Have you ever thought about creating a contest on your website to attract customers and clients? It’s a great way to garner interest in your company and to get visitors coming back to your website to see what new offerings you have after the initial contest is over.

Online contests are becoming more frequently used as marketing tools that help Internet businesses gain an edge over their competition and enhance their business reputation at the same time. You can promote your contest in social media by Tweeting or posting Facebook updates about it and thereby drive increased traffic to your website.

Contests are a great way to create a buzz about your company and generate excitement for your clients and customers. And because it’s your contest, you can create rules that will keep participants coming back again and again. You can either allow multiple entries at a rate of one per day or have fairly quick turnaround between contests so that even those folks who don’t win will return over and over to see whether they have another shot at getting a prize.

You can also use contests as a way to grow your client list and marketing contacts by requiring that they respond to consumer surveys or provide their email addresses prior to entering.

From a simple blind drawing of participants names to randomly select a winner to requiring a submission of some sort such as a short essay on, “Why I Am the Best Person to Win the Jackpot,” there are tons of different contest ideas and ways you can offer a shot at a prize. We suggest you find something that works with your field of interest and remember that the more you ask of your contestants the better the prize needs to be.

And, perhaps the best part of using an online contest as a marketing tool is that besides the prize, it’s practically free!