Competitions

This is the final week for the Best Construction Blog competition.  As this competition nears its conclusion, readers are starting to vote in the 2009-10 Ontario Construction Report Readers’ Choice Awards. If you haven’t already voted, or want to track the results, please feel free to connect. You can click on the relevant logo to visit the voting site.

Can you use this sort of soft competition to enhance your own  marketing?  By “soft” I mean the barriers to entering and winning are low. The prize can be inexpensive as well, at least in cost.  (If the contest has significant cash awards, or even more seriously entry costs, you may wish to seek legal advice to avoid conflict with lottery and/or truth-in-advertising rules.)

You can use competitions to gather leads and market research and intelligence.  You can also enhance relationships especially with finalists and winners.

We’ve discovered that wufoo.com is a truly effective resource for managing and tracking the votes.  You can design your voting forms quite easily, and then track the results online (and share the results if you wish).

On the other side, I believe you have little to lose and much to gain by entering relevant “best of ” competitions, often sponsored by trade associations and publications like ours.  Usually the entry fee is low or zero.  The exercise in preparing our entry submission, especially for significant association-sponsored competitions, will give you a good sense of your business and will support your marketing materials development.  If you are successful in winning the competition, you can celebrate your success and especially if the media picks up on your success, obtain truly valuable free publicity.