A great way to bring more traffic to your car dealership is to hold a contest, which increases excitement, but how do you get the word out?

Whether you’re going to have a drawing for donations to a worthy cause with raffle tickets being bought or you want to challenge your current customers to bring you more referrals, making your event competitive and fun is a great way to get people excited to participate.

Share Contest Information on Social Media

Your dealership needs to use several social media platforms to engage with your audience and drive online leads to your DMs. You can do the same with the contest you’re holding. You could have a competition to reward your audience when they refer a friend or family member via social media and you can use your platforms to share the event.

Use Your Business Cards as Tickets

If you’ve been a presenter at a recent event and you want to offer a special discount to those in attendance, use your business cards. You can ask them to put their name and address on one side of the card and connect with you through your social media. Put all the cards in a fishbowl and share the drawing for the winner via the platforms you use to connect with your audience.

Hashtags Could be Your Contest Vehicle

We’ve all heard of the #ThrowbackThursday as one of the hashtags used, but how about #TerrificTeusday, #WildWednesday, #FellGoodFriday, or others. Create a buzz around the hashtag for the day that you want to use for your drawing and let it become the vehicle that pushes your name in front of your audience to take advantage of the freebies you’re offering during the drawing.

Use Your Community to Market Your Competition

Are you going to give away a car or services for a vehicle at your dealership? Is the contest for something tangible? If you can take a photo of what you’re going to give away, you can use your local community to help you promote the contest online. Find recognizable landmarks around the city and showcase them with the grand prize along with captions that will draw more people to your event.

Show the Location of the Event

If you’re holding a fundraiser for a worthy cause with raffles and drawings as part of the fun offered, you can showcase photos of the event location, especially if it’s your dealership. Be sure to add tags to your social media accounts, website, and geographic area to have your event show up near the top of searches for events similar to the one you’re hosting.

Video the Experience of the Prize

How does a participant benefit from the prize you’re offering? If it’s a maintenance package, you can show the savings in a video and offer a video of a staff member driving away with confidence in the vehicle that was cared for. If you’re giving away a vehicle, you can show how good it will look at different landmarks around town. Invite followers to check out your YouTube video and enter your contest.

Finalize the Content for Your Contest

You need great photos, videos, and a broad reach to have a successful contest. If you’re trying to raise money for a worthy cause in your local community, you’re going to want to put even more energy into the work than if you were simply sharing a possible discount. The right content can make it easier for you to reach the right audience.

Create an Email Post to share for Your List

You still have an email list of previous customers and this list is one where you can send out a link to your contest and write a blog around the goals of your event. Send photos and talk about how participation can benefit the recipient when you send out your email. Make it easy for your previous customers to get excited and support your goals during the competition.

Chart, Track, and Share Progress for Your Contest

Will you have a thermometer to show the amount of money you’ve raised to support a local charity? Is your contest taking place over several days or weeks? What’s the timeframe for participants to enter? You can share various points of progress for your competition such as a daily recap or when you’ve reached specified milestones. Create content around these milestones with videos and social media posts that your audience can enjoy.