If you look at different online stores and their social media accounts, you’ll see that almost every business these days is holding giveaways. You can give away all kinds of things in sweepstakes, from free products to tempting discounts.
The good news is that these events can help your business reach more people and bring in new customers. So, in this post, I’ll tell you what a retail giveaway can do for you and how you can host one like a pro.
Why you should hold giveaways on your online store?
Before we talk about how to host a giveaway, let’s quickly talk about some of the most important things these events can do for you.
- Product exposure. This is the most important reason to host a sweepstakes, as it can help get your products seen more online. Most of the time, these events can help you promote your brand on social media.
- Generate quick leads. Giving things away can also help you get leads right away. Even though you can use them to find new customers, you need to make sure you do a few things to keep these new leads.
Get involved in your neighbourhood. Since most giveaways are done through social media, it will give you a chance to talk to your customers. You can interact with your community online while also promoting your brand.
Give your customers something. Sweepstakes can be used to do more than just bring in new leads. They can also be used to thank your most loyal customers and users. Some events that are only for insiders would be a great way to keep customers coming back.
· Have fun! Hosting a retail giveaway is so much fun because you can give back to the community and talk to other people at the same time.
How to Hold a Giveaway or Sweepstake That Works?
Great! Now that you know why it’s a good idea to hold giveaways, let’s look at some smart things you can do to make the most of them.
Learn about the different kinds of events you can put on.
You can find a lot of giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. So, the first thing I would suggest is to figure out what makes them different.
Sweepstakes: Everyone has the same chance to win because there is no system based on skill and the winners are chosen at random.
Contests: Most of the time, the winner is chosen based on who submitted the best entry (like giving the best caption to a photo).
- Giveaways: “Giveaway” is a broad term that can be used for contests, sweepstakes, and even lotteries. From a technical point of view, these are all the basics of putting on such events. Now, if you want to connect with your customers, you can give away a wide range of things, such as:
- Hashtag events: These are usually held on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, where users need to post something using your brand’s hashtag.
- In this contest, you can post a photo and ask your followers to come up with a caption for it. The most creative caption will win a prize.
- Follow and Tag: This is another popular type of giveaway where you can ask people to follow your handles and tag their friends. If you want to get more people to follow you on social media, this is a great way to do it.
- Other events: You can also host things like a photo contest, guessing games, spin the wheel, trivia posts, first come, first served, insider coupons, and so on.
Set your goals straight and choose a good platform.
After learning about the different kinds of giveaways and sweepstakes you can hold, you need to decide what your goals are. That is, you need to step back and ask yourself why you are doing a retail giveaway.
Do you want more people to follow you on Instagram or more leads? Do you want more people to know about your brand or for your hashtag to become popular? Using these criteria, you can choose the right style of giveaway from the ones listed above.
Also, when choosing a platform to host a giveaway, you should think about the people you want to reach. For example, if you want to reach teens and young adults, Instagram or TikTok are better, while Pinterest is better for reaching millennial women.
Be clear about the rules and the results.
Let’s be honest: you don’t get many chances, especially on the web, to make a lasting impression on your audience. If your audience figures out that you rigged a giveaway, it can go wrong.
So, the best way to run a successful giveaway is to make sure everyone knows what the rules are. You can put them in a post on social media or on the giveaway’s landing page. Also, think about using real giveaways raffle platforms to make sure the results are real and to keep things clear for your audience.
Think about using a platform for giveaways.
It can take time and get complicated to figure out how to run a giveaway. So, you might want to use the platforms for giveaways and sweepstakes that are easy to find.
I think you should check out Raffle Press, Gleam, Viral Sweep, Woobox, ShortStack, and Woorise, which are all well-known tools. Using them, you can make a giveaway page, set rules, and even run real raffles to keep your event open and honest from start to finish.
Let’s say you’re running a giveaway, but not enough people are interested. In this case, you might want to share the giveaway on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites with relevant links and hashtags.
You can also think about working with influencers, which can help you get more people to know about your giveaway.
Find out how your giveaway did and what you can learn from it.
Last, but most important, think about keeping track of how well your retail giveaway is doing. Remember that there is no hard and fast rule for figuring out the return on investment of your giveaway. But social metrics like how many people saw, shared, or engaged with your content would be very helpful.
You can also check to see how many new leads your sweepstakes has brought in. This way, you can find out how well your giveaways did and make better events in the future.
Smart Examples of Give-Aways to Learn From
I’m sure by now you know exactly how to run a giveaway like a boss. You might already know that almost every day, a lot of brands hold giveaways and contests. So, if you’re still not sure what your next retail giveaway should be about, you can get ideas from the examples below:
Massage Addict is having a Mother’s Day giveaway.
Keep an eye on big events like Christmas, Black Friday, Mother’s Day, and so on. This is because big events can be a great time to give something away.
Here, you can see how Massage Addict came up with a way for people to give their moms a free massage session on Mother’s Day. Not only does this have to do with their product, but their customers also liked the giveaway, which made it a success.
Domino’s Pizza is giving away a Superfan prize
Domino’s Pizza held this huge give-away on its Instagram page. The rules were pretty easy to understand. Anyone can enter the sweepstakes by uploading a picture of themselves with Domino’s Pizza and posting it with the hashtag for the campaign (#PieceOfThePieContest). Since the prize was $10,000, there were a lot of entries, which helped Domino’s Pizza connect with customers and promote its brand on Instagram.
Hydro Flask is giving away 200k followers.
Have you reached a big goal, like a certain number of sales or more than 10,000 followers? So, why not give something back to the community by giving something away at a store?
Here’s what Hydro Flask did when they reached 200,000 Instagram followers. They just asked the participants to follow their handle and comment on the post by tagging two more people. The rules were pretty easy to follow, and that made a lot of people talk about the product in no time.
Dropship Corporation can help your dropshipping store grow.
As you can see, giveaways can get both your current customers and new users excited about your business. If you want to keep these new customers, you need to offer them a wide range of products and great service. For this, you can just use Dropship Corporation, which is the official dropshipping tool for AliExpress.
- AliExpress hosts the free dropshipping tool Dropship Corporation, which can be connected to popular platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix.
- On Dropship Corporation, which is run by tens of thousands of suppliers, you can look through one of the largest selections of products.
- A feature called Supplier finder has been built into Dropship Corporation to make it easier for us to choose the most profitable suppliers.
- Dropship Corporation also has a lot of other features that can save you time and effort, such as the ability to automatically track the status of an order, bundle products, map variants, manage stock, and more.
Your turn!
So, are you ready for your next retail giveaway? I’m sure that after reading this guide, it will be easy for you to figure out how to host a giveaway and make it more popular by putting it on social media.
To make your giveaways successful, you can also work with influencers or pay for advertising. If you have a dropshipping store, you should check out Dropship Corporation to find the best products for your customers and manage everything in one place.
