Our 5 design tips for killer contests

Beside other elements, the look and feel of your campaign is absolutely essential if you want to avoid a high bounce rate and if you are looking to meet your marketing goals. Design is sometimes something scary for a marketer – but it shouldn’t! You don’t need to be a CSS master to create sexy campaigns that make people want to play! So here are a few tips for killer contests.

An original and cleverly built campaign, without a good design, will have a low participation rate.

1. Call to action

The “Participate” button on your landing page is essential. To encourage people to participate, you should contrast this button with the rest of your page design – for example with a different color. Your goal is to make them participate, so tell them where they should click. A good tip is also to personalize the text in your button to make it more original, as shown hereunder:

2. Prizes’ presentation

Use your Welcome Screen to offer a visual picture of your gifts. Why are you spending money? To encourage participation. So show them clearly what they can win, don’t be shy.

3. Use a soft gate

One of your performance indicator is the number of Likes on your Facebook page and you’re therefore using a Fan Gate (or ‘Soft gate’). Very good. But pay attention, this gate should not become a wall! Take your users by the hand and show them the way – a Fan Gate should always have a visual helper to the Like button, an arrow, for example. No hesitation allowed.

4. Simple – simple – SIMPLE forms

Yes, you want to know everything over your audience… but pay attention! A form is frustrating & scary. If you don’t offer a prize, limit the fields to the absolute minimum. When you reward the winners, you can ask a few more informations, but bear in mind that less is more. You can also use a single click Facebook Connect with Qualifio or a Single Sign On custom development — these can sometimes be the best way to kill the frustration!

5. Be responsive

If your campaigns are not responsive, you’re loosing a lot (A LOT) of audience-engagement. Few reminders within Qualifio Manager.

• Always select a responsive template — it’s pre-selected;
• Select a killer background image with the your iframe dimensions. But take the time to upload a Banner in the same look and feel. When the screen will be too small (= mobile environment), the banner will automatically replace the image background for a perfect user experience;
• We have an integrated Smart URL: forget all the rest. The smart URL understands on what type of device is your visitor & display the best version for him. Share your smart URL, nothing else.

6. Be smarter than your competitors

Well, be smart. You chose the “Answer by clicking on images button”? Make sure all your images have the same dimensions. If they don’t, spend 10 more minutes of work to get a CONVERTING end result!