NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Why a contest?
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Why a contest?
Mary Roth-Davies (SCUBAFIEND_at_worldnet.att.net)
Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:57:46 -0500
>As the host of a large contest listing site, Contestworld, I would
>like your feedback on this issue so I can better serve those sites
>whose contests we list.
I recently ran a contest on our adventure travel site Destination:
Adventure! http://www.destinationadventure.com My reason was to
generate revenue, gain exposure and to gather names, addresses and
email addresses for future communications. Although our contest
was a great success as far as getting info for future mailings and
campaigns it was a miserable failure as far as getting leads or
sales. My activity shot up by 400% when I started the contest and
remained at this level for the entire contest. However as soon as
I took the contest down my activity went right back to its original
volume of visitors. On top of that it was an exorbitant amount of
work on my part harvesting the information and de-duping the
entries. In looking at the entrants I found that a fair percentage
(around 60%) were repeat visitors who came in right at the form and
never went anywhere else.
There were a few positives in the lesson. Once I saw that I was
not getting visits to other parts of the site I developed a thank
you note that included some text and hot links to other parts of
the site. I also put a back button on that page that automatically
brought the entrant to my home page and finally I placed a free
newsletter on the page. This last thing was the most successful of
all. The people who clicked on the button and subscribed to the
newsletter now receive an in-depth communication on many topics
that are hopefully of interest to them.
Now this is not to say I would not do another contest, I would.
However my goals will be different and I will definitely get some
help in processing the entries. As for exposure, improved
placement on search engines and harvesting potential customer
information contests are great. Just don't have too high of
expectations.
Mary Roth-Davies, President
mailto:info_at_destinationadventure.com
------------------------------------------
Destination: Adventure! your travel planning partners. Where will
you be on Dec 31, 1999? http://www.destinationadventure.com/ For
the "Party of the Century"
Golfing your passion? Check out our PGA European Masters Golf tour
http://www.destinationadventure.com and click on the "PGA GOLF"
button.
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