Giveaway App

Should I use one big prize or many smaller prizes?

The advantage of one big prize is that it attracts attention (Wow! effect) much more than many smaller items. Generally, one iPhone will bring more traffic than twenty premium earphones.

We know from studies that some people tend to risk more, and some people perceive the low chance of winning negatively, i.e. they see the chances of winning as too remote to be worth bothering with. The solution is to combine both approaches and offer one prize with higher value (attractive, but low chance of winning) and several smaller prizes which increase the probability to become a winner. This could engage many more people.

The main prize has usually the quantity of 1 because the level of attraction between one or two is nearly the same, but the costs would increase twice.

• 1 iPad and 20 Acer tablets
• 1 weekend in a hotel and 10x discount 50% off dinner

What is the best giveaway timing?

Do the giveaway whenever expedient. That said, doing your giveaway during a holiday or a season can increase participation. Here are some examples:

• Summer – sun, travelling, BBQ, beer drinking, outdoor activities
• Winter – snow, ski, ice skating
• Sport events – Super Bowl, Olympic games, NHL final, Wimbledon, WBA Boxing Championships, etc.
• Black Friday shopping spree, Cyber Monday
• Christmas
• Back to school
• Thanksgiving Day
• Valentine’s Day
• Mother’s Day, Father’s Day
• New year
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Tax return deadline
• Kid’s Day
• Country national holidays

The results of some marketing studies show the most effective time of day for starting a giveaway is the later morning or evening/night time. But his can really vary audience by audience. If business people are your audience, it’s better to start during the working hours.

What is the best giveaway length?

Another typical question is the length of the promo giveaways. It should run only a few days or the whole year – which is the best?

You need time to promote the giveaway to expose as much your target audience as possible.

You need to give enough time to participants to react – subscribe, buy the product, fill in the survey, recommend … this could take days, weeks or months business.

And sometimes you need some reserve – what if the promotion is not successful, you would need some extra time to try another approach.

Typical giveaway schedule:

• On a weekly base (every Monday)
• On a monthly base (after end of every month)
• Every quarter

Usually, the smaller prizes are the shorter the length of the promo is and vice versa. Giveaways with the length over 6 months are usually perceived as too far and might be not attractive from this reason.

What are common actions to join a giveaway?

• Register to our mailing list
• Complete survey, give feedback, take part in a study
• Purchase product, download app, buy ticket
• Like page, post, retweet
• Recommend us, write a review
• Draw ideal product,
• Take a photo or video of…
• Give a vote for your favorite …
• Quiz or trivia contest
• Write an essay
• Submit product feature idea, improvement tip
• Simple sweepstakes – participants submit entries
• Fill in the blank

Don’t push people to make effort if your goal is quantity and you don’t offer a super extra price. No complicated rules, if people don’t quickly understand the idea, the won’t participate. On the other hand, competition where people don’t need to do anything to join the list aren’t also not as effective as they could be – they seem a little suspicious to contestants. That’s why a small action (funny or interesting) is preferred. The higher the value of prize is, the higher is the willingness to a necessary action.

Avoid using the lottery scheme – this means people should buy lottery tickets with only one purpose – to have a chance to win. This scenario is very strictly regulated in many countries and only licensed organizations can organize lotteries.

Where to promote giveaway?

You need to let your audience know about the competition. Here are some examples.

• Your website, blog, intranet
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube
• Use your email database or add the promotion to your newsletter
• PPC campaign (preferably on social media as people tend to play here more than during the internet search of when reading articles)
• Try to build a viral campaign if there is something unique in your competition.

Of course, you can use any other channel you are used to (POS, tickets, bills, on products, TV &radio and many other).

What are the possible legal issues?

There are many laws limiting giveaways, raffles, lotteries, contests in almost every country in the world. Check the laws in your country at the moment when you create the giveaway concept. Usually, governments prohibit, limit or apply taxes to the following types of competitions:

• Lotteries – you pay for a lottery ticket in order to have chance to win money
• Giveaways with money as a prize – means you can win cash or their equivalent (money voucher atd.)
• Random winners – some countries doesn’t allow the random winners at all and you need to use the non-random concepts (Q&A, quizzes, creative contests).
• Very expensive prizes – some countries limit the value of the prizes
• Giveaways contradicting good morals in general

Be sure about the usage of the trademarks in your promotion.

Be sure to have all images used in the raffle properly licenced. Not all images from free photo banks are really free. The costs of solving problems with unauthorized usage are always much higher than spending a few dollars to buy the license.

We recommend discussing your giveaway concept with local raffle law experts to avoid potential problems.

Final Thoughts

Be consistent – your giveaways should reflect your company values, be in harmony with other marketing activities and target personas. If your giveaway budget is low, add more creativity! You can come with interesting prizes which don’t ruin your wallet, add unexpected execution or unique idea. Making giveaways is a long-term process, where you collect experience step by step. Analyze deeply all your giveaways and learn how to be better. Track ROI of your promotions!

Never try to fake the winners. It takes a lot of effort to build a trustworthy brand, but you can spoil a good name in a minute!