Episode 112: What Your Pet Business Can Gain From Facebook Contests

Facebook Competitions can be proven to be a very useful tool in your business for becoming active in your community and even signing on new clients. However, It’s important to realize that when you run a competition you are not going to get 100’s of new customer inquiries. What you will get though is an increase in your following and brand awareness. It’s then your job to convert those new followers into customers in the future. Biggest Takeaways You Don't Want To Miss Why Run Competitions on Facebook? Facebook competitions are a great way to increase your visibility in your area. If you are trying to build your Facebook following, then competitions can be a great way to get in front of new people that perhaps would not have heard of you. People tend to share competitions with friends and family, so it’s a great way to get more people to see your business. They can also help you create a loyal following. If people enter your competitions’ there are lots of ways to then get them to follow more of your channels and content. You could collect email addresses, invite them to like your page or invite them over to another social channel. Facebook contests are a cheap way to grow your audience. Running a good competition can be a relatively cheap way of growing your following. If you collaborate with another brand, then you are tapping into an audience you would otherwise have to pay for. Also, people tend to share competitions more freely than they do blog posts or ads for your services. So, this can be great for brand awareness. The Best Type of Competitions On Facebook Caption This Spot the Difference Guess The….Breed/Location etc? Share a Picture/Story Annual Competition Should You Always Give Away A Prize? I wouldn’t advise giving away a prize every time you run a competition. If you do, then your page will attract people who enter every competition online regardless of the product/Service/Brand. These people are probably not your ideal customers. You could decide that maybe you will run a number of small competitions each week/fortnight and then have one larger competition with a prize every month/quarter/year. Don’t be tempted to run competitions where you give away things like iPads or non-pet related gift vouchers. Again, you will attract the wrong type of person. Instead, think of people you can collaborate with you have a larger audience you can leverage. For example, there might be a popular pet store in town that would be happy to share your competition on their Facebook Page in exchange for promotion with your client base. It also means you share the cost of the prize. How to Convert Entrants to Customers Invite them to like your page Every time someone likes your post you can go into that post and invite them to like your page. If you do this as soon as they have liked the competition post it’s likely that they will like your page. If you continue to create interesting and engaging content, then it’s likely they will continue to follow you and engage with more of your content. Create a downloadable freebie that is related to the competition Can you create something that people can sign up to after the competition, so you can capture their email address? For example, if you were doing a competition about baking for your pets could you create an ebook full of recipes or them. Gather email addresses for larger competitions. If you are running a large competition, then you should get people to provide an email address for entry so that you can market your services to them afterward. Make sure you are clear that you are going to be sending them emails when they enter. Resources: Podcast with Kate telling about her competition: /episode-77-competition-consistency-kate-mcquillan/ Kate's contest: https://www.facebook.com/noseoftralee/ Kate's page: https://www.facebook.com/PetSittersIreland/ Pictures for the competition: https://petbusinessowners.com/facebookcompetitions/ Transcript: This is episode 112 of Bella in Your Business. The next series of episodes are from a previously recorded live event training series that Erica Goodwin and I did together. The following is a past recording, but the information is just as juicy. I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Bella in Your Business, where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready—Bella's got your chute. Let's jump. Have you ever seen all these Facebook competitions and wondered if it's actually right for you? Have you seen other people be really good at them and thought, “That’s so not for me”? Well, today we're going to break that down and show you exactly how you can do it—with tried and tested proven results. I'm so excited to bring on my co-host today. You might notice she looks a little different and has a different accent because my normal co-host, Erica, up in Canada, is now spending time laying on the beach in Jamaica. But we have Kate McQuillan, one of my really great friends from Ireland, joining us. Kate: Hi! I'm fantastic. It's not quite as warm here as it is there with you. A bit of rain today, but good, yeah, really good. Bella: I'm so excited for you to help us on this show today and really just explode your zone of genius. I've watched you grow from a couple thousand followers on your Facebook page to more engagement than Walmart—rocking it with getting people from Facebook to your website and gaining media publicity because of your competitions. At first, I was a naysayer—I thought, “Kate, you're just special; it’s Ireland.” But I’ve seen you do it with so many pet sitters here in the States. I cannot wait to share that with everyone. So Kate, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're located, and what you do. Kate: As Bella said, I'm here in Ireland. I live in the southeast, about an hour south of Dublin. I have a pet sitting and dog walking business that operates nationwide here in Ireland. Two years ago, I started franchising it. It's a big business doing very well, and a lot of the publicity we've gotten has come from marketing, blogging, and Facebook. I also help other small pet sitting businesses—mainly in the US and UK—with their marketing so they can do similar things. Bella: I love it! And you and I have known each other for years. We’ve met in person, hugged, laughed, and learned each other’s fun phrases like “quid” and “go for a Wanda.” I don't think I've laughed as much as I do with you. For those who don’t know me, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting—a pet business consultant, speaker, and author. I also have a mastermind group. Each show takes about $200 to produce, and we’re fortunate to bring these trainings to you for free for 12 weeks. Today’s show is sponsored by the Jump Mastermind and also Kate’s amazing Pet Business Owners Place. Kate: Basically, I help other pet business owners with marketing and blogging—whatever helps them get more customers. I run blogging boot camps, a Facebook boot camp, and now an Instagram one, plus a membership site for one-on-one help. Bella: I’m a firm believer in everything Kate does. Go check her out at petbusinessowners.com. Kate: The Jump Mastermind is such a safe place to grow your business, be challenged, and learn from experts. Bella: Without further ado, let’s get back to the problem we’re solving today—Facebook competitions. Put us in the right mindset so we’re set up for success. Kate: The biggest thing to remember is that running a competition doesn’t mean you’ll get hundreds of new customers. It’s a brand-building exercise. It’s great if you’re new or want to grow—cheap, relatively speaking—but it won’t automatically bring 50 clients in a month. It’s about getting your name out there and creating awareness. Bella: That’s such a good point. Marketing is about building. You don’t build a house with one hammer and nail—it takes many bricks. Kate: Exactly. It’s harder and harder to get engagement on Facebook now. Gone are the days where you could just post quotes or blog links and expect results. Competitions are great because people love them, especially when they’re targeted toward your ideal customers. People are more likely to share or tag a friend in a competition than a blog post. It’s cheap, easy to run, and gets more engagement for less money. Bella: I love that it’s a cheap way to build a loyal following. Kate: Right, but make sure it’s relevant. Don’t give away an iPad—everyone will enter, but they won’t necessarily have pets or be your target audience. It’s better to have fewer targeted entries than thousands of random ones. Quality over quantity. Bella: So true. What are some of the best types of competitions to run? Kate: Most of the competitions I run don’t have prizes. That might surprise people. Competitions can simply invite participation—like “Caption this.” Post a funny pet picture and ask followers to caption it. Dublin Zoo does this really well with visitor photos. You don’t need to give a prize; just post the winning caption later. People love participating for fun and recognition. Bella: That’s a great idea—and fun for mompreneurs too. Kate: Exactly! The next one is “Spot the Difference.” I had a few made on Fiverr and ran them over a week, themed for “Walk Your Dog Week.” People got really competitive tagging friends. One tip—don’t make them too hard. Make it fun, not frustrating. Bella: That’s brilliant. Kate: Another fun one is “Guess the Breed.” Show a cropped image of a paw or tail and have people guess. Or “Guess the Location”—we’ve done that too. When we had ads on bins throughout Dublin, people had to guess where they were. They got really into it! Bella: I love this. These contests are fun, not spammy. Kate: Exactly. It doesn’t always have to be serious or involve tagging 60 friends. The key is to make it fun and engaging. One of my biggest ones is “Share a Picture of Your Pet.