Fun giveaway ideas help set your brand apart from the sea of online businesses. The average person spends 2.5 minutes on contest and prize apps. Holding a contest can give you valuable feedback from customers, acquire new customers, and build brand awareness.
You can run a giveaway or customer contest to gain valuable consumer data and test new demographics. Contests can also run parallel to holidays, too. Depending on your intention of the contest, your cost of running it may be nothing out of pocket.
To run a successful contest, you need to choose the best method for your business. Here are some great giveaway ideas that you should consider.
Graphic Designs
There are a lot of starving artists out there. If you could use a refresh in logo design or social media banners, running a contest can be very economical. Letting the fans (or budding artists) create your designs is an exciting idea.
The exposure is great for new artists trying to build their portfolio. Their design can be a permanent replacement or you can make it a temporary or \”limited edition\” design.
Name Your Product
For those who lack the artistic talent, a product naming contest could be their big chance. If you have products that lack a certain flair or new products you want to stand out, have your customers name them. Hold a contest to vote for the best names and product ideas, then test them out with promotional releases.
Swag Bag Promo
Do a giveaway alongside your main products with branded promo products. These little trinkets help create more comradery with your brand. Everyday items like pens, cell phone cases, flash drives, mugs, and tote bags are things that people will want to use.
Do a raffle at a public event or inside your store\’s HQ. Look into collaborating with event coordinators to try and get your brand noticed. Set up a table and give away small promo items to reel people in.
#HashtagContest
If you\’re trying to make your contest go viral, create your own unique hashtag. Hashtags also provide an easy way to track and measure your engagement numbers. Get clever by making your hashtag look or sound similar to a current trend.
This can become your evergreen content with the right approach. You could associate a popular phrase with your brand, just don\’t make it too generic.
Charity Contests
You can boost the incentive to participate in your contests by giving a portion of sales towards charity. If your contest is a complete giveaway, you can tie the number of entrants to a dollar amount. You would determine this figure by researching your average cost per acquisition.
Another great idea is to tie arts and crafts contest to charities that would love to receive handcrafted gifts. Those contest entries find a good home, while your brand is seen as charitable and compassionate.
Gamification
Turning a giveaway into an interactive game requires a little more planning and effort, but it can increase engagement. The most common way of gamifying a contest is through an app. Through this app, you can add in scores, milestones, badges, and other ways to engage the community.
A little friendly competition is great to keep costs low on giveaways. If you don\’t want to go the app route, you can gamify most contests using a free solution like OpenBadges.
Story Prompts
Tie your contest in with an opportunity to incentivize loyalty to your brand. Open a contest for followers to share their stories about their experience with your company. If you don\’t want to go that route, open the lines for others to express what winning your contest means to them.
If you\’re giving away your own products, you can get valuable feedback. Ask them to describe what they will use your product for and how it will improve their lives. This is a type of crowdsourcing advertisement for your business that builds trust and buzz at the same time.
\”The Tribe Has Spoken\”
Another way to take a more hands-off approach to your contest is to run it through your loyal fans. Run your contest, but leave the selection process to your followers. You can hold a multi-round voting period that lets people select their top submissions.
This keeps the contest transparent and earns more outside participation. Those in the running for your contest will be more compelled to share with their friends for votes. If you\’re looking to expand your reach, this is a great strategy.
Coupon Codes
Any product that you\’re launching, has reached a slump, or have excess inventory of can benefit from coupon codes. Coupon codes can be your prize in of itself. They can also become the incentive to enter in your contest.
Use coupon codes to build up your subscriber list in a hurry. You can even automate this process by sending out coupon codes for first-time purchases. Tie your contest entries to the number of purchases.
Coupon codes are the ultimate form of positive-feedback-loops for marketing automation.
Executing Giveaway Ideas
Try implementing multiple giveaway ideas at the same time to see what sticks. Some of these contests may resonate with certain demographics. You should switch strategies gradually to avoid the risk of \”contest fatigue\” from happening.
Promotional gear is great to have on-hand for offline contests, too. Use them for conventions, festivals, and so forth. You should consider ordering a large variety of promotional goods to widen your opportunities for exposure.
We offer a large selection of apparel, office supplies, computer accessories, bags, and drinkware. Contact us for help with designing, ordering, and strategic giveaways using promotional products. Leave your mark on social media and in your industry by showing customers that you care about them.