4 Essential Mediums for Promoting Your Next Online Contest

You've put a lot of effort and resources into securing a sponsor and building an attractive, engaging contest for your radio station, but the work doesn’t stop there. Even the best-designed, highest stakes campaigns can yield low participation rates if they’re not actively promoted. If your digital contests could use a boost in traffic, include these four places in your marketing plan.

On-Air

If you’re running a cool digital campaign, you should shout it from the rooftops! Promoting online content over the air is an easy marketing tactic that is often overlooked. Your listeners visit your website to learn more about the topics they hear on the radio, so be sure to incorporate your featured digital promotions into your broadcast. Try scheduling a few quick mentions in between commercials or include a blurb about a contest in your on-air personalities’ scripts.

Live Events

Also consider marketing your online contests during your remotes and other live appearances. Task your interns with handing out flyers or postcards with the direct link to the contest, or have them help your listeners sign up on tablets or other mobile devices right there at the event. Grassroots publicity is an excellent way to bring in new traffic to your promotions, so consider enlisting a street team to spread the word around town. Wherever you go, be sure to encourage the listeners you meet in person to share the contest with their own friends and family.

Social Media

You’ve grown a dedicated following on your various social media profiles, so why not put that influence to good use? Post about your online contests on social sites to drive traffic directly to your big sponsored promotions. We recently published an article about harnessing the power of social media that provides several tips for optimizing your messaging on each channel. For more ways to promote content on social media, check out the following posts, each dedicated to a different major network:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat

Email

Your audience subscribes to receive emails from you in order to hear news and updates from your station, so leverage those mailing lists with an email campaign for your next big contest. You can share a short blurb about the promotion in your weekly newsletter or even send out a dedicated mailing for the contest itself. If your promotion has a sponsor, you could even feature exclusive offers from that business to generate more buzz. For more tips on how to improve your email marketing strategy, check out this recent post.

Including these channels in your digital marketing plan not only boosts your potential for higher contest participation, but it could also drive new traffic to your site and help grow your database.