Everything You Need To Know About Running Promotional Contests

Running a promotional contest is one of the most effective ways to engage your target audience, collect user generated content, and drive traffic to your website. Done right, it can help you grow your email list, increase visibility for your products or services, and spark real buzz around your brand.

If you are planning to launch your first contest promotion—or just want to improve results from your existing contests and promotions—you need to understand what makes a contest legal, impactful, and worth the effort.

We are going to walk you through the essentials: how to structure a contest that complies with regional rules and regulations, how to motivate users to enter, and how Gleam helps you run successful contests across your social media platforms.

A contest is a type of promotional contest where participants must complete a task or submit something that can be judged. The key difference? Winners are selected based on skill, not chance.

In a contest, you might ask users to:

• Submit a photo or video
• Answer a creative question
• Write a product review or short story
• Complete a challenge related to your products or services

Unlike sweepstakes or lotteries, contests let you reward entries that stand out. That makes them ideal for generating high-quality user generated content, boosting engagement, and showcasing your brand in a more creative way.

If you are running a marketing campaign and want your audience to earn their chance to win, then contests are the way to go. They are a perfect tool for collecting creative submissions while also staying compliant with promotions and contests regulations—especially in regions like the United States where “no purchase necessary” rules do not apply to skill-based contests.

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If you are running a promotional contest or any kind of contest promotion, it is crucial to understand the legal rules that apply—especially when it comes to how winners are selected.

In the United States and many other countries, promotions that award prizes by random draw (like sweepstakes or lotteries) must comply with no purchase necessary laws. These laws prevent businesses from requiring purchases for entry into luck-based promotions, as doing so effectively turns them into illegal pay-to-play lotteries.

But contests are different.

Since a contest is based on skill, not chance, these laws typically do not apply. This means you can ask participants to purchase your product or perform an action that benefits your business—so long as the winner is selected on merit.

For example:

• Ask entrants to submit a photo using your product
• Collect written testimonials or creative entries that feature your products or services

You can legally do this in most major markets, including:

• USA
• UK
• Canada
• Australia
• New Zealand

However, five U.S. states—Colorado, Maryland, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Vermont—do not allow purchase requirements, even for skill-based contests. If your audience includes users in those states, make sure your contest is open to alternate methods of entry.

To stay compliant with contest marketing laws, here are additional requirements to keep in mind:

• Clearly announce start and end dates for your promotion
• State when and how winners will be selected
• Publish your rules and regulations, including what qualifies as a valid entry
• Follow up with all prize winners, and define a reasonable timeframe to respond before re-selecting a winner

Running a promotional contest is one of the most cost-effective ways to engage your target audience, promote your products or services, and drive a wide range of actions—without the budget required for traditional advertising.

Whether your goal is to grow your email list, boost website traffic, or generate user-generated content, there is a contest promotion that fits.

With Gleam’s Competitions app, you can run fully customisable contests and promotions—all while staying compliant with your local rules and regulations.

A question-based contest is one of the easiest formats to launch. Ask a question, and reward the most creative or thoughtful answer.

These contests are ideal for:

• Gathering product feedback
• Collecting user insights
• Letting users share why they want to win a prize

You can run them across social media platforms, or manage everything in one place with Gleam to track number of entries, moderate responses, and select winners based on merit.

You can even use this format to fuel content marketing efforts or spark discussion within your community—creating a highly engaging contest marketing loop.

If your marketing campaign includes a visual component, photo and video contests are the best way to collect high-quality user-generated content.

Ask your social media followers or website visitors to:

• Upload a photo with your product
• Submit a short video testimonial
• Share their creative take on your brand

The result? Valuable, authentic content that you can showcase in Gleam Galleries, repost on your social channels, or use to influence future buying decisions.

With Gleam, you can accept media submissions via Facebook, YouTube, file upload, or even Instagram.

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Short-form entry contests like "25 words or less" are a proven way to spark creativity and collect insightful responses from your target audience.

You can use these contests and promotions to:

• Collect product ideas or testimonials
• Learn about customer preferences
• Encourage storytelling and brand engagement

This contest promotion format is simple to judge and works across all verticals—especially when used to boost email list growth or collect quality user generated content.

Want deeper insights? You can also extend the word count to run essay-style contests, helping you surface long-form feedback or entries with greater storytelling potential.

Referral contests are one of the most effective types of contest marketing for driving reach and virality.

Entrants get their own unique share link—and they win by getting the most people to enter via that link. With Gleam’s Viral Share action, you can track it all automatically.

Here is why this works:

• Users promote your campaign for you
• You get new leads at little to no cost
• It builds social proof and viral momentum

You can also use this format to collect email addresses, grow your social media accounts, and reach new segments of your target audience—all while giving participants a chance to win.

Ready To Run Your Own Contest?

Check out our documentation on setting up your own Competition with Gleam or check out the app now!