Image the scene: you’ve stumbled upon an unfamiliar ecommerce website.
First impressions appear constructive; you want their model and merchandise. Their costs and delivery prices appear affordable. Nonetheless, you’re not one hundred pc bought. With actually hundreds of thousands of different manufacturers on the market, why not store round?
Then you definitely spot a message like this:
All you might want to do is enter your e mail tackle for an opportunity to win a very free product. What have you ever acquired to lose?
After all, product giveaways aren’t only a win for customers. They assist manufacturers develop their advertising lists, giving them the chance to remodel one-off web site guests into engaged ecommerce leads and, ultimately, paying clients.
That will help you make the most of this extremely efficient—but underutilized—advertising tactic, I’ve gathered collectively a few of my favourite ideas and greatest practices for operating efficient giveaways.
And I’ve even included 11 high-converting promotional giveaway concepts from real-world manufacturers which you could steal to your subsequent marketing campaign.
What’s the Purpose of Your Giveaway?
As with any marketing campaign, step one to planning a promotional giveaway is to outline the target(s) you hope to attain. Widespread objectives embrace:
Gathering Emails
It’s truthful to say we’re large followers of e mail advertising at Drip; hardly shocking on condition that e mail generates a return of $36 for each $1 spent.
Utilizing giveaways for e mail seize is usually about focusing on web site guests who’ve by no means purchased from you earlier than. You shouldn’t have to depend on free items to influence present clients to join your e mail listing.
When you’ve acquired your fingers on their e mail tackle, you’ll be able to attain them with customized campaigns based mostly on their preferences and onsite behaviors. In the event that they love searching necklaces or purchase a brand new mattress cowl each six months, you’ll be able to hit their inbox with a focused promotion at precisely the fitting time.
Boosting Your Social Following & Viewers Engagement
Many manufacturers use promotional giveaways to extend engagement on social media and develop their follower counts, identical to on this instance from our buddies at Haute Hijab:
Most of those contests comply with an analogous format, providing followers the prospect to win a prize in change for:
- Liking, commenting on, and/or sharing a selected social media put up
- Tagging buddies within the feedback
That is a simple solution to attain new audiences on social media—though, clearly, there aren’t any ensures that these folks will comply with you or have interaction together with your content material (not to mention purchase from you).
Capturing Consumer-Generated Content material
With four-fifths of customers saying user-generated content material (UGC) extremely influences their buying selections, it’s simple to see why many manufacturers are desperate to seize as a lot of it as attainable.
However UGC doesn’t simply occur by likelihood. Most customers aren’t going to primarily do your advertising for you and not using a little incentive.
That’s the place promotional giveaways are available in. Slightly than asking clients to remark in your social posts or offer you their e mail tackle, process them with sharing pictures and movies of them utilizing and having fun with your product.
Run these giveaways repeatedly and also you’ll quickly construct a library of worthwhile user-generated product footage, evaluations, and testimonials to make use of in future campaigns.
Producing Buyer Referrals
Referred clients are worthwhile clients.
In reality, one research revealed that they generate increased revenue margins, are extra loyal, and present a better buyer lifetime worth than “common” (non-referred) clients.
However, identical to with UGC, you’ll be able to’t afford to easily sit again and hope buyer referrals will magically seem—you might want to incentivize the method.
Referral campaigns are sometimes about producing gross sales as an alternative of leads. So they have an inclination to supply extra engaging, assured rewards. Slightly than giving members the prospect to win a prize, you may provide a free product (or perhaps a money incentive) to each the referrer and the referred buyer.
When Ought to You Launch a Giveaway?
Like every sort of promotion, it makes most sense to launch your giveaway marketing campaign throughout slower gross sales intervals to your model. As a result of there’s little level in providing further incentives at occasions when customers are already seeking to purchase (plus nobody wants the trouble of operating a contest within the buildup to BFCM).
Past that, construct your launch round occasions when engagement is highest throughout your chosen promotional channels.
As an example, the greatest time to ship emails is usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays…
…with emails despatched at 8 AM, 1 PM, and 5 PM performing greatest when it comes to open and click-through charges.
Easy methods to Run a Profitable Enterprise Giveaway
Completed nicely, promotional giveaways can develop your advertising listing, generate buyer referrals, and drive gross sales and income. However these outcomes aren’t assured. Get it flawed and also you threat devaluing your model and turning off loyal clients.
Listed below are 5 greatest practices to spice up your probabilities of operating a profitable giveaway…
Select the Proper Platform for Your Giveaway
Whether or not you’re gifting away a pair of socks or the winner’s physique weight in gold bullion, nobody’s going to interact together with your promotion in the event that they don’t realize it exists. For that cause, it’s important you select the perfect platform to your giveaway; one which helps you attain the fitting viewers.
The “greatest” platform to your marketing campaign will naturally rely upon the goals you are seeking to obtain.
As an example, if you happen to’re seeking to attain and have interaction new audiences, it is smart to make use of a platform with built-in shareability, corresponding to Fb or Instagram. Or if you wish to seize extra e mail addresses, attempt focusing on new clients visiting your web site by way of onsite popups.
Accumulate Emails & Nurture Giveaway Individuals
Bear in mind: you’re not operating a giveaway since you simply love handing out your merchandise freed from cost; you’re doing it to attain some kind of broader advertising objective.
Almost definitely, that objective will contain rising and/or participating your viewers, with the final word intention of producing extra gross sales and income.
Which means constructing some kind of viewers nurturing course of into your marketing campaign.
Collect members’ e mail addresses once they enter your giveaway contest. And in case your giveaway is operating for an prolonged interval (say, any longer than 48 hours), make sure to share common competitors updates by way of e mail and/or social media.
Your giveaway e mail sequence might look this:
| Electronic mail quantity | Days after launch | Goal |
| 1 | 0 | Affirm giveaway entry |
| 2 | 1 | Remind entrants of the competitors prize and any key phrases and situations |
| 3 | 3 | Inform folks what number of entrants have signed up; share UGC examples if related |
| 4 | 5 | Announce the giveaway winner(s) |
| 5 | 6 | Share a reduction code with non-winning members |
After all, there’s no one-size-fits-all method right here. You’ll have to tailor your communications based mostly on a complete vary of things, from the size of your competitors to the entry necessities and the prize you’re providing.
Hyperlink the Prize Again to Your Enterprise
Apparent as it’d sound, it’s greatest if the product or expertise you’re gifting away has a logical tie-in together with your model.
The best answer is to offer away your individual merchandise. However that’s not the one viable method to operating a giveaway. With a bit creativity, you may have the ability to establish a theme and prize that makes for a extra participating contest.
For a model like The White Firm, which sells luxurious homeware and clothes, the obvious technique is to supply up a elaborate quilt set or a botanical candle as a prize. As an alternative, it gave clients the prospect to win a mini-break at a luxurious cottage on the English coast:
Why? As a result of The White Firm helped type the property, successfully making a bodily case research for its complete aesthetic; one thing aspirational to encourage its viewers.
By providing up the mini-break as a contest prize, the model was in a position to showcase its work in a extra participating manner than merely saying: “Come check out this cottage we embellished.”
Get Engagement on Social Media
Whether or not or not you’re operating your giveaway by means of social media, you need to completely use your social channels to drum up extra curiosity.
As with the Haute Hijab instance I shared earlier on this article, the obvious method is to make social engagement a key aspect of your marketing campaign—prompting followers to touch upon a put up or tag a buddy so as to enter.
However you’ll be able to additionally leverage platforms like Instagram and TikTok to boost consciousness of your giveaway and direct followers to register on a devoted competitors touchdown web page.
Be Clear About Your Guidelines
Within the advertising world, easy is all the time greatest, and giveaways aren’t any completely different.
Positive, your authorized crew will seemingly need to cowl your again with a bunch of phrases and situations. That’s tremendous. However the overarching guidelines of the competitors—methods to enter, what the prize is, and when the winner might be introduced—ought to be simply digestible.
Nationwide lotteries are a great instance. They offer away hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, but all it’s important to do to enter is purchase a ticket and match some numbers. Anybody can perceive it.
In case your contest can’t be defined in 2 – 3 bullet factors, it’s virtually definitely too advanced.
11 of The Greatest Giveaway Concepts That Work (and Easy methods to Execute Them)
1. Accumulate Emails with Related Prizes
In case you’re planning a giveaway, your prize ought to be the very first thing you determine on.
In spite of everything, prizes are the primary cause why folks take part in giveaways.
Select a prize too frequent, and also you received’t seize a lot consideration. However select a prize too large, and chances are high you’ll entice freebie-seekers.
As tempting because it sounds, providing a brand new iPhone in your giveaway will do little good for you. Why? As a result of engaging however irrelevant prizes are spam magnets.
You’ll probably find yourself with an e mail listing stuffed with uninterested leads who’re solely in for the prize.
As an alternative, hold your prize related to your merchandise and your worth proposition.
Earlier than planning your subsequent giveaway, guarantee that it serves your conversion objectives. In case your goal is to develop your e mail listing, an Instagram contest the place customers tag their buddies received’t assist you.
Bear in mind, a great giveaway doesn’t converse to everybody. Slightly, it speaks to your purchaser persona.
With a related prize that resonates together with your purchaser persona, you’ll be able to really promote your on-line retailer, on high of accumulating e mail addresses.
Take this instance by J.Crew Manufacturing unit:
The corporate hosts a spring giveaway on their website and creates a devoted touchdown web page for it.
The massive prize is a bundle that features a reward card winners can spend on J.Crew Manufacturing unit’s on-line retailer.
A pattern product or a present card is a related and efficient prize, however for some guests, it’s not sufficient of an incentive. If you wish to make the prize extra fascinating, you’ll be able to mix a present card with different issues, as J.Crew Manufacturing unit does.
This manner, guests will get the prospect to attempt your merchandise. And it will increase their chance of turning into return clients.
Discover how J.Crew Manufacturing unit writes the worth of each the reward card (value $100) and the bundle (over $300) to make the prizes extra engaging.
J.Crew Manufacturing unit asks if you wish to join their e mail listing because the final step and leaves it non-obligatory. This manner, they seize the guests’ pleasure of getting into a contest, they usually develop their e mail listing with leads.
In case you’re accumulating emails that you just’ll use for advertising functions, clearly write what customers are giving consent to. Give members the area to determine for themselves, as an alternative of preselecting the e-newsletter checkbox.
2. Enhance Your Giveaway Copy
One main benefit of internet hosting an onsite giveaway is the flexibility to customise each a part of your contest.
Because of this you have got the pliability to make your giveaway as engaging as attainable.
With an onsite giveaway marketing campaign, you’ll be able to determine what actions guests ought to take, which info they need to submit, and the place they need to go subsequent.
Writing compelling marketing campaign copy and a benefit-driven call-to-action (CTA) are the 2 pillars of an efficient giveaway marketing campaign. However they’re solely pretty much as good as your provide.
Check out this instance by Jysk Vin:
In contrast to J.Crew Manufacturing unit, Jysk Vin makes use of an onsite marketing campaign to host their giveaway. This manner, they’ll inform all their website guests in regards to the giveaway with out making them go to a brand new web page.
This marketing campaign works nice for just a few causes:
- Their prize (24 bottles of wine) is very related and engaging to their website guests.
- The headline “Win $770 value of wine” is attention-grabbing and value-driven.
- They offer clear details about the draw date.
- They freely state what you might be subscribing to (an unique e-newsletter for wine fans).
- The marketing campaign has just one enter discipline, which makes it ridiculously simple for his or her guests to finish.
- They use a benefit-driven CTA, as an alternative of merely writing “Signal Up” or “Enter Now.”
With a well-written onsite marketing campaign just like the one above, you’ll be able to simply nudge your guests to affix your giveaway and provides them a robust cause to join your e-newsletter.
What’s higher is, you’ll be able to exclude your present subscribers from these campaigns so that you just don’t ask them to affix your e-newsletter once more.
3. Leverage the Vacation Season
With Black Friday, Christmas, and New Yr, the vacation procuring season is the busiest time of the 12 months for e-commerce entrepreneurs.
In case you’re not already leveraging holidays with particular campaigns, you’re lacking out on loads of income.
Including a bit twist to your vacation campaigns can assist you stand out amongst a whole lot of different festive giveaways.
Many on-line shops host giveaways, particularly throughout the vacation season, they usually normally provide winners just a few large prizes.
However you can also make your contests much more engaging by letting your website guests select the prize they need themselves.
Right here’s an important instance which you could replicate in your website.
In case you had been on the Chubbies e mail listing final Christmas, you’ll have acquired this e mail with the topic line “take something on our website”:
At first sight, you don’t know if it’s a giveaway or not. But it surely definitely evokes curiosity.
And that is what you see if you open the e-mail:
They ask you to make a wishlist with their merchandise, write why you need to win, and ship the corporate an e mail.
And if you happen to’re the fortunate winner, you get all the pieces in your wishlist.
Chubbies efficiently leverage the vacation season with this humorous giveaway e mail.
However if you wish to execute this sensible concept in a more practical manner, attempt making issues simpler to your guests.
Asking for an excessive amount of effort for a small payoff will cut back your variety of entries.
As an alternative, you’ll be able to create a easy type with just a few enter fields and present it solely on related product pages.
If you wish to run the giveaway on a particular class, say, “footwear”, you’ll be able to set a situation to indicate your marketing campaign on particular product pages.
And you’ll exclude sure pages, corresponding to your about or contact pages if you wish to disguise the marketing campaign.
You too can use superior scheduling to arrange and deactivate your giveaway campaigns forward of time.
When the giveaway ends, you can provide all members particular reductions for his or her wishlist objects and convert them into clients even when they didn’t win.
4. Promote Your Merchandise
With e-commerce giveaways, you are able to do rather more than acquire emails and lift model consciousness.
If somebody desires to affix your contest and win one in every of your merchandise or a present associated to them, it implies that they’re fascinated with your on-line retailer.
As soon as they enter your gross sales funnel, you have got an opportunity to advertise your merchandise and convert them into clients—whether or not they be part of your giveaway or not.
However right here’s the caveat: You need to do it subtly.
Take a look at this instance by Oru Kayak:
Following frequent apply, the corporate companions up with different e-commerce manufacturers, corresponding to Sunski, to supply greater prizes of their giveaway.
They create all of the prizes you’ll be able to win collectively and use the image on their giveaway touchdown web page. In addition they embrace the greenback worth of the prizes to enhance their perceived worth.
However the firm doesn’t cease there. They listing all of the merchandise you’ll be able to win with their particular person costs and hyperlinks to product element pages:
Along with supplying you with details about the giveaway, additionally they introduce you to their merchandise and promote them in a refined manner.
This can be a more practical manner of introducing your merchandise and creating pleasure for them, in comparison with merely itemizing the objects members can win.
5. Use Giveaways to Promote Extra
E-commerce giveaways not solely assist you acquire extra prospects but additionally have interaction with these prospects in a extra persuasive manner.
With onsite giveaways, you’ll be able to instantly enhance your gross sales by focusing on each your present and potential clients, who’re at an extra stage of their purchaser’s journey.
A well timed giveaway can create a mild nudge that your guests want so as to change into clients. Plus, it might assist enhance their common order worth (AOV).
Check out this giveaway concept by Vinomofo:
The corporate celebrates its birthday with a “treasure hunt” sort of giveaway.
Milestones like this are a intelligent excuse to understand your clients and host a giveaway to extend your gross sales.
Vinomofo’s guidelines are easy: “Purchase something at the moment to win.”
Though this can be a sensible giveaway concept, internet hosting it on a touchdown web page makes it tough for website guests to see it.
If you wish to apply Vinomofo’s concept to your on-line retailer, you’ll be able to enhance it through the use of an onsite marketing campaign and related triggers.
This manner, extra website guests will concentrate on your giveaway and also you’ll enhance your gross sales.
Including an exit-intent set off and a situation to indicate solely on product pages will make your giveaway marketing campaign more practical.
If you wish to create a way of urgency with out being annoying, attempt including a countdown timer to your marketing campaign.
In case your giveaway requires a minimal procuring restrict to enter, you’ll be able to nudge guests who’re near the restrict based mostly on their basket worth.
Right here’s an instance of how such a marketing campaign may look:
6.Mix Surveys with Giveaways
It doesn’t matter what enterprise you’re in, you’re most likely attempting arduous to get some insights out of your clients.
You need to discover out why your guests abandon their carts or how one can enhance your on-line retailer.
You ship out survey invitation emails over and over, however no one is fascinated with responding.
Chances are high, you’re lacking an incentive.
Combining your surveys with giveaways will have interaction your subscribers and enhance your survey completions.
Right here’s a typical survey/giveaway instance by Brooklinen:
At first, it seems like a buyer appreciation e mail, the place you’ll be able to click on by means of to enter a giveaway and win one in every of their merchandise.
As a result of Brooklinen frames the invitation e mail across the giveaway, as an alternative of the survey. Finishing the survey is just a easy situation to affix and it takes two minutes.
While you click on “Enter Now,” you see that it’s a Typeform survey:
Positioning your surveys round a giveaway can assist enhance your completions and make your merchandise fascinating.
In the long run, you’ll get worthwhile suggestions and engaged clients.
Following this method, Brooklinen solely reaches out to their e mail subscribers and asks for his or her opinion.
If you wish to attain an even bigger viewers and acquire extra insights, you’ll be able to create an onsite survey marketing campaign, as an alternative.
You’ll be able to add a situation to cover your marketing campaign out of your first-time guests and get extra correct suggestions. Or you’ll be able to solely present it to guests who spend an X period of time in your website.
Livingshop makes use of a marketing campaign to survey their clients at checkout:
It’s simple to recreate this straightforward marketing campaign and goal the fitting folks on the fitting pages. Plus, you’ll be able to flip it right into a giveaway with a bit twist.
7. Accumulate Emails on Closed Giveaways
Right here’s a bit secret many entrepreneurs don’t learn about: even when your giveaway ends, it nonetheless has potential to carry you heat leads.
With a minor addition, you’ll be able to flip your giveaway web page into an automatic lead era machine.
Whereas doing analysis for this text, I clicked dozens of lifeless giveaway hyperlinks that result in a 404 web page.
And in lots of different instances, firms let me know that their giveaway ended, however they didn’t level me to a brand new course.
There’s an important likelihood that your prospects will land on an previous giveaway web page that you just shared on social media or they’ll discover an e mail of their inboxes a bit too late.
As an alternative of shutting down your giveaway pages, you’ll be able to flip them right into a lead generator till your subsequent marketing campaign.
Right here’s how Bellroy does that efficiently:
While you go to one in every of their previous giveaway pages, first, they inform you that this marketing campaign is closed.
Then, the corporate triggers your fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) by saying “Don’t miss out once more!”
Lastly, they invite you to affix their e-newsletter by explaining its profit for you: “Be the primary to learn about product releases and giveaways sooner or later.”
Bellroy efficiently eases your frustration and provides you a robust cause to join their e mail listing. As a result of they know that if you happen to’re on this giveaway, you’re a worthwhile lead for the corporate.
8. Collect UGC From Present Prospects
I’ve already talked about how efficient UGC will be for showcasing your merchandise and influencing buy selections. So the extra of it you’ll be able to collect, the higher.
GoPro is an absolute grasp at this. Take a look at the model’s Instagram and also you’ll discover that the overwhelming majority of content material they share comes from present clients.
Admittedly, GoPro has a definite benefit: it sells motion cameras, that are fairly intently associated to the motion of taking pictures and movies.
Additionally, the entire cause folks purchase GoPros is to seize themselves doing cool stuff like climbing mountains or leaping out of airplanes, so it’s solely pure they’d be completely satisfied to share the outcomes with the widest-possible viewers.
Nonetheless, these elements alone aren’t any assure of success.
Prospects nonetheless want a compelling cause to ship of their snaps and vids, so GoPro incentivizes them with common gear giveaways and money prizes:
The end result? A seemingly countless stream of user-generated content material prepared and ready for GoPro to share.
Professional tip: Discover how GoPro makes use of devoted UGC hashtags. With out them, it’d be near-impossible to maintain observe of all these contest entries.
9. Supply Restricted-Version Merchandise
By their very nature, giveaways depend on urgency and/or shortage to drive motion. Usually talking, you’re both:
- Providing a set variety of prizes; or
- Solely making these prizes accessible for a brief interval
So why not elevate the stakes by including extra shortage within the type of a limited-edition product giveaway?
That manner, clients know in the event that they don’t participate within the competitors, they’ll by no means get their fingers on the product in query.
Cotton Bureau used this technique as a part of its tenth birthday celebration, giving clients the prospect to win numerous limited-edition goodies by getting into a selected code throughout the checkout course of:
I like this method as a result of it’s all about gross sales and income: you’ll be able to solely be a part of the competition if you happen to really purchase one thing.
In case you had been already planning to buy a brand new T-shirt and also you acquired this e mail, it’d offer you all the inducement you might want to click on by means of and make a purchase order.
10. Run a Branded Merch Giveaway
From T-shirts to pens to espresso mugs, it seems branded merchandise is an enormous hit with customers.
Certainly, 53 p.c of Individuals love receiving these kinds of merchandise from manufacturers. And since 51 p.c repeatedly use them in day-to-day life, branded merch successfully turns your clients into strolling, speaking billboards to your retailer.
There’s one main caveat to this promotional giveaway technique: it solely works in case your model is robust.
In case you’re a brand new entrant to your market, or have restricted model consciousness, folks may not be too excited on the prospect of carrying your brand on their chest.
Loss of life Want Espresso Firm is a superb living proof. Positive, it may not be the world’s greatest espresso model, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly well-known—and it has robust enchantment amongst its audience.
So when the corporate provided the prospect to win a branded espresso mug, clients jumped on the alternative:
Partly, the marketing campaign’s success hinged on its timing.
Loss of life Want Espresso launched the promotion to coincide with the Labor Day weekend, one in every of America’s (many) large patriotic holidays—an event that undoubtedly matches with the model’s proudly American picture.
11. Companion With Different Manufacturers
If the aim of your giveaway is to get in entrance of recent audiences, one efficient method is to crew up with a complementary model. That manner, you get on the spot entry to their clients (plus you get to share the promotional prices).
For this technique to repay, your collaboration must make sense.
Whereas that doesn’t essentially imply partnering with an organization in your trade, your respective audiences should be fascinated with each manufacturers, like on this instance from Too Confronted and Pop-Tarts:
At first look, a cosmetics firm and a producer of toasted pastries aren’t pure bedfellows. But this marketing campaign labored by leveraging nostalgia.
The collaboration was a “win” for each events: Too Confronted clients acquired to reminisce in regards to the scrumptious breakfast snacks they ate as youngsters, whereas Pop-Tarts was in a position to attain folks youthful than its conventional buyer base.
Drive Actual Outcomes From Promotional Giveaways With Drip
Giveaways are one in every of our favourite methods for producing ecommerce leads. However they solely work if you happen to get your focusing on and placement proper.
Like, you don’t need clients who’re already signed as much as your mailing listing to see your e mail seize campaigns, or to ask new web site guests who’ve by no means purchased from you earlier than to refer their buddies.
That’s why you want a sensible advertising automation platform able to delivering super-personalized messaging to clients’ inboxes (and past).
Drip is that platform.
Our highly effective segmentation instruments carry collectively all of your retailer, customer, and advertising knowledge—serving to you construct habits and engagement-based segments that get you in entrance of precisely the fitting folks, each time.
Discover out for your self by signing up to your 14-day free trial at the moment.
