How Important are Launch Contests?

Hey everybody, this question has been in my mind for quite some time now.

How important are launch contests?

I see a lot of people doing them and now I'm starting to wonder: if a product launches without a contest will it be very difficult to find parters because people have come to expect them?

Or the flipside of that is: Do jv parters not care as much whether there is a contest when a product launches when they are deciding what to promote?

If anyone has any opinion on this subject I'd love to know what you think.

Thanks, Jason.

actually yes jason i mean if you look at all the launches it all has a contest to it even me with my first product launch ever i hope you can be with us i put a very amazing prizes worth of around 150K or may be higher worth a net worth of the prizes of over $1 million dollars and i think yea it will be very hard to get partners cause most of the partners already get money and lots of money promoting your others product and may be they earn even more from other people so why they have to promote yours so you gotta give them like a bonus or extra sweet prize actually yea it's very important

here is the link of the JV partners page NoDirectPromotionOfJVOffersInMainDiscussionArea-UseYourSigFile.Com

It depends...

a.) How big your you expect your launch will be. Do you expect an army of affiliates to join and promote? If so then yes, affiliate contest are great incentive to get affiliates to work harder.

b.) Do you have the cash flow to give away something that's actually worth while? You can't just do..."Make 100 sales and I'll give you $50 cash kind of thing"

There's several things to think about.

D

Personally, I'd much rather have a decent EPC and get paid honestly and in a timely fashion, but to answer your OP, yeah, some guys demand it so it's best to have something on tap- just make it attractive and I also recommend have some field leveling "mini" contests that anyone can win, no matter how small their list etc.

If you track it, most aff contests are won by big guns who can bring major heat, and that can turn off a lot of small fry who can bring a lot of sales if they are motivated, believe it or not ;)

Motivate them ALL by giving them a shot at a "timed" contest or something else that doesn't depend on big reach- be creative, like the sale closest to noon wins... first sale to a last name beginning with "R" on Wednesday between noon and midnight... etc. Whatever. Pull a name out of a hat out of all affiliates who have driven at least one sale. Have some fun!

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Originally Posted by Derek Lamont

It depends...

a.) How big your you expect your launch will be. Do you expect an army of affiliates to join and promote? If so then yes, affiliate contest are great incentive to get affiliates to work harder.

b.) Do you have the cash flow to give away something that's actually worth while? You can't just do..."Make 100 sales and I'll give you $50 cash kind of thing"

There's several things to think about.

D

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i agree with you but there is another scenario and that what i see happening now a days which is even if the product is not good product they do put like too much expensive prizes in the contest this way all the affiliates will work hard no matter what cause of the prizes plus the commissions you know what i mean so i prefer put contest with 15 to 20K worth or prizes contest no matter what that will attract affiliates for sure and don't worry if you don't have the money with you you will be able to pay them after the launch good luck

Thanks for all the responses. You guys have given me some good insight for sure. It's nice seeing other points of view on this.

Launch contests are a great way to give affiliates further incentives to promote your product or service. I believe you don't need $10k sitting there for your launch prizes if you have done your testing and homework beforehand.

If you have worked out your EPC and do a few stats to see how many sales you will need for a $10k contest then you will find out if you can run one or not. If you have to scale down that isn't a big issue.

You can also offer a contest that gives incentives to all affiliates and not just those who land in the top ten. That is get X amount of sales and recieve a $50 itunes/amazon gift card etc etc. And as they go higher the better the prize can be. If you knew your launch would be massive with big hitters already on the table then you could add both.

Also product launches with a pre-launch phase normally add a smaller competition for the pre-launch. I.e. send a certain amount of leads and get a prize or a major prize at the end of the contest. This will normally happen when initial testing has taken place so they know how much they will earn per lead generated.

If you do beta testing you will have these results and will be able to determine what kind of contests and prizes to include.

Another area to think about is the actual prizes. Will it be a cash contest? Or actual tangible items? Most of the MMO launches these days whip out cash prizes or 'tech' prizes like iphones, ipads, netbooks etc etc. Change it up a bit and really think about the prizes. Possibly a paid holiday worth $5k for #1, remote control helicopter/cars, awesome seats for a concert or sporting event etc etc etc. You can always equate your prizes to a cash amount if the winning affiliate would rather the cash! This also comes in handy if they are an international affiliate.

There are many more things you can offer that don't have to be cash etc but will make/earn money in the future. I.e. sending out their promo to your mailing list, creating content for them if you are a gun copywriter or have one on your staff, graphics, video, interviews etc etc. It all adds up and doesn't have to initially be about $$$.

Others will hopefully have some more ideas to contribute!

Hope this helps.

nathanj

For me personally, if I have a chance of winning a good prize, I'll give my promotions a little extra push and if you get all your top people to do that, then it's going to make you and them a lot more money and everybody's happy... so would definitely recommend a launch contest. Plus the competion is fin and builds excitment.

Contest are great for several reasons...

- Affiliates love "bragging rights" for winning contests. I've seen several sales letter lately where the seller show their ranking in affiliate contests. Affiliates can use the result as a testimonial for their "affiliate secret technics".

- You will get better results. If you update your JV partners daily with the results, there are always going to be a couple of "close races" --- and not always for first. If the affiliates that are 4th and 5th are only a couple of referrals apart, let them know!

And remember this...

- Give away lots of prizes. I'd suggest a minimum of 10. If you only give away a few, then most affiliates will fell "shut out" - they probably can't compete with the super lists of the super affiliates.

- Contests are simply another form of advertising. I ***KNOW*** the PPC cost of getting members to our service and if we run a contest that will get us 10,000 new members we can certainly offer some prizes.

Thanks for listening,


Richard