Giveaway to “Get Traction”
- Increase awareness of a new product.
- Increase the number of free trial users.
- Collect leads with detailed information.
- Generate customer referrals.
- It helps increase average daily visitors.
- Also, it increases email subscribers.
- Helps increase social media followers (Facebook fans, Twitter followers, etc.).
- It increases social media exposure (more repins, more retweets of your message, etc.).
- And it increases sales.
- Generate brand loyalty by delighting existing customers with a chance to win a big prize.
- Increase social media engagement.
“Give it away give it away give it away give it away now. Give it away give it away give it away give it away now.” -Red Hot Chili Peppers
Laying Down the Laws
Link to a terms & conditions page (use a PDF, Google Doc, Amazon S3, Dropbox): bit.ly/1gBo21k Note: Most states have different laws, this Google Doc is just a starting point. You must have this text under the call-to-action or on the PDF: “No Purchase Necessary” Make sure to check out Facebook’s guidelines: facebook.com/page_guidelines.php#promotionsguidelines
Sweepstakes Vs. Giveaway?
A giveaway usually refers to a simple landing page with an email opt-in for an eBook, cheat sheet or a case study. A sweepstake is a promotional drawing in which prizes are given away at no charge to the participants. But…the word “giveaway” gets 27% more conversions than “sweepstakes” when running sweepstakes. Perception has changed. [Source: Unbounce]
How it Works
Who Participates?
Forrester’s Social Technographics coined this terminology of the different audiences that will engage with your promotion: Spectators, Joiners and Creators.
- Spectators may see a shared link from a friend and click through to your giveaway, but their interaction will likely stop there. For spectators, you want to ensure you have a well-designed user interface and clear messaging, whether they get the urge to enter or simply leave with a first impression of your brand.
- Joiners are likely to participate in a low-barrier format and may engage further through referrals, commenting and sharing.
- Creators are the people who are the target audience for any user-generated content giveaway. The percentage of online users who are content creators is significantly higher now than it was a few years ago. But as content is now easier to create, expectations have increased, too. Remember, you still must make it as easy as possible for people to participate.
The Tools
22Social
Benefits & Features:
- Pre-made templates.
- Easy-to-setup.
- Ability to duplicate.
- Countdown Timer.
- Visitor Faces.
- Can use remarketing pixels along with other remarketing tools such as Perfect Audience and AdRoll.
- On a social platform.
- Hooked up to an email autoresponder.
- Capture leads.
- Export leads.
- Select Winner feature.
- Works with tier system giveaways.
- User-friendly interface.
- Very customizable.
- Instagram Gallery (Hashtag).
How Many Days?
- 21 days is about the average
- Anything over a month is too long
- Too short prevents effective promotion
- After you announce the winners, then start a 7-day promotion of the same products and services announced in the giveaway. Creates a sense of urgency for those who didn’t win to buy at a discounted price.
- The higher the benefit (not price) of the items you give away, the more days should be included in the giveaway.
- People don’t want to wait 21 days to win a stuffed animal, but they will wait years for something that solves a HUGE pain point.
Design is Critical
You must have…
- A clear call-to-action.
- The CTA “Enter in seconds” saw a 33% increase in conversion rates over “Enter” – Unbounce.
- Social validation (featured, customers helped, etc.), but don’t go overboard.
- Company logo.
- Personality picture(s) of the company (even a bad picture improves your conversion rate).
- Good visuals of products and services they’re entering to win improves your conversion rate.
- Countdown timer improves conversion rate.
- Promotional video has a HUGE increase in your conversion rate.
What to Give Away?
- Tier system (you get X prize(s) for X referrals). Here’s a great example from a Tim Ferriss blog post: bit.ly/1ncmWbm
- Referral-based giveaways are great, but adding in randomly-selected winners helps lower the barrier to entry for those who don’t want to get referrals, but are more likely to buy.
- The virality is different with every niche (depends on the relevant communities they can share with).
- It should have great margins (low-cost, high-benefit).
- Non-shipping is better
- Some of the prizes should be relevant to your niche, and some should be complement prizes. This provides an incentive to participate for those who already have the main prizes.
- Don’t make it too specific – you’ll scare people off.
- It must be valuable enough for most people in your market to stand up and take notice. For some markets, this might be an item in the $150-$200 range, and for others it might be as small as $30.
Announcing Winners
Announcing a new winner every day can be extremely effective. It provides great content to post and email while exciting entrants to get more referrals. The downside is that it requires much more work. The frequency at which you announce winners is completely up to you. It’s best to keep it consistent with the days between announcements (e.g. every three days, every week). Announcing the winner via live Hangout, then later via email, Twitter, and a Facebook page post is most effective. Don’t use a live Hangout if you have a new winner every day. The trick is to announce the winner(s) via a live Hangout with a share link at the bottom to get more referrals. If the live Hangout is the finale, then have a different call-to-action. 
The Sneak Attack
It’s all about the Thank You page. In the CTA in the video or text, you should mention…
- Discount codes specific for people who entered.
- Upsell complements.
- Forms for market research.
- Free trial (great for software companies).
Test Runs
Don’t skip out on this: You MUST run through your giveaway system every day to make sure it’s running properly. One mishap can prevent a significant amount of people from entering your giveaway and converting into customers. 
Who wants an Apple Watch? Your audience or every tech enthusiast? The right prizes > what everyone wants. –
