Continued from page 1
2) Newsletters again...
Add a checkbox to your competition entry page, order page etc. offering people
chance to sign up for your newsletter (making sure to offer
hook of exclusive newsletter give-aways, freebies, coupons etc. of course) and you've got a bunch of new subscribers. This is a less effective means of building your mailing list but it still works.
3) The Scavenger Hunt Competition.
Get people to browse around your website to give you
answers to a question or two you propose. Think "By how much is
Super Megatron 2000 reduced by this month"? and use these questions to direct people to your latest promotions and offers. Not only do you get all those extra visitors from blogs and comeptition sites like you wanted, but you also show these extra visitors
highlights of your site which will either encourage them to buy there and then or bookmark you for future reference rather than hitting and running.
4) The Repeat Competition Hook
Giving away different freebies in your competitions each month ensures two things. Firstly, competition addicts (of which there are many) will hit your site every month giving you a chance to market your offers to them at least once a month. Secondly, you ensure those search result boosting links continue to multiply every month...
...and so on. If there is any aspect of your website or business you feel is a real hook and worth promoting to customers then a decent competition used correctly is
perfect way to highlight it to a wide audience without spending a fortune on advertising.
But hang on, this isn't
ONLY way to use competitions to your own advantage. Another great way is to not run your own competition at all but to simply SPONSOR a competition on another site. Getting into a small competition sponsorship deal with a high traffic site in a related (but non-competiting) subject area can bring some awesome targeted traffic your way. If they archive their competition results and past sponsorships, then that's another on-way link you got into
bargain as well.
The possibilities here are endless and it's not going to cost you anything more than a few bucks each month in order to start
ball rolling.
So what are you waiting for?

Mark Falco is the webmaster and owner of the digital camera shopping guide found at http://www.oneclickcameras.co.uk . Permission is granted to reuse this article so long as no modifications are made and this author byline remains intact somewhere on the same page as the published article.