Do you ever wonder why some photo contests seem to get thousands of entries while others struggle to get any?
Learning how to run an online photo contest that gets everyone talking is a great way to boost brand awareness for your projects and grow your community.
It’s not just about showcasing fantastic creativity, it’s also about forging deeper connections and starting meaningful conversations.
This guide (based on over a decade’s worth of experience hosting online contests) will help you boost your photo contest’s visibility, shareability, and, most importantly, participation.
Without further ado let’s dive into…
Why Create an Online Photo Voting Contest?
Before delving any deeper, it’s important to establish your objectives.
What are your aspirations with this photo contest?
- Elevating brand awareness?
- Enhancing community engagement?
- Increasing user submissions?
Identify your principal metrics and define how you’ll quantify success.
Without this clarity, you’re navigating uncharted waters without a map.
How to Create an Online Photo Contest
You’ve understood the ‘why’; now, let’s delve into the ‘how’.
To create a viral photo contest, you’ll need:
- A captivating theme or subject
- Clear rules and guidelines
- A dedicated website or landing page
- A diverse panel of judges
- A robust voting mechanism
- Prizes that genuinely pique interest
- A good quality online photo voting platform
- Clearly set timeframes for submissions and winner announcements
Picking a Captivating Theme
Choosing a theme is central because it sets the stage for the entire contest.
If a theme doesn’t capture the creative imagination of your audience, then they will be less likely to enter.
A good theme should be universal enough so that you don’t limit your number of potential entrants (unless you are deliberately choosing to run a niche contest) while being exciting and unique enough to stand out from the noise and encourage entries.
Your theme is there to provide direction to the participants and ensure that entries are somewhat comparable and adhere to a certain topic.
For instance, a theme like “Urban Decay” might encourage photographers to explore abandoned buildings, while “City Lights” could have them capturing bustling nightlife.
Your theme helps to bring uniformity in diversity, ensuring that all participants are on the same creative wavelength while interpreting it in their own unique ways.
Setting the Rules
Constructing clear and precise rules is an essential element in avoiding chaos and keeping the focus firmly on creative competition.
This includes hard and fast deadlines, which are pivotal for managing your photography contest effectively while being respectful toward all entrants.
Anticipate last-minute entrants and be prepared for requests for extensions.
In global contests, be mindful of differing time zones and be explicit about which zone your deadlines adhere to.
This ensures every participant is on the same page and can plan their submission accordingly, making the contest fair.
Creating a Photo Contest Website
Some people choose to create a full website for their photo contest, others prefer to save time by using an easily customisable landing page through an awards management system.
Whichever you choose it’s important to remember that your landing page is your digital basecamp, and it must be efficient, user-friendly, and comprehensive.
All vital information, from rules and themes to deadlines and submission portals, should be clearly communicated here.
Some contest software providers offer solutions to streamline your contest management, providing tools to efficiently create landing pages that are both informative and user-friendly.
By opting for a contest voting platform that is already optimized to guide the user through the entire process, you ensure a smooth and positive experience for your participants.
Choosing Judges
Ensuring your judging panel brings a spectrum of perspectives is vital for unbiased evaluation and decision-making.
In contests, judges from different cultural, geographical, and professional backgrounds can comprehend and appreciate the varied nuances in participants’ entries.
It also signals to participants that the contest values inclusivity and that their submissions will be evaluated with an equitable lens.
Establishing a Voting System
A straightforward and secure voting system upholds the integrity of your contest.
Define the parameters upon which entries will be judged.
Will it be on originality, the quality of work, adherence to theme, technical prowess, emotional impact, or perhaps the social message?
Some contest voting platforms allow for this multifaceted scoring, enabling a fair and thorough judging process that aligns with your contest’s objectives.
Offering Exciting Prizes
In determining prizes, understanding your target audience is pivotal.
What do they value?
For photographers, it could be new gear, while for others it might be an exclusive workshop or a feature in a renowned publication.
Tailoring your prizes to the specific interests and aspirations of your target audience not only ensures heightened enthusiasm and participation but also communicates that you understand and value their craft and aspirations.
In-depth knowledge of your audience ensures your prizes are both enticing and relevant, amplifying the appeal of your contest.
Using a Reliable Photo Contest Voting Platform
Ensuring that the platform you use to host the contest is reliable and user-friendly is essential to avoid disenchanting participants.
A good photo contest management platform will safely store submissions, allow easy viewing, and facilitate a straightforward voting process.
For instance, in a ‘Travel Photography’ contest, a seamless submissions and judging platform not only simplifies navigation through various entries for viewers but also streamlines the shortlisting and scoring process for judges, enhancing user experience and encouraging sharing and participation.
Sticking to Your Timelines
Maintaining your timelines assures participants of the contest’s professionalism and ensures sustained engagement.
For example, if you’re conducting a seasonal contest like “Winter Wonderland”, ensuring that the winners are announced while the season is still relevant is key.
It keeps the enthusiasm alive and ensures that the contest remains topical and engaging.
From setting the right stage with your theme to respecting the participants’ efforts with timely announcements, each aspect plays a crucial role in crafting a successful and enjoyable photo contest.
So you’ve built your contest, now what?
Now we sit back, relax, and wait for the entries to come pouring in, right?
Well, not quite…
The next stage is to promote your contest because a photo contest with no visibility is like a masterpiece in a closed gallery; its brilliance remains unseen.
Ensuring your contest is well-publicized is critical to its success.
How To Market Your Online Photography Contest Like a Pro
In this next section we’re going to explore how to get people to learn about your contest, this includes:
- Meeting your audience where they already are
- Utilising relevant hashtags
- Influencers and partnerships
- How to advertise your photo contest
- Sharing and interaction
- Photo contest listing sites
- Encouraging word of mouth
- Engaging the community
- Choosing the right photo contest platform
Seek Out Your Target Audience
When it comes to choosing where to market a photo contest, the first step is to identify the online spaces where most photographs are shared.
The go-to answer for most would likely be Instagram.
Social media sites like Instagram serve as a robust way to boost the awareness of your contest, allowing information to circulate quickly and widely.
A good rule of thumb is to keep your posts frequent and your content intriguing, employing impactful visuals to grab attention.
Try to share content that your audience will either find affirming, funny, surprising, or educational.
Take the time to really understand your target audience through surveys, conversations or simply observing the kind of content they feel passionate enough to share.
Ask, what other hobbies or interests do my target audience have and how can I serve them with genuine value?
Content that does well is about serving the needs of the audience, not the creator.
Meet Your Audience Where They Already Are
Winning on social media isn’t easy, that’s why it’s best to identify one primary social platform, ideally the one where your target applicants are most active, and go all in on this.
Marketing expert Gary Vee believes “You have to keep hitting it consistently until you make that one video or piece of content that puts you on the map.”
Pay close attention to the type of content that is performing well and look for a way to authentically replicate this.
Give genuine value with 95% of the overall content you make and spend only 5% of your overall content actually selling your product.
If the only thing you try to do is to push to your own contest, people will disengage and you’ll struggle to build an authentic following.
Once you’ve figured out what works through experimentation, you can repurpose that existing content in a way that feels native to other social media platforms.
E.g. taking the information from an Instagram carousel post and turning it into a short video for YouTube & TikTok.
Utilize Relevant Hashtags
Incorporate relevant hashtags to enhance discoverability.
Research trending hashtags in the arts community to tap into existing conversations and extend your reach.
Leveraging specific niche hashtags like #NaturePhotoContest2024 can position your contest with interested and targeted audiences while reducing your competition, allowing enthusiasts to easily find and share your contest.
Ideally, you want to utilise a mixture of hashtags, some with a large audience and others which are more niche to give you the best opportunity to be seen.
Engage Influencers and Partnerships
Connecting with influencers and establishing partnerships can exponentially increase your contest’s visibility.
Identify influencers whose followers align with your target demographic and collaborate to create engaging content.
For instance, partnering with a renowned photographer or a well-known art blogger can lend credibility to your contest and attract their followers to participate.
To encourage influencers to work with you, you’ll need to keep your offer appealing with short well-researched conversations, if possible, a financial incentive and if not and an offer to do most of the work.
How to Find Influencers for an Online Photo Contest
Strategic partnerships are about more than just aligning with other organizations or brands; it’s about mutually beneficial relationships.
Don’t immediately aim for partners with millions of followers (unless you have a large budget); they’re likely overwhelmed with partnership requests.
Instead, seek out micro-influencers who have a follower count similar to or slightly higher than yours. This approach makes collaborations more appealing for both parties.
Look for frequent posters with high engagement within your chosen hashtags.
Offering reciprocal content sharing can be an attractive proposition for potential partners, especially those who have already built a substantial following.
A “You post for me, I post for you” approach can help in expanding reach to like-minded individuals in each other’s networks, fostering a sense of community and shared interest.
How Do I Advertise my Photo Contest?
Facebook & Instagram (Meta) ads are often highly effective for promoting contests within the creative sector, allowing you to reach a wider, yet more focused audience, interested in your niche.
By tailoring ads to your specific audience’s interests and preferences, you ensure that your contest resonates with those most likely to engage and participate.
Targeting allows you to go really specific on your audience, for example, if you’re running a creative contest that seeks to target UK creatives who have a passionate interest in ecology (like we did for our Amplify: Environment contest), you can specify that your ads are only shown to that exact group.
By smartly leveraging targeted advertising, you can not only enhance the appeal and credibility of your contest but also ensure it reaches the most relevant and responsive audiences, thereby maximizing its impact.
Encourage Sharing and Interaction
Prompt your audience to share the contest details within their networks.
Simple calls to action like, “Tag a friend who should enter!” or “Share this post to spread the word!” can stimulate interaction and widen your contest’s reach.
Calls to action should always be quick and easy for users to do.
Asking the audience to respond with a single emoji can be a great way to increase your engagement while requiring little effort on the audience’s part.
Regular Updates and Reminders
Keep the momentum going by providing regular updates on the contest, announcing new partnerships, or showcasing prize previews.
Remind your audience about submission deadlines and encourage last-minute entries.
These strategies keep your contest fresh in the minds of potential participants and followers.
The Strategic Value of Photo Contest Listing Sites
Identifying and leveraging appropriate websites to feature your photo contest (like photo contest deadlines) is an essential element in ensuring its widespread recognition and success.
This step serves to create multiple gateways to attract a targeted audience, allowing your contest to reach people across various domains and interests, enhancing the diversity and quality of entries.
Having your contest listed on reputable contest listing websites bolsters its credibility and allure.
The visibility garnered from a strategically picked listing is invaluable, connecting your contest with communities that have a genuine interest, thereby, driving increased participation and boosting the overall reach and influence of your contest.
The Importance of Word-of-Mouth
Achieving a viral online photo contest is more likely when people are talking and sharing information about your contest.
A good approach here is to ask yourself “What kind of photo contest would your audience feel an overwhelming desire to share with their friends and why would that be?”
If you’re not sure, start with a simpler question, “what was the last piece of content you shared online and why did you do that?”
Oftentimes photo contests can have a powerful social message behind them, like spreading mental health awareness or sustainability.
Always keep returning to the question, “Why should my audience care?”
The integration of diverse promotional strategies ensures a broader audience, elevating the chances of your contest becoming a trending topic.
It not only builds a community around your contest but also fosters excitement and anticipation, critical elements for a contest’s viral success.
Remember, the more visibility your contest gains, the more entries you gain along with fostering connections and unveiling undiscovered talents.
Engage and Excite the Community
Executing an online photo contest is more than a fleeting engagement. It’s vital to maintain enthusiasm by interacting with your community consistently.
Leverage your social media platforms and newsletters to feature standout entries, circulate progress updates, and hint at forthcoming events.
Encourage ongoing dialogue and keep the spark alive by making every interaction count!
Transparent Judging and Winner Selection
The selection phase is crucial, so don’t lose momentum when it comes to declaring the winner.
Maintain clarity about the selection process to ensure diversity and inclusion across your process, whether it’s through a proficient and diverse panel of judges or a community vote.
The integrity and perceived value of your contest significantly rely on the transparency of this phase, so ensure each step is conscientious and meaningful.
Sustain the Momentum Post-Contest
Even when the contest wraps up, the excitement and engagement needn’t fizzle out.
Utilize the results and celebrate the work to leverage awareness for your next contest.
Evaluate the gathered data and analyse your results so you can improve next time.
Remember, celebrating the victors and lauding the community is integral – it’s their participation that catapulted your online photography contest to success!
Choosing the Right Online Photo Contest Platform
By now, you might be thinking, “I’m ready to get started!”
But we still need to talk about the most important step in creating an online photo contest:
Picking the best photo contest platform to host your offering.
Don’t make the classic mistake of thinking you can handle it all internally.
Juggling spreadsheets, emails, submissions, and data can be trickier and way more tiring than you think.
Trust us, we’ve been there when we first started running our own contests over a decade ago.
Doing it all by hand isn’t just a lot of work; it can also lead to mix-ups and mistakes.
And if servers go down, data isn’t safe, or forms are too hard, you risk losing entries, getting a big fine, or people might not want to join your contest.
Getting Noticed by Looking Professional
There is a lot of competition out there and if your contest doesn’t look legitimate, people won’t trust it and won’t want to join.
Using photo contest software makes everything run smoother, lowers the chance of mistakes, and keeps all your information in one place.
A good contest management platform does the majority of the work for you, from collecting entries to automated e-mails to judges and even collecting submission fees, keeping everything neat and moving fast.
So, what’s the solution?
At Zealous we’re proud to offer a contest management platform designed to significantly reduce your workload.
Many of our clients choose us for this very reason, like Sue Ecclestone (Founder of The Holly Bush Award).
Using Zealous as your photo contest management software allows you to spend less time on paperwork and more time promoting your contest and connecting with your community.
It’s a win-win, making everything better for you and the people joining your contest. This way, you can run a successful, professional-looking photo contest without the stress.
Why Zealous is Your Go-To Photo Contest Voting Platform
We know finding creative entrants for your contest isn’t easy.
That’s why Zealous is the only contest management software that directly serves the creative community, with a growing online network of 70,000+ registrants actively seeking contests to enter.
It’s this unique approach that helped Sophie Smyth reach new heights by doubling her usual number of submissions!
Zealous is everything you need to run a smooth, fun, and super-engaging photo contest.
Easy submissions, a built-in voting system, and analytics make it the top choice for any organisation aiming to grow their impact.
Plus, Zealous offers affordable monthly plans, so you’re not tied into the usual annual commitment when your contest might only be open for just a few months.
But seeing is believing.
Click here to set up your professional online photo contest in minutes and start collecting entries for free!
You’ll quickly see why we’ve been rated as Source Forge’s top contest management software of the year!
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