Beginner's Guide to Promo Giveaways

Is your company planning to run its first promotional giveaway? Congratulations on reaching a point where you are confident enough to integrate this method of reaching your target audience!

A promotional giveaway, when done correctly, offers short-term and long-term benefits for a business. It’s a way to build your brand identity, increase leads, generate sales, and create loyalty among your existing customers. It’s also an affordable marketing tactic, considering your only costs are the product(s) and the advertising around the promotion. However, even that doesn’t have to cost anything if you play your cards right. A promotional giveaway can be advertised through word-of-mouth on social media or directly on your website.

So when you are planning your first promotional giveaway, here are a few things you need to do before you get started.

Identify Why You’re Doing a Promotional Giveaway

The main objective behind running a promotional giveaway is to get current and prospective customers to notice your products or services and get involved in what you offer. And that doesn’t just mean the free promotional thing; it also means keeping folks coming back for more, returning to your website, browsing your products, and making purchases.

The general reasons behind a promotional giveaway are usually the same for every business. However, you still need to get specific about your unique reasons and what you expect to get out of the experience. Are you running a promotional giveaway to strengthen your brand identity, garner greater online exposure, and get more traffic to your website? Are you doing the giveaway simply because you want to have fun with your business and show your customers how much you appreciate them? Write down your motivations and what you hope to accomplish.

Decide What You’re Giving Away

Are you thinking about giving away one big, high-value item like a piece of furniture? Or are you planning to give away hundreds of little items like custom company pens, bags, drinkware, or something else that is more cost-effective? Perhaps a mix of both?

When choosing the promotional items you plan to give away, you have to determine what is going to be best for your company. A high-value item may entice far more people to participate, whereas giving away a high volume of smaller promotional items may award you a larger reach. And customers who receive free promotional products—even if they're small—will remember the gesture, have your items in their home, and be more inclined to choose your company over a competitor.

Make Sure You're Giving Away Something People Really Want

Maybe this sounds too obvious, but it’s amazing how often companies get this wrong. The promotional gift has to have value. It has to be something people really want, otherwise, they’re not going to waste their time participating.

This point applies more to promotional giveaways that are contest-based and related to a big-ticket item. If you are running a different kind of promotional giveaway—like a free custom logo work tote when someone spends $100 or more on your products or services—then the model looks a little different. With this kind of promotional giveaway, you are encouraging customers to reach that $100 mark so they can receive a free product.

Do your research on your current customer base and target market. Are they the kind of people who would want a free golf product? Or something more common like a custom company mug? Know what your potential promotional giveaway participants want before you advertise the giveaway.

Stay Active from Start to Finish

From the moment you decide to do the giveaway until the moment it ends and the promotional gift is in the hands of your customer(s), you need to be fully involved. Take the time to pre-plan everything. How long will you be running the giveaway? How do you plan to advertise it? Is it just something that will be listed on your website? Or will you be including it in your email newsletters, social media pages, and even offline? What is your budget for the giveaway? If this is your first promotional giveaway ever, plan meticulously and consider limiting size and scale. There will always be opportunities to do more promotional giveaways.

Leverage The Power of Social Media

Social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter serve as tremendous assets when it comes to advertising your promotional giveaway, especially if you already have an established presence and following on these platforms. Throughout your promotional giveaway, utilize every platform you are on and not just your website. With Instagram, you can upload sleek, professional images of the product(s) you are giving away. You can also use the stories feature and go live in order to provide your followers with updates and a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion. Facebook is a great place to post the latest news of the giveaway and encourage audience participation.