Tips for Successful Giveaways

Seasonal Trees Motif

The Etsy forums are packed full of amazing information.  Etsy Forum Rewind brings these buried posts back to life so more people from the community can benefit from the information.  Here is the Original Etsy thread.
cicadastudio says:
These were my suggestions for running a successful giveaway ! I’m into my round 4 of giveaways with steady growth and I’ve learned a bit from the experiences and would like to share my findings.
My tips:
1/ Choose something popular in your shop or something that’s been creating a buzz for you already in your blog.
2/ It doesn’t have to be (shouldn’t be) your most expensive item, but it’s appealing to others to know they are getting something of value.
3/ Do it regularly, and pre-promote it as the time draws near for that initial post. People will check in from time to time to see if you’ve posted it yet.
4/ Tell people who enter your shop about it… put it in your banner and your profile. I even change my listing name to say “WIN THIS ITEM” and marked it as a featured item. This works particularly well if it’s something you can make more than one of… otherwise you’re listing it to give it away…
5/ Post in the daily Blog Love thread in Etc. and tell us you’re doing a giveaway.
6/ Put a little image on your sidebar that links to that particular blog post, and a title that says “May Giveaway- Enter to Win”, for example, so people can easily find it and casual browsers can stumble upon it.
7/ Use the word “giveaway” or “enter to win” in the post title. It will draw people in if you’re part of the blogging communities such as Blog Rush.
8/ Tell your friends and family- open it to all. It’s not quite seeding since it’s legit, but it does look very impressive when there’s a bunch of entries- people tend to want in to a popular thing.
9/ Also open it up globally especially if the item is not too heavy.
10/ You can ask people to leave creative comments- I’ve seen poetry contests and “give me a name for this item”. Maybe you want to get a pulse on your shop- ask people to comment on their favorite item in your shop (this can be very educational!)
11/ Be sure to ask people to leave some sort of contact info.
12/ Write an interesting post to announce the winner and make mention to check in again (per pt #3)
13/ Contact the winner asap and send the item out straight away.
14/ Have fun with it! It’s really nice to see the excitement that brews.
It will be a little investment, but as far as promotion goes, it’s really not much, so give it a try!

Winter Fox - Sticky Notes