What Are Small Business Contests & Why Do they Matter?

Traditional advertising can be expensive and often lacks tracking and lead capture. Collecting business cards in a fishbowl, online forms and social media promotions such as like, share and follow campaigns either capture leads from outside the local area, don’t capture data at all or aren't very secure. CliquePrize® small business contests offer a low-cost alternative that does just the opposite. With CliquePrize®, Sponsors can:

• Launch contests affordably, with first-time promotions starting at just $29; only $1 per record (optional) post-promotion; Contestant record includes name, email, phone, zip and you will never pay for the same record twice
• Ensure local lead capture using Apple location services
• Provide Contestants One-Click to Enter ease of registration
• Conduct Market Research to test different marketing approaches using video
• Gather Customer Feedback (e.g. incentivize Questionnaires)
• Can either be Private (to your store customers or invite only) or Public (to all Contestants in the local Metro Market).
• Customize contest formats, including giveaways, video contests, raffles, events, instant win promotions, and surveys (such as polls, quizzes or questionnaires)
• Maintain a high level of customer data privacy and security since CliquePrize® is hosted on the MS Azure Cloud

By leveraging CliquePrize®, small businesses can reach more Contestants, gain invaluable customer feedback, and reward loyal registrants in a cost-effective, transparent way.

Types of Small Business Contests on CliquePrize®

CliquePrize® offers SIX (6) powerful contest types, providing small businesses the ability to tailor their digital promotions to their marketing goals.

1. Giveaways & Sweepstakes

Giveaways / Sweepstakes is among the most time-tested methods to capture new Contestants while promoting a product or service. The goal is to capture lead data. The more valuable the prize, the more leads you will capture.

2. Video Contests

CliquePrize® offers three types of video contests that offers small businesses the opportunity to test different marketing messages.

• Sponsor-Generated Contests – Small businesses upload FIVE (5) videos to test different marketing approaches in the local market
• User-Generated Contests (UGC) – Up to FIFTY (50) Contestants can upload videos into YouTube and submit them for your consideration; You can then dwindle the finalists down to (FIVE) 5 for voting.
• Hybrid Contests – A combination of both, maximizing market research and creativity.

These contests come in two possible formats: Most Popular or Highest Rated (1 to 5 stars).

3. Raffle Ticketing & Winner Selection

Small Businesses can issue digital raffle tickets through CliquePrize®, making it an excellent tool for fundraising and selecting winners. You collect the donations and CliquePrize® will handle the ticketing. Set a start and end date for donations, and a draw date for selecting winners. You can select winners or the app can automatically.

4. Text-to-Instant Win Promotions

With Text to instant win contests using CliquePrize®, Sponsors can reserve a keyword for Contestants to text to our mobile number and instantly learn if they’ve won or not. This instant gratification drives excitement and increases brand interaction.

5. Surveys: Quizzes, Polls, & Questionnaires

CliquePrize® has survey tools that help small businesses gather customer feedback through polls, quizzes, and questionnaires. Quizzes can be a fun way to test whether Contestants know your small business or the area. Polls can help determine something you have, a product or service, that is the most popular. Questionnaires offer Contestants way to write in their customer feedback. All Surveys are built with a qualifying question to ensure Contestants have actually been at your small business. They also incentivized: Contestants get two entries rather than one simply by completing the survey for the promotion.

6. Event Registration with Giveaways

For small businesses hosting events, CliquePrize® can track event registration and incentivize attendance with a giveaway. Sponsors can scan in a QR code at the registration desk from the Contestant. The app even offers a fail-safe option of an Electronic Ticket number.

Why Small Businesses Choose CliquePrize® for Contests

1. Affordable Promotions – Low-cost entry with flexible pricing options.
2. User-Friendly & Secure App – One-click to Enter, mobile-friendly design for easy contest creation and management that is highly secured on the MS Azure cloud
3. Engagement-Driven Features – Multiple contest types offer you flexibility in promotion types
4. Local Audience Targeting – Apple location services ensure only local, relevant Contestants enter your contests.
5. Analytics – Small Businesses can capture and analyze leads; optionally, Sponsors can display this data by zip in a data visualization

Business Contests for Startups

For startups, small business contests are a powerful tool to gain exposure and validate their ideas before fully entering the market. CliquePrize®’s video contests offer early-stage companies a method to:

• Test their small business concept in a creative way, while gathering real-time customer feedback.
• Launch Sponsor-Generated Video Contests to optimize their Go To Market (GTM) strategies
• Crowd-source ideas through User-Generated Content (UGC) Contests
• Run a Hybrid of both

These test and learn strategies enable startups to refine their branding, validate their small business assumptions, determine market-fit, and even attract investors who see Contestant registration as a signal of a strong business idea. Video Contests are a cost-effective way to measure market interest.

Small Business Competitions

Small business competitions encourage innovation in a competitive yet fun environment. CliquePrize® makes it easy for small businesses to set up such competitions, ensuring a structured yet flexible format. By hosting these competitions, small businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors, acquire new repeat paying customers, and increase their credibility. CliquePrize® offers:

• Flexible video contest formats, including rating-based and vote-based competitions
• A method to capture leads while gathering market research
• An opportunity for product or service refinement before spending large amounts of up front investment capital based on the data

Small Business Contest Entry

CliquePrize® is the only One-Click to Enter small business contest app. The less friction there is, the more entries you will get. For example, long entry forms or the use of captcha to defend against bots. None of this is necessary with CliquePrize®. With our app, you can::

• Offer Contestants the opportunity to enter up to 5 promotions a day in just a single click
• Offer up to FIFTY (50) Contestants an opportunity to upload a video to YouTube and submit the URL during the Submission phase for User-Generation Video Contests
• Offer Contestants the ability to Enter to win simply by voting for the best or rating the best (1 to 5 stars) during the Voting phase
• Offer TWO (2) prizes: one to the winning video submission and another to the random voter

Business Contest Prize

A business contest prize plays a crucial role in capturing Contestant lead data. CliquePrize® requires Sponsors to clearly define and fulfill their prize commitments, including the start and end date, the methods of entry, rules, privacy policy and terms of use. This prevents any bait-and-switch tactics that could damage trust. Prizes serve as an incentive for active engagement and social sharing that can lead to many referral Contestant registrations. Prizes are critical because:

• The more valuable the prize, the more entries you will get
• Prizes come in both physical or digital form; CliquePrize® offers you the opportunity to give away either type
• They allow Contestants to “try before you buy”; winning a free trial helps you to acquire new Contestants which you can convert into repeat, paying customers
• They give you a database marketing list of email addresses, mobile numbers and zip codes to nurture Contestants with offers over time to conversion

CliquePrize®*** is the iPhone Giveaways mobile app that helps Small Businesses grow by reaching, nurturing and converting local, high value prospects. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know!***