Holding contests and giveaways

[Unknown]

Every time I open my social media apps on my phone, I see everybody trying to market their products/website/blog with the help of contests and giveaways. Usually it goes something like this ''Hey, you! We are giving away XY. All you have to do is like this page, click this link and register, ...''. I feel like this marketing strategy has increased a lot, especially on the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Funny enough, it works. Here are the reasons why:

• it attracts the consumers,
• it increases your traffic,
• it increases your follower base,
• it gives you a chance to actually somewhat interact with the social media users,
• information spreads like wildfire,
• if it involves singing up to a page you can also get some research data.

I am truly wondering just how effective holding contests and doing giveaways is? I mean, if you're in e-commerce or have some sort of extra products, surely it is worth giving a few away for that nice traffic increase and new followers? What's your opinion?

 

[Ergoprime]

Every time I open my social media apps on my phone, I see everybody trying to market their products/website/blog with the help of contests and giveaways. Usually it goes something like this ''Hey, you! We are giving away XY. All you have to do is like this page, click this link and register, ...''. I feel like this marketing strategy has increased a lot, especially on the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Funny enough, it works. Here are the reasons why:

• it attracts the consumers,
• it increases your traffic,
• it increases your follower base,
• it gives you a chance to actually somewhat interact with the social media users,
• information spreads like wildfire,
• if it involves singing up to a page you can also get some research data.

I am truly wondering just how effective holding contests and doing giveaways is? I mean, if you're in e-commerce or have some sort of extra products, surely it is worth giving a few away for that nice traffic increase and new followers? What's your opinion?

I think giveaways are a great method to promote your products or services. Not only because you get exposure on social networks. The people who receive your products have the chance to test it and tell their friends about it. I would recommend to make a giveaway that gifts many people, small things. Therefore more people are going to talk about the product with their friends and recommend it further.

 

[Unknown]

Unknown

Yes, that's a very good point Ergoprime. As I wrote, the information spreads like wildfire. I mean, if you are in the products business you probably have some spare ones anyway... why not use them to your own advantage and get free publicity and in the best case, free good reviews from the people that have tried/tested out your products. We all know how amazing any sort of positive reviews can be for future selling.

What about this - how can you truly determine if a contest/giveaway is fake or real? I have a friend that entered a giveaway for one of the gaming gears... something like headphones and he did all that they asked him to. He liked the pages, retweeted, followed and in the end, when the giveaway was suppose to happen, they never gave anything away or even announced the end. What can you do then?

 

[Ergoprime]

Ergoprime

If I enter a contest and don't get my giveaway, even when I should, I won't promote the brand anymore. I would post negative reviews on my channels and let other people know about this lying brand. If you are long-term in the business you won't make it far, if you trick your customers. Brands should always encourage their winners to post pics with them, the product and the brand hashtag, to promote the brand even further and prove to other participants that you really get your price.

 

[dahunsi]

Contests and giveaways are awesome ways to commercialize whatever it is that you're trying to sell. It's simple psychology; everyone wants free stuff and if they could d something relatively easy to get it, why not?

However, you also have to ensure that your giveaway is for something that people will like to have. Monitor market trends and figure out the products that are really grabbing the attention of people. Otherwise, your promotional e-commerce strategy might still fail. If people ant what you're offering, you can rest assured that they'll flood your promotion and try to meet the requirements. Usually, what you get in return in exposure; maybe they help you advertise your business or something. The best part is that some of them might not meet the requirements of eligibility. However, with the little they've done, you would have achieved your own aim.

 

[owenpogi322]

I believe that these types of contest is a great way of gaining attention, followers, and future customers especially for new businesses/brands to help them penetrate the market. It also gives the company vital information which will help them know what the consumers want specially when they are answering a survey to enter the contest. The only thing you will need to do is ensure that you have a good product with good quality so that the people will talk about it and recommend it to others and make sure you can give your prizes on time.

 

[BelindaMT]

Absolutely a good strategy. I have a video blogger friend and he usually market his video by giving money or cellphone to those who will subscribe to his video and like his facebook and twitter page. Guess what? He attracts a lot of viewers to subscribe and like his page. Through this, he earn serious money.

 

[nins_809]

This giveaways and contests are everywhere to gain more followers. But I hope they need to make sure that people will really get something from it. Some are just really using it to attract but at the end they are just fake. People will just waste their time but will not really get something from it.

 

[Abdulhanan]

Giveaway and contest are good way to attract people toward your product or service. You can see on Social media that many pages are giving away something for free and they are asking you to like their page and share post to enter the giveaway.Giveaway can get us good traffic to our blogs and websites. We can also ask people to share our blog to enter contest or giveaway.

 

[951Temec]

I wouldn't hold too many contests and giveaways since too man seems illegitimate, i would sporadically hold them and they should absolutly not be the main appeal like having no content other than contestants to giveaways makes your content worthless. you would be much better served writing quality and attention grabbing content and spicing it up with contests that require sharing to get more followers/readers and consumers.

 

[eeecentric]

I have seen a great number of giveaways recently. I think that it is a way to not only attract new followers, but to also reward committed and dedicated members for sticking around and supporting. If you search on Amazon's website "Amazon Giveaway," they have a program that'll help you with the giveaway, and they'll take care of the process. I've never personally done it, but it seems to be a legitimate way of conducting a giveaway that your followers will recognize and trust.

 

[kammy]

I agree with what you said about the effects of giving giveaways and conducting online contests. It is proven effective in any social media platform. In Youtube for instance, businesses asks Youtubers to try out or test their stuff to gain consumers. Social media influencers can get their revenue up without getting to costly compared to paying for a posted commercial on tv, radio and etc.

 

[shanejhane]

Giving giveaways is only showing that we value our customers. Conducting contest makes it fun and enjoyable. I'm also participating in different contest in social media, but I never won, I only received a giveaways and I know that it just a marketing strategy.
It makes me realized that giving giveaways and conduct contest are the ways to attract more customers to try the products for free and everyone are enjoying to participate since you don't need to pay for it. It's really a good idea.

 

[Diana Bitter]

People like contests and challenges. Competition awakes their interest and who doesn't want to win free stuff by only clicking a button?! It's one of the most profitable techniques. It is also used in the affiliate marketing industry. So I recommend it for webmasters that want to monetize their traffic.

 

[HazelDJ]

It is a good idea. Here in the Philippines, I know somebody who is doing a contest. It is very effective. The product that he gives is a free load to cellphones. I observe that he has many followers. Thousands of people like his page and even subscribed. I appreciate him very much because he is not selfish. Here, I can conclude that if we are kind by giving even little things, we will reap kindness too. I am just amazed with his strategy. He got a lot of subscribers.

 

[romadelgado]

For me contest and giving of give away to people are ways to promote and increase sale of certain products. For me this is also one of the effective ways to market their products to people by letting them to use the product and at the same time to give them chance to win while using it. In my personal experience, whenever I see that there is a contest of a specific brand I used, I usually join to it. Believing that I could win in the contest. So the longer the span of the contest, the longer the time I use the apps and consume the product. So for me it is a positive way to attract customers to buy the product that they are promoting.

 

[Nancy G]

Holding contests and giveaways are exciting ways to promote and to increase sales of your products and services. You gain instant feedback from allowing customers to sample your products especially if you encourage them to send you good or bad reactions. Holding contests also help in getting the "hype" especially if the prizes at stake are popular interests of your target market. These promotional tools help in increasing trial or repeat usage but ultimately when the promo is gone, the product or service will speak for itself. Some companies or individuals use contests and giveaways as they cope with the high and low cycles of their products/services and more so if there are new introductions or active competitors.