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August 24, 2008
This is an interesting turn in things. Contests have always been a great way to draw traffic to your site, just like in brick-and-mortar business contests can draw customers. But I thought the way that the last two blog contests I have seen are different in important ways, and I wanted to talk about why.
Disclaimer
In the interstest of transparency, the first of these contests is from a buddy of mine, Big Jason from Big Jason’s Big Marketing Blog, and the second is from a friend of his, which was brought to my attention by him. I am also getting entries into the second contest by blogging about it, which I would urge my readers to do as well. I make no apologies for trying to get free stuff, especially stuff which is good for business, but I also believe in transparency.
The Contests
The first contest was Big Jason’s “Largest Blog Contest Ever“. The prizes are great, though the entry period is pretty much over (talk to Jason about getting late entries in, he might let you in). The second contest is Miguel Alvarez’ “Blog Boost Giveaway“, which offers some really incredible prizes as well. I especially like the developer’s package for the Revolution themes. As a confirmed Wordpress fanboy, something like that would make my life a lot easier.
However, that is not the point of this post. While I am getting entries in Miguel’s contest from blogging on it, I find these contests, and the way they work and function they serve, interesting in themselves. Think about why Jason and Miguel set it up as they did.
Targeted Prizes Draw Targeted Traffic
The prizes are focussed at the needs of their readers. Jason is a marketer and trainer…his trip is making himself better by making others better. I know that marketing sometimes gets a bad rap, but that is usually from people who either don’t understand it or who are bad at it. Marketing is not evil any more than electricity is evil; electricity can cook your food or cook you, it depends on how it is used. In Jason’s case, his method involves building people’s skills and access to knowledge up, which makes them look better to those who might need their services and skills. This is truly “white-hat” training and marketing…making you look better by actually making you better. Jason’s friends and readers are interested in exactly that, and are likely to have friends and readers who are interested in the same thing. I am one of those friends and readers, and I know my friends and readers are interested in the same thing, so here I am, reading and blogging about it.
Now look at the prizes offered on Big Jason’s contest: they are all about making you better. Consulting, services, and items that help increase your value and your abilities. All the things that readers of his blog (and their friends, friends of friends, and so on) are interested in. How does he know? Well, because they are reading his blog or following him on other services, anyway. Jason knows his readers, and tailored his prizes to them, which draws traffic from word of mouth that could never be gained by generic prizes.
Now on to Miguel’s contest. His audience is also interested in marketing, but he is focussing on professional blogging more than anything else, and hence his prizes are different. Development tools for blogging, cams for video blogging, and consulting and services for promoting your content and building search rankings. Miguel targetted his prizes towards the needs of his readers and friends, and so he gets targetted traffic that he knows will be interested in what he has to offer.
Even better, both Big Jason and Miguel are getting sticky traffic out of this, because the people they attract through their contest are people who are likely to also be interested in the normal content of both of their blogs and the professional services they offer. Sticky traffic and potential clients, all in one fell swoop.
Social Media Mechanics
Both contests use social media as the means of gaining entries. You submit to bookmarking sites, subscribe to their blog, post about them, microblog about them, and in general use the technologies and techniques of the modern online world. The important thing about using this mechanism is that it is viral. Say one reader submits the contest to Digg; the people who are likely to read and digg the submission are also likely to be interested in the prizes and content of Big Jason and Miguel’s respective blogs and professional services. This method spreads the targeted draw of the prizes, causing each person drawn in to go forth and draw others in. Again, this brings not only targetted traffic, likely to click on your ads, but sticky targetted traffic. The people drawn in are targetted in such a way that you are not just getting traffic, you are getting traffic that is going to stick around and lead to conversions.
Creating Value Through Knowing Your Audience
Both Big Jason and Miguel know their readers and connections through social media, and this knowledge allows them to increase the value of their offerings, which in turn leads to traffic, conversions, and ever better networking and connections. This value comes from the intersection of their user’s needs with their own ROI (return on invetment). Why can they offer so many prizes of such high value? Because they know that the traffic and conversions they gain will be worth the cost. How can they know that? By paying attention to what their readers and connections want and need. Did they have to spend huge sums on market research to know that? No, they just had to use social media the right way. They had to listen, rather than talk, to the masses they have gotten access to through social media.
Conversing Instead of Yelling: Marketing for the Modern Age
Historically, marketing has been about getting access to an audience and then yeeling your message to them as loudly and often as possible. This worked for awhile, but people have gotten savvy to it. They are tired of being scammed, tired of being told what to want, and tired of being passive. Social media and new media has changed all that. People can seek out what they really want, can block and ignore the shouting of traditional marketing, and in general simply don’t trust the old forms of media and the marketing styles associated with them. What is a person who wants to promote themselves and their work to do in such an environment?
The solution is to change the dynamic. No more shouting, no more “passive” audiences. What is necessary is a conversation, an interaction where you find out what your audience wants (rather than telling them what to want) and then give it to them.
Final Word
Let this be a lesson to you, intrepid readers of thePuckWrites: if you wish to make it in the new media, you must promote yourself and your work, but if you use the old ways of doing so you are doomed to failure. Don’t just read your comments, comment back. Don’t just use social media to promote yourself…use it to converse and connect. Not only will you know what your audience wants, but you will make connections and be able to, like Miguel and Big Jason, target offerings in such a way that your audience grows steadily.
Go forth and do as they have done.
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