Raise your hand if you like getting free stuff! (If you didn’t raise your hand, click here.) Whether finding mints with the dinner check or winning an all-inclusive stay at a tropical resort, people love giveaways.
From a marketing perspective, brands can leverage this universal “free love” to boost awareness and audience engagement on social media. Additionally, contests are a reliable way to break through social media’s ever-changing algorithms to connect with current and potential followers.
But where to begin? Planning and executing a contest can be a daunting task. Fear not! Here are Verdin’s tips for making giveaway campaigns manageable and rewarding for your brand:
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Always keep your goals in mind. Before starting your contest, think strategically about what it is you’re hoping to accomplish. Do you want to build brand awareness? Increase your followers? Beef up your e-blast contacts list? From there, make a plan for how you’re going to organize and assess your campaign. This can be accomplished by posting a link to a landing page for collecting email addresses or using third-party software for managing contests, including randomly selecting winners.
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Capture attention with short, creative content. More and more frequently, the algorithms for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram (the two biggest platforms for contests) are promoting video over other forms of content. For this reason, it’s essential to develop short, eye-catching videos (15 seconds or less) that immediately suck people in. One way to do this is to incorporate music and motion into your videos. Check out this video Verdin made for Visit Oxnard’s 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways campaign back in December that puts a modern twist on the classic holiday song.
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Make it a conversation. As we’ve mentioned in past blogs, social media is all about the give and take between brands and their audiences. Start a conversation by structuring your contest in a way that encourages people to not only “like” and follow your channel, but share their photos and opinions. Using this tactic will give your campaign more reach by increasing the amount of organic clicks and shares.
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Know the rules and communicate them clearly. As with any contest, digital or otherwise, there are rules everyone has to follow. Facebook and Instagram both have pages dedicated to explaining their contest policies. SocialMediaToday has a great article (with examples!) about how to create campaigns that “play by the rules.”
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Follow through. Once you’ve picked your winner, make sure to notify and deliver on the prize, quickly and efficiently. State clearly in your contest rules how winners will receive their prizes (snail mail, e-mail, picking up in person at a predetermined location, etc.). This will prevent the possibility of confused or stymied prize winners venting their frustrations on your website or social media platforms.