December is traditionally a slow month for me. This year, I decided to play Santa and run a contest to increase the number of orders. Here I detail how I did it. It is something anyone with a list can do to increase business.

The Contest

Everyone who purchased from me in December received a copy of my Ebook, “Life Mastery – how to achieve it”. This is a personal development book with recommendations for a vibrant life. By reading this book, some will get to know me more and feel better about purchasing products and partnering with me! They would go into a draw for over $200 worth of skin care products. These were products I want to start marketing more. All they had to do was to place an order before the end of the year.

The Process.

I sent out an email to my list with the offer and how to place orders during the contest period. This time it only lasted a few days. I would suggest a week or month campaign.

The first email should be something like, ” I am doing something special for you this month. If you don’t read this email, you will miss out!” This raises curiosity and encourages your clients to actually open the email!

Then make your offer, introducing the prize, state the conditions, and explain there will be more bulletins during the month with more details. Suggest they might like to forward this on to their friends who might be interested in the prize!

Work out the different aspects of features/benefits of the prize and divide it into the month. Every few days, send an email explaining one of the benefits of the prize, again gently suggesting if they don’t order, they will miss out!

Near the end, send a final offer, with a deadline. You may even send another email a day after the contest ends for those who haven’t opened their emails in time. Do it right and people will rush orders in over the last 2-3 days. This is what happened to me. My phone rang hot after Christmas.

Make sure you do the draw and tell everyone on your list who won the prize. If you can, get a testimonial from the winner, saying how excited they are and how good the prize was.

The Results

• 44 orders for the month of December.
• Over $2,000 in additional sales.
• People emailing me wanting to know who won.
• The contest was a great success.

VIDEO

You can view a video  demonstrating the contest at

http://youtube.com/pems99

Things You Should Know

Don’t run contests too often. Any incentive that becomes a regular occurrence loses its charm. People like surprises. If there is going to be one every month, some will wait to see if the next one is better!

Have a valuable prize – preferably something you wish to promote. You will get a wider reading of your material than usual.

Use the contest to build your list – ads, tweets, blog entries, articles, videos, etc. You get better value if you spread the word as far and wide as possible.

Conclusion

Contests are a great way to increase sales and build your list. It is worth holding 2 or 3 a year. Make sure your prize is valuable enough to get people responding. Tell everyone about who won so they know it isreal (builds anticipation for the next one).

John Gaydon is an Internet and Network Marketer with a passion for assisting others to a more vibrant, successful life. Over 20 years working for himself, 12 of them in network Marketing, John has developed a full time income using the internet. He is the creator of the MLM Customer Acquisition System