5 Incentives You Can Use for Online Marketing – Moz
Skip to content
Moz logo
Menu open
Menu close
Search
Products
Moz Pro
Moz Pro Home
Moz Local
Moz Local Home
STAT
Mozscape API
Free SEO Tools
Competitive Research
Link Explorer
Keyword Explorer
Domain Analysis
MozBar
More Free SEO Tools
Learn SEO
Beginner’s Guide to SEO
SEO Learning Center
Moz Academy
SEO Q&A
Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
Blog
Why Moz
Agency Solutions
Enterprise Solutions
Small Business Solutions
Case Studies
The Moz Story
New Releases
Log in
Log out
Products
Moz Pro
Your All-In-One Suite of SEO Tools
The essential SEO toolset: keyword research, link building, site audits, page optimization, rank tracking, reporting, and more.
Learn more
Try Moz Pro free
Moz Local
Complete Local SEO Management
Raise your local SEO visibility with easy directory distribution, review management, listing updates, and more.
Learn more
Check my presence
STAT
Enterprise Rank Tracking
SERP tracking and analytics for SEO experts, STAT helps you stay competitive and agile with fresh insights.
Learn more
Book a demo
Mozscape API
The Power of Moz Data via API
Power your SEO with the proven, most accurate link metrics in the industry, powered by our index of trillions of links.
Learn more
Get connected
Compare SEO Products
Free SEO Tools
Competitive Research
Competitive Intelligence to Fuel Your SEO Strategy
Gain intel on your top SERP competitors, keyword gaps, and content opportunities.
Find competitors
Link Explorer
Powerful Backlink Data for SEO
Explore our index of over 40 trillion links to find backlinks, anchor text, Domain Authority, spam score, and more.
Get link data
Keyword Explorer
The One Keyword Research Tool for SEO Success
Discover the best traffic-driving keywords for your site from our index of over 500 million real keywords.
Search keywords
Domain Analysis
Free Domain SEO Analysis Tool
Get top competitive SEO metrics like Domain Authority, top pages, ranking keywords, and more.
Analyze domain
MozBar
Free, Instant SEO Metrics As You Surf
Using Google Chrome, see top SEO metrics instantly for any website or search result as you browse the web.
Try MozBar
More Free SEO Tools
Learn SEO
Beginner’s Guide to SEO
The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.
Read the Beginner’s Guide
How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.
See All SEO Guides
SEO Learning Center
Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.
Visit the Learning Center
Moz Academy
Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.
Explore the Catalog
On-Demand Webinars
Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.
View All Webinars
SEO Q&A
Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.
Find SEO Answers
August 7-9, 2023
Lock in Super Early Bird savings for MozCon
Snag tickets
Blog
Why Moz
Small Business Solutions
Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.
Grow Your Business
The Moz Story
Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.
Read Our Story
Agency Solutions
Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.
Drive Client Success
Case Studies
Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.
See What’s Possible
Enterprise Solutions
Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.
Scale Your SEO
New Releases
Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.
See What’s New
New Feature: Moz Pro
Surface actionable competitive intel
Learn More
Log in
Moz Pro
Moz Local
Moz Local Dashboard
Mozscape API
Mozscape API Dashboard
Moz Academy
Avatar
Moz Home
Notifications
Account & Billing
Manage Users
Community Profile
My Q&A
My Videos
Log Out
L
By: LucyLangdon
October 5, 2009
5 Incentives You Can Use for Online Marketing
Online Advertising
The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
The word ‘incentive’ is defined as a ‘positive motivational influence’. The purpose of this post is to explore the different kinds of user behaviour that can be encouraged with incentives. Although this will hopefully include links as a helpful byproduct, the advice focuses more on increasing user interaction and engagement.
(This post isn’t about creating great content as an incentive for links- other ‘moz posts have talked comprehensively about that.)
1. Let’s Get Competitive
If you run a site that thrives on user generated content (or you’re thinking of adding this feature to your site but aren’t sure where to start), then this is one technique to increase interaction from users. In forums, competitive behavior occurs naturally as users try to achieve various levels of status within the community. Other sites can mimic this behavior (and the consequential engagement it brings) but they may need a structure to help it along. Here are a few ideas:
– if you have a product or place that you want reviews for, feature a ‘Review of the week’ (don’t forget to email them to let them know they’re featured!). It’s up to you how far you want to take this- why not take your top 5 reviewers out for dinner once a month?
– take a leaf out of Trusted Places’ book and create badges for Local Experts
– follow SEOmoz’s example and create a leader board that is powered off thumbs
Any of these incentives could be turbo-charged by adding a followed link back to the user’s site.
2. Feature your users
Allowing guest posts, or even ‘guest content’, on your site is a great way to let your users know how much you value them. If a site I spent time on came to me and asked me to write a feature for them because they valued my input up to now, I’d be bowled over (yeah, I know, it doesn’t take much).
If you’d rather not put the time into contacting individual users, try just putting a button on your site that invites guest posts or pitches. Savvy bloggers will be in touch before too long and you’ll give off great vibes implying how much you value your users.
3. Donate to charity
Promising you’ll donate to a charity if someone links to your site feels a bit mafia-esque to me. Seeing as donations are a slightly gray area anywhere, I’d advise going after other kinds of beneficial user behaviour. For example, a client of ours donates about $5 to charity every time someone reviews his product. You could also use this method to acquire usability feedback, UGC and email newsletter sign ups.
How to do it
Have a look at your site and decide where it is this tactic could be useful. Ideally, users will be very close to interacting in these ways already- the charity angle just serves to push them into action.
Depending on what you’re after, present the donation option when the user is in the right place to action it. For example, it would be much more effective to ask for a review of a product once someone has actually bought one! Similarly, why not ask for usability feedback when the user leaves the site, sweetening the deal with a promise to donate if they acquiesce.
You should definitely have a dedicated page that describes what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how much you’ve raised. Include a link to this in any relevant call-to-action.
If possible, have a small list of charities that you donate to and let users choose which one they’d like the money to go to.
Once you’ve had the donations up and running successfully for a few weeks, let the charity know what you’re doing and suggest they might like to link to you to verify the process for your users. Win win.
Make the process as shareable as possible: ask if the user would like their friends to know about how they can make a free donation to charity.
A word of warning: even though this isn’t an opportunistic scam and allows everyone- you, the charity and your users- to benefit, some people will have a problem with it. Make sure to be careful and respectful at all times.
4. Product Giveaway
If you have an ecommerce site, do you have any small, cheapish products that you could send to bloggers to get them to review? If you do, then this is a great way to build relationships with bloggers in your niche and encourage them to talk (hopefully positively) about your company. I wrote a whole thing on how to go about doing this, but then Rob pointed out he’d blogged about it a couple of weeks ago- so have a read of his post about Link Building for Small eCommerce Sites
5. Competitions and Prize Draws
Competitions are a really adaptable way of incentivizing certain types of user behavior. Here are just a few examples that we’ve seen recently:
– To get email sign ups – Fat Face- Win A Camper Van (very viral- has a ‘refer a friend’ draw as well)
– To sign up to a newsletter- Silksleep.com – win a silk blanket
– To get reviews – Pitchup.com- review a campsite and win a tent
– To generate buzz- the Hoxton Hotel competition- first set-number of entries win a room for a £1 and, of course moonfruit- enter anyone that mentions you into a prize draw (This doesn’t necessarily have to happen on Twitter, but the real-time nature of it really helps to add momentum)
– To receive blog engagement- New Scientist – win a piece of moon rock
If you have any other examples of using ‘positive motivational influences’ to encourage certain kinds of user behavior, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
SEOmoz Pro Training Series: London We have just a few tickets left to this event and it’s about to sell out. If you’re the type to wait around until the last minute, you better get on it before it’s too late. This is a can’t miss event, Sign up now.
With Moz Pro, you have the tools you need to get SEO right — all in one place.
Start your free trial!
Read Next
The New Best Practices for Native Advertising on Editorial Sites
Read this post
Programmatic Delivery: The Future of Content Marketing and Promotion?
Read this post
Context is King: A Million Examples of Creative Ad Campaigns Getting it Right
Read this post
Comments
Please keep your comments TAGFEE by following the community etiquette
Comments are closed. Got a burning question? Head to our Q&A section to start a new conversation.
Moz logo
Contact
Community
Free Trial
Terms & Privacy
Jobs
Help
News & Press
Copyright 2022 © Moz, Inc. All rights reserved.