Design of sweepstakes-based social media marketing for online customer engagement

Customer engagement has been considered to be one of the most important goals of social media marketing. Many companies have conducted social media marketing, particularly through Facebook, by managing their brand fan pages. Compared with other approaches in social media marketing, sweepstakes-based marketing has been successful in gaining customers’ attention and in fostering engagement with customers. However, understanding has been lacking regarding ways in which to design sweepstakes-based social media marketing. By applying expected utility theory, this study examines sweepstakes-based social media marketing strategies, particularly designs based on the combination of promotion characteristics, prize types and categories, and prize payment type, to enhance customer engagement with a brand in the context of Facebook brand fan pages. The study in general, as well as the testing results, provides guidance to social media marketers and explains ways in which to design sweepstakes in social media marketing for customer engagement. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the significance of sweepstakes design factors and the combinations for customer engagement.