Nail your competition copy – with Nell Casey.

If you’re familiar with OrigamiGlobe, you’ll know how much we bang on about competitions being a great way to engage your existing audience and encourage new people to join your email list… But how do you write persuasive copy that gets them to enter in the first place?

I asked Nell from Fete Creative how to write convincing copy to help you nail your competition landing page and social media competition content.

Trust me, this advice is gold.

First off, who are you and what do you do?

I’m a copywriter and content strategist under my business Fete Creative. I work with ecommerce businesses to help them tell their story, connect with customers and build their brand online.

What does that actually mean?

I write website copy, product descriptions, email content and blog posts for them with the goal to persuade people to buy their products. I also do a lot of work on SEO, which helps people actually find their website in the first place.

How did you get into copywriting and content strategy?

I spent quite a few years out of uni working in the government and private sector, which was great experience, but I wanted to work with more diverse clients and write more interesting content.

In many ways I think that past experience in government really helps what I do now. My role was quite analytical so that’s how I approach projects now – figuring out the problem and working out what’s needed to get the desired results. The difference, of course, is being able to work with some really fun clients with amazing products.

What makes for a kick arse competition landing page?

Make it clear it’s a competition

The only goal of your landing page headline is to get people excited enough to keep reading and enter your competition – and there are good and bad ways to write a competition headline.

The bad way is to make it all about you and your business. Something like:

[Brand name] is turning 1!

Sorry, but the only person who really cares about this is you (and your mum!). Your audience want to know what’s in it for them.

Enter the spring giveaway

No one wants to enter a “giveaway”. What they want is to win something. Yes I know that one leads to the next, but you want to lead with the desired goal.

So what should you write?

Starting the headline with ‘win’ is a sure-fire way to catch people’s attention and make it clear there’s something in it for them.

Win a trip to New York
WIN! Spa Delights is giving away a luxury spa package
Win 1 of 5 sports prize packs from Sports ‘R Us

Your headline can also call out the ultimate benefit of your prize, with a sub-heading that includes the prize.

Give your pooch the ultimate pamper experience
Win 1 of 5 dog pamper packages from Wag’s Dog Wash

Make sure your headline and brand copy is geared towards your desired audience. You need to speak specifically to them and what they’ll enjoy. Your copy should sell the prize to the extent that they’d want to pay for it, if they could.

Adventure Awaits!
Win an once-in-a-lifetime outback experience with Dave’s Camping

Notice how the best headlines above use a lot of emotional language: ultimate, once-in-a-lifetime, luxury. This is a copywriter trick designed to shortcut the logical part of the brain and get people to take action.

Win a Sunshine Extreme Blender worth $300

Consider including the value of the prize, especially if it’s worth a bit of money or the value is higher than expected. In my mind, blenders cost $100, but if you’re giving away a super-awesome blender that’s worth more than that, then you could include that detail.

Have a great opening line

Once you’ve captured their attention, you want to hook your audience in and convince them why entering your competition is worth their time (or worth giving up their email address).

The key here is to allow the reader to imagine what would happen if they won. Talk about the prize and use ‘you’ to grab their attention. You’ll also want to get your brand name in. And of course, dial up the enthusiasm – this is an exciting giveaway.

Focus on the Call to Action

Calls to Action are the foundations of copywriting: anytime you want people to do things, you need to include a line that tells them what to do. So if you want them to enter your competition, tell them how to do that.

Add your details to win a trip to New York

If you’re linking people to an offsite entry form, you can tell them how long they can expect it to take.

Click here to enter in just two minutes

And of course, make the final submit button big, clear and obvious.

Submit my entry
Enter now
Enter to win

Of course your landing page will also include important details about the competition itself and a link to your Ts & Cs, which is covered in OrigamiGlobe’s competitions guide.

If you’ve followed the competition guidelines, your prize is going to be closely aligned to your business. So your competition page isn’t just selling the competition, it’s also a mini-sales page for your brand. You want it to be so enticing that people who don’t win will want to buy the prize.

So that’s landing pages covered… How do you nail social media content for your competition?

Once you’ve got your landing page all set up, it’s time to spread the word about your competition. You’ll be creating a few posts for social media, but as an example here’s how you might announce the competition.

Headline: Make it bold and targeted to your dream customers
Sub-heading: Announce the competition and prize
Content: Tell them how to enter and any other important details
Call to Action: Make the next step clear

So what does this look like in practice? Let’s say you’re running a competition to win a new season wardrobe.

Do you have any tips for emailing them after the competition has closed?

If you’ve put in place a strategy for your competition, then chances are your goal (or one of your goals) is to get people onto your email list and eventually turn them into paying customers.

In which case it’s important you actually email them. But what should you send?

Well you don’t want to just start sending them your regular newsletter. Remember, for many people their first exposure to you is through this competition and they don’t know a lot about you at this stage.

Instead, craft an email (or a series of emails) specifically for these new subscribers that introduces them to your brand and tells them more about your product/service.

I have a pretty simple follow up email structure that works by:

1. Acknowledging they’re on your email list and reminding them how they signed up
2. Share your brand’s purpose/mission/whatever you call it in 2-3 sentences
3. Give them an offer or enticement
4. Tell them what they can expect to receive from you from now own

If you’ve drawn the winner, it’s a good idea to announce that too. However, you could also send this first email and then let people know you’ll announce the winner in the next one, therefore encouraging them to look out for your next email (ooh, anticipation!).

By this stage you’ve added a whole heap of new subscribers to your email list who are engaged with your brand’s message and keen to hear from you again. Not a bad result from a little giveaway. You can now send them targeted email marketing designed to turn them into customers.

What’s your super power?

Writing copy that’s fun to read AND that also serves a purpose. Even better if I can throw a pun in there…

What would be your one big tip for people struggling to tell their story in their copy and content?

When it comes to writing copy for ecommerce websites, there’s a temptation to focus on the facts (size, weight, colour). But remember facts tell, stories sell. So every time you write a fact, ask yourself “so what?”.

The “so what?” is the real story.

Finally, how can people get in touch with you if they want to know more or work with you?

You can always find out more about me at my website, Facebook page, or follow me on Instagram.