One of my favorite things to do with my business is giveaways! Giveaways are great for getting customers excited and, if you play your cards right, hopefully, you can make some money!
***Please note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that if you purchase from any of the affiliate links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This really helps me out and I thank you if you make a purchase!
Before I get too far into this post, I want to remind you that this is only one strategy for making giveaways. I have found what works best for me, and I encourage you to experiment and find out what works best for you and your business! With that, let’s get started!
Step 1. Decide when and how often you want to do giveaways.
I would say that the first step to creating successful giveaways is to decide when and how often you want to do them. If you have a set schedule or pattern, your customers will learn when to expect them.
Personally, I like to do my giveaways around the start of seasons and holidays. For example, I might do a Christmas giveaway around Christmas and a summer giveaway in the summertime. Or, if you wanted to, you could do a giveaway every month, four times a year, or even completely at random if you feel like it.
I just recommend having some sort of schedule to help keep you organized and so your customers know when to expect a giveaway.
Step 2. Come up with rules for entering your giveaways.
Next, you should decide what your customers should have to do to enter your giveaways. It could be something as simple as hitting the like button on your Facebook post or maybe sharing your giveaway post with 3 friends. I usually offer 3 ways that my customers can enter, each way getting them a certain amount of entries. (Keep in mind that I post my giveaways on Instagram)
1. Type a certain hashtag in the comment section.
The first thing that people can do to enter my giveaways is to type a certain hashtag into the comment section of my giveaway post. For example, someone would be entered once if they comment #christmasgiveaway on my Christmas giveaway post. Or, you could have them comment #smallbusiness or #valentinesdaygiveaway. Whatever you want!
2. Tag 3 people in the comments.
The second thing that people can do to enter my giveaways is to tag 3 different people in the comments. This is a great way to get awareness of your giveaway and business to people who don’t follow you.
I also like to encourage people to tag more people by offering an extra entry for every additional 3 people that they tag. For example, if someone were to tag 3 people, they get entered once, 6 people, and they get entered twice, and so on.
3. Make a purchase.
The last, and biggest, way that someone can be entered into my giveaways is by making a purchase from me. This is how I can make money from my giveaways. If someone makes a purchase from me, they are entered into the giveaway 3 times.
This is a great way to encourage viewers to buy from you. There may even be a way to get them to buy additional items. After the initial product that they bought gets them entered 3 times, they can get 1 extra entry for each additional item that they buy from you!
These are the three things that people can do to be entered into my giveaways and yes, they can do more than one or all three if they want to. Again, this is what I have found works best for me. I encourage you to experiment and find what works best for you!
Step 3. Decide what the prize will be for your giveaways.
Next, you will want to decide what the winner(s) will receive when their name is drawn. I like to give them free products. Usually, this could be any ring or pair of earrings that they want. Or, it could be a few things out of a special seasonal collection. Here are some prize ideas you could use:
- A free product(s)
- Something from a seasonal collection
- A coupon code
- A one-of-a-kind product
- A personalizable product
- Free supplies to make one of your products (if you make handmade things as I do)
If you are against giving away free products, then I would definitely recommend giving a coupon code for 60% off and up. This way, it will still make the prize seem worth it to your customers, but you are not giving away anything for free.
Step 4. Make an eye-catching post.
After you have figured out all of the technicalities for your giveaway, you will want to post it on a website or social media. I choose to do all of my giveaways on Instagram.
You will want to make sure that your post is fun, neat, and colorful. As people are scrolling, you want it to catch their eye. Also, remember to add as little text as possible. Only add the information that is needed, nothing more. I don’t know about you, but when I see a post with a whole lot of words, I probably won’t read the whole thing. Adding only a little bit of text tends to be hard for me, and I often still add too many words.
I have found that when I want to make an eye-catching post, Canva is the way to go. I use Canva for everything, making giveaway posts and Pinterest posts, blog covers, even my logo is made with Canva!
To give you an example of my giveaway posts, here is what I made for my summer giveaway! And yes, I did make it with the amazing Canva.
Even though I should’ve have added fewer words to the second and third pages, this post turned out really well! It is colorful and fun to look at. Plus, it fits my theme of a summer giveaway!
Once you have created the images for your post, you should go ahead and post it! Don’t forget to let your viewers know when the entry period for the giveaway starts and ends. I would also remind them that you are doing a giveaway a couple of times between the start and end dates. Just so they don’t forget!
Step 5. Select the winner!
Once you have reached the end of your entry period, you can choose a winner! You can put names on a wheel and spin it, which is what I do, draw names, etc. You could even make your drawing more fun by doing an Instagram live!
After a giveaway, I usually say something like “And don’t forget to keep an eye out for the next giveaway!” just so they know that there is another one coming in the future.
And maybe your winner(s) will love their prize so much that they will want to buy something from you! That is always my hope for giveaways.
Giveaways are such an easy way to, hopefully, get more sales and publicity for your business!
What do you think?
Was this post helpful? Did it give you some ideas and inspiration for doing your own giveaway? If it did, feel free to comment on this post or let me know here! And please do not hesitate to ask any question that you might have!
Also, if you think that you want to start using, or want to learn more about Canva, let me know and I’ll write a post about it! Thank you so much for reading this blog post! Feel free to check out some more, they might be helpful!
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