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During the past couple of months, I spent considerable time researching the use of sweepstakes in the B2B software market.

Software marketers tend to stay away from sweepstakes. There is a good reason for this. Last year, 1,900 B2B marketers surveyed by “MarketingSherpa” rated sweepstakes as one of the least effective means of generating high quality leads.

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

But because the use of sweepstakes is a powerful tactic to convert prospects into customers, I tracked down which sweepstakes B2B marketers are using to make their jobs easier.

Before I reveal the specific type, let me tell you why sweepstakes are such a powerful tactic, and why you need to consider them.

3 Reasons Why Sweepstakes Pack the Power
; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in
trong> to Convert Prospects into Customers Quickly

First, sweepstakes take advantage of our culture’s trance with games of chance. For the past 20 years or so, we’ve been seeing a marked increase in people gambling, playing the lottery, 50-50 raffles, sweepstakes, and many other games of chance.

Second, in a complex sales pitch, sweepstakes
lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

can draw your prospect to spend time with your direct response letter or website. When they do this, they will initiate a set of small commitments that will make them psychologically uncomfortable.

This psychological discomfort will force your prospect to be consistent. They must reconcile their beliefs about you or your product and their behavior -- spendi
here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe
ng time with your direct response letter or playing a game in your website.

This psychological discomfort can become more pronounced, especially if they receive a small gift when they participate in your sweepstakes.

Using this tactic is a natural means “to stop your prospect -- or bring to a momentary halt all the diverse activities of their mind -- or foc
d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro
us their attention (at least for a moment) on a single thought” – what your offering them.

The success of the tactic depends of course on how the salesperson handles the prospect during the sales cycle. And it assumes you have a product that is “right” for the prospect.

Finally, if done well even in a B2B environment, sweepstakes have the potential to build
ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc
good rapport. They can allow you to share a common interest or a “fun” moment. You will bond with your prospects and convert them more quickly into customers.

How Can Sweepstakes Work in a B2B Environment?

I found some B2B marketers capitalizing on the power of sweepstakes by using a combination of creativity, improvements in online techno
easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi
logy and a keen knowledge of their prospect. For them, the key to their successful sweepstakes was a well-planned, well-executed advertising campaign.

If you consider sweepstakes a way to build rapport with your prospect, it’s important that you design them around something your prospect enjoys outside of the work environment.

For instance, although we tend
nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically
to think that smartphones, headset systems, earphones and PDA’s are work-related (and help people improve productivity), it’s obvious that behind their work-related use, these gadgets are simply catering to the consumer desire for technological toys.

To this audience, offering the latest technological toy is a desirable and tasteful reason to participate in
and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ
a sweepstakes. Research confirms this type of promotion works well if the prospects are primarily middle managers or small C-level businesses.

Research also shows this group is very interested in targeted and practical white papers that will help them get ahead -- especially if the reports are from a reputable research house like the Gartner Group.

For lar
ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi
ger organization’s C-level prospects, research suggests that offering sports-related items as prizes is the best way to maximize participation. Make the prizes something worth displaying around the office. Perhaps sports memorabilia or a collector’s item would work best.

Also consider awarding items someone might never shop around for, but wouldn’t mind winn
ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a
ing for fun. For instance, for those who are culturally refined, you can use a vintage bottle of wine, high quality art prints, or a remote-controlled robot.

Computer Associates, for example, is currently running a sweepstakes in BusinessWeeek. They’re offering their prospects who are history buffs, a chance to win a copy of David McCullough’s 1776.
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

Which Sweepstakes Are Making Marketers Winners?

John Jantsch is currently using this sweepstakes to fill his session with prospects at the Sage Summit scheduled for October 2006.

Business owners are invited to enter to win the $25,000 Business Marketing Makeover from John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing—The Wor
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
ld’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide.

Join John Jantsch for Session BB15: How to Create Loyal Customers to Grow your Business. When you register for the session, you are automatically entered to win a prize valued at US $25,000!

In our current culture, people of all levels are playing games of chance. The trick is
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
to make the sweepstakes fit your prospect. In a B2B environment, you also need to make the sweepstakes refined and sophisticated. They must enhance your brand and not leave any bad taste with those who participate.

The Type of Sweepstakes That Might Work For You

I found a few online marketing companies who are using the power of technology
t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
to make sweepstakes highly sophisticated. For instance I found Cariocas.comdesigning sweepstakes that use game theory to gain useful information from those who participate.

It’s a real advantage to have truthful information about customers and the criterion that motivates their buying decisions. It’s also very difficult to get.

A second company that’s creat
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
ing innovative sweepstakes is eprize.com. Prospects enjoy playing polished “advergames,” and will keep coming back to the website.

The prospects are not only impressed by the quality of the game, but feel compelled to check out the rest of the website.

Six Reasons Why Marketers Use Sweepstakes

Capture names and addresses in a datab
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
ase to increase the pool of prospects
Shorten sales cycle by building greater rapport with prospects
Contribute to positive relationships between the brand and the consumer
Reveal the customer’s preferences
Build buzz around a new product
Leverage a sponsoring program
In Brief:

Sweepstakes pack a lot o
.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
f power. The key to successful sweepstakes is good planning, and a well-executed advertising plan.
Your prospects, even if they’re C-level will participate in sweepstakes if you can make it tasteful and find the right prize.
When prospects participate in sweepstakes, they’ll tend to give you more time to explain your product and even give you
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
the benefit of the doubt. Psychologically, they’ll think they “owe you,” but will also need to reconcile their behavior of playing in your sweepstakes and taking a prize, with their belief in what you’re selling.
Sweepstakes can build strong rapport.
With creativity, B2B marketers can use the power of sweepstakes and come out winners.

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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