Blog
How to get the most out of your promotion
Posted on Feb 7th, 2012
You may have run a giveaway before; either through your own website or through a 3rd party site (mommy blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc). When running a giveaway, you need to have a few things in mind:
First, what are you looking to get out of a giveaway? Do you want more exposure for your brand, more sales, more likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter? You have to go into your promotion with predetermined goals so that when it ends, you are able to measure its success. We see way too many companies running promotions with no predetermined goals in mind, so when all is said and done, they often end up feeling like they got nothing out of it.
Second, when running a giveaway, it is important to understand that you most likely won’t see sales pouring in. You may get a few sales, but don’t make sales your number one goal when running a promotion. We often see companies measuring the success of their promotion based on the amount of sales they received. If they did not get as many as they were hoping for they are usually unhappy and feel as if their money was not well spent. The problem with this train of thought is that no marketing platform can ever really ‘guarantee’ sales. If you’ve run campaigns with Google Adwords or Facebook Ads you know that you have to spend hundreds of dollars to get enough people to click through to your website. Even after they click, it is still JUST a click – nothing more. You need to hope that those people that clicked now make it through your sales funnel and make a purchase.
With an AnyLuckyDay promotion you get hundreds of visitors to your website (without paying per click), you get hundreds of people liking your page on Facebook, following you on Twitter, subscribing to receive your newsletter, and there may of course be a few who make a purchase. Don’t you think it is much more worthwhile to run an ad campaign where you are able to collect all those new users and re-market to them as potential customers? You really can’t do that with other ad platforms because once that user clicks through to your website you only have a small window of opportunity – they’ll either see something they want or close out immediately. Hoping that they also subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on Facebook/Twitter is just a shot in the dark.
Now that we have that out of the way, below are a few tips on how you can get the most out of your giveaway so that it becomes a successful marketing campaign for your brand.
Discounts
Provide users with a discount that they can redeem at your website, but only provide it for the duration of the promotion. This encourages users to make an impulse buy because they have the opportunity to get a discount but they only have a short period of time to redeem it.
Interaction - Facebook
Interact with your new users on Facebook and Twitter. Remember, these platforms are not meant to be used as a one-way form of communication. Do less pushing on these platforms and more pulling (less talking and more listening). When you get those 500 new facebook fans, your first post shouldn’t be “HEY NEW FANS, YOU CAN BUY OUR PRODUCTS AT XYZ.COM”. Instead, engage with them and build a relationship with them. Lets say you run a company that sells bedding products -- start out with something like “Welcome to all of our new followers. Are there any problems that you have with your current bedding products that keeps you up at night? Let us know, and we’ll see if our experts can help find a solution to your problem." This opens the floodgates for your users to start leaving comments talking about their sleeping problems. You then chime in and respond directly to each customer, helping to find a solution to their problem. Remember, building the relationship with them first is the key to turning these people into customers who are likely to buy from you in the future. A great example of a company doing this well is one of our clients, Natures Sleep
Interaction - Twitter
The same goes for Twitter – use it as a platform to interact with your new users, not as a platform to constantly push out information about your products. Sure, every once in a while you need to plug your company/products, but your last 10 tweets should at least contain a conversation with another user. Another great way to take advantage of Twitter is by using search.twitter.com. This allows you to search for any keyword that people are currently tweeting. So, if you run a bedding company you can search for something like ‘I hate my bed’, and you will see all the results of people who have recently sent out a tweet with those keywords. You can then simply reach out to them and build a relationship by asking them why they hate their bed and if you can do anything to help.
Promote to your own audience
This one is simple and should be a no-brainer. Promote your giveaway to your current audience via Facebook, Twitter, your website, and your newsletter. What is the point of running a promotion if your own users don’t know about it? Yes, you may just want to track the number of new people your giveaway brings in, but you would be foolish to forget that your current users could bring in more of their own friends and family which you would be missing out on. So, on the day of your promotion, make a post about it on Facebook, Twitter, link to it from your own website, and email it out to your users.
Utilize Comments
Be sure to utilize our Facebook commenting system on your promotion page (or any commenting platform if you are running a giveaway elsewhere). To get to it, simply click on your promotion on our homepage, enter the promotion with your email address, and then you will see Facebook comments at the bottom right of your page. The great thing about this is that hundreds of people will be leaving comments. You can click the ‘Add a Comment’ link, then click the ‘change’ link next to the comment button. A drop down menu will appear and you can choose your Facebook page. Now, when you reply to people, your comment will showup with your company name. Don’t forget, this is another way to build a relationship because once you reply to a comment, that user is automatically notified on Facebook.
So to recap, here are the Do’s of getting the most out of your promotion:
1) DO provide a discount code for your new users during the promotion.
2) DO go into the promotion with predetermined goals that you can measure.
3) DO interact with your new users on Twitter/Facebook. Remember, less pushing and more pulling.
4) DO utilize Facebook comments to reply to comments.
5) DO promote the giveaway to your own audience.
And here are the Don’ts of your promotion:
1) DON’T ignore your new users on social networks.
2) DON’T push too much content to your new users until you've built a relationship with them.
3) DON’T work with any other marketing platform other than us :).
First, what are you looking to get out of a giveaway? Do you want more exposure for your brand, more sales, more likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter? You have to go into your promotion with predetermined goals so that when it ends, you are able to measure its success. We see way too many companies running promotions with no predetermined goals in mind, so when all is said and done, they often end up feeling like they got nothing out of it.
Second, when running a giveaway, it is important to understand that you most likely won’t see sales pouring in. You may get a few sales, but don’t make sales your number one goal when running a promotion. We often see companies measuring the success of their promotion based on the amount of sales they received. If they did not get as many as they were hoping for they are usually unhappy and feel as if their money was not well spent. The problem with this train of thought is that no marketing platform can ever really ‘guarantee’ sales. If you’ve run campaigns with Google Adwords or Facebook Ads you know that you have to spend hundreds of dollars to get enough people to click through to your website. Even after they click, it is still JUST a click – nothing more. You need to hope that those people that clicked now make it through your sales funnel and make a purchase.
With an AnyLuckyDay promotion you get hundreds of visitors to your website (without paying per click), you get hundreds of people liking your page on Facebook, following you on Twitter, subscribing to receive your newsletter, and there may of course be a few who make a purchase. Don’t you think it is much more worthwhile to run an ad campaign where you are able to collect all those new users and re-market to them as potential customers? You really can’t do that with other ad platforms because once that user clicks through to your website you only have a small window of opportunity – they’ll either see something they want or close out immediately. Hoping that they also subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on Facebook/Twitter is just a shot in the dark.
Now that we have that out of the way, below are a few tips on how you can get the most out of your giveaway so that it becomes a successful marketing campaign for your brand.
Discounts
Provide users with a discount that they can redeem at your website, but only provide it for the duration of the promotion. This encourages users to make an impulse buy because they have the opportunity to get a discount but they only have a short period of time to redeem it.
Interaction - Facebook
Interact with your new users on Facebook and Twitter. Remember, these platforms are not meant to be used as a one-way form of communication. Do less pushing on these platforms and more pulling (less talking and more listening). When you get those 500 new facebook fans, your first post shouldn’t be “HEY NEW FANS, YOU CAN BUY OUR PRODUCTS AT XYZ.COM”. Instead, engage with them and build a relationship with them. Lets say you run a company that sells bedding products -- start out with something like “Welcome to all of our new followers. Are there any problems that you have with your current bedding products that keeps you up at night? Let us know, and we’ll see if our experts can help find a solution to your problem." This opens the floodgates for your users to start leaving comments talking about their sleeping problems. You then chime in and respond directly to each customer, helping to find a solution to their problem. Remember, building the relationship with them first is the key to turning these people into customers who are likely to buy from you in the future. A great example of a company doing this well is one of our clients, Natures Sleep
Interaction - Twitter
The same goes for Twitter – use it as a platform to interact with your new users, not as a platform to constantly push out information about your products. Sure, every once in a while you need to plug your company/products, but your last 10 tweets should at least contain a conversation with another user. Another great way to take advantage of Twitter is by using search.twitter.com. This allows you to search for any keyword that people are currently tweeting. So, if you run a bedding company you can search for something like ‘I hate my bed’, and you will see all the results of people who have recently sent out a tweet with those keywords. You can then simply reach out to them and build a relationship by asking them why they hate their bed and if you can do anything to help.
Promote to your own audience
This one is simple and should be a no-brainer. Promote your giveaway to your current audience via Facebook, Twitter, your website, and your newsletter. What is the point of running a promotion if your own users don’t know about it? Yes, you may just want to track the number of new people your giveaway brings in, but you would be foolish to forget that your current users could bring in more of their own friends and family which you would be missing out on. So, on the day of your promotion, make a post about it on Facebook, Twitter, link to it from your own website, and email it out to your users.
Utilize Comments
Be sure to utilize our Facebook commenting system on your promotion page (or any commenting platform if you are running a giveaway elsewhere). To get to it, simply click on your promotion on our homepage, enter the promotion with your email address, and then you will see Facebook comments at the bottom right of your page. The great thing about this is that hundreds of people will be leaving comments. You can click the ‘Add a Comment’ link, then click the ‘change’ link next to the comment button. A drop down menu will appear and you can choose your Facebook page. Now, when you reply to people, your comment will showup with your company name. Don’t forget, this is another way to build a relationship because once you reply to a comment, that user is automatically notified on Facebook.
So to recap, here are the Do’s of getting the most out of your promotion:
1) DO provide a discount code for your new users during the promotion.
2) DO go into the promotion with predetermined goals that you can measure.
3) DO interact with your new users on Twitter/Facebook. Remember, less pushing and more pulling.
4) DO utilize Facebook comments to reply to comments.
5) DO promote the giveaway to your own audience.
And here are the Don’ts of your promotion:
1) DON’T ignore your new users on social networks.
2) DON’T push too much content to your new users until you've built a relationship with them.
3) DON’T work with any other marketing platform other than us :).
