A giveaway is a wonderful way to give back to your followers, increase engagement + stats, and attract new readers. However, simply posting one online isn’t enough! You need to promote the hell out of it to get max exposure, and lucky for you guys, I’m covering that today on SS. So without further ado, let’s talk about 6 ways you can host successful giveaways online for your blog.
1. Make sure your prize is actually cool.
This may seem like no-brainer, but if your prize sucks, no one’s going to enter. Pick something that’s relevant to your brand yet all sorts of awesome. If you’re a beauty blogger, raffle away a fabulous eyeshadow palette. If you’re a DJ, try giving away a pair of tickets to Ultra or [insert badass music festival of your choice]. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s something YOU would want yourself because chances are, others will want it, too!
2. Your rules NEED to be simple.
Do not make your followers trek through Mordor to enter your giveaway. Your goal is to make it as easy as possible for them – in fact, stick with ONE mandatory rule if you can. Figure out what your goals are beforehand and then draft your post/share or whatever accordingly. Are you looking to increase your instagram following? Ask them to follow you on IG. Do you want more subscribers on youtube? Your newsletter? Yeah, you know what to do.
3. List bonus entries.
Now, at this point, you’re going to have a ton of entrants because your giveaway prize is amazeballs and entering’s super easy. Capitalize on this and list additional entries for people to up their chances of winning! Ask them to follow you on your other social media platforms and share your giveaway (ie. retweet, repin, share on FB, etc.).
4. Your giveaway form DOES matter.
You can, of course, host your giveaway however you see fit, but we recommend Rafflecopter. You can track entries with zero effort whatsoever and export deets whenever you want. You can embed the form anywhere with the html coding they provide you or share it directly on facebook with a simple click. On top of it all, at the end of your giveaway, they pick a random winner for you, which is WAY easier than counting entries manually and using Random Number Generator.
5. Cross promote on social media.
Tell your followers all about your badass giveaway! Let them know that you’re raffling away something awesome so they can get in on the action. Why exactly is it important to cross promote? Because you have different fans on different platforms, and you want to reach them all. Also, remember to share reminders every couple of days. Tweets like, “T-minus 5 hours until my international giveaway officially ends” do well because they instill a sense of urgency.
6. Submit your giveaway to different blogs to get max visibility.
There are a crapload of blogs out there that ONLY post about contests! Do yourself a favor and submit your giveaway to anything and everything. Yes it’s time consuming, but it’s all worth it in the end. Here are some of our favorite sites, anddd you’re welcome in advance.
Contest Girl || Giveaway Frenzy || I Love Giveaways || Sweepstakes Max || Giveaway Linky || Just Sweep || Savings in Seconds || Family Focus Blog || International Giveaways || Sweeps Pursuit || Giveaway Monkey || All Promos || Any Lucky Day || Giveaway Promote || Giveaway Route || Whispered Inspirations || Contest Listing
Alright guys, that’s it for today! I hope you found my latest article helpful. If you have any questions on how to host successful giveaways online, simply leave me a comment below and I’ll reply to the best of my ability. For more info on how to grow online, browse my blogging tab.
Great tips! 🙂
I’m thinking about doing one soon so thanks for the tips!
http://www.thepetitefastinista.com
A lot of the forms also give you points if you submit to another site (like RFD, or OLS) I originally found your blog because of a sweep!!
Amazing giveaway.