How To Run A Successful Giveaway Contest That Creates Buzz

Social Media is becoming much more popular everyday and you need to be ahead of this trend in order to get the popularity you desire. Everyone loves getting something for free. In fact, one of the reasons why people “Like” a Facebook page is so they can either obtain a discount or win something.

Giveaways are the easiest way to gain traffic in a very short amount of time. They tend to generate interest to a large number of people, but you need to keep in mind that those people might just stop by for the free things and then they will be on their way.

So here are the tips you need to know in order to create the best giveaway:

Determine the purpose

Before you begin the contest, think about what’s the goal of it. What kind of outcome are you expecting? Maybe you want to increase Facebook engagement or the number of readers on your blog. Thinking about this from the start will help with the entire planning process.

Choose the prize

Obviously the prize is the most important part! It is going to be what attracts visitors to your site and encourages them to enter. First make sure your prize reflects your business niche. What can you give away that will interest your readers and won’t stray from your blog’s content? You can’t start a giveaway and having a nice pen as prize if your business it’s a hotel. Think about what will be the best prize choice. You may want to give a free room for some days or a free day at the spa. It’s your choice but please keep in mind that a good giveaway usually has a prize with a retail value of $100 or more.

How long will the contest run?

Well, the contest can’t run forever and you must determine for how long your contest will run. Based by our experience we suggest that 2-3 weeks is optimal, as it gives you enough time to get a great email list and new followers.

Setting up the post

The post is the 2’nd important part of the contest because is going to be what encourage people to take action and subscribe into your giveaway. Keep it simple, and genuine. A great way to get a person’s interest is to review the product and then give one away. You’re showing them what the product is or does so they can decide if they like it and want one for their own. This also gives your post more credibility and increases it’s share-ability because it becomes more than just a contest, it becomes a review which can stay active after the giveaway is finished and continue to be shared on social media sites. Same goes if you are offering a Weekend getaway, you can describe the room, everything people can do around your hotel etc.

In the same process of creating the post don’t forget to take great photos of the item. It’s not necessary to fill up your post with a lot of photos, so pick two or three of the best and keep it simple. Tons of photos tend to bore your readers.

Add the widget to your site and to Facebook

Remembering your initial goal of the giveaway, come up with a few required entry types. This is where you can ask your readers to perform an action to be entered into the contest. Giveaway widgets can help make this entire process easier. With these widgets, you fill in all of the requested information, choose your entry types, and grab a widget code to paste into your post. They make picking a winner easy if you are doing a random draw.

If your goal is to increase Facebook followers, be sure to include a requirement that the entrant must “Like” your Facebook page to be entered. If you wanted email subscribers, have them sign up for your newsletter instead. If you are looking for more Facebook followers, don’t include a bunch of other requirements such as following you on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Besides your call-to-actions, you’ll want to collect other information from the visitor, such as their email address and location.  You will also need to list any rules, state when the giveaway will end, and share how you will contact a winner.

Promoting your giveaway

Once the post is ready you’re set to promote your giveaway, you can’t expect people to find you, so you’ll need to promote it! Start with your own social networks. Make an announcement that will draw in visitors. Why should they visit your giveaway? When you can, using hashtags like #giveaway or #win can prove effective. Schedule a couple social media posts for the future so that you can continue to get the word out at specific times. For example, maybe you schedule one for the afternoon, and one for the evening when people get off work.

Think about your blog a few days from now. Your giveaway post probably won’t still be front and center on your site, so be sure to create a sidebar graphic linking to the original post and place it somewhere visible.

But remember: do not spam!

Choosing a winner

After your contest period ends, you can use your installed widget to pick your winner, or do things the manual way. If your giveaway wasn’t a random draw, now is the time you’ll need to go through the entries and choose a deserving contestant. Figure out how you will send the product, or if the company/shop you collaborated with will send it. All that’s left to do after that is to let the winner know they’ve won!

The downsides

I couldn’t end this post without mentioning some of the downsides of holding a giveaway. As I said at the beginning of this post, there are some people who will enter your giveaway just for the free stuff and have no intention of sticking around in the future. Nobody can be forced to stay as fan of a Facebook page unfortunately, so you may notice a drop in your new followers after your contest has ended.

We couldn’t write an article on giveaways without hosting one. 

We have a special surprise for you. We decided to give you a FREE lifetime license of HoteloPro. It doesn’t matter how many rooms you have, you’ll get HoteloPro for free.

What you have to do:

• Leave a comment on this article with “I’m in. I want HoteloPro for my HotelName“
• Like our HoteloPro Facebook Page

The contest will run for 3 weeks and then we’ll randomly select a winner. Good luck!