including the coveted contest method. As a way of engaging your audience, offering up substantial prizes or rewards in return for outreach and a burgeoning contact list seems like a slam dunk. Unfortunately, if you rush into this process too fast and without a firm understanding of what works with your audience, you’ll be in dire straits in no time. To keep your brand from facing this marketing nightmare, let’s spend a few minutes talking about how you can put your organization in a winning position with its next SMS-driven contest.

Arm Yourself with the Right Help

Before reading any farther, Matt Silk of Target Marketing magazine offers up perhaps the most important piece of advice that you can take with you on this journey; find the right team of SMS experts to help guide your campaign. While there’s definitely something to be said for forging a path on your own, nothing replaces the benefits generated by having years of experience and tested methods backing your approach.Even if this team operates purely from a consulting perspective, at the very least you’ll have access to real-time advice and information regarding the health and trajectory of your campaign. It doesn’t take much to see how beneficial this arrangement can be to avoiding missteps and lowering your learning curve moving forward.

Understand That an SMS Contest Can’t Stand on Its Own

Additionally, Silk also points out that it’s not a good idea to treat your SMS contest as a standalone offering. Sure, this form of outreach is strong enough to generate buzz within an audience all on its own, but you leave so much on the table in terms of impact and return by keeping other facets of your marketing approach at arm’s length.To keep the positive response flowing into your contact list, don’t be afraid to cross promote on as many relevant platforms as possible. Social media, your branded web pages, and even local outlets – like newspapers and radio spots – are all fair game on this front. It might sound like a cliché, but leaving no stone unturned when it comes to getting the word out about your SMS contest is one of the best ways to extract the maximum amount of value from this process.

Go Big with Your Prize Support

When it comes enticing consumers to opt-in, Matt Baglia of Business 2 Community suggests that your organization had better be willing to bring out the big guns. While a small coupon or other limited discounts works well in a traditional setting, the whole point of offering up a contest is to create a sense of excitement and suspense. This means that the prize at the end of the campaign needs to be high in value.Everything from free products and tickets to a local sporting event make the cut as acceptable grand prizes. If you’re still unsure about what passes this threshold, there’s nothing wrong with embodying the mentality of bigger is better.

Find a Way for Everyone to Win

Speaking of those smaller selections, Baglia goes on to note that some of the best campaigns around find a way for everyone who participates to win. While it might seem a little awkward at first, giving out discounts and coupons for simply opting-in blends the excitement of a contest with the appeal of a standard SMS campaign. At the very least, this take on the process ensures that everyone walks away happy and with a positive perspective regarding your brand. Regardless of whatever industry you call home, it’s hard to see this potential campaign outcome as anything but good for your organization.

Learn and Evolve

Finally, as you wrap up this SMS contest, take some time to evaluate all of the ups and downs of your process. By implementing an open and honest evaluation, your brand can pinpoint any areas of concern, as well as the highlights of the campaign. As a way of keeping the interaction and engagement flowing, you can also utilize participant feedback and social media responses.With this information in hand, you and your SMS marketing experts can work toward a future contest that’s bigger, better, and draws even more opt-ins and consumer interest. The only thing left to talk about now is if – and when – you’re ready to leverage all this approach has to offer to your brand and the people that make up its target audience.

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