Effort and Hassle: To set up a contest, you have to come up with engaging questions and rules. You have to monitor the contest, pick a winner and award a prize. You could have your web developer do it, but it's not her expertise either!
Credibility: Something you will lose if the contest goes awry.
Liability: You will lose more than credibility if your contest goes awry, especially if you accidently generate more winners than you expected.
Reputation: If the lost credibility of a botched contest leeches over to how customers see your business, you could have real trouble!
Cost-effectiveness: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), either organic and paid searches, along with cross-linking and print ads are expensive ways to market your contest if you cannot recoup your costs.
Game Management: If your contest is a fill-out form, entries can get "lost in the (e)mail". If it is on social media, you could get more entries than you can handle.
Legality: DraftKings and FanDuel, among others, are finding out the hard (and very public and expensive) way the difference between what the legally constitutes a contest, a game of skill and outright gambling.
Lack of Engagement: Filling out a webform is a one-time shot in which you hope that you are not forgotten until you remind someone they entered and won your prize.
Security: You or your web developer are probably not as careful with contests as you might be with ecommerce, exposing your contestants to possible loss of information that could lead to identity theft.
Results: When you count the costs, efforts and fuss, you will have to determine whether DIY was worth it.
Avoid these pitfalls! Call 773.288.7382 for more information!
