Hold Contests to Get More Industry Attention
Businesses - and people in general - love to win awards. Why not host a contest that will let you give an award to the customer or reader who wins? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
First, think of what sort of contest/award fits with the people you want to attract to your business. Then, find out how to reach and motivate those people.
If you're a relatively small farm, you could hold a contest to name something like yarn colors from a recent shearing or a new cria. This could create awareness in your local community and it's easy for people who are not yet alpaca owners.
To promote your contest, issue a press release to the local paper, post a notice in a prominent spot on your blog and web site, tweet it on Twitter, post it as a status update on your Facebook page, put it on a handout you distribute for all farm tours.... you get the idea. Remember to also announce the winner via all the same channels. This follow up completes the circle and gives you an additional chance to generate publicity.
If you're a larger alpaca farm and have a lot of customers (or even if you only have a couple), you could offer an award to recognize an outstanding operation among those farms you are affiliated with.
To promote this contest, you'll want to conduct efforts mainly targeted to your partners and affiliate farms, but don't forget the bigger alpaca industry. This is a great way to motivate new farms to work with you. Include a notice in your newsletter and issue a press release nationally and locally, as well as via the same channels mentioned above.
Create a web site badge that the winner can post on their site. Something that says "2009 Farm of the Year", for example, can go a long way toward boosting their credibility, which provides motivation to compete. Why not link this badge back to your site, too? Then you're also benefitting with a link, which can help build your web site's PageRank value.
In addition, follow up publicity should aim to promote both the contest and the winner, creating additional motivation for people to participate and more awareness for your farm. Once your first contest gets exposure, it will be sure to gain more momentum every time you hold a new one.
When you were getting started with your alpaca farm, which aspect of marketing was the hardest?
1. Talking to prospects
2. Finding the time to do marketing
3. Creating a website
4. Coming up with a plan
5. Finding a budget
6. Other (please specify)
Just hit reply and let us know, and we'll post the answers next time (anonymously, of course)!
