3 ideas to boost sales through competitions
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Many consumers and customers stretch their budget during sales season to make the most of low prices and promotions that brands offer.
To maximise your potential sales and encourage purchases during sales periods, here are our marketing games and competition ideas to liven up your shops and online store!
Gamification and competitions play a key role in sales periods to highlight your brand, as well as next season’s featured products.
Our experience has shown that the best conversion and participation rates come from competitions which offer:
- Discount vouchers to use on an in-store or online purchase with the organising brand;
- Coupons or gift cards to be redeemed online or to print off and use in the brand’s retail outlets;
- Limited-time codes and offers on popular products;
- Games with purchasing obligation where a receipt or proof of purchase offers an invitation to play online.
Engage your community with challenges during sales periods
Competitions rely on a real challenge to attempt to win prizes, often of a significant value. For example, it could be a Wheel of Fortune (in-store or on your website) giving customers the chance to win discount vouchers. The more valuable and tempting the prizes are for consumers, the more the brand will benefit from the deal. Your audience engagement will double over the course of iconic game campaigns, thanks to the power that prizes have over consumers.
By turning rewards and prizes into popular games, you can capture participants’ attention and interest, and even convert new clients. For example, you can come up with a game where participants must put as many products as possible in their basket (virtual or physical) within an allotted time. Or even a virtual reality game to immerse clients in the world of your products!
It is very important that the game concept and general approach reflect your brand’s image and products to unlock a potential purchasing decision later on.
Engage your community by involving them in your new collection
What could be more engaging than involving your consumers in the design and production process of a new product for an upcoming collection? Design and Photo Contests are an alternative way to build connections with your audience. In fact, if you invite your followers to come up with a new product for your brand, they will feel that you truly value them for their imagination, artistic skill and commitment to your brand. For a great example, just look at the success of LEGO Ideas, LEGO’s participative creation and production platform. This approach helps you celebrate your customers and put them right at the heart of your team!
The simplest way to set up an operation like that is through your e-commerce site. This way, each participant can create their own design, send in their creation and take part in an official selection process carried out by a jury of your choice, directly on your company’s website. Don’t forget to share the entry form and rules on your social media profiles and online platforms! A public vote can also be organised following the selection process to strengthen your community’s involvement and interest in the campaign.
The lucky winner will have their creation included in your brand’s new collection after the sale season, and might even win a prize. The benefit of having a public vote is that you can also reward those who vote, as well as the other participants, by organising a prize draw with prizes and promo codes. This way, nobody feels left out!
Gain customer loyalty thanks to promo codes
This concept is perfect for sales since it combines a promotional tool and a game based on instant rewards. The aim of this type of marketing game is to influence consumers’ purchasing habits on your e-commerce site by offering a three-part reward system:
- Promo codes to offer participants exclusive discounts up to a certain value on purchases. Promotional codes are very much appreciated by customers, especially during sales periods, which can lead them to make even more purchases and discover new products.
- Personal discount codes to offer free shipping on online purchases, for example. Certain factors can discourage some customers from making purchases, so offering this type of code can remove these obstacles while converting new customers to your brand!
- Iconic prizes or limited edition products to be won to create a sense of exclusivity and pique new customers’ interest.
To summarise, offers continuously create more public engagement! Competitions and this type of prize are similar to a fun, interactive and innovative loyalty programme, with regular new opportunities for customers to win a promotional offer. It is a fantastic opportunity to test your products on new consumers and if your products work their magic on them, then you’ve struck gold!
For the best results, you can combine these rewards for winners with a push promotional strategy and highlight a certain product, either directly or through distribution.
Expert advice!
- Opt for simple gaming mechanisms for your competitions. Instant winner games and Scratch Card games are simple and, therefore, perfectly suited as they let participants know what they have won instantly. During sales periods, it is useful to set up this kind of game on your website to promote your products in an engaging way and encourage purchases.
- Increase the efficiency of your competitions by linking them to your social media platforms. Known for bringing together communities of active users, it’s the perfect place for brands and companies that are looking to generate more suitable, relevant leads. Go ahead and find participants and your future clients, they’re waiting for you!
- Keep in mind that to increase your sales, as the organising body, you must generate significant traffic for your competition. Above all, however, you need to build a marketing bridge between physical retail outlets and online social media, to ensure you also create more in-store traffic during your sales.
With Drimify, the gamification platform that makes creating your marketing games and competitions simpler than ever, you will work with gamification experts to engage your audience during sales and boost your sales.
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