I've been running online contests on behalf of artists across all genres and career levels for some time now and have learned a thing or two in the process. A special contest or promotion can be a great way to engage your online fanbase or achieve some other marketing goal, but before launching into something there are a few rules of thumb that could make the difference between a worthwhile effort and a waste of time.
1) Determine Your Goal.
Don't ever run a contest just for the sake of running a contest or to give your fans 'something to do'. Use a contest as a means to achieve a specific marketing goal and determine what that goal is before starting. Do you wish to promote a new album, single or video? Increase sales? Build a fanclub? Obtain fan feedback? Promote a social media profile? Encourage newsletter or mobile fanclub signups? Figure out what exactly it is that you'd like your fans to do FIRST and tailor the promotion around this objective.
2) Keep It Simple
I cannot overemphasize the importance of creating contest elements that are as simple and straightforward as possible. The entry instructions/method of entry are the most important in this respect. If you cannot list your entry instructions in less than 3 individual steps, revisit the concept and overall framework of the promotion in order to determine a way to simplify things. Stick to a method of entry that doesn't require the entrant to visit multiple websites or social network profiles or submit too much personal data. The more hoops that your fans have to jump through to participate, the fewer that will.
3) Beware of Contest Cliches
A viral video promotion sounds like a great idea, right? This may be true, but before confidently asking your fans to share videos of themselves rocking out to your new single, be aware that an extremely small percentage of online fans will take the time to record and submit a video. If you are a developing artist I'd recommend steering clear of this one as you will likely be disappointed at the low number of submissions. As a conservative estimate, you can expect 1 video submission for every 20,000 myspace fans. No joke. An alternative U.G.C. promotion? Ask fans to submit photos, or even better, text entries on a specific topic. I also recommend using voting campaigns (i.e. 'vote for our band on 3rdpartysite.com') sparingly, if at all. Why? First of all unless you can obtain full entry data from participants and offer some sort of prizing for participation, what are your fans getting out of voting for you to win a contest on a 3rd party site? Whats in it for them? Why should they submit their email address and other personal info to a site that they don't care about so that you can win an online contest? I see artists and bands overusing voting campaigns all the time, and the only ones who seem to benefit are those running the contest.
4) More Prizes, More Submissions.
As a rule of thumb, it is a better incentive to offer many fans a small prize rather than a 'grand prize' that only 1 fan will be lucky enough to obtain. Think about it; a fan will read your contest details including prizing info and quickly calculate their chances of taking something home as a result of their participation. 1 prize offered to 1 lucky fan tells the fan that the odds are not in his or her favor, so why bother? Instead, offer a larger number of smaller prizes to more participants- or better yet, EVERYBODY that enters. A free song download for each entrant or 5 Free CDs per week for 4 weeks is an outstanding value proposition. Don't have a budget for shipping prizes? Label won't let you give away song downloads? Be creative!
5) Be Consistent with All Contest Elements
If your contest language indicates that you will announce the winner on August 21st, you'd better stick to it. If you promise a small prize to a large number of people, do not put off your fulfillment efforts. If you say that the prize is a free pair of concert tickets on Facebook, it had better say that on Myspace as well. Even if you feel like the majority of your fans are in one place online as opposed to another, be sure to announce and promote your contest equally across all web properties; respect people where they choose to interact with you online, not where you feel they should be. Make an effort to create visually appealing contest artwork; hire a graphic designer to do this if possible.
