Convinced yet?<\/p>\n
Giveaways are awesome for growing your small business online. Do enough of them and we’ll be calling you a big business. Now let’s get started with what you need to throw one.<\/p>\n
Step 1.\u00a0Define your goals<\/h2>\n
What is your main goal for the giveaway? Do you want an increase in social media followers or email subscribers? Are you simply looking to get the word out about your brand?<\/p>\n
You need to figure out what you’re going to measure, so you can look back afterward to figure out if your giveaway was successful.\u00a0Remember that the point of the giveaway is not to make a direct sale. Most giveaways increase brand awareness<\/a> and help build your online following.<\/p>\n Here are some giveaway goals small businesses often have to measure success:<\/p>\n What are you giving away? This is the single most important question, as people will not participate in the giveaway if they’re not excited about what you’re offering.<\/em><\/p>\n Many successful giveaways all have one incentive in common \u2013 they give away their own product. This works well because it gives followers something they already want, but also can draw new people to your brand. If they like what they receive in the giveaway, they’ll be willing to buy from you in the future.<\/p>\n For example, authors Kathy Kinney and Cindy Ratblaff\u00a0gave away their own book,\u00a0Queen of Your Own Life<\/a>, and\u00a0generated over 3,000 entries:<\/p>\n The Girlfriend Collective,<\/a> a new brand that makes luxury leggings, gave away pairs of leggings to anyone who entered their email address. Instead of spending their marketing budget on expensive online ads, they decided to give away the product, and let it speak for itself. If recipients are happy with the leggings, they’ll buy more and tell their friends.<\/p>\n It’s very challenging to build your own giveaway from the ground up. That’s why there are many giveaway tools<\/a> out there that can help you host a giveaway. Some of our favorites are:<\/p>\n All three will get the job done as good as one another. Visit each one and choose the one that you feel\u00a0will meet your needs.<\/p>\n Promoting your giveaway is the only thing that is going to make it successful. In fact, a giveaway will be a complete flop without promotion. People may care about your prize, but it’s not going to go viral unless you’re offering a date with Justin Bieber.<\/p>\n You need to dedicate substantial time, energy, and budget to make sure people know about your giveaway.\u00a0Here are the most common ways small businesses successfully promote giveaways:<\/p>\n Paid Facebook ads are most likely going to be the best-paid way to promote your product.\u00a0Paying to promote your giveaway on Facebook will help you:<\/p>\n Facebook has the lead advertising platform in the world.\u00a0You can also target other social sites with paid advertising but generally speaking,<\/em> Facebook is the best.\u00a0If you want to learn more about Facebook advertising, check out Jon Loomers blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n Start with a bang and send out your giveaway to your email list of subscribers. If you don\u2019t have an email list to send it to, send it to all the contacts you have in whatever email platform you use.<\/p>\n The promotion email should be exciting and it should give specific details about the giveaway. You want the email to spark attention to get people to join (because they don’t want to miss out).<\/p>\n On top of that reach out to people who do have email lists and see if you can work out a deal for them to send to their lists. You might be able to do a joint giveaway with another company that has a larger and more engaged list.<\/p>\n Outreaching to influencers for your giveaway should be a promotional strategy considered by everyone. Even a single mention from an influencer can help drive more entrants to your campaign.<\/p>\n The key components to outreach are simple:<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> There are at least 100 people that you can contact to help you spread your giveaway. Build this list as much as possible and spend a lot of time executing on it.<\/em><\/p>\n You most likely have 10 close friends or family who would be happy to share<\/a> this on Facebook for you. Each one exposing your giveaway to ~500 people. That\u2019s an extra 500 people total that get to see your giveaway. Friends and family can be the most supportive, so they are a super beneficial group to utilize.<\/p>\n Use social communities to find groups of people who are likely to have an interest in the product that you\u2019re giving away.<\/p>\n Be careful when posting to these communities. Read the rules first and see if it’s allowed. If it’s not allowed then contact the moderator of the group and see if you can work out a deal. They just want to keep spammers out and will be open to hearing what you have to say.<\/p>\n This is another great way to find people who have an interest related to your product.<\/p>\n Giving away car parts? There are only about 100 other car forums on the internet loaded with people who would love to get what you have for free.<\/p>\n You can get in front of them for free using a forum!<\/p>\n Most forums also have sponsorships which will also allow you to advertise your giveaway on the forum for cheap!<\/p>\n\n
Step 2.\u00a0Provide an incentive for the giveaway<\/h2>\n
![\"giveaway](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/giveaway-281x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"legging](\"https:\/\/referralrock.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-05-16-at-12.47.05-PM.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nStep 3.\u00a0See if there’s a software tool that suits your needs<\/h2>\n
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Step 4. Promote your giveaway<\/h2>\n
Paid Facebook Ads<\/h3>\n
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Newsletter Distribution<\/h3>\n
Influencer Outreach<\/h3>\n
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Get your friends and family involved<\/h3>\n
Social communities<\/h3>\n
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Forums<\/h3>\n
Reddit<\/h3>\n