As we approach mid-year, we are halfway through many incentive contest programs. Whether you call yours President’s Clubs, Top Performers, Achiever’s Trips, or something unique — they all have one thing in common; the qualification period is an extremely important time in an incentive contest. It is the period where the return on the investment of the incentive trip is realized.

Is Your Incentive Marketing Campaign Performing?

This then, begs the question, how is your incentive marketing campaign going? Do you just launch the contest and then let it run on auto-pilot until your winners are announced? Or, if you do have a strategy in place, would you say it is hot, cold, or somewhere in the middle? 

When working with clients on their incentive marketing campaigns for M&IW, we repeatedly see several common themes across organizations. Often times, there is a lot of consideration to the contest criteria and roles who qualify as well as equal consideration to the incentive trip destination and experience. However, there tends to be a gap when it comes to incentive contest communications.  

Keep your Incentive Contest Top of Mind

From strategic, integrated marketing plans that focus on multiple platforms and distribution methods to single channel marketing campaigns, a lot can be done to keep the contest top of mind for the participants. Several questions you can ask yourself to check in on your incentive communication strategy include the following: 

• Do I have a “home” online for all the contest information where participants can access the criteria, leaderboards, and information about the award trip? 
• What channels already exist that can be leveraged to send out contest communications? 
• What type of messaging will help motivate the participants to qualify? 
• What are my goals for the communication strategy during the various qualification periods? 

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “shouldn’t we be talking about contest marketing campaigns at the launch of the contest in January?” Of course, the answer is a wholehearted yes! But, my message to you is simple. It is not too late to begin or amp up your incentive marketing campaign! If you are interested in learning more about communication strategies that can be implemented for the back-half of the qualification period, reach out to our team to learn more.  

In the end, our goal for our clients is to start focusing on the content launch and communication strategy as early as October for the upcoming year. As we approach next year’s contest launches, be on the lookout for a lot more valuable content geared to help you make the most of your incentive marketing contest campaign strategies, including an upcoming podcast and Incentive Marketing Guidebook to be released in the coming months! 

Additional Resources

Learn more about M&IW Incentives and Recognition team and related services. And, if you missed it, listen to Events > Forward Podcast — Is your Incentives and Recognition Program Future-Ready.