There are many steps to take when creating a promotion. One important step to highlight is engineering the success of your campaign from the very beginning by getting the word out and building excitement before the promotion launches. A promotion does not go viral on its own, the strategy goes further than just creating the promotion and letting your fans do all of the work.
In order to generate maximum awareness of your promotion it is a great idea to plan a media strategy. Planning posts across social media channels is a great place to start. These posts should be easily shareable so fans can spread the message on their own social media. They should be an exciting announcement of your upcoming promotion offering all of the essential information and should include an incentive for your fans to become involved. One great idea is to offer extra opportunities to enter the promotion and win prizes that coincide with their sharing activity. For example, offer an extra entry into the contest if your fans share the promotional message with five friends. This is a great way to get your fans to spread the message before the promotion begins and to get them engaged and excited. If your message reaches enough people at the beginning it will eventually begin to spread itself. The most important thing to remember is to make your announcement post exciting and worth sharing. Using imagery can be useful in this step.
Another great way to spread the message is to send out an email to all of your fans and customers who have an email subscription. This email should be similar to your social media posts in that they include the important information on the contest and where to find it when it launches. This email can also include links to your website announcement and here they can share the message on social media.
A press release is another great way to reach a large audience and get the message out about your upcoming promotion. It is also a great way to display all of the information about the promotion and talk about how the promotion relates to your brand and products. Search advertising, display ads, and Facebook ads are all great ways to spread the message about your promotion as well.
After posting about the upcoming promotion on your social media channels and spreading the message via email and a press release, you can go a step further and find bloggers or other brands who will write about your promotion and your story on their own blogs and websites. If you have made your story and your promotion exciting and shareable than the promotion will be easy to find when the time comes for the official launch. It is up to you to make the initial efforts to create awareness. You can reach new fans and followers by utilizing ads and reaching out to influential people in your community who can help spread the word. Remember, any touch point you have with a fan or potential fan is an opportunity to promote your contest or sweepstakes.
Just because your promotion has ended doesn’t mean you can drop the ball; there is still plenty of work to be done. It is important to follow through with your promotion and continue to connect with your fans. Your promotion has most likely established new or stronger relationships with your fans and it is important to act on these relationships.
