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We have just completed an online contest for Card2U. The prize is a free Valentine dinner at Istana Hotel. The contest has attracted 3,196 couples to participate. The contest has been of immense success. You can view the contest at http://www.card2u.com.my/contest. But why contest?
Online contest is one of the most effective ways to generate prospects, customers and traffic to your web site. We think a well-developed contest should be:
Different from the others.
Interesting & fun to play.
Get people to learn about your products and services (therefore promotion).
Increase your reputation online.
Designed for permission marketing later.
Designed for viral marketing.
Viral marketing is a way to market your products and services by making customers spread the words about you among themselves. Instead of advertising directly to your market (which could be expensive), you can try find a way to make people voluntarily talk about your offerings and spread the news to others (which could be very low-cost and even free). A person is more likely to trust a friend, rather than an unknown advertiser. You can find more resources about viral marketing at http://bizpartner.com.my/viral.htm
Card2U contest is our third contest developed for customers and is by far the best. We have tried to put in the factors listed above into the contest. See how we do:
The contest is open to couples to play, that is a team of two persons. They collaborate to earn as many points as possible. The couple with the highest score is the winner of the contest. Here are a few ways how a couple could earn points:
Take a quiz and answer questions - They get to learn about Card2U, their products and services.
Invite and get other friends to visit the web site - They spread the news about Card2U.
Sign up other friends into the contest - The important viral factor (see below).
Print and email a discount voucher that can be presented to Card2U to buy products - Increase sales.
The critical success factor of the contest is the "infection rate", that is how one couple gets other couples into the contest. In this case, a couple is awarded 20 points if they could sign up another couple. Those couples who sign up later sign up yet other couples. And this goes on and on. This has resulted in over 48,000 invitations throughout the contest.
In fact, the "viral factor" is very important for online businesses and web site. You could generate much more prospects and hits to your web site by using some kind of "word of mouth" programme (like a contest) at very low cost, than many other ways of promotions such as banner and newspaper advertisements.
For more information about Card2U contest, please visit http://www.card2u.com.my/contest. If you are interested in viral marketing and / or online contests for your web site, do contact us. Yes, we are addicted to conducting contests!
Note: BizPartner has also implemented another contest for TM Tours & Travel in April and May 2002. The contest has attracted over 17,000 teams to participate. Over 90,000 invitations have been sent out by participants to their friends. Each team consists of one or two persons. The prizes are free trips to Langkawi Island and Cameron Highlands.