Pinterest contests are great tools for increasing ROI, building brand awareness and engaging with your audience. The trick is to run successful contests that acquire the type of involvement that you’re seeking. This can be difficult to do, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be on your way to running Pinterest contests that everyone will want to take part in.

Tip #1: Keep Contest Rules Simple

Contests that have too many rules or guidelines can deter people from entering. Instead, keep it simple. For instance, ask participants to pin images from your business site or pin images of your brand’s best products. Let everyone know how the winner will be chosen (i.e., most creative, best use of product) since you can’t choose a winner at random, according to Pinterest’s guidelines.

Tip #2: Promote Your Contest

The more people that enter your contest, the better. You’ll building brand awareness and developing rapports with your target audience and beyond. So, don’t be afraid to promote your contest. Post the contest rules on your website and promote the opportunity on social media sites. You can also list the contest on sites like ContestHound.com and ContestChest.com.

Tip #3: Offer Compelling Incentives

You don’t have to offer high-priced rewards to be compelling; although shopping sprees, spa-days and gift certificates will draw in more interest. More importantly is that participants and loyal fans just want to be noticed for their commitment to your brand. That’s why it’s a good idea to reward more that just one winner. You can create a “Top Ten” board or offer smaller prizes to the runner-ups, while also posting their names on social media. Also consider collaborating with other businesses in your area to offer a joint prize.

Tip #4: Measure Your Results

How do you know if your contest was successful or not? By measuring the results, of course! When starting your contest, it’s helpful to identify what your goals are (more traffic, more subscribers) so that you can set up the proper analytics to track them. Also look at Pinterest statistics, such as re-pins, likes and follows. Based on this information, you can fine tune the details for your next Pinterest contest.