Running a competition/contest on Facebook can be an effective way to attract more visitors to your Facebook page and increase engagement on your page. This can result in more people becoming aware of your business and potentially using your services in the future. However, it’s essential to remember that not every person who enters your competition will become a customer.
Before running a competition define your end goal. Do you want to increase awareness if your business, collect email addresses, or generate sales? You should also consider how much time and money you want to invest in the competition and whether it’s likely to give you the desired outcome.
Why Run Competitions on Facebook?
There are several reasons why running competitions on Facebook can be beneficial for your business.
#1. Good way to increase your visibility in your area
If you are trying to build your Facebook following, then competitions can be a great way to get in front of new people that perhaps would not have heard of you.
People tend to share competitions with friends and family, so it’s a great way to get more people to see your business.
#2. Create a loyal following
If people enter your competitions there are lots of ways to then get them to follow more of your channels and content. You could collect email addresses, invite them to like your page or invite them over to another social channel. The important thing is to create a following of your ideal customers.
You might also enjoy reading: 5 Ways To Engage With Your Audience On Social Media
#3. Cheap way to grow your audience
Running a good competition can be a relatively cheap way of growing your following. If you collaborate with another brand, such as a pet store, then you are tapping into an audience you would otherwise have to pay for (assuming you arrange for them to share your competition with their following)
Make sure you arrange the terms of the competition and what you expect from your brand partner before you run any competitions.
7 Facebook Competition Ideas For Your Pet Business
Here are 7 ideas for competitions that you can run on your page. A lot of these can be done as ‘just for fun’ with no prize required. If you are going to give a prize then make sure it is something related to your services.
If you offer something like an ipad as a prize then you will attract people who just look for competitions to enter – rather than people who could be potential customers.
#1. Caption This
Choose a funny or cute picture and ask people to caption it. You can choose one of your own pictures or your can invite people to share pictures of their pets doing something funny/cute and then use those.
I would ask the owner of the picture if they are OK with you using their picture first.
#2. Find The….
There are lots of ways you can ask people to find something in a picture. It could be an animal in the bushes which you take when you are out and about. Or it could be something you create like this where I am asking people to find the logo in a picture.
#3. Guess How Many…..
You could do this with a picture of lots of dogs or cats, you could do a video (like this one below) or you could create a picture of dog biscuits and ask people to guess how many.
People love these types of games and get very competitive.
#4. Guess The….
You could create an entire series of guess the breed pictures for cats and dogs. You could also do location based competitions where you guess the landmark.
#5. Photo Competition
People love to share pictures of their pets, so photo competitions can be really interactive and create lots of good engagement.
This was a photo competition we ran to find the best carved pumpkin, so you could this during lots of seasonal times like Best Dressed Dog At Christmas.
#6. Ask A Question
You could ask people a question about your local area, your local sports team, your own business or an event that is happening in town.
Don’t make the question too hard, as you will find less people enter.
This shop just asked about the dip that came with the pizza they sell and then gave people a choice of answers. Nothing too hard that would put people off entering.
#7. Spot The Difference
I love these games!! And people love to play find the difference games like this.
Top Tip: Don’t make these too hard. I got someone on fiverr to create these and they were REALLY hard. If I do them again I would get them made a little easier.
You might also enjoy reading: How To Promote Your Pet Business On Facebook
How to Convert Entrants to Customers
#1. Invite them to like your page
Every time someone likes your post you can go into that post and invite them to like your page. If you do this as soon as they have liked the competition post it’s likely that they will like your page.
If you continue to create interesting and engaging content, then they will continue to follow you and engage with more of your content.
How to invite them
- Click on the people that liked your post.
- Click Invite next to those who don’t already like your page
#2. Create a downloadable freebie that is related to the competition
Can you create something that people can sign up to after the competition so you can capture their email address?
For example, if you were doing a competition about baking for your pets could you create an ebook full of recipes for them to sign up to afterwards.
You might also enjoy reading: Why Your Pet Sitting or Dog Walking Business Needs an eBook
#3. Gather email addresses for larger competitions
If you are running a large competition, then you should get people to provide an email address for entry so that you can market your services to them afterwards.
Make sure you are clear that you are going to be sending them emails when they enter and you have their permission to do that..
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