Who doesn’t like winning free stuff?

Most people, if not all, are lured by the possibility of something for nothing. Precisely the reason why competitions are an effective way to drive traffic to a website.

Take our client, TheFashionPixie.com, a website which compiles high street and online sales and deals.  Each month they launch a new competition offering users the chance to enter a free prize draw, (prizes have included high value designer products such as a Marc Jacobs handbag), simply by registering their details.

Running competitions can bring a number of benefits.  The key one for TheFashionPixie.com was to drive registrations and it has proved to be an effective tool for doing this. With each competition, we see a sizable jump in visitors.

If you are thinking of running a competition, but you’re not sure where to start, here are a few tips we’ve picked up along the way:

-          It sounds like a simple point, but it is essential to make sure your prize is a desirable item for your website’s target market. Otherwise you risk gathering large amounts of email addresses that will be of little value if nobody on that list is actually interested in your site.

-          There are a number of dedicated competition listing sites and forums that will send high volumes of entrants to your site and are free to submit your competition details. Here are some of the sites we use:

http://www.ukcompetitions.com , http://www.competitorscompanion.com  , http://www.loquax.co.uk , http://www.competitionslist.com, http://www.competitionstoday.co.uk/ , http://www.offeroasis.co.uk , http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72

-          Make sure you include accessible terms and conditions. It is very important that a competition is deemed fair by the players and many competition listing sites will not post your details without them.

-          And finally, once you have attracted a participant to your website, keep it simple. The more you require your audience to do, the less likely they are to enter.