Are you looking for a way to dramatically increase and sales this holiday season? If so, you’re not alone. Brands across all industries know that this is the best time of the year to increase profits, with 30% of all annual sales occurring between November and December.
When Black Friday and Cyber Monday rolls around, everyone’s looking for the best deal. You can’t get a much better deal than free, right? With brand giveaways, you can get more people invested in your company, spread awareness, and increase engagement across all platforms.
The result? You’ll see a big boom in sales as more people discover your brand for the first time through this event. There’s a good chance that many of these people will come back to your site to make future purchases, which will drive sales for the coming year.
Building high-quality online contests ensure that you’ll bring in prospects that are more likely to buy your products or services. Now, we are going to show you how exactly to use giveaways to skyrocket holiday sales.
Let’s get started!
Understand Your Audience
Before you can host a successful giveaway, you have to take some time to understand your target audience. If you don’t know who you hope to reach with your event, you’re going to have a hard time securing more leads and sales.
Extensive customer research will help you build a strong foundation around your contest, which typically leads to more engagement across all platforms.
The best way to get to know your audience is by creating buyer personas that define your customer segments. For instance, an online pet store would likely start with two personas, one for cat owners and another for dog owners.
Both customer segments have unique interests, pain points, and needs when choosing a pet supply company. Creating personas that define these individuals will help you make smarter marketing and design choices when hosting your giveaway.
You can create your own user profiles by examining trends on your website, social media, and email marketing campaign.
Use the Right Tools
If you want to ensure a successful giveaway, we suggest getting all of the resources you need to quickly and easily host your event. RafflePress is an excellent WordPress plugin that gives business owners all of the tools they need to create fun, interactive, and highly effective contests.
We like the fact that you can use the software to create a landing page for your giveaway. In other words, when a user sees your promotion on social media and clicks through, they will get the chance to learn more about the product you’re offering and your business as a whole through your giveaway landing page.
There are plenty of other benefits to using RafflePress as your all-in-one giveaway tool. You can select winners, completely customize your contest design, allow for multiple entry methods (more on that later), and much, much more.
When you’re getting everything you need for the big event, it’s also worth looking into social media plugins for your website. Adding your social feed to your contest page can help keep users engaged, and you should regularly track engagement and conversions to get the most value from your giveaway.
Decide on the Giveaway Rules
Now that you understand your target audience and have the software you need, it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll run your event. We suggest using a consistent rule set across all contests so you can accurately measure your results.
There are quite a few things you’ll need to consider, such as how people can participate. We suggest adding multiple ways for visitors to enter so you can build up as many platforms as possible while giving users a reason to engage with your brand.
Standard entry methods include:
– Subscribing to an email list
– Sharing the giveaway post
– Following your brand.
It’s possible to grow your email list, help your giveaway go viral, and boost social media followers with this strategy. Focus on creating concise calls to action, so subscribers know exactly what they need to do to enter.
You’ll also need to consider the prize you’re giving away. Depending on your goals, you can choose a popular product from your online store or something more accessible, like an Amazon gift card. If your goal is strictly to grow your following, the Amazon gift card is an excellent choice. However, a prize from your product catalog will ensure that more targeted consumers interact with your brand.
The last rule you should establish is the start and end date. We like running contests for about two weeks because that allows enough time for the post to grow, without consumers forgetting that they entered. Pick a start and end time and promote it throughout your website, email, and social media.
Build Awareness
The next step is to start building event awareness. You’re going to have a hard time picking up new entries if you don’t actively tell your audience about the giveaway.
Your first stop should be your social media channels. Over 3.81 billion people use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to buy products and interact with brands. When you promote your contest across these websites with an option to share for a chance to enter, you could experience viral growth overnight.
The key is to promote your contest on your page and in relevant groups. Facebook groups are jam-packed with different people interested in all industries. Look for people that are involved in your niche, and make sure they see your contest. Spreading awareness early will help you achieve the best results when the giveaway ends.
Don’t forget to include a timer on the event, so consumers know exactly how long they have to enter. Studies show that 60% of people make purchases due to fear of missing out, so you can expect comparable results when looking at users that are willing to enter a giveaway.
Another way to dramatically improve engagement is to send out a blast email to your subscribers to let them know that the contest is starting. Even if these folks are subscribed to your email list, the other actions to enter can significantly impact the visibility and interactions on your post.
Announce the Winner and Follow Up
After your holiday giveaway has run its course, it’s time to announce the winner, or winners, depending on how many prizes you’re giving away. Announce the winners on social media and thank everyone for participating.
But the contest benefits don’t end there. You can offer a discount to everyone who took part in the giveaway to use on your website. If you line up the end of your contest with a seasonal deal and give everyone a discount for more savings, you can expect a substantial bump in sales.
The key is to make sure you get the discounts out as soon as the event ends and put a time limit on how long the code is valid. This step will incentivize users to click through and take advantage of your seasonal offers before their deal expires.
Final Thoughts
Giveaways are an excellent way to grow your business all year long, but many marketing teams find more success with this strategy during the holiday season. People are looking for gifts for others and festive discounts that are bound to pop up during the last 2 months of the year.
If you’re getting off to a late start, don’t worry. You can quickly set up a contest in less than an hour if you have all of the right tools. Similarly, if you’re reading this after the holidays, don’t let that discourage you from adding this highly effective strategy to your marketing toolbelt.
Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur and online marketing expert. He is the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.