When you’re first starting out on social media or building an email subscriber list from scratch, it can feel like an impossible task. It takes a lot of time, hard work and plenty of trial and error. But one tried and true method of growing your audience is giveaways.
If you’re an avid social media user, you’ve probably seen a few posts offering a chance to win exciting prizes in exchange for a few comments, tags and shares. That’s because a giveaway has the potential to get your profile in front of a brand new audience.
With a well-thought out strategy, you can gain followers or subscribers fast and reach people who are interested in buying your product or service. Keep reading to see just how effective giveaways can be. Plus, you’ll get tips on how to run a giveaway that meets your business goals.
How effective are social media giveaways–really?
Giveaways are both popular and extremely effective, especially on Instagram where they can be used to build followers, gain subscribers or promote new products. Research from Tailwind, a social media marketing platform, reveals that Instagram accounts who run giveaways and contests grow at a 70% faster rate than accounts that don’t.
Additionally, giveaways are designed to please the social media algorithms. For social media giveaways, it’s common to require users do the following in order to be entered to win:
- Like the post
- Tag a friend (or multiple friends for additional entries)
- Share the post to your followers
- Follow any accounts involved in the giveaway
Due to the entry criteria, people often engage with giveaway posts multiple times. Plus, they share it with their circle, driving high engagement rates. The more engagements a post receives, the more visible it becomes—meaning your giveaway post has the potential to continue growing. In fact, Tailwind’s research also discovered that engagement on giveaways is substantially higher than regular posts with giveaways receiving nearly 3.5 times as many likes and 64 times as many comments.
And engagement goes beyond likes, comments and shares as giveaway entries. The majority of social media users also share giveaways with friends they believe would also be interested in entering. It follows that those users would also be interested in your brand—even if they don’t win the giveaway.
Are giveaways effective in email marketing?
With the popularity and effectiveness of Instagram giveaways, social media contests are an obvious choice. However, giveaways aren’t just effective at driving engagement on social media. They’re also effective at driving email engagement. According to Wishpond, 60% of companies actually prefer to run giveaways via email because email has a higher ROI than social media.
Although you can’t be sure your email subscribers will open your giveaway offer, you can be pretty sure that they at least received the offer. You can’t say the same for social media, which relies on algorithms to determine the visibility of your posts. That means some people who would be interested in your offer may never get the chance to even see it. If your current following is low, it may be tough to overcome the algorithms to reach a larger audience, and that’s where email marketing can help.
Recommended reading: learn more about the strengths of email marketing.
How to run an effective giveaway marketing campaign
Set a specific goal.
Identify what you want to achieve with your giveaway campaign. Your goal should be specific and measurable. You may wish to grow your Instagram follower count, increase email subscribers or promote a new product or service. Whatever your goal may be, ensure it’s specific, measurable and clear throughout the campaign.
Select a prize relevant to your ideal customers.
Engage your current audience and entice the target audience by offering a giveaway that appeals to both communities. Consider the demographics of your target audience. What do they like? What do they want but don’t have? And most of all, what would they be willing to give a few likes, comments or shares in exchange for?
Set clear and specific entry criteria.
Decide on all the details of your giveaway, and clearly describe them when promoting it online.
Here are a few factors you’ll need to set in stone before launching your giveaway:
- Set a deadline for your giveaway
- Determine if you need to set age or country restrictions
- Ensure your giveaway meets platform guidelines and legal requirements
- Clearly display all this pertinent information for your audience
(Optional) Consider partnering with another business to promote the giveaway.
Giveaways also give you the opportunity to partner with other businesses to reach audiences you might not have access to otherwise. Partnering with another business puts your brand in front of an already engaged audience, meaning they’re more likely to engage with your content as well.
Host a successful giveaway campaign with help from an expert.
For support growing your audience with exciting giveaways and engaging content, partner with an expert like Agency 102. Our content marketing specialists can analyze your target audience and compile a strategy that helps you reach engaged users. Contact us to learn more.
