How To Conduct a Successful Giveaway

There are giveaways and then there are successful giveaways. With a giveaway, you’re just giving away your product—without much fanfare in the hopes that someone will finally click “Purchase” in their cart. Fingers crossed, right?

Turns out, conducting a giveaway can be a part of your business growth strategy…but only if you treat it as a marketing tool instead of just giving away some pretty stationery. Listen, people love free stuff. But the goal isn’t just to give away yet another stack of notecards. The goal is to introduce new customers to your business in the hope that they’ll want to buy from you again and again.

What Is a Giveaway?

A giveaway is a marketing tactic that has the potential to give your business more exposure and share your products with new customers. You know what it’s like to feel that surprise and delight of winning . . . well, anything. The same is true for your followers. People love that feeling of winning, whether it’s something simple like a thank you card, or something bigger like a customized set of stationery. If you do your giveaway correctly, they’ll associate your brand with excitement, generosity, and fun.

Many people may think a giveaway is just for the recipient. But in fact, giveaways are a great tool to add to your small business marketing toolbox. When done well, a giveaway can create excitement around your brand, customer loyalty, and grow your followers. The key is to make sure you’re not just giving away free stationery, but rather, growing your business by focusing on growing your client list.

How to Prepare for A Giveaway

If you want your giveaway to be successful and help you reach some business goals, you’ve got to do a little prep work. Let’s start with goal setting.

• Know your goals.

Giveaways can be a great tool—if you do them right. But if you just start doing giveaways, you may end up hurting your business rather than helping it. Why? Because these giveaways need to fit within your business goals. Think about why you want to conduct a giveaway in the first place. Is it to grow your social media following? Is it to gain brand exposure by giving away free stationery? Or are you hoping to receive feedback on a new product you’ve been testing out? No matter what the goal is, the point is to measure your giveaway results against your goal. Did it meet your goal? If so, that was successful and worth doing again in the future.

• Think about the ROI (Return On Investment)

Will the results of the giveaway have the potential to grow your business in some form or another? Will you end up growing your business through an email list, a following, or even other sales just from exposure? Sure, you don’t know the answers to those questions now, but as you decide what to give away and how to do it, think about how you’re going to achieve those goals you’re setting out to reach. Remember, you’re not just giving products away; you’re impacting the future of your business.

When is the best time to conduct a giveaway?

Sure, it might be fun to throw a giveaway out there willy nilly, but when you put some strategy behind it, you can really increase the ROI exponentially. Here are a few times when conducting a giveaway might have a greater impact on your goals:

• Before a trade show.

As you may have heard, trade shows are a big deal for stationery businesses, big and small. Trade shows can often help your business gain exposure as you grow your network within the industry and meet new retailers who might want to sell your stationery in their stores. By hosting a giveaway before a big show, you can build excitement, gain traction, and get people excited to visit your booth at the shows. It gives them a glimpse of what you’re going to be offering (and what they can expect to see when they visit).

• After a trade show.

Trade shows are a ton of work. So, the last thing you want to do is to conduct and manage a giveaway. But to be honest, it’s a great time to do just that. People will have seen your booth (or your posts about the trade show) and have your stationery top of mind. That’s a wonderful thing—so let’s keep it that way with a giveaway!

• During a new product launch.

You may think you’re the only one who is excited about a new product in your stationery lineup. But think again! A giveaway is the perfect opportunity to shout your new product from the proverbial rooftops and get others excited to see what you’re offering. If they’re really excited, they’re going to want to do some form of business with you. Whether that’s a purchase, moving down the marketing funnel (like signing up for texts or emails), or even sharing your giveaway with others.

10 Tips for conducting a successful giveaway

Now that you have your strategy in place (how and the why), it’s time to start implementing! Here are 10 tried and true tips to help you conduct your next successful giveaway:

1. Think about your audience.

What product would they be willing to trade an action for (a newsletter signup, a share, a like, or something else)? Put yourself in their shoes. Your giveaway must be enticing enough for them to act.

2. Be clear and transparent.

You know what they say: Clarity is kindness. The same is true for a giveaway. Be extremely clear about the rules of your giveaway, the location, who can enter, and the dates. Everyone wants to know when you’re going to pick the winner, don’t make them guess.

3. Collaboration is key!

The best giveaways are the ones where brands partner together to create a huge prize. Not only will this increase your exposure in connection with other brand names, but it’ll also ensure that more people will see it and interact with your stationery.

4. Use third party tools to make sure everything is fair.

Try as you might, it can be hard not to pick favorites when you’re doing a giveaway. To ensure fairness across the board, it’s helpful to utilize a third-party tool. There are plenty of free options out there that can randomly select a winner for you.

5. Choose your platform.

Do you want to host your giveaway on social media or are you hoping to drive more traffic to your website by going a different route? Whatever platform you choose, make sure you pick the place that gives you the opportunity for the most exposure.

6. Choose the timeline.

How long do you want your giveaway to be? Shorter periods don’t give people as long to connect with you and your brand. And longer timelines might cause people to lose interest. Shoot for three to seven days unless you’re collaborating with other brands and the prize is worth it.

7. Disclaimers and legal stuff.

Adding disclaimers to your giveaway is a must. Be very clear about who your giveaway is for, who you’re associated (or not associated) with, and if you want to keep the prize within state or country boundaries. Many social media platforms have regulations on how giveaways should be performed, so do your research before you publish that post.

8. Don’t make it too hard.

If there are too many barriers to entry, people may lose interest in entering your giveaway. The prize has to match the energy it takes for someone to enter. Let’s say you’re giving away a new sticker. If you’re asking people to enter every single day or tag 20 friends, they may lose interest pretty quickly. But for a customized set of stationery? That might warrant some tagging.

9. Follow through.

Now that the giveaway is over, it’s your job to follow through. Follow up with the winner, get their mailing address or email, and ship their prize to them. Make it a fun experience and they’ll remember your interaction every time they’re in the market for new stationery.

10. Track your goals.

Was your giveaway a success? You’ll never know unless you look at the metrics. If you were hoping for more followers, did you get a boost? Or if you wanted sales, did those increase? How about your email list? Whatever your goal is, it’s important to measure the results so you know what you should (or shouldn’t) do again in the future.

What’s Next?

At PrintsWell, we want to help you grow your business on your terms. So, if you’re looking for a printing partner who can serve your need to print a quantity of 10 or 2,000, we can help. We are passionate about helping you bring your beautiful designs to life and walking with you every step of the way. Fill out an application today and start printing your designs with us.