I can barely contain my excitement as I type this, because I’m less than 24 hours away from arriving in Panama.
My business partner and friend, Mayi Carles, and I have been working together on new a business project since last fall. Now, I’m flying to Panama, so we can work on it in person for two weeks.
I’m a little nervous, because we’re both stepping out of our comfort zones and upping our games with professional video and photography. I’ve never worked with a professional video crew. Usually, it’s just me and my husband and my lighting kit that I purchased off of Amazon. I’m more than ready to take this step–it’s just a little bit nerve-racking to do it!
Stay tuned to our social media accounts, because we will be sharing lots of sneak peeks and fun updates throughout the next two weeks.
Now, onto today’s topic: giveaways.
Are they a complete waste of time? Do they actually bring in new traffic, potential customers, and sales? I’m giving you my opinion and experiences with giveaways in today’s video.
Hello April, great topic today. I wanted to share my experience with giveaways, because I have done quite a few but none of them ever really got me the sales I hoped. I’ve done giveaways on Girl and Closet, Tabitha Emma, Moorea Seal and Oh the lovely things. They brought me traffic, but maybe only one sale I could link back to the exposure of the giveaway. I noticed there were quite a lot of people that were there for the free stuff, like you mentioned in your video, and not a lot of people who were genuinely interested in my jewelry.
It might also have something to do with targeting the wrong people, like you talked about two weeks ago! My shop never became very successful, and I’m closing it down to start a new venture that suits me better in different ways, but it did teach me a lot of valuable lessons. I will probably not host any giveaways with my new venture.
Thank you for this video (and your Wednesday Wisdom)!
xo, Inge
Hi April,
I’ve hosted two giveaways so far with one year apart from each other. The first one came in the shape of a tutorial and the prize was the resulting piece I’ve made with the tutorial, a brooch. The participants I realized where mostly people looking for free stuff, including the winner who I never heard from again.
The tutorial post though was a good bet, it still gets lots of hits and some comments. No sales where made resulting from the giveaway, just a small buzz (really small).
The second giveaway was a few months ago where I celebrated reaching 1 000 followers at Facebook.
People engaged more warmly because I already had a genuine amount of followers who appreciate my work and this time the prize went to someone Iām sure did value what he got.
No sales that I can account for doing it, but this one felt more right š
cheers
I have no problem getting people to enter and I usually get a good number of new subscribers to my site and newsletter. There is a caveat here: my niche is fiber, yarn, spinning and accessories for such so I use Ravelry groups for free advertising so my entries had increases exponetially. I’ve also been able to find my target customers this way. They come for the freebie and stay for the the blog and buy because they know, like and trust me.
It didn’t start out the way my first contest had no one even enter but I found later that was a tech error. So I did try again but before I found the error I was devastated. The second time I tried I got 8 people. It just went up from there. I usually get between 25 and 30 people per contest and at least 3-8 of them sign-up for my rss and/or newsletter.
I’ve had similar experiences where a giveaway that is highly promoted (partnership with others) still doesn’t result in much. There might be a lot of traffic from folks who want to enter and get a freebie… but there’s no loyalty or interaction after the fact. I suppose you need to ensure that the audience is perfect for you, otherwise even an influx of traffic won’t result in more sales necessarily!
This blog post could not have been timed any better for me! I woke up this morning to pick the winner of my first giveaway when I saw this in my inbox. Of course my initial reaction was, “Oh no, was my giveaway a waste of time?” At this point, I’m not sure what the answer is. I definitely saw a huge spike in traffic to my Etsy site, blog, and more facebook likes and twitter followers, but like you said, it could be that a lot of those people are just interested in entering giveaways rather than my product. However, I do think I did bring in some people who were genuinely interested in my jewelry, and I decided to offer everyone who entered the giveaway a discount off any purchases in my Etsy shop through the end of the month as a thank you, so we will see if the giveaway paid off or if it was just a good lesson learned. Thanks for your awesome videos, and have a wonderful time in Panama!
Hi Bev, I’m in the same boat as you. A painter friend turned me onto doing giveaways on facebook because they have done so well for him -lots of custom orders, and he’s giving away prints. This Wednesday will be my 3rd time hosting a giveaway of my own jewelry, and while I get a lot of nice feedback, I haven’t received any sales related directly to the giveaway. I really like your discount offer to those who participate because I feel I’ve had difficulty getting people from facebook to visit my store, even though I make it abundantly clear and easy to do so.
Cheers!
Mariel
April, thanks for tackling topics like these and sharing your research and insight!
YAYYYYYYY for you coming to Panama, like TODAY! OMG OMG OMG just a few more hours to go! Tic tac tic tac!
Super cool topic + very timely for me. I’ve never been a huge fan of giveaways, because while I love giving presents I know too much can be an overkill. Lately though, to celebrate my 2 year blog-aversary I’ve hosted 2 random giveaways relevant to my Friday Video Time topics. I think they’ve been a huge success because 1. I haven’t asked people to do all sorts of circus acts to participate, all they have to do to participate is raise their hand. 2. It’s genuinely a present to thank them for being part of the journey, so there’s no expectation or desired outcome… it’s just for fun.
I think once in a while, random acts of kindness go a long way š
Recently I’ve been thinking about a giveaway but wasnt sure how to go about it. So thanks for all the helpful information once again.
Have a great time in Panama!
forgive me, I must have clicked something below and it put an item from my website I didn’t mean for that to show up on my comment. really
Sometimes giveaways benefit in ways that can’t be measured by direct sales… for example, I just came across an Etsy shop that was new to me via a giveaway on a blog I follow. Now I plan to feature the shop owner and her wares in a post because she makes creative things with paper that fit in perfectly with my site’s focus. Perhaps the post will lead to sales for this shop, but even if it doesn’t, publicity is always a good thing. People may think of the shop the next time they need a special gift or want to treat themselves.
I’ve found it helps a lot to make a giveaway really easy for people to enter… keep the hoop jumping to a minimum and eliminate those pesky captcha phrases and word verifications.
I agree with this whole-heartedly! Trying to comment on blog via a mobile can be especially frustrating when blogs have word verification. It means I can’t comment (can’t enter the giveaway), and I’ll end up getting frustrated and leave.
Great topic and perfect timing for all the holiday giveaways that are sure to pop up soon.
I did two jewelry giveaways; one that I hosted, and another on a craft blog. I got a lot of views and comments but no sales as a result.
What did work for me was donating an awareness bracelet to a Breast Cancer organization for their annual fundraising auction. It was presented beautifully and they allowed me to put a stack of biz cards next to the display. I got three direct sales from the cards and lots of new lookers. Plus the bracelet sold and all the proceeds went to a great cause. So that was all good, and I’m looking for other worthwhile events to donate to.
A well known and successful teacher I take from supports Lee’s idea.
She told us about a student who picked a local favorite charity to support with a yearly donation to their fundraiser. She donated nice, substantial pieces (also a tax write off). After a while, people knew she was associated with that charity and came to bid. The bids got higher every year and she got a lot of exposure from it. So much so that when she passed they did a very nice write up in the paper about her and her history of giving.
This would only apply to local sales, not so much media, but certainly could be turned into blog material about your donation.
What a great idea. Thanks Vicki!
I have a blog, but (so far) all I do is to share knowledge and inspiration and to try and challenge people to be more creative and open to creativity. No shop, nor anything like (yet).
About a month ago, I held a giveaway on the blog to celebrate the fact that I reached the 5.000 page views (in the portuguese version of the blog). It was my second try at this, and the first one was a deception. But I so wanted to give back to the persons who took the time to read my posts (or patches, as I call them), so I did it anyway. Another objective was to try and reach out to even more persons and keep on incresaing the daily number of page views (in both versions of the blog). To do so, I kept on announcing that giveaway on all social networks I’m at and asked people to share that info with their friends and contacts.
In the end, I had only 4 entries on the giveaway, and they all came from my personal request for those persons to check it out and enter (but I’ve got to say that was all I did, the things they wrote were entirelly on their own and oh, I loved it so much! They were all very kind and showed they really liked the blog, so THANK YOU!). Well, that was better than before, so although I had my hope set on a higher goal, I partied it anyway and celebrated both the entries as the winner. When it comes to the 2nd objective, it seems like I got it, for numbers do keep on rising since then.
Right now, I’m not planning on doing another giveaway so soon, but I’m celebrating the blog’s 1st anniversary with a bunch of other things all through this month, and this post is also usefull for that.
XOXO
Cathy š
Have fun on your trip and I know of will be very successful!
I have hosted a give-a-away and just as you described was very disappointed when it wasn’t wildly embraced. I didn’t put the work into it that you mentioned ’cause, frankly I didn’t research the proper way to get myself noticed.
I still struggle with my exposure toda, but I have faith that it will come when I apply myself with same passion I have for creating!
Thanks for all you offer!
Great timing! I’ve tried giveaways in the past with “meh” results, but tomorrow we’re having one on Sweet Paul’s blog- the first time another site has hosted one for us.. It’s for a set of personalized cards; a larger item than I’ve done in the past. I’m not sure what my expectations are but I’ll just be thrilled with the extra exposure. (It’s the little things, right?)
So I guess I’ll check in next week when it ends and let you know how it went!
Cheers~
ashley
I did ONE giveaway when I first started my blog. My motivation was to get more readers — to just let people know that I was out there as a newbie blogger. I published a few interviews with Surf Artists/Filmmakers that got into the Santa Barbara Film Festival, and in turn I had my readers leave comments on the interviews to support the Filmmakers. That was the ‘qualification’ for the giveaway. It was a win-win for all involved, and I got a handful of new readers. As much fun as it was, it definitely was a lot of work!!
P.S. Have a great time in Panama!! Can’t wait to see what you and Mayi have up your sleeves š
Great post April. When I have my monthly fashion nights selling my ladies dresses I have a giveaway of a free dress. But I have conditions where customers need to get their orders and payment to me within a time frame. And it works….I get paid and they go into the draw to win their purchase for free. So it’s a win/win situation.
Have a great time in Panama with Mayi, April and can’t wait to see what you two fun girls come up with.
I tried one giveaway so far – a piece on display at a BNM shop I do consignment at, advertized at the shop and on my fb page – the winner was happy with the piece and I got some “likes” on fb but not alot of entries.
Great advice in the video on how to make a giveaway “work”