People love to win things, and they love to be recognised for

winning. Be creative in deciding what the prize should be, but

consider how much your customers will think it is worth.

While a prize doesn’t have to be something of great value, it does have

to be something that is useful or of some value to the winner. Make

sure that it is something they want, not just a blatant advertisement

for your business.

A bumper sticker marketing your web address is not

going to generate a great deal of interest. Your advertisement or web

address should be plainly visible, but it should not be the focal point of

the item you are giving away.

If you are running a business to business website, free advertising on

your site for the winner is something that wouldn’t cost you anything,

but if your site doesn’t attract very much traffic the prize may not be

seen as being very valuable.

The great thing for you is that running contests is a great way to drive

large amounts of traffic to your site. Other than the cost of the prize,

there is not very much cost involved in this technique. There are

websites and blogs that are in the business of telling others about

contests that other people are running.

They will do your marketing for you. All you have to do is contact these

sites and let them know about your contest. If it’s worth mentioning

they will tell their subscribers.  If the contest is good enough or creative

enough, it may catch the attention of a blogger who will spread the word to others.

The better the prize package, the faster and farther it will spread.

A good way to take advantage of this technique is to have a repeating

contest, or a series of contests. This method will keep customers

returning to your site.

Not only will they return to sign up for the new

contest, but they will also check back periodically to see what the next

contest is, and when it begins.