While Palm Pilot giveaways are very popular, and they do drive good response rates, they are not the right choice for every promotion. For instance, loan institutions should present cash prizes and travel sites should offer partially paid or free travel packages as incentives. This type of tender association between incentive and industry respectfully drives more targeted prospects when coupled with tight targeting of ad placement and marketing message. Incentive-based programs that involve regular win cycles are more popular and drive greater traffic repositories for your site. Consider adding a graph or two in your sweepstakes rules stating that winners must provide you with a photograph and testimonial.
Promotions often increase response at the expense of lead quality.
As such, they're best implemented when your priority is lead volume, not quality, and when you have structured follow-up campaigns in place to maximize the value of every response. You can minimize the effect that promotions have on lead quality by making your offer relevant to your core product or service. On the Web, it's sometimes best to only introduce the special offer on the back end of the campaign, at the splash page. In this way, you'll generate only those responses attracted by your core message, and the free gift will increase your conversion rate - the percentage of people who actually act upon your desired call for action. Marketers should beware, there are several entangling concerns that may burden your objectives.