The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Fishing Contest on Facebook

With 3.07 billion monthly active users, Facebook can be an excellent platform for promoting fishing contests. It can help you grow your audience, increase brand awareness, and boost engagement by driving traffic to your site—all at a minimal cost.

A fair number of contests flop—most of the time, it’s because of lackluster promotions. Keep radio silence at bay with these tried-and-true advertising strategies:

First, Brush Up Your Copy

Content reigns supreme on social media. Here are some tips to keep in mind when creating effective promotional material:

• Use emojis and casual language
• Clearly explain how to enter the contest
• Be creative with your tagline; it’s what lures people in
• Emphasize the fun—if you’ve hosted fishing contests before, include pictures/videos of them to showcase the best elements

How to Promote Your Fishing Contest on Facebook: 101

We’ll take you through the best tips for marketing your contest to reach the target audience:

1. Choose a Prize They Can’t Resist

Offer gifts anglers will appreciate, such as a bait casting rod, waterproof fishing wader, handheld fish finder, high-quality tackle box, or spinning reel. Luxe options like a camping bed, collapsible tool, inflatable kayak, landing net that floats, lightweight cooler, and camp stove are also great for bringing ’em to the boat.

The bigger the prize, the more people you’ll attract.

2. Team Up with Influencers

Contests attract more attention, but if you want to increase participation, try influencer marketing! Partner with influencers in your niche, preferably ones that have proved their mettle in influencing their followers’ behavior and decisions, to amplify reach.

Here are a few of our favorites (with incredible engagement rates):

• Mohammed Alkaabi (@hookqatar): 45.36%
• Brice Bolden (@brice_bolden_): 44.42%
• Bobby Botsford (@bassfishingproductions): 5.96%
• John (@woodsboundoutdoors): 3.76%
• Shaun Whale (@shauno4wd): 2.32%

3. Create a Custom Hashtag

Hashtags can make your campaign more visible, increase engagement, and generate user-generated content. #contest, #contests, #contestalert, #sweepstakes, #giveaway, #competition, and #win are popular options.

To avoid getting lost in the sea of related posts, create a short and sweet custom hashtag to expand your reach.

4. Supercharge it with a Video

Videos generate 1200% more shares than texts and images combined, making it one of the best mediums to spark buzz around your fishing contest. Upload one on your YouTube page, highlighting the rules for entry and the prizes on offer.

You can also take it to Facebook Live or Instagram Stories to raise awareness and drive entries.

As people remember an impressive 95% of the video’s message (as opposed to just 10% with text), it can be a great way to keep your competition top of mind.

5. Encourage Social Sharing

Referral marketing can generate 3x to 5x more conversions than any other marketing channel (ReferralCandy).

Encourage contest participants to share your posts with friends and followers in exchange for extra entries. Emphasis on extra, as Facebook has decreed that “Personal Timelines and friend connections must not be used to administer promotions.” This requires a bit of work to monitor; there’s no denying that. However, social sharing can be rewarding in terms of engagement, as it enables you to reach new and relevant users.

6. Share it with Your Email List

Email is cost-effective and scalable, making it an excellent marketing tool.

Use it to generate buzz in your target market and close each message with an enticing call to action to bring momentum to your Facebook contest. You can also include information about the contest in a distinct section to ensure maximum participation.

7. Put up Posters with Eye-Catching Imagery

Create competition poster templates and display eye-catching, interactive media in high-traffic areas to attract attention. Include a QR code that directs the user to the contest page.

8. Use Paid Ads to Your Advantage

Organic reach can have its limits—more so for pages with >500,000 likes, which clock it in as low as 2%.

To increase exposure, leverage Facebook ads. Create compelling copy that catches the eye in seconds. Test audience segments by targeting geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral categories.

Once you find the common thread, adjust your campaign to see great results. You should also go all out in the final 24 hours to create a sense of urgency.

Take Home Message:

These promotional tactics can put your contest in front of thousands of eyes.

But to enhance participation, you must level up your graphics to engage and excite.

Tools like PosterMyWall ensure you won’t let opportunities slip through the net. You can choose from thousands of templates to create state-of-the-art media and even schedule posts to social media—with subscriptions starting at $29.95 per quarter!