Why a Question Contest

Hello, Faithful! I'm back and as promised, I'm trying really hard to blog all this week, so without further ado, let's hit it:

Today, I'd like to tackle Emalee's question from my Week 3 Question Contest. Ironically, the question is:

What gave you the idea of doing this question thing for your book giveaway?

Well, it was actually a couple of realizations that smashed into one another at just the right time... The first realization has been building for a while and has to do with email marketing. Originally, I was planning on creating a contest where my readers subscribed to a newsletter or other subscription service which would allow me to then email them with updates about what I'm doing, or discounts, or whatever...

You know the drill.

This initial realization was that, for the most part, email marketing simply doesn't work very well anymore. It seems that most folks kinda ignore email marketing. Much like print and web adverts (think: web banners and ads) - it all just gets lost in the noise. So, I decided that a contest that revolved around email and/or gathering email addresses simply was not going to work for me; I wanted something more interactive and more "hands-on".

The second realization came after Austin and I examined at our ROI numbers regarding our Book Signing Event in Huntsville. Basically, what we noticed that despite working really, really hard and spreading the word to 40,000+ folks (not including our appearances on T.V., radio, and in the newspaper) prior to the event, most of the folks that showed up to our book signing were folks that we worked with or had some sort of personal interaction with prior to the event.

Now, before someone goes off the deep end and trounces me, let me say that we had an AWESOME turn-out for the event - I'm not complaining in ANY WAY.

Regardless, the realization was the same...it seemed that only folks who had a personal interest in either Austin or myself were the ones that made an appearance at the signing. So, why not design a contest that revolved around this goal, as opposed to the goal of building a list of email contacts?

With this in mind, I thought - what would be a simple, easy to enter and track contest that would, by default, connect me with potential readers? It hit me like a bolt out of the blue - a question contest!

This is such a cool idea to me because it's really, really simple, it's very intuitive and natural and it captures interest right off the bat. Think about it: the moment someone asks you a question, they are at the very least, interested in you enough to hang around for the answer. Couple that with the fact that they might also be able to win something for asking and you have a contest that really interests folks...

Which, in turn, generates more interest! Couple that with the fact that all of the questions that are not selected as winners become excellent topics to blog about and the true genius of the idea comes full circle.

Honestly, I wish I could copyright the whole darn idea! ;)

So, what do you think, Faithful? Do you think email marketing has seen its heyday? Do you like the Question Contest? What is the coolest contest idea that you've ever had?

Let me know in the comments below!