Do competitions motivate people?

[Brendan]

I often see businesses running competitions to drum up more customers, things like refer xx of your friends to go into the draw to win something.

I have participated in a few because the prizes looked pretty good, such as an iPod or a free holiday.

But what I want to know.. is do these sort of things motivate people, or just attract spammers?

Do you think its the business that motivates them, the ease of the competition, or the prize?

[justinsigns]

My thoughts are the prize and the thrill of winning.

My wife runs a few competitions on facebook and this generates alot of interest in our product and we get sales from the competitions as well.

[kimono]

I think this depends on the company marketing strategy and their product. What type of consumers do they want to get? and why?
With iPod, i think it's the perfect fit for it. But i don't think it will fit for other type of products like IKEA.

[one]

I ran a competition on one of my sites using an ipod as the prize, it worked reasonably well to generate some activity. Probably the best part was that someone picked up on the competition and added it to one of these competition directory websites, so that drove some extra traffic to the site too.

Best to check with your state government department to ensure you're not breaking any rules. In Qld it was relatively simple, I just had to write some brief terms and conditions to be placed on my website, and because the prize was under a certain value I didn't have to apply for a licence or similar.

[Vortilla]

I think a large part is the prize. It doesn't necessarily need to be expensive, but just like any other marketing strategy, it needs to be relevant to the interests of your target market.

[silkinteriors]

I think it's usually the prize that motivates people.

When offering a prize, I think you need to consider how relevant the prize is or how closely it relates to the product or service you're selling. Giving away an electronic gadget if you're selling home made sauces doesn't really make sense, but a cooking book that compliments the sauces or a gift box of the sauces does and with that kind of prize, you're going to attract the kind of person that is interested in your product.

I am considering having a prize draw when we hold our stand at the HIA home show in April - the prize would be to create a feature wall in someone's home or place of business. I really hope we get people signing up who are genuinely interested in wallpapering their home and not just entering it for entering's sake.

It'd be so much easier to do business if there weren't so many tyre kickers in this world! :)

When I think about it - I don't think I'd enter a competition like that if I didn't want my walls wallpapered.

[jBasket]

For general online businesses, electronic gadgets will be the best rewards. But we need also to be transparent to the participants about how the lucky draw is made. Make sure you email all the competition entries about the result.

My friend has an online jelwery store. She ran a photo competitiion to win vouchers to be redeemed in the store and it generated quite a lot of traffic for her.

[firstmillion]

My friend has an online jelwery store. She ran a photo competitiion to win vouchers to be redeemed in the store and it generated quite a lot of traffic for her.

Hi,

We are also planning to sell jewelery online. This jewelery is made in India. Could you please let me know your friends website?

Cheers

[jBasket]

it's http://www.qacaq.com/

[firstmillion]

it's http://www.qacaq.com/

Thanks for the website. It's good collection.

[HWT]

We just bought (give or take several months for DA approval) a house through a particular builder because they are running a competition. It works.