So, even if a participant does not get the prize, they might still want to buy the product because they were anticipating it. You may have a target market at hand but that does not devalue the power of engagement. Giveaways provide a direct line of communication between a brand and their customers and this helps strengthen the community feeling.

Lastly, giveaways are a fun event. They can be tagged along with any major corporate event and will provide the space for a fun recess for both employees and participants. The type of giveaway one hosts will depend on their goal? Are they looking to create long term customers or generate a lot of leads?

Or are they trying to capture market presence for a new product? Since each type of giveaway produces unique results one should first be clear of their goal. When hosting a promotional giveaway, choosing the right platform is absolutely important since this will drive the participation levels.

For example, a clothing brand should host their giveaway on Instagram whereas an IT brand should do it via Twitter or email. Once the giveaway has been set up the deadline needs to be reminded to all the participants multiple times. A giveaway needs to be well defined much like that of a sports event.

No quarrels should occur between participants and the winner s should be chosen ethically. The prizes for contest and lottery-based giveaways are usually higher in value than those for sweepstakes. The prize for a giveaway event should be useful to the winner and should hold monetary value as well.

Giveaways are always a good idea to increase your brand awareness, sales and to attract new customers. The reason behind this spending is that it always works and will be a successful marketing strategy in the future.

One thing marketers should keep in mind is to use the techniques strategically. Here I will discuss different giveaways ideas to promote your business.

In marketing, coupon is a redeemable ticket for discounts and rebates when customers purchase a product and service. It is hard for customers to resist a coupon especially for a product they really want.

Using social media is an integral part of any marketing campaign especially when it comes to giveaways ideas. In this digital age, you should always rely on social media platforms, for example, hashtag contest.

Always choose a unique hashtag contest, revolving around your campaign objective in mind, ask the participants and followers to share a pic or make a post using the hashtag.

Believe me, this is a great giveaway idea because people love to share and participate. Hashtag contest is a good way to reach people but one should not ignore the photo contest. Creative photo contest ideas are the best strategies for those businesses who want to reaches the target markets.

Facebook and Instagram are considered to be the social media platforms to sponsor the photo contest. For example, post a photo on Instagram and ask your customer to like or comment and win.

Tag a friend or photo caption contest is also a good idea for photo contest. When it comes to promotional giveaways, gift cards idea is an easy way to attain the promotional objectives. This strategy is simple and everyone likes to participate. Gift card campaign is a good strategy because those who participate are interested in your product and mostly likely be potential new or return customers.

Grand prize giveaway always grabs the attention of customers. Make sure to excite the participants with small prizes which will lead to the grand prize. This strategy will grab the attention and more people will enter. Building suspense is another element of this giveaway strategy.

Offering a limited edition product as a giveaway is always an enticing idea and customer feel excitement and the sense of exclusivity. In recent times we have seen a shift away from this type of contest and for good reason. This way, the success of your giveaway is not reliant on another platform.

You control your own destiny. A common reason brands choose promotional giveaways over other forms of lead generation is because they naturally drive more engagement from participants. Remember, your prospects are being exposed to all sorts of noise and information when they are online.

Here are some promotional giveaway ideas for increasing engagement:. The best promotional giveaways are fun. They use elements of gamification to elicit feelings of intrigue and excitement in participants. For example, 23 City Blocks Catering decided to give away 23 different prizes, on 23 different days.

This is a crafty way to inspire curiosity and create engagement in a giveaway. Gamification giveaway example. Built with ShortStack's Multi-Day Giveaway Calendar template View and Create Your Own. The next promotional giveaway idea to increase engagement is to use interactive marketing techniques.

Below is an example from Grainfather Brewing who have used the concept of a wishlist to entice participants to engage with and enter their giveaway:. User-generated content is a powerful force on social media and promotional giveaways are a great way to tap into this phenomenon.

To think that your giveaway could be shared with other prospects of your business without your intervention is quite amazing. All you need to do is provide participants the tools and encouragement they need to do so.

A popular way of encouraging user-generated content from giveaway contestants is to run a photo contest. The key to a successful photo contest is striking a balance between ease and effort. The photo contest giveaway from Perky Pet below does a great job of striking this balance by encouraging participants to decorate, take a photo, enter, and share.

User-generated content giveaway example. Built with ShortStack's Photo Upload Giveaway template. View and Create Your Own. Leads and participants are very different things.

If you want to get a ton of participants for your contest then give away a holiday or a car. But if you want to generate leads, you need to make the whole experience relevant to your ideal prospects.

Everything from the way you market the giveaway to the prizes you offer, should all align with the goals and interests of your target customers.

Holiday Parks New Zealand does a great job of qualifying prospects in the example below by using a quiz to narrow potential participants. Relevant giveaway example. Built with ShortStack's Trivia Quiz template. Urgency makes us act now, instead of later. When it comes to promotional giveaways, you can create urgency with participants by limiting the amount of time the promotion is running.

Visual triggers such as countdown timers or expiring prizes on your landing page persuade people to enter the competition. Urgency giveaway example. Built with ShortStack's Multi-Day Giveaway Calendar template. Which is why the offer you present to giveaway participants is a vital part of lead generation.

Your offer needs to have a high perceived value with your ideal customers in order for them to want to enter the contest. If you want to make the most of the leads you capture from your contest then you need to also think about nurturing those leads and guiding them through the buying process.

Here are some tips for doing so. The best lead-nurturing campaigns are multi-channel. On top of social media, your giveaways and follow-up process should make the most of pay-per-click campaigns, remarketing ads, blog posts, email campaigns, and any other channel that makes sense for your target audience.

The goal is to generate visibility for your brand before the giveaway, during the giveaway, and then after the giveaway when you are trying to close sales. Creating a multi-channel experience for your prospects is one thing, but it needs to be consistent for it to have the biggest impact.

Your offer, branding , timing and messaging all need to align across every channel you use. Consistency is what instills brand recognition and recall. By the time you have a conversation with a prospect, they should already recognize your business. This creates a sense of familiarity and trust, which accelerates the sales process.

For example, you may test conversion elements at each stage of the campaign. With this information, you can improve the performance of your promotional giveaway next time. Even though the virality of your contest is somewhat left to luck, there are a couple of things you can do to increase the chance of this happening.

Here are some ideas Before launching your giveaway, take a moment to conduct some research and identify a topic or idea that has a proven track record.

For example, you could use a keyword research tool to determine if your giveaway topic has a lot of Google search volume. If it does, optimize your giveaway landing page for SEO and try to rank in search. This not only attracts more participants but reinforces that your topic is one of interest to people.

Keyword research for giveaway ideas Another way you can determine if your topic has a chance of going viral is to look at other promotional giveaways on the same topic to see how they performed on social media.

BuzzSumo is a great tool for researching specific key phrases and seeing the highest performing content on social media:. Promotional giveaways almost always have an element of virality already built in. For example, you can give entrants additional entries for every other person they get to sign up.

All they need to do is share it on social media with a unique link! Like this example:. Incentivised sharing giveaway example. Built with ShortStack's Refer-a-Friend Giveaway template View and Create Your Own.

The final idea for making your giveaway viral is to tap into the world of social media influencers. If you can find a group of micro-influencers who have an audience closely aligned with your target customer, they can significantly increase the reach of your giveaway.

If your promotion is a success it can be both a blessing and a burden. On the one hand, you have lots of new leads. But on the other hand, you have a lot of customer service requests coming in and need to be prepared to handle these with professionalism and speed.

Here are some tips for doing so Make the most of new technology such as Chatbots to automate some of the customer service process. This may be hard to do if this is the first time you are running a giveaway, but over time you will become familiar with the types of questions asked at every stage of the campaign.

By automating low-risk parts of your customer service interactions you create space for your team to handle the more important requests. Make an effort to connect with your giveaway participants using Live Chat on your website and contest landing page.

Live Chat not only provides a quick and easy way for potential customers to ask questions, but it also helps you engage with users and improve your conversion rates. Live Video is a great way to create a personal connection with your audience without physically meeting them. Ok, now to the fun part - the prizes!

Your prize needs to have a high perceived value. It needs to excite your prospects, and persuade them to engage with your contest.

This is because it provides double the benefits:. To get the most out of this promotional giveaway, go for stylish and wearable clothing custom printed with your brand logo, such as:.

You should also focus on comfortable styles that people wear often. The most useful products have the best results for promotional giveaways.

As we all know, the weather can be pretty unpredictable. This is the perfect opportunity for brands to capitalize on a much-needed item. Since almost all bags are reusable, people can use them repeatedly at the grocery store, commuting to work, and during general travel. This all adds up to quality and repeated brand awareness.

Smart businesses can turn this into an extra opportunity to keep your company top-mind, even if your audience is just curled up on the sofa. Promotional giveaway items like this are seen by your audience every day.

They can also be as inexpensive or luxurious as your budget allows. With a branded blanket, people can do it in style and will thank you for it. Staying safe and well is a top priority for most people. We all want to protect ourselves from common bugs and illnesses.

For example, you could offer reusable face masks printed with your company logo as your giveaway prize. You could even throw in some wipes and hand sanitizer to create a well-rounded bundle.

Like staying safe from bugs and colds, most people are pretty conscious about their physical health. You can get creative with fitness, wellness, and healthcare-related promotional giveaways that you know your customers will use and love.

You could even team up with a local gym or fitness class and put together a bundle of promotional fitness items with free classes for the lucky winner. As mentioned earlier, eco-friendly promotional products are a massive hit for most people.

So put your best climate-conscious foot forward and design some sustainable merchandise you can give away to your audience. These items are perfect for giveaways all year round. First up are gift cards which are a dream come true for savvy shoppers.

This can result in your giveaway paying for itself multiple times over. You can also offer similar corporate gifts for any events, webinars, or seminars you have planned and give away free tickets to a few lucky people. Running any contest starts with a robust plan that should include:.

Our top choice for running the best promotional giveaway, especially if you have a WordPress website, is to use RafflePress. RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. This giveaway app comes with a drag-and-drop giveaway builder and flexible giveaway templates for making any type of giveaway.

It also has tons of 1-click entry options designed to grow your business leads and sales, such as actions to:. RafflePress lets you host your giveaway in any WordPress post or page or on custom distraction-free giveaway landing pages.

You can share your contest anywhere online while sending targeted traffic to your business website. Check out this step-by-step guide to learn how to create an online contest with RafflePress from start to finish.

If you found this article helpful, be sure to join us on YouTube , Twitter , and Facebook for more giveaway guides and tutorials. Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission.

We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers. We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy , and all links are nofollow.

Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation. Your Real Name. You Real Email. Features Pricing Our Story Login. Get RafflePress. Introducing RafflePress's new leave-a-review giveaway actions. Boost customer engagement and build trust effortlessly by incentivizing reviews in WordPress.

Written By: Stacey Corrin Stacey Corrin. Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO. See Full Bio. John Turner. John Turner is the co-founder of RafflePress.

December 22, What Are Promotional Giveaways? The goal of the campaign was to take Tupla's image in a more adventurous, dynamic and exciting direction. To kick off the new campaign, ROC Mediagroup advertised the chance to win a MiG flight to the edge of space. Web, in-store promotion and streaming video were used to get users involved in the campaign.

The Target Audience The target group was every adventure and candy-loving Finn between the ages of 16 and The Results Over 30, users signed up for the chance to win the prize. Five finalists were chosen and visitors to the Tupla website voted to determine the grand prize winner.

Karoliina Turppo was selected and flew to Moscow for her Incredible Adventure in March Customer Satisfaction "Incredible Adventures handled the flight and preparations for the flight very professionally and efficiently. Our customer Leaf and the competition winner were extremely satisfied with the quality of service provided by Incredible Adventures.

J Solja, ROC Mediagroup. Maggi Malaysia CosmoTour Russia Promotion - Sweepstakes in honor of Malaysia's first cosmonaut in space; First Prize: a Russian Cosmonaut Tour from Incredible Adventures. Call now to discuss a customized sweepstakes program tailored to your goals and budget! E-mail or call Incredible Adventures today for further details: Incredible Adventures - Lockwood Ridge Rd.

Die Hard Vendetta Game Launch Sweepstakes Fox Interactive, Sierra Entertainment and IGN USA. Excellent Adventure Promotion Yahoo! FEATURED VIDEOS. GIFT CARDS. Win a Flight in a MiG over Moscow!

Win a Zero-Gravity Adventure! Pepper Movie Promotions Quest for the Can was highly successful contest to promote the release of "Thor". Pepper Movie Promo Video.

See the product catalog. Giveaways on Instagram , Facebook or Twitter, or among subscribers to your email list and other online channels. Select the winners randomly and transparently. Contests on Instagram , Facebook , Twitter or any other social network or digital support.

You can ask users to participate with photos, texts or videos, and, optionally, activate voting to increase viral reach.

Create engagement and brand recognition by offering fun and entertainment to your audience while capturing leads. Share the games on social media, your web or other channels.

Create an app with questions and answers that users must respond to win a direct prize or enter the prize draw. Get contact details from all participants and obtain qualified leads. Create interactive dynamics to distribute prizes and gifts among participants in exchange for their contact details.

Reinforce strong relationships with your audience with long-term promotions and campaigns with various participation stages and rounds. Use gamification, points and rankings to boost loyalty and trust.

Try the most complete Instagram giveaway app on the market and organize giveaways on posts, videos, and Instagram Reels. Our professional specialists provide customer support via our online chat for more than 12 hours a day.

Choose one of the apps to achieve marketing objectives on all communication channels. Intuitive design editor with various options for customizing the promotion with your corporate image. A self-service platform aimed at marketing professionals. No need for coding or programming skills. Products designed for optimal performance on different screen sizes, platforms, and social networks.

Create a prize wheel to distribute prizes, discounts, and gifts among your audience. Absolute control of probabilities and multiple methods for distribution. Digital promotions that work. Businesses have used giveaways and contests to promote their products for as long as any of us can remember.

Where an old-fashioned candy store may have once invited customers to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar to win free chocolates, manufacturers now offer lavish prizes to those who post and tag their products across social media platforms. The internet has provided marketers with a seemingly limitless sandbox to build brand exposure, but a tapestry of federal, state and international laws come into play when any promotion is made available online.

Although sweepstakes and contests of skill can usually be structured in a legal manner, federal and states laws clearly prohibit private parties from running lotteries.

Generally speaking, a lottery is defined as a promotion that 1 involves awarding a prize, 2 by chance, to 3 a person who has provided consideration to enter the promotion. Because a promotion almost always involves a prize, a promoter must eliminate either chance or consideration in order for the promotion to be legal.

A sweepstakes is a promotion in which a prize is awarded on the basis of chance, such as via a random drawing of entries.

This means that the element of consideration cannot be present. Exactly what constitutes consideration varies by state, but generally takes on one of two forms: 1 a requirement that consumers make a payment or purchase to enter; or 2 an entry procedure that requires the expenditure of considerable time or effort.

Your most rabid fans would essentially die for a chance to be noticed and acknowledged by your brand. For example, you might invite your contest winners to attend a VIP party — with all expenses paid for, of course.

Nikon did just this in , putting on a party for contest winners in a club in the middle of Manhattan. As we just mentioned, the goal of offering VIP treatment to your contest winners is increasing their levels of engagement with your brand.

Or, if your winners are already VIPs, you want to show them how appreciative you are of their business. So it simply makes sense to get ultra personal when giving away prizes to your contest winners.

It could be as simple as offering them an engraved product of their choice… or you could go a step further and let them fully customize the item in question:. A Samsung fan sent in the above drawing to Samsung Canada asking tongue-in-cheek for a free Galaxy S3.

The company obliged. While not exactly part of a contest, the point is that this personalized gift created a fan for life. You can be darn sure he held onto that S3 for as long as he possibly could, and probably still tells the story of its origins to people he meets.

Allowing your contest winners to create a truly personalized version of your product — truly one of a kind — adds definitive value in the eyes of your customer. The prizes for such contests should be representative of every brand involved. You might create a collection of products from each company, or you might provide gift cards for a storefront.

Or, you could offer a collection of prizes that relate to your industry as a whole. For example, in , parenting advice website Fatherly partnered with SkinnyMom and Greatist to create a promotional contest for its customers.

First of all, you expose your winner to a number of your products they may have never used before. This can give you the opportunity to make up-sells and cross-sells to said customer a bit later on down the road.

Secondly, you allow your winner to get the full experience of your brand. But you could certainly add a little humor to the experience by throwing in a gag gift along with your actual prize. And this gag gift could definitely make your brand stay top-of-mind for quite a while.

Again, you do want to follow through by providing one or more prizes that your contest winners will actually want. But our goal for this massive guide was to do more than just provide suggestions for your next contest or giveaway. Our aim was to have you come away with an understanding of when to use each suggestion — and why each is appropriate for a specific scenario.

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