Everyone likes to get something for nothing, which is why contests and giveaways tend to attract a lot of interest. While you can always run such promotions through your website, you might get more attention if you host giveaways via social media channels, where it’s easier to spread the word. If you’ve never done this type of promotion before, or you didn’t have much success with previous attempts, your trusted Asheville branding and marketing experts can help to put you on the right track with a few simple steps that are sure to increase engagement.
Pinpoint Your Goals
Working backward can be a great way to determine the best means of getting from point A to point B, and when you have your goals locked in from the beginning, they’ll inform every decision you make while crafting your social media giveaway campaign. There are several reasons why you might want to host a giveaway, including:
- Increase brand awareness
- Gain followers
- Grow membership
- Bring attention to new products or services
- Boost sales
- Encourage sharing
- and more
Knowing your priorities going into the planning phase can help you and your Asheville internet marketing partner to come up with the best ways to increase engagement to maximum advantage. You’ll need very different strategies for increasing brand awareness versus boosting sales or encouraging sharing.
Consider What You’re Giving Away and How it Helps you Reach Goals
There are a couple of ways you can go about running your giveaway. You could, for example, offer tiered prizes, starting with a high-value prize like a vacation or exclusive goods specifically created for your promotion, to brand gift certificates of various values or popular products, to low-cost, branded swag like tote bags, t-shirts, and mugs, for example. If you’re looking to raise awareness of newer products, you could simply run a contest to give away a few of your latest products.
What you want to avoid is giving away items unrelated to your brand. For example, an all-expenses-paid vacation is often a top prize in giveaways, but it has to make sense for your brand. If you’re launching a tropical-themed product like a new line of surfboards, a trip to Hawaii might make sense. Not so much if you’re trying to promote a waffle iron, for example. In this case, you might be better off providing a cooking class with a famous chef, or something that more closely matches your theme or product.
Remember, no matter what your other goals are, you always want to create interest in your brand. A giveaway that has nothing to do with your branding or products muddies the waters and may not ultimately appeal to your audience.
Pick Your Platform
Marketing has always been a marriage of ideas and media types. Some ads are better suited for print media, while others have more impact in broadcast format, for example. The same is true of social media promotions – you and your branding services agency need to choose the right platform to make the most of your campaign.
You need to understand that different platforms resonate with different audience members for different reasons and understanding how these platforms work and how people use them is important to determine how you’re going to run your giveaway and how best to utilize the unique features of the platform. Don’t forget, you also need to check the promotional guidelines for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or whichever platform you prefer to make sure you’re operating within acceptable parameters.
The Devil is in the Details
Once you have a clear idea of what you’re giving away, which social media platform you’re using, and what your marketing and branding goals are, it’s time to hammer out a plan for how to run your promotion. Your Asheville internet marketing partner can lend their expertise to the process in a variety of ways.
First, there are logistics to consider. You have to come up with the rules, including who qualifies, how people enter, determining factors for winners, and the timeline during which the contest will take place, for example.
You also need to create a marketing strategy for your campaign. Your plan should include posting content throughout the contest to keep people interested, boost entries, and encourage sharing to spread the word. Finally, you’ll have to make determinations about how to announce the winners and bestow prizes.
A lot of planning goes into creating and executing social media giveaways, and you have to pay attention to details, or you could end up confusing and frustrating your audience. With a creative and experienced Asheville branding and marketing agency on your side, you should have an easier time crafting a plan, running a streamlined contest, and reaching your goals with a successful social media giveaway promotion.
Finding innovative and exciting ways to define and promote your brand is what Storypowered is all about. Contact us today at 828-450-2551 or online to learn more and get started.