Run Competitions to Market Your Membership Site

Reader Disclosure

If you're seeking an opportunity to market your membership site's website as well as increase your audience, then running an event could be your solution. Naturally, there are many ways to grow your followers however, contests and raffles can work really well.

Contents          Toggle

•     Benefits of Using Competitions and Contests
•       Reach a Wider Audience
•       Boost Social Media Following
•       Increase Website Traffic
•       Grow Your Email List
•       Encourage Discussion
•       Promote Your Membership Product
•     Key Points to Consider Before Running a Competition
•     How to Run a Competition for Your Website
•       Contests & Giveaways by Fatcat Apps
•       Comment Contest
•       No Frills Prize Draw Competitions
•     Final Thoughts

In this post we'll go over the benefits organizing a contest in order to increase traffic to your site in addition to giving you some advice on getting to the point of starting.

Advantages of having competitions and Contests

Before we move on to the instruments that will help you run a competition through your membership site, here are some advantages of creating the contest.

Affect a broader audience

If the entry into your contest is contingent on the participants sharing the contest on social networks or in other places to reach a larger public could be the primary advantage of running a competition.

A lot of contest management companies give you the ability to take entries for contests on social media. This includes the sharing of tweets or shares of your content, giving participants the possibility to win.

Each share on social media might put your website and your membership products in the hands prospective new customers or members, therefore it's beneficial to have some sort of social media aspect for your contests.

Boost Social Media Following

Growing your social media following is a worthwhile objective in it's own. If you do use social media activity to let your visitors enter the competition, having people follow your account for the contest can naturally increase the number of followers you have.

More Website Traffic

A good contest is sure to boost website traffic. For one, you can make entry to your content include some sort of promotional element on the part of those who participate. A second option is a contest with an exciting prize could become an exciting activity in its own. Making a giveaway for a great contest gives you a good opportunity to connect with important influencers, blogs, and other key people in your industry, giving them something to promote that their readers may be curious about.

The new publicity could boost website traffic, giving an opportunity to turn these new customers into subscribers or members.

Expand Your Email List

When those new visitors are on your list to enter the contest, start putting the email program in motion and begin sharing great content with your newly subscribed subscribers. Once your new leads are well-established, it is time to share your membership product with the new members.

Invite discussion

A different method of running an event is to select a winner from everyone who's left a message in your site's blog. Since comments can spark discussion about your website and its membership products It is worth putting in the effort to get your customers to post their views.

Promote Your Member Products

The last but not least is having a contest can assist in the promotion of the benefits of your membership. By creating a newsworthy contest that others in your niche are likely to want to tell their followers about and/or having an participation process that incorporates the use of social media, you can help spread awareness about the benefits of your membership plan.

Important Points to Take into Account Before conducting a contest

When you are ready to start your first contest, there are certain things you should consider. For starters it's best to take some time thinking about what prize you're going to award.

Will you offer one grand prize, or have runners-up prizes too? Access to your contest for free or at a reduced cost your membership plan is a good option. If you'd like to advertise your contest for existing members you'll need look outside the box.

Just make sure the prize you choose to award is appropriate for the audience you're targeting, but making sure it's something they'll be happy to post on social media and have their name on. Be sure to ensure that the budget for prize money will be in line with your goals for the contest and its outcomes.

It is hoped that your competition is going to bring more traffic to your site. If it does then you'll need to be sure that you've put in place systems to not only handle that extra traffic but also maximize the benefits.

Last but not least, you should set up website analytics to monitor the outcomes of the contest. An absolutely free tool like Google Analytics makes it easy to determine if your website is seeing an increase in visitors, where those visitors came from, and what you've seen them doing to your website.

How to run a Contest for Your Website

If you're making use of WordPress for your membership site, then it's even easier than usual to run the competition. With some great premium and free plugins that have been built to help with this All you need to do is select the right tool for the goals you want to achieve. Here's a quick summary of the most popular WordPress Contest and competition plugins.

Promotions and Contests run by Fatcat Apps

The free Contests & Giveaways plugin can be used to create and conduct a competition that requires your visitors to submit their email to enter. When the deadline for contests has arrived, the plugin will automatically select a winner using random. Due to IP monitoring and the usage of cookies, this contest plugin will help to prevent the fraud that is associated with contests.

If you're looking for an easy and simple way to test the waters of contests on your WordPress website This plugin is an excellent choice.

Comment Contest

The cost-free Comment Contest plugin can aid in the creation of discussion about the blog's posts. When enabled, the plugin will allow you to decide which posts are to be part of as part of the contest before picking the winner. Because submitting a post is all that's needed for entry into the contest, there should have a significant response from your visitors.

The No Frills Prize Draw Competitions

The freemium plug-in lets you begin organizing contests on your WordPress website at no cost with the option of upgrading to a paid version, and unlocking more features.

In the settings you can choose what your participants must complete to be eligible for the contest. This could include entering some text, answering a multiple choice question or simply clicking enter. The winner will be selected automatically by the plugin. It is up to the winner to reach out to the winner and present the cash prize.

If you really want to get into the deep end with competitions, then the premium KingSumo Giveaways plugin isn't cheap but is feature rich.

Final Reflections

If all goes to plan though, your contest could lead to increased web traffic as well as increased exposure through social media, as well as new members for your program.

 Have you got any queries regarding running a contest for your website for membership? Let us know in the comments below.