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Imagine you have just spent the last month planning and running a competition. It comes to closing day, you draw the winner… and they’re the complete opposite of your ideal client – or worse – they’re a prize pig.

It’s frustrating because you know they won’t appreciate the prize, posting photos of them with their prize would attract more of the wrong audience and your competition might feel like a huge waste of time and money. The good news is that this nightmare scenario is totally avoidable – a few tweaks to the way you run your competition and the strategy behind it will help you reel in more relevant entrants who are more likely to become loyal customers.

No prize pigs in sight. Oink.

Why do I need an ideal entrant anyway?

We’ve all heard the maxim ‘if you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one’ and it couldn’t be more true.

If your answer to the above question is ‘everyone’, then you’re going to struggle to get entries. Your entrants won’t know whether or not your competition, product or service is aimed at them unless you make it explicitly clear who exactly you want to enter your competition or purchase what you offer.

Nailing your ideal demographic is marketing 101, because once you know who you’re selling to, you can work out exactly where and how to get your competition in front of them.

How do I create an ideal client/entrant?

Your ideal customer and your ideal competition entrant are one and the same. In order to create an ideal entrant profile for your competition, you’ll need to know a few key pieces of information about them, such as…

  • Their demographic data – their age, gender, location, education level and occupation for example
  • Their psychographic data – such as their personality, values, interests, hopes and fears
  • Finally, bring it back to your product or service – how does what you do fit into their lifestyle, help them achieve their goals and overcome their challenges?

If that all sounds a little daunting, don’t stress, we’ve got you covered. We walk you through this in detail in both The last guide to competitions you’ll ever need to read ebook and workbook.

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What has this got to do with my competition again?

Creating a profile for your ideal competition entrant gives you laser focus to tailor every decision and aspect of your competition to that ideal client, ensuring you maximise every cent spent on your competition to get high quality entrants who are much more likely to turn into paying customers.

Creating an ideal entrant is incredibly important when it comes to customising the messaging to speak to your ideal client and tailoring your prizes to your ideal audience. After all, if your target market is new mums in their early thirties, you don’t want to give away a booze cruise aimed at singles – you’re just not going to attract your ideal customers!

By getting to know your ideal competition entrant, understanding what they do in their free time and where they hang out online or in the real world, you’ll get a much better understanding of how you can get your competition in front of them.

When it comes to running a competition, understanding who your ideal entrant is will give you a huge head start in tailoring it towards their interests and making sure your competition is visible, so you can collect entries from people who are relevant to your business.

Once you’ve nailed your ideal competition entrant, why not have a look at the next step in running a kick arse competition with The last guide to competitions you’ll ever need to read?