If executed well, giveaways can be an extremely effective way to increase brand awareness and grow followers and engagement on your social media accounts. However, giveaways can be executed very poorly, which will leave you with giving a product or service away for free plus wasting your time, with nothing to show for it.
If you’re planning a giveaway for your brand, there are a few things to consider before you start, to ensure your giveaway is a success.
What You’re Giving Away
What you’re offering has to (appear to) have equal or more value than what you’re requiring people to do to enter your competition. We are constantly exposed to new products, promotions and giveaways, so your contest has to be valuable enough for people to consider taking the time to enter. Essentially, the more you’re giving away, the more you can ask for in return.
The best way to capture attention and showcase what you’re giving away depends on your brand, budget and the prize, and can be one or a range of photos, videos and graphics.
Who Can Enter
Naturally, the less limits that are set for the competition, the higher chance there is for its success. Remember how excited you were when that brand you love was promoting their giveaway, but when you went to enter, you noticed those terrible words “For US residents only”?
In saying this, if you’re an Australian based brand (not available overseas), a brick and mortar business (eg. a Melbourne cafe) or your product is too expensive to ship overseas, limiting who can enter may restrict growth but it can also ensure your new followers are not only genuinely interested in your brand, but have the potential to become a customer.
It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers (the more followers, the better, right?), but it’s more important to focus your efforts on gaining genuine, authentic followers who will engage with your brand, make a purchase and become brand ambassadors.
How to Enter
Firstly, whether you’re running the competition on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you always want to include following/liking your account in your criteria for an eligible entry. This allows for ongoing communication and a higher chance to turn the entrants into customers.
Other requirements can include ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on the post (accounts with high engagement are rewarded by social media algorithms), ‘tag a friend’ (organically spreads the word and increases engagement), ‘sign up to mailing list’ (through link in bio or link on ad campaign), ‘repost’ your post or post an original photo/video and ‘hashtag’ and/or ‘tag’ your brand.
Collaboration
Collaborating with another brand or influencer/s is a great way to reach a wider audience immediately. When choosing a brand or influencer to collaborate with, there’s a lot of elements you must consider, including their target audience, brand perception, offering and authenticity (and much more!). If planned well, collaborations can make your contest go viral!
Advertising Campaigns
Running a detailed and targeted social media advertising campaign will maximise the reach of your giveaway and encourage new potential customers to follow your account and discover your brand. Adding the giveaway component to a social media advertising campaign can really amplify the success of the ad campaign.
Finding it hard to create the perfect mix for your brand? Get in touch and we can help!
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