Choose Your Programming
When you are planning your listen & win, first figure out how you are going to integrate the codeword announcements into your daily programming. It might be a good idea to announce the codeword during a peak listening period, like the morning commute, in order to reach the largest possible audience. Just be sure not to announce it at the exact same time every day, to ensure people don’t just tune in for a few minutes to catch the codeword and stop listening.
Find a Sponsor
When you are looking for advertisers to sponsor your listen & win, target businesses who will be interested in ongoing promotion and want to be in front of your audience demographics (and who your audience will find compelling).
Offer a Great Prize
Since the barrier to entry for a listen & win contest is high, you need to offer a valuable prize, such as a weekend trip, a new home entertainment system or VIP event tickets. Your listeners will need to be invested in wanting to win in order to put in the effort to enter.
Make Codewords Relevant
When you are selecting your codewords, consider making them relevant to your advertiser in order to give them a little extra branding. You could also choose to make the codewords relevant to the programming it appears in.
Promote Heavily
A listen & win contest is a big event that justifies a lot of marketing, especially since you will also be collecting lots of data and opt-ins from your audience. Create buzz by pre-promoting before the contest starts, and then continue to promote using all of the assets available to you, including online, on air, email, and social media. You can also engage your advertiser to promote the contest by having them send people to watch from their business or Facebook Page.
Listen & win sweepstakes not only drive tune-in by incentivizing people to watch your programming, but also collect opt-ins and grow your email list. Plus, you can use these contests to drive pageviews as people go to your website in order to actually enter the online contest.
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Liz is the Senior Director of Customer Success and has an extensive background in media. She is a huge advocate of the power of promotions for every department within an organization, including sales, marketing, audience development, and editorial.