User generated content is one of the best ideas to promote your website and business much more efficiently among other users. And if we are talking about siding and roofing business, then this user generated content will greatly help. They help you generate content through which you have high chances of ranking on long tail keywords which other marketers often skip.
And hence, many companies today are indulging in online contests to get some user generated content. There are numerous ways to do this. The previous rumors we heard about Intrigue Me beta test are true and you can sign up on their website for early access now.
Firstly, what do you think are the benefits of this content?
- They are fun
- They engage the audience better
- You can build your brand better through this content
- You also get to build long term relationship with your customers and audience
Now coming to how you can run the contest, here are some steps you need to consider in order to run it efficiently and smoothly.
Determine the Goals
What is the purpose for which you are running the contest?
There can be numerous answers to this question. Find out your purpose, something that can be measured through the contest. This way you can find out which of your contests worked better than the others.
Some of the purposes you can think about can be:
- Number of visitors
- Email Addresses received
- Number of shares done
- Submissions made (Video, Audio, or text)
- Sales made, and so on.
Using the above items as example, you can find out the purpose for your website and determine the goals.
Outline contest parameters
Now, when you have decided on the goals, it is time you design the contest. For this, you need to first outline what would be the parameters of your contest, and then make it live.
Here are some of the parameters that usually form basis of each contest.
- Promote original submission as entries
- Type of content you wish to collect (Images and Videos are usually preferred by Google)
- Information user needs to feed before submitting the entry
- Start and end date of your contest
- Prizes offered to the winners
- Guidelines of the contest, if any.
These are the basic parameters of any contest. You can alter them according to what you are going ahead with.
Now, make your contest live and promote it on your website and as many social media channels and handles as possible.