The Art of Group Giveaways
May 21, 2009 | By
Giveaways are a fantastic way to get your Team or Guild noticed. Everyone loves free things and people love winning things even more. Giveaways can also be used as a venue to get people to test out your group’s products and create return patronage. If the giveaway winners like the quality of the items, they most likely will come back. However, before you start a giveaway, here are some valuable things you need to know and some helpful tips in creating the perfect giveaway contest.
Though customers like free things, they do not want to be bogged down with hundreds of packages at once. Good giveaway planning is key in keeping this from happening. First, to find out how many members are going to want to participate in the giveaway, create a thread in the forums asking them to join. After a week, collect the names of the involved members. If there are more than ten members joining, split them into multiple giveaways. Ten items being shipped to the contest winner at once would not be too overpowering. If you had to split the giveaways into multiples, draw names to determine who will be in each giveaway group. Once a member has been part of a giveaway, take their name out of the running until all partaking members have been part of a giveaway, and then begin again.
Once your giveaway is set, create a page on your Team or Guild’s blog about the giveaway. This is how your contest’s winner will be decided. Determine ways to enter the contest and list them in your blog.
For example:
Have the visitor leave a comment saying that they're entering the giveaway.
Have the visitor "tweet" about the giveaway and then leave a comment with a link to their tweet.
Subscribe to the blog.
Comment on what they like from a participating members shop.
Let the viewers know that by doing each of these things, they will get multiple entries, which will increase their chances of winning. Have them leave their email so you can contact them if they win. Make sure to let the blog viewers know that the winner’s address will be shared among the giveaway members. Try to post links to the blog post everywhere that you can to promote it, without going against site rules. Remind your faction that they cannot enter the giveaway. After having the contest run its length (three to five days for Team or Guild blogs with heavy traffic, seven to fourteen days for blogs with little traffic), copy all the names down on pieces of paper and throw them into a hat. If you are going green, there are randomizers online that will help you conserve paper. After drawing a winner, inform them through email and collect their shipping address. If they do not reply within a week, draw another name. Once you receive the winner’s address, tell your members and have them ship their items.
For Teams and Guilds that do not wish to do group giveaways, or are not having success with them, having an “Artist of the Month” feature can be constructive. In this feature have a randomly selected, but willing, artist to be part of a giveaway. Showcasing one artist per month will increase morale and will help other members get to know each other. Create a questionnaire for the artist, have them fill it out, and then post it, along with pictures. These can be pictures of items in their shop, pictures of themselves, or their shop logo, or all of these. At the end of the feature, list the entry rules for the giveaway. Again, remind your Team or Guild that they cannot enter the giveaway. After a week to two weeks (or however long you choose), select a random winner. Send the artist the winner’s email address and then have them send the winner’s item. Having a single artist giveaway will keep the winner’s privacy by letting only the artist see the winner’s shipping address as opposed to ten others members like the group giveaway. The only problem with individual giveaways is that a large Team or Guild will never be able to have all their members be a featured member.
Try to keep the giveaways fun; do not let them be a daunting task that no one wants to do. By utilizing a theme for every giveaway will help bring in visitors and possibly boost member’s interest in the idea. When the holidays are near have holiday-themed giveaway to keep the groups and customers interested. Having a giveaway will keep your members actively participating within the group and will create an exciting contest for your Team’s or Guild’s patrons.
Photo courtesy of Noelle Hyzy and Justin V
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