The Raffle Concept Can Be Used to Promote Business
If you are looking for a unique and exciting way to promote your business, you’ve come to the right place! Jourdan Martin lays out the “why’s†and “how’s†in this thought-provoking “Impact a Life†college scholarship essay.
Jourdan is a Kinesiology major at the University of Southern Mississippi. Thank уþu so muÑÂh Jourdan fþr your excellent essay – and bõѕt þf luÑÂk with your Ñ•tudіõѕ!
“Impact a Life†Scholarship contributor: Jourdan Martin
Yþu ÑÂðn hõlÑ€ Jourdan Martin’s pursuit þf a scholarship award bу ÑÂlÑ–ÑÂkÑ–ng the “sharing Ñ–Ñ• ÑÂðrÑ–ng†buttþnÑ• bõlþw.
I haven’t heard of many businesses implementing the use of raffles in attempts to derive promotionally and customer retention benefits. Though not often seen, I believe that, if executed properly, an occasional raffle would be a great way to encourage customers to stay with the company, as well as, influence others to get involved or become customers. A raffle will create a sense of hope for future rewards and is an incentive that does not have to require much action by the participant.
A business that does raffles for their customers is going to have more consumers than one of equal value that does not do raffles, simply because the people feel as is they have more to gain. And they do. For example, a car service business may have a monthly raffle where, after purchasing a service, customers can enter a drawing for rewards such as a free oil change or a discounted tire changing. This would separate this business from others by offering free services to its customers. This practice would also persuade people to come to this car service shop because they know that they might get rewarded for doing something they were already going to do.
The raffle concept can be used to promote business in retail as well. Raffles can be used to generate revenue or can be used strictly as a way for a business to be unique and to keep customers interested. For revenue, a simple $1 can be added to a purchase in exchange to be entered into a raffle that will result in a $20 cash card to be used within the store. People are not very likely to pass up a chance to gain so much for giving so little. Secondly, to gain/keep customers, a store might offer a raffle ticket to anybody who makes a purchase of $20 in store. This is another example of people gaining a reward from doing something they were already doing regardless.
There is a multitude of marketing strategies. Many are effective, while many are ineffective. Raffles would only be ineffective if there is a lack of involvement from the consumers. This event is very unlikely given the simple fact that people love to gain things the easy way. People naturally like short cuts and when coupled with the possibility of saving money, people will definitely be interested. The second problem with the raffle might be the amount of time in between raffles, the amount of people that are allowed to be involved, and the number of winners chosen. To be effective in handling this potential issue, I suggest bi-weekly raffles, because most people get paid bi-weekly. The amount of prizes awarded should correlate to the amount of people coming in so that 5% of those entered into the raffle are winners
In essence, doing raffles that cost little or nothing; business in service or retail could be greatly increased and current customers can be retained. This may create a base of customers that become angry if they are not winners, however, there will be a surplus of incoming customers that will make the people taking their business elsewhere a non-factor.