Contest Marketing WorksA How To Guide from RAVEN5

Your brand is unique and so are your customers. There are many reasons to run a contest, they enable you to engage your audience and provide a rich source of data.

A contest empowers consumers to do your marketing for you while you gather email addresses and specific data regarding your product or services. They engage and develop social channels while providing your prospects and clients with favourable brand impressions and awareness.

Why use contest marketing?

We define contest marketing as an incentive based marketing campaign that utilizes both email marketing and social media marketing (organic and/or paid)

simultaneously. Contests rely heavily on both as traffic drivers; email to alert new visitors to your offer and social media to increase engagement via social sharing.

Increase Brand AwarenessYour consumers create chatter about your brand while discovering new prospects.

Build Email ListsReach your audience directly when you have something to share.

Gather Data and InsightLearn about your consumers and adjust your future marketing accordingly.

Increase Social FollowingsBring attention to what your brand is doing. Engage & recognize your consumers.

Distribute Coupons or Offers

Encourage product trials and sales. Allow for brand (re)discovery and stay top-of-mind.

The benefits of contest marketing

How to run a contest: Step 1 – Planning

There are many steps to planning, designing, executing and wrapping up a contest marketing program. But, first things first, start by determining who you are trying to attract. Who is your target market? This will assist with the next steps.

Target – Who are you building the campaign to attract? It should be targeted to actual prospects that you intend to sell your product or service to in the end. (i.e. Females interested in sewing machines, 35-45, 60K HHI, North America excluding Quebec.)

Prizing – What incentive will you give your target in exchange for their personal information? Keep in mind that the more specific to your brand, the more relevant in the responses will be. (I.e. If you own a sewing machine business and gave away a generic prize like an iPad, you’ll get many opt-ins that are off target versus a tangible prize like an actual sewing machine.) Another thing to note is that multiple prizes that have weekly or monthly drawings will add fuel to drive ongoing engagement.

How to run a contest: Step 1 – Planning (cont’d)

Breadth – Will your contest run within your state/province? Is it national or international? This will depend on your target and will impact legal and rules.

Legal – Legal review will ensure your rules are written correctly and you’re covered. Certain states also require applications and bonds to be filed. As well, you’ll need to complete final reports post-campaign for the IRS and/or local states depending on your campaign.

Rules – You need clear, concise rules that state everything about your contest, including start and end

dates, drawing dates and actual prizing spelled out with dollar amounts. You also need to include information about how you intend to draw the prize winners and how you will handle prizes that go unclaimed.

Language – Depending on your target you might want to consider localization for Spanish or French.

You’ll need a translator to review and provide language for all elements of your campaign as well as a review of rules.

How to run a contest: Step 2 – Design

Creative - The creative needs to reflect the brand to ensure your fans know who’s running the contest. At the same time offer something fresh and enticing to engage both existing customers and prospects. Cleverly show the prizing and use as much live text to discuss the fine details.

User Experience – Your contest needs to function seamlessly on tablets and mobile phones in addition to desktops. Pre-populating entry forms can speed up and produce more entries. Use callouts, arrows, colors or simple

instructions to ensure the user can easily figure out what to do next. After entering your contest, an excited entrant should be able to share with friends, make sure they can. Remember to keep the rules and privacy policies easily accessible.

Opt-In – Ensure you have the correct wording and details about what a user is providing as well as receiving in return. It’s important for future communications that the wording is clear to avoid unnecessary issues with

CASL (Canada) and CAN-SPAM (USA).

How to run a contest: Step 3 – Execution

Technical – Ensure you have a server or multiple servers that can keep up with the demand of your contest. Depending on how wide the breadth of your contest, you might consider running multiple servers to handle the traffic. Your database should be secure from anyone looking to try and mass-

enter the contest via bots and scripts in addition to keeping hackers away from private information (i.e. user opt-ins, credit card information). It is highly recommended and wise to utilize an SSL certificate for any contest that handles private information like credit card numbers and transactions.

Development – Testing on multiple platforms is a must, not just different web browsers, test on

different devices from tablets to mobile phones and even touch screen computers where a user may opt to use both touch and mouse/keyboard combinations. Determine if your contest is easily accessible for those with disabilities.

Monitoring – In case something goes wrong with the platform, server or website there should be an

uptime monitor running in the background as well as a contact person who can do quickly make adjustments or fixes as necessary.

How to run a contest: Step 4 – Wrap-up

Legal – It is important to hire or have a legal team available that is familiar with running contests. Specific provinces and states require multiple documents to be filed before and after. Insurance may also be required as well as bonds depending on the value of the prize(s).

Prize management – Awarding prizes needs to be done with care, from facilitating random drawings and reaching out to eligible winners with the correct forms. In some cases, potential winners need to be re-drawn and contacted multiple times as there may be no response from the initial drawing. Keep in in mind that in both Canada and the US, specific forms may need to be filled out post campaign reporting

the winners and including the prize values for taxation purposes.

Reporting – Final reports from drivers such as email and social media as well as the contest platform and Google Analytics are necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of a contest marketing campaign. At a glance, review web traffic from Google Analytics, engagements via social, opens and clicks from

email and new vs. existing opt-ins, submissions and shares via your contest platform.

At RAVEN5, we specialize in creating fun, engaging, and interesting contests that find new customers. We ensure the look and feel of your contest is inline with your branding and that it is appealing to current and prospective customers.

RAVEN5 is an Oakville based integrated marketing agency specializing in contest marketing. We work with brands, marketing agencies and public relations firms to create engaging and interactive contests and consumer experiences.

Our mission is simple:Get consumers to engage with your brand.

How to run a contest: Step 5 – Contact RAVEN5

Our approach: How we work

RAVEN5 creates engaging experiences for consumers through fun and professional online contests, engaging websites, highly clickable email and stand out social media.

We create experiences unique as your customers with incentivizedmarketing solutions using email, social media and advertising techniques that build digital communities, engage fans and deliver a targeted response.

Our contest marketing programs focus on building email

databases and increasing social currency by creating an experience for your existing and future fans like no other.

We at RAVEN5 are your partners and love to createprofessional, highly viral and seamlessly integrated

online contests and campaigns.

Our approach to working with you

As an integrated marketing provider, we have experience working with brands and agencies of all sizes. The following are typical steps taken after initial discussions and proposals are approved:

1. After requirements and direction are received, comprehensive layouts of the required collateral are produced to establish campaign flavour.

2. Once layouts are approved, a user flow or schedule is produced that includes comps of the individual posts, designs, layouts, contest steps, etc. including copy.

3. Upon approval, development and thorough testing of emails or website or contest begins.

4. After final approval, the program is scheduled and everything is made active.

5. Upon completion, a campaign report is provided, including winner(s) and notification for contests.

*Note: Legal review, Régie filings (Quebec), Rules writing and Fulfillment are available options when running a contest.

1. Arrive at contest microsite (driven by email, social, etc.)

2. Complete entry form (can be pre-populated utilizing existing information – see PURL)

3. Answer survey questions (optional)

4. Choose coupons (optional)

5. Share via email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest.

6. Online redemption or print coupon

7. Follow up email after completion (optional)

Contest Marketing Opt-in Process

Custom Contest Marketing Example

1. Email or Social Driver

5. Coupon

6A. Printable Coupon2. Contest Microsite

(Opt-in) 6B. Exit Link

3. Survey

2. Contest Microsite

*Patented Personalized URL Technology pre-populates the required input boxes with the available information.

4. Share

Contest Marketing Examples

View working demos here:

raven5.com/demo

For data accuracy all sites are tracked using Google Analytics in addition to our platform and social tracking tools.

Previous standard campaign results

Contests marketing gets results

Contest marketing results are not duplicated in any other media offering.

Client List TotalEmails Response Submissions Opt-ins Share

200,000 800,000 220,600(28%) 59,306(27%) 33,090 (15%) 5,995(42%)

75,000 300,000 52,554(17%) 29,769(56%) 5,692(11%) 1,261 (22%)

50,000 200,000 59,000(30%) 23,000(39%) 6,050(10%) 2,050(34%)

20,000 80,000 15,799(19%) 12,201(77%) 6,011 (38%) 2,236 (37%)

CampaignAverages: 24% 49% 19% 34%

Contest marketing pricing

We build fully responsive contest microsites with tailored emails that fit your brand's look and feel.

Pricing includes design and development of a contest microsite, email template design and deployment

plus a survey or coupon. Contact us today for more details and/or a proposal.

Contact: mbickerton@raven5.com | 289 474 5505 x700

We design, build and maintain contest marketing programs for our clients; it’s what we do.

Thank you

Contact: mbickerton@raven5.com | 289 474 5505 x700