Small Business Tips: Lucky Door Prizes & Competitions
Many small businesses regularly use lucky door prizes and competitions to help them generate leads or build their client data base. The problem is, if they are done incorrectly you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law as well as losing the customers you are trying to attrack.
So what is the correct way to run lucky door prizes and competitions that are both legal and will get you maximum bang for your buck?
Top 10 Tips for Lucky Door Prizes and Competitions
1) Work out why you are doing it . First you need to decide what you want to get out of running the competition. Do you just want to get email addresses for your database, qualify potential clients, find a new marketing slogan from customer ideas, or get feedback on your service or product or some other reason? When running a competition you need to know your reason before you start as this will determine your strategy. The sort of things you will consider in your strategy will include the prizes you are offering, the design of the competition form and the best process to match your needs.
2) Choose your entry box. Often you see clear bowls or fishbowls on trade tables for people to put their business cards into. The problem with these are they don’t keep clients details private, so you could be breaching privacy regulations. Your best entry box is a solid cardboard entry box. Cheap options include buying a gift box and cutting out an entry slot or buying a plain preconfigured entry box from a cardboard box manufacturer. Of course you can have one specially designed, printed and built for you. One tip for online competitions - set up a separate email account for each competition as this will help to separate the entries (and cut out spam to your regular email account).
3) A table to lean on to fill in the forms. If people are filling in forms they need somewhere to lean on. Make sure the table you are using is not too low or you will force people to eitehr squat or sit down to fill in the forms. If you make it difficult for them many people just won’t bother entering. Using clipboards for people to use is not a great option either. Many people have their hands full with kids and bags so won't stop to hold your clipboard.
4) Make it obvious. Place your your competition at the front of your office or trade table. The more easily it is seen, the more people will enter your competition.
5) Advertise it. The more people you tell the better, Remember to tell all your regular clients as well as your new clients about your competition. List your competition on some of the major competition sites – where the sites collate different competitions and informs their members so they can enter the competition (my personal favourite of these is Luv2win). Remember to advertise your competition on your website with a banner. This includes tradeshows and not just online competitions - tell passing net traffic where they enter your competition.
6) Make the prize worth it. If you are serious about getting results make it worth their while to enter. Low value items will not generate much interest in your competition. Make the offer enticing with a high perceived value.
7) Protect customers privacy. Many people are scared off entering competitions because they don't know what you will do with the information. Tell customers how you will handle their personal details. Will you share their details with other people? Will you send them marketing material? Give customers an opt-out box to tick if they don’t want to receive any further information from you. (It goes without saying that you need to respect any boxes that are ticked if you don’t want to fall foul of Anti-Spam Laws and Do Not Call Registers).
8) Get your legals in order. Most locations have strong rules and regulations around the operation of gaming including Lucky Door Prizes.
In Queensland the Office of Gaming Regulation Inspectors check every stand of almost every expo or tradeshow for compliance. You need to download the Guidelines for Promotional Games and comply with items such as retention of entries for 5 years, the order of drawing prizes, written terms and conditions which must include things such as:
- the name of the person running the promotion
- eligibility requirements for players
- description and retail value of each prize
- closing and drawing dates
- order the prizes will be drawn
- how winners will be notified
- whether the results will be published and where
- what will happen if the winner is not present at the draw
- any elimination rounds
Of course if you run a competition you need to honour your commitments and award the prizes (even if you don't like the person who wins).
9) Follow up. You should follow up all entries within 14 days of closing the competition if you are using the competition to generate leads or create a data base. When following up with a customer, remind them where you got their details. Hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to convert the entries or business cards into your database. You may want to pre-book your VA so they are ready for your data-entry when it arrives. .
10) Celebrate the winners. Try and get photos of the winners and their consent to use their photos in your marketing. Promote the details of the winners to your mailing list and local media. The majority of people love to be in the spotlight. Good news stories are great for business.
If you follow these top 10 tips you will improve the response to your competitions and lucky door prizes and get more “bang for your competition buck.”
Ingrid Cliff is a Brisbane freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - her writing services studio that helps put your business into words. Visit her website www.heartharmony.com.au for a free copy of "Seven Secrets of Compelling Copy and Powerful Words".
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