If you own a business and are considering hosting a giveaway or sweepstakes, you may want to consider hiring a professional. The legal and logistical aspects alone can be confusing. From non-compliance with the law to customer analysis after the contest is over, there are some definite pros to hiring an outside company to complete the job.
Why Sweepstakes?
You might be wondering if sweepstakes and contests are worth the trouble. It may surprise you to know that to many companies, they are. According to an article written for cfapromo.com, “Sweepstakes are still one of the very best ways to get a huge flux of new customers to your business with a great return on your investment. This means you can get a ton of new customers without spending too much money. In addition, these types of contests excite and entice people in a way that often does not seem forced. That means the customer does not feel like the company is directly selling to them – but rather that they are in control of their decision to try a product or brand. The idea of receiving something of value for free or nearly free, causes many customers to give their personal information which allows companies to market to them again in the future.”
Legal Compliance
The last thing you want to do is thoughtfully plan out and execute a giveaway only to find out you did it illegally. An article written for cfapromo.com states, “Sweepstakes are subject to a lot of legal scrutiny depending on the region in which you are running the contest. Have you heard of legal compliance, risk management, official rules, and disclosure development? No? How about state registrations, surety bonds, and IRS filing, prize structure planning, and winner affidavit management?” There are so many elements to running a sweepstakes or contest that many people don’t consider. It’s important to have your ducks in a row.
Contest Organization
Having a company to organize and execute your contest for you is invaluable. They have the means and technology to set up an online entry system and handle massive amounts of data. With this type of system in place, you can make sure you aren’t receiving a bunch of incomplete or invalid entries. It’s a service that can save you a lot of time and frustration.
Analysis
When you have finished running your contest, you’ll likely want to see how your fared. You’ll want to know how successful it was, the average age of people who participated, and the average age of new customers. The amount of information you can gain from a number analysis is staggering. If you’re inexperienced in this field, it’s reason enough to hire a professional.
Don’t waste an opportunity. If you’re considering hosting some sort of giveaway, do it right. Make sure you walk away from the experience with new customers and a wealth of information by working with an outside company.