With the birth of social media, especially Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, there has also been an influx of online businesses which as part of promoting their businesses is by having social media giveaways which has also adapted to a great deal in the last few years. There are many items that are being given as giveaways, depending on what the business is offering. Some may also opt to give small items like customized floating keychains especially for business who sell items used in various water activities.
The game changer, in particular, is because of the growth of mobile internet traffic which makes mobile responsive is more preferred. There are many apps which assists you in creating a giveaway, it is advisable that you use those mobile responsive with an intuitive setup. Also, it is preferable to use those which has a free trial with no credit card requirement.
Every person always loves getting something for free. As a matter of fact, one essential reason that people “like” a brand’s Facebook page is because they either can obtain a discount to they can win something.
Thus, with the rise of social media, this enables businesses to easily make their own sets of contests and giveaways that can either:
- Build the links to their website which is beneficial for search engine optimization
- Increase the website’s traffic
- Create social media engagement
Below are some steps for you to set-up, promote, and use such giveaways to improve your website’s traffic and social engagement.
- Determine what the goal of your giveaway is
Before you actually start your giveaway extravaganza, it is important that you first determine what the purpose of your giveaway is. Your purpose depends on what you want to achieve through your giveaway, it may either be to increase social engagement to your social media pages or if you want to use giveaways as a means of building strategy. So, the goal that you have chosen is going to be the determinant of the type of contest and the entries that you will run. And of course, you will also need to have an estimate as to your budget to finance the promotion of your giveaway.
- Determine what items you are going to give away, and as to how long will the contest run
The item that you will giveaway should somehow be interrelated to your business. Say, for example, you are selling equipment for watersports, then you can have customized floating keychains as giveaways, among other things. This will also be going to be based on what the goal of your contest is, what your margins are going to be, and as to who is your target audience. From that, you can select a giveaway product wherein people will definitely love.
If you are giving away an obscure product, then chances are, it will not be sufficient for people to participate in your giveaway contest. Furthermore, you should also establish the timeline of the contest. Current best practice is a month-long contest stint because this gives you ample time to get the most out of the giveaway, without giving it a longer period which might make people forget all about the contest.
- You can create your giveaway on Rafflecopter
If you are wondering why it should be on Rafflecopter and not anywhere else, it’s because, with Rafflecopter, it can only take you minutes in creating your giveaway contest. This will also enable you to create multiple entries so that even with just one giveaway; you can still fulfill various objectives including link building and social engagement.
This can also be integrated into your social media pages and other blogs by using the following recommended entries:
- Tweeting about your giveaway
- Have them leave blog post comments
- Make them follow your Twitter account
- Liking your post on Facebook
- Have them follow you on Pinterest
- Have them follow you on Instagram
- You can add the widget to your site and to your social media accounts like Facebook
After your giveaway has been created, Rafflecopter will also provide you with an embed code which you can easily copy and paste to your site.
You have to ensure that you have a banner on your homepage or at the sidebar of your site promoting your giveaway. This will enable your site visitors to see your giveaway contest and also give them the chance to participate.
- Establish your benchmark
Below are some of the benchmarks which you can consider:
- The number of likes on Facebook
- The number of Google +1s to the page
- The number of re-tweets to the page
- The number of inbound links
- The average monthly visitors
- Send an email to your giveaway entrants to encourage them to come back
More or less halfway through your contest, you can send your participants an email so that they will be encouraged to visit your site again and thereby gaining more entries.
- Select your winner
With the continuous promotion of your giveaway, you should now have at least several hundreds of entries by the end of your contest period. The actual total number of entries will be dependent on the number of entries that you have made available.
If you are using Rafflecopter, it has its way of selecting the winner, and once you have verified who the winner is, you should immediately notify the winner and then ask them their permission for you to use their picture in an email announcing the winner of your contest.
- Mail out the prize to the winner
Now that you already have your winner, you should now send the prize to the winner. It is better if you put on an extra effort as to the presentation of the prize so that you can make your winner feel special. This will also encourage your winner to share his or her winnings, and maybe give some positive reviews about your product.
- Remove the giveaway widget
Now that the contest has ended, it is also proper that you remove the widgets related to the contest so to prevent misleading other people.
The steps above are guides for you to facilitate a successful giveaway contest. It would be better if you follow the recommended steps above, and then you can also put in your own creativity in giving your items away.
