#1 – Create a detailed campaign strategy.

You’ll be able to think more critically about your campaign goals, how you’ll carry out strategies, and how you’ll gauge success if you take the time to develop and document your campaign strategy. Additionally, you may utilize your strategy as a helpful road map to keep you on course for the duration of the campaign.

As you develop your campaign strategy, consider the following questions:

• Who is your target audience? (What spurs them on? Are there any areas of concern you’re attempting to address?
• What is the purpose of your campaign? What actions do you want your intended audience to take?
• Which social media platforms are ideal for this campaign or competition? Which social media channels will help you reach your audience and achieve your campaign’s objectives?
• What strategies will You employ to carry out your campaign? (Blog posts? Video? eBooks? Webinars? Influencers?)
• Which individuals on your own team will be involved in this initiative? (Who is in charge of carrying out each step of the campaign?)
• What role will this campaign play in your broader social media marketing plan?
• How will You assess your progress? (Users of a website? measures of participation? Does the message form Download? Purchases?)

#2 – Offer something of value.

People need the motivation to follow your campaign or enter your contest. Discounts and freebies are unquestionably effective motivators.

For instance, Welter Heating, a family-run HVAC business that is a client of TopRank Marketing, held a social media trivia contest with sets of four front-row tickets to an upcoming baseball game as the winner. Driving social awareness, interaction, and website traffic were the objectives. On their primary social media optimization accounts, calls for entries were posted, and a little budget was set aside for sponsored Facebook posts.

Finally, we observed a 166% increase in total website traffic compared to the same time last year. Even a few social media marketing services requests were made as a result of the contest.

However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that your offer doesn’t have to begin and end with an expensive prize. By highlighting the contributions of your participants, you may also add value. For Welter Heating, this entailed recognizing winners in a blog post and posting pictures of the winners taking advantage of their prize money.

#3 – Research campaign and contest rules.

Consider your competitors as you plan your social media marketing approach.

• Which businesses that are comparable to yours have active social media accounts?
• Which companies’ campaigns, in your opinion, were successful?
• Do the businesses you’re evaluating frequently hold giveaways, competitions, or live videos?
• How popular are their social media posts?

You can begin to comprehend what is successful in your industry by taking a step back and asking yourself these questions. You will be able to decide how to make your campaign stand out as well. Look for ideas elsewhere as well. Look for campaigns that inspire you and consider how you can incorporate elements such as a comparable style, level of engagement, aesthetic, or a specific message into your own campaign if your competition isn’t on social media, you don’t like how they conducted their previous campaigns, or you run an incredibly unique business.

#4 – Don’t forget SEO best practices.

SEO is crucial to any campaign or competition because all social media platforms have built-in search engines and many of them may be indexed by Google, Bing, and other outside search engines.

Make a list of the targeted keywords and any associated hashtags you’d like to rank for on social media optimization before commencing your campaign. When you have your list, use native query searches to find out who or what kind of content is being returned in searches. These insights can aid in the improvement of your keyword list, guarantee relevancy, and even provide an idea of the competition.

#5 – On your website, create a landing page for a campaign or contest.

Making a customized landing page is essential if one of your goals is to increase traffic to your website or a certain asset there. A landing page can assist in ensuring that your audience has arrived where they need to be in order to take action. Instead of merely sending people to the site, it’s useful for tracking how your audience interacts with your campaign content.

#6 – Actively engage with participants.

Engaging with your participants is the best approach to naturally increase campaign or contest participation. Every successful interaction should, at the absolute least, earn you a like or a favorite. But for the greatest impact, try to be sincere and promote more conversation. 

Use your favorite social media management platform to keep track of activity. Whether you’re monitoring comments, mentions, or hashtags so you can react swiftly. There are several solutions available, both free and paid, if you’re looking for a new tool. Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Sprinklr, Spredfast, and Buffer are a few of the choices. Select the one that best fits your needs in terms of budget, objectives, and networks.

#7 – Create a unique hashtag for your campaign

Every significant social media campaign has a hashtag, which should be consistent across all of your social media channels. Hashtags make it simple for your followers to participate in your campaign and give your team members a way to keep track of conversations. Your hashtag should stand out and be easy to remember.

One well-known social media campaign is You’re Not You When You’re Hungry by Snickers. They show people getting “hangry,” going crazy, or even changing into new people due to hunger and anger. Once they have a bite of a Snickers bar and have satisfied their appetite. These individuals return to their regular selves. #EatASnickers is the campaign’s hashtag. It is uncomplicated, easy to remember, and goal-oriented. Additionally, one of their advertising taglines is “Eat a Snickers,” which adds to the campaign’s consistency.