Why you should consider giveaways for business promotion

Implementing business giveaway ideas can help promote your business, but you can see some specific results from your efforts. The way you organize your giveaway can help you achieve certain goals. Some potential outcomes from giveaways for business promotion include:

• Increased awareness: Giveaways usually require participants to take action to enter, such as sharing your business page on social media. If your giveaway is exciting, people will likely tell others about it. These things can introduce your business to people who’ve never heard of it before.
• Social media growth: Focusing the giveaway on social media platforms can help you grow your audience. Social media channels let you build relationships with consumers, which can grow loyalty and encourage new sales.
• More engagement: Another benefit to your social media accounts is an increase in engagement and interaction. You can create several posts about your giveaway to encourage more views on your page and more interactions, such as comments and likes. This can give your social media accounts more attention.
• Comfort with products or services: If the giveaway prize is a product or service you offer, the winner gets to test it out before they become a paying customer. Some consumers are hesitant to try something new, especially if it’s a higher-priced item. A freebie is a no-risk way for them to test out your company.
• Creating brand ambassadors: A positive experience with something free from your business can turn the recipient into a brand ambassador. They’ll likely tell other people about your goods or services. Having that firsthand recommendation could encourage others to pay for your company’s offerings.
• Sales boost: Most giveaways for companies only involve a small number of prizes. The people who don’t win could still purchase your products or services, so your promotional giveaway could give you a bump in sales.
• Large email list: If you require people to provide their email address to enter, you can grow your contact list significantly. Your list lets you send targeted content directly to their email, which can help you grow relationships and promote your business.

Choose business giveaway ideas that support the outcomes you want. Keep your budget in mind, and consider how much time each giveaway option will take to ensure you can manage it.

Business giveaway ideas

When creating a giveaway for your company, you need to decide how to choose a winner. The way you organize and hold the giveaway can affect the results you get. The following ideas can work for a variety of businesses.

1. Social media giveaways

Your existing social media platforms offer a convenient and free way to host giveaways. This option can also work well if one of your main objectives is to grow your social media presence. You have several ways to hold a giveaway on social media. Participants might earn entries for different actions, such as:

• Liking or following your page
• Liking and commenting on a specific giveaway post
• Sharing your giveaway post to their followers or friends
• Tagging other people in the comments
• Creating a social media post on their page and tagging you in it
• Submitting a photo or video

Then, you need to decide how you’ll choose a winner. For general actions such as liking, following or sharing, a random drawing of everyone who participates is an easy option. If you’re having people submit a photo or video, you might judge the entries yourself or let your followers vote on the entries to choose a winner.Always check the rules on the platform you’re using. You might have to make certain disclaimers or do other things to your posts to avoid getting in trouble with the social media platform.

2. Creation competitions

Letting the public create something for you can result in a highly engaging giveaway. You might have people submit a logo design, slogan ideas, promotional video or photo showing your products in use. If possible, incorporate your products into the competition. If you sell food products, you might hold a recipe contest with the requirement that one of your products is an ingredient. If you sell art supplies, you could ask people to create a work of art using a line that you sell. You can judge the entries yourself or let the public vote.

3. Website entry

If you want to drive more traffic to your website, consider hosting the giveaway there. Plug-ins and apps make it easy to set up an entry form on your website where visitors can enter their contact information. You can have entrants do other actions as well, such as going to your social media pages and following you or watching a video on your YouTube channel. Redirecting entrants to your shopping page, blog or another useful page on your website can keep them there and encourage them to browse.

4. Treasure hunts

Add a fun game-like element to the giveaway with a treasure hunt. You can organize it online or in your community if you primarily serve your local area. For an online treasure hunt, you might hide certain images or information on your website. Participants will spend time looking around your website while they’re searching for things, which can pique their interest in your company. When they find the items, you can have them email you or fill out an entry form with the information.

For a local treasure hunt, hide clues or small prizes around your city. You can drop hints on your social media accounts to help people locate the items. You can hide the actual prizes or a certificate that they can trade in for a prize at your business.

5. In-store raffle

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can go the traditional route with an in-store raffle. Set up a box with entry forms nearby that people can complete. You can advertise the giveaway online to encourage more foot traffic in your store.

6. Feedback survey

Getting feedback from customers can help you gauge satisfaction and improve your service. An easy way to do this is with customer satisfaction surveys. To encourage a higher participation rate, turn them into giveaways where every completed survey is an entry to potentially win a prize.

7. Spin the wheel

Another in-person option is a prize wheel similar to what you might see at a carnival. Each section has a different prize associated with it. Most of the sections should have small prizes or discounts, but you’ll get more interest if you have a few sections with bigger prizes. You can have the wheel in the store all the time or pull it out for special events such as open houses.

What to give

Once you decide how you’re going to choose a winner, you need to determine what they’ll win. Here are some business giveaway ideas for prizes:

• Your products: Giving the winner something you sell can be a cost-effective option that also promotes your business. If you sell a consumable product, giving them a taste of it can encourage them to become loyal customers. They might also talk to other people about your products, which can help you spread the word.
• Your services: If you’re a service-based business, offer one or more of your services. You might offer a free introductory package or a mini version of your normal service as a way to hook the winner. This gives you the chance to upsell a more comprehensive package. If you run a business such as a spa or chiropractic office, the free service could encourage the recipient to schedule ongoing appointments.
• Company swag: Your loyal fans will get excited about branded swag, such as insulated drinking cups, high-quality clothing or tech gadgets. You want the items to be things the recipient will use so they become an advertisement for your company when they’re used in public.
• Local business gift basket: Collaborating with other small businesses in the area can expand your reach and help you promote one another. All the participating businesses can include one or more of their products in the basket and promote the giveaway. Look for related businesses that don’t directly compete with you. If you’re a wedding planner, you might partner with a wedding photographer, florist, baker and print shop to create the ultimate local wedding giveaway basket.
• Experiences: Sending the winner to do something fun can increase participation. Your budget determines what type of experience you offer, but it could be an overnight stay at a local inn, tickets to a local event, passes to a museum, entrance to a festival or a short trip. Larger experiences can get more attention and could give your business a lot of new traffic.
• Discounts: If you want to do a giveaway with more winners, consider offering a discount or coupon for your goods or services. You give them an incentive to try it, and you can still make money on the transaction. A variation is offering a freebie when someone makes a purchase over a certain amount.