Hard to beat the competition when it comes to public relations
It really is hard to beat the competition when it comes to public relations! No, not your competitors, but the idea of running competitions to promote your business.
While there is no doubt competitions are about promoting your business, the media will be more generous about mentioning competitions, even if it is only the presentation to the winner.
Throw social media into the mix and you have the potential to go viral – if that is what suits your business objectives. Naturally huge viral success will lead to the traditional media reporting it.
You see you can get many bites of the PR cherry with a good competition – from the launch, events during, shortlists, judging, the final and that slam dunk of a presentation. All the while you are potentially building up a good database of prospective customers – subject to data protection guidelines naturally.
And remember, good PR is as much about marketing to your existing customers as it is prospects and when you run a competition it is also a great way to connect with your existing clients and indeed your former clients too.
We blogged about a competition run by furniture company Kinnarps recently. They had effectively promoted among the myriad meetings of 4Networking the chance to win an ‘Orange chair’ of ergonomic brilliance. Obviously great PR for Kinnarps, but when Morgan PR client Jane Penson of Grammar to Go scooped first prize it was obviously great PR for her. You can read about how we approached that winning PR for Grammar to Go here.
Over time I have won all sorts – from uncanny success on raffles through to a trip to Paris and even an amateur comedy competition that took me to the Montreal Comedy Festival. All good fun and brilliant prizes, but also often leveraged through publicity for me as well as the promoter!
A lesson learned from the behaviour of people entering competitions! When I used to work on the Newbury Weekly News I did get mixed up in the competitions sometimes and it became clear that the bigger the prize, the fewer people would enter. Honestly, 50 prizes of nominal value and you were deluged but a holiday to Thailand and there were relatively few!
This is because we often perceive that bigger prizes will be more hotly contested and subsequent self exclude. Now bigger prizes will potentially grab bigger headlines so do take time to consider what your goal is – because if it is headlines then you sacrifice building a prospect list and if you want lots of contact details... make the prize accessible.
Of course if you go online your entries will potentially be global and not necessarily your potential customers so do be careful! It is also less likely you will get good contact details.
Naturally a competition should be a part of your overall public relations and social media strategy... we do that if you need help!