Zap
‘Community’ is the best tip we can give competition businnesses.
Competition sites thrive on community spirit. It’s a sign of good retention, but it also helps you acquire new customers.
Read on for some top tips on creating your own comps community.
Facebook Groups are cost-effective, far-reaching, and easy to use.
Plus, they exist to host the conversations of a bunch of people with a shared interest. A prime spot for community spirit.
Groups represent people who are already interested in your brand. Now you just have to keep them interested. Facebook will only show over 18’s any content related to online gaming, competitions, and raffles Which is why Facebook Groups are a great way to reach out and find qualified leads.
Post about upcoming competitions, and create conversations around your work.
Facebook Groups have a few rules in place to keep members safe. To post about and advertise online games and competitions here, you’ll need the appropriate permissions, including an RMG License.
To find out more and fill in the form, check out Meta’s guidance on the subject. We also discuss rules around consent and sharing competitions with over-18s, here.
‘Value’ is the key word here.
Valuable content improves retention AND inspires newbies to get involved.
Your community will build itself if you give people a reason to be excited.
A variety of posts, on a variety of platforms, will demonstrate what’s on offer. It’ll help you find those people who are interested in the same things you are.
This contributes to customer acquisition. New customers might find it hard to believe that they could win.
Showing off your winners is a form of social proof, encouraging involvement. It includes:
Put a human face to the positive experience. It shows newbies that there’s already a community around your brand. They just need a nudge to join in.
Share winners’ posts, or encourage them to publicise their experience by starting a hashtag.
Social proof establishes a positive reputation, contributing to your brand’s image so your follower count can flourish.
Post content which demands involvement.
We’re talking gamification strategies, polls, livestreams, and user-generated content. Things which imply that a user should respond by commenting, sharing, referring friends, creating their own content, or more.
This is valuable; it gives users something to think about. What’s more, it necessitates communication between them, building a community spirit around your brand.
One of the best ways to improve customer retention and to build community is to chat with your followers. That means:
Respond to comments—positive or negative—and give some solid answers. That’s a sure-fire way to show that you care.
Communities are based on mutual understanding; to build that, you have to communicate.
Make your brand seem like a place where your users’ voices can be heard, and they’ll want to speak!
Ask for your customers’ opinions, and ensure that you respond to these where possible.
All brands make mistakes, and there are lots of places where people might feel you can improve. That’s okay; it’s part of the process. The important thing is to provide excellent customer service and receive meaningful feedback, whatever their comments might be.
If you can make people feel valued, you’ll make them feel that they have a share in your business, giving them a reason to keep coming back for more. You also categorise yourself, in their minds, as one of the good guys, in a world that can be rife with mistrust.
Got a big competition coming up? Shout it from the rooftops!
Create suspense in the lead-up to your competition. Post across your social media platforms: ‘Announcement in X days’, for example. Run a countdown so people are brimming with anticipation. Get them speculating. What do your customers expect from the announcement?
You might even host a livestream when you launch the competition, so that people can chat about it, ask their burning questions, and put a human face to the competition, to build trust.
Don’t stop talking about it once you’ve launched! Keep creating new content about the competition to ensure people stay interested. Send out a variety of different posts, emails, and newsletters, so that it stays top of people’s minds. Remind them of closing dates, what’s on offer, and how they can enter.
Creating hype helps people get involved with your brand on a regular basis. Your posts become a consistent touchstone for them.
This one comes back to retention. Sure, one-off customers are great, but to build a community, you really want people to stick around.
Incentivise your audience to follow your social media accounts and get involved. You might run refer-a-friend competitions, with prizes for those who do the referring.
Maybe you run loyalty programmes, which inspire people to come back for more, and show them that their custom is appreciated.
Whatever you do, make sure you are consistent with your promises, and that you think about the things your audience would really like to see. Hey, you can even ask them about it! You have a community now.
At Zap, we know the power of community spirit. We’ve got buckets of the stuff, and we can help you build yours, too.
Community starts when you reach out. Get in touch with us today, and make your community just that little bit bigger.
