Giveaways are an amazing way to grow your email list, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube follower count, as well as boost your business overall.
But the question I hear all the time is…
“Do giveaways really work?”
At AppSumo, we know a thing or two about how to run a giveaway. After all, we’ve collected over 100,000 email subscribers from giveaways. Plus, our giveaways help promote our social channels on YouTube and Instagram, because they’re a great way to get our brand out there. From there, we know we can promote our signature awesome deals that new leads won’t be able to resist!
So, how do we set it up? KingSumo is a tool that we built specifically to create giveaways. You decide your prizes, plug in the details, and within minutes, you’re ready to go. Contestants have the opportunity to get more entries by sharing the giveaway with their friends and taking specific actions that you set (Instagram follows, YouTube subscribes, etc.). Great for their chances, and awesome for you to get new leads.
It’s a system that incentivizes viral giveaways for your benefit, and you can get a lifetime deal on it right now.
Running a successful giveaway all comes down to the right execution, and missing a step could mean not seeing results. While KingSumo walks you through the actual setup process, there are crucial things to consider before and after the giveaway. Here’s a handy checklist you can use to make sure you don’t miss any important steps when running a giveaway:
Now, let’s dive into a step-by-step guide on how to nail each phase.
You need a way to track your success. Setting a goal will give you metrics to measure and gauge how effective your giveaway was. It’ll also be useful when you launch future giveaways down the line. Some numbers we monitor whenever we run a giveaway include start and end dates, the number of contestants, entries, new emails, and new buyers (or conversions).
The main goal for us is driving new buyers, but we track additional metrics to ensure things are on track.
What’s a giveaway without something amazing to give away?
Decide on a theme to make the giveaway idea catchier and the prizes more than just a hodgepodge of stuff you like. Choosing a theme helps unify your prizes, keep you on track, and make your giveaway more memorable. Find out what your audience has a need for and go from there. Do they need to upgrade their work from home setup? Are they looking for the tools to create better video content?
Make sure the giveaway prizes are relevant to your audience. While you may go absolutely bananas for a record player and vinyl N-Sync singles, your SaaS business crowd may not have that same enthusiasm to enter and share with their friends (chumps).
Check out some of our giveaways for a little inspiration. We’ve gotten pretty creative, if we do say so ourselves, offering prizes that range from design software to mushroom hot chocolate.
First, you need to decide on the giveaway rules. What do you want them to do in order to enter?
Entry methods should be very simple, like submitting their email address. Many of the additional details can come after you’ve selected the winner (who will be happy to cough up some more info for that sweet prize).
Don’t overcomplicate the entry requirements process, or people will just give up.
In our giveaways, it’s clear and obvious what users need to do. Just enter their email address…
…or enter through social (Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.).
Bonus actions are ways for your contestants to get more entries (i.e., MORE chances to win). These actions should benefit your business, such as sharing the giveaway with their audience or following your social channels. This creates a virality component that will get entrants posting on social media, and get you more leads.
KingSumo offers the following options for bonus entry actions:
Here’s what it looks like for users after they enter:
Raffles are no fun if you have to wait 16 weeks for the prizes. Choose an appropriate length of time frame to run your giveaway that allows for a lot of leads, but doesn’t outlast the buzz.
A high-value prize typically equals a longer giveaway. Again, you want to be careful because you might lose steam. We find that two weeks or so is our sweet spot. We find that two weeks or so is our sweet spot.
A small prize usually means a short giveaway. A short burst of excitement with a quick payoff that’ll get people excited about your next offering.
Launching your giveaway is just half the battle. Once our giveaway goes live, we kick off our Facebook ads, publish our giveaway video, blast affiliates, mention it in our emails, and more.
Aside from the mandatory shoutouts on your social media, email list, and website (pop-ups are your friend), you’ll want to try and find people to partner up with — maybe with the company whose product you’re giving away or an influencer whose following might be interested in your company. Don’t forget to leverage appropriate hashtags on social media platforms and consider spinning up a dedicated landing page for your giveaway on your website.
Cross-promoting with other bloggers or businesses is a great way to gain access to their audiences in a low-risk, high-reward setting. So keep that in mind when you’re looking at prizes or thinking about future partnerships and collaborations.
Plus, you can get existing entrants to help promote the deal! Set up emails to go out to people who have already entered. Entice them with the ability to unlock more entries by doing the bonus actions you’ve selected.
Don’t forget to add a sense of urgency. When the giveaway is about to end, send out one last reminder to get more entries! This is your final push.
There are also Facebook groups centered specifically around giveaways that could give your brand an that extra audience boost when you post. Some groups to follow and join are Enter Free Giveaways by KingSumo, Facebook Giveaways, Share All Giveaways Sweepstakes and Contests, Freebies and Giveaways, and Giveaways Contests and Sweepstakes Sharing.
Check out this example of an eye-catching giveaway post that keeps it simple.
It’s the part that nearly everyone forgets. After you’ve picked a winner – announce it on social media. You’ll show that not only did someone actually win your giveaway (someone who doesn’t work for your company), but it’s a second opportunity to get eyes on your brand. People will be on the lookout next time you pop up.
Offering a consolation prize is also good form. You’d be surprised how many people sign up for your email list, just so they don’t miss out on more free stuff.
Here’s the consolation email we send to all the folks who don’t win our giveaways. Just a nice 10% coupon to sweeten the pot for next time.
After going through the steps of running a giveaway, you might still be skeptical or doubt that you can run one successfully. Giveaways are fairly misunderstood as a marketing tool, and riddled with common misconceptions. We’re here to tell you that you don’t need to start with a massive audience to run a successful giveaway, and contests really can get you high-quality leads.
You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, this works for AppSumo because you already have a large audience.” (And also, “When is the next season of the Mandalorian coming out?” But that’s a different blog post.)
A bigger platform definitely helps, but that doesn’t stop you from having a successful giveaway. Remember that this will increase your brand awareness and get you more leads to do business with. Think of it as a fun outreach method, and remember that you decide your own metrics for success.
Check out this social media giveaway from T-shirt company, Qwertee, for example. They were a small company trying to grow their Facebook page.
In their efforts to reach a goal of 100,000 Facebook likes (this was before Facebook’s restriction on requiring people to Like your page to enter a giveaway, but you can still use a different platform/require different actions), the company offered 1,000 t-shirts per week in exchange for entrants’ Facebook likes and email addresses. Today, they stand at more than 600,000 Facebook likes.
Maybe you don’t have 1,000 T-shirts to give away, but even a prize as simple as a $50 Amazon gift card can get people talking, sharing, tagging friends.
Here’s the rundown: 50% of entries are just looking for free stuff (because y’know, who doesn’t love FREE?). That’s a hard pill to swallow for a lot of first-time giveaway organizers. But the other 50% actually will be good for your business, and that’s incredibly valuable.
So, how do you get more of those good entries?
Above all else, if you want to run a giveaway that’s a resounding success and maybe even goes viral, you need to choose a great prize and make sure you have a clean email list.
We touched on this above, but it bears repeating:
Any marketing strategy can lead to bad subscribers if you target the wrong audience. So pick a prize that you know your audience wants.
We ran #WFHHustle giveaway where we offered a complete remote work package for your home office because we know our target audience is working from home these days. It was topical, useful, and everybody was already looking to bolster their home setup. And yes, we got a lot of leads from it.
You don’t need to break the bank, though. Just find prizes that appeal to your target audience, and the rest will come.
One crucial email marketing tip is to usehave double opt-ins to prevent you from ending up with a bunch of fake email addresses.
If you’re worried about hurting your open rates, don’t be. You can scrub your list and remove people who haven’t opened emails in the past 6 months (I would recommend doing this regardless if you run a giveaway).
Giveaways are a fantastic way to boost engagement, drive traffic, and find new customers. You don’t need to dish out crazy amounts of money for prizes, either.
Find out who you can partner with and cross-promote to make your giveaway as successful as possible. Putting in the work now could mean big benefits down the line for your business.
You’ll find that if you give a little bit of love to your audience, you get a lot back in return.
Check out KingSumo today.
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