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Advice on setting up a giveaway?

Hey everyone,

So i'm setting up a new site on my own as a splitoff from a partnership with family, and i'm thinking about doing a giveaway/contest to promote my site and drive some traffic to it. I've never done one of these before, so i'm wondering:

• should i partner up with a popular blog and get them to promote my contest? how do i do this?
• what kind of giveaway have you found works best?
• once the draw/prize has been awarded, what next? have you found in the past that any of that traffic results in any other sales?

A little bit of background on myself: i do custom stationery, and the new site will offer the purchase of custom stationery online based on pre-made designs of mine, and also offers party favours & gift items.

Any advice would be appreciated — thanks everyone!

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Permalink Reply by Les Abeyta on September 1, 2010 at 12:53pm

hello. i have quite a bit of experience setting up contests and giveaways in order to generate leads. I actually just signed up here to start advertising one of our promotions when i saw your post.

over the years, i have set up various promotions and generated probably over 1MM leads. Let me tell you it is not cheap and it takes time to get the ball rolling but once you get it going, it should produce a steady number of leads . . . as long as you keep the promotion going.

1) you need to have a product or service to giveaway that your target client would be interested in. ie, don't give away free goat's milk to promote a baseball clientele. I am not sure what your new site is or what service you offer, so i can't offer you any advice on that. I have a site for our Mexico resort, Cabo Azul Resort, www.caboazulweddings.com and we are promoting the property as a destination to celebrate weddings, honeymoons, and anniversaries. We having a contest to generate leads to promote our destination as a honeymoon and anniversary location. The contest is Win Your Honeymoon or Anniversary. The contest is for a 7 night vacation with a retail value of over $3,000.

2) advertising . . . getting on blogs like this helps because the targeting is focused to the audience you are trying to hit. however, depending upon the rules of the blog, you can only post an item once or twice before the host limits your activity. That said, you need spend some money in advertising. For our contests, you can find someone who has a specialty list that they can promote your offer. i know this website offered up if we want to contact their database. as a cost, i normally pay anywhere between $2 to $30 CPM for delivered emails. Obviously the higher the CPM, the more valualbe that list . . . at least that's the theory.

3) action plan . . . now, lets say you get your leads . . . what is your execution plan on attacking the leads? Will you email those leads, call them, direct mail? how often? and based on that method, what's the frequency you will contact them? and with what offer? for the leads we are generating through our contest, i will mail those leads 4 months before their anniversary and offer them a package to celebrate at our resort.

4) budget and expectations . . . now that you are spending money, you have to figure out what % of your budget you have to spend on advertising. Me, I have 15% to spend on advertising for every room i move. so, if i generate $100 in gross revenue, i have $15 to spend on every client. Working backwards, that means i can spend a $.75 per mail piece but i need to get 5% of my bookings to mail sent. With a targeted database i am collecting that will be much more viable.

5) tracking tracking tracking . . . for every lead source you get, give a special code so you can see how much you spent on that source and see how many leads you got. and then track the closing percentages on those leads. one source may cost you twice as much as another but produce 25% of what the other does. if you don't track, you can turn off one source of leads too quickly or spend too much altogether.

Hope this is even slightly relevant to the question you posted as this is how i approach my lead generation business

les
abeyta@att.net

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Permalink Reply by Paperbliss.ca on September 1, 2010 at 12:58pm

i do custom stationery & favours, and actually one of my most recent clients is getting married at your resort in November — beautiful spot!!

thanks for the advice les, its definitely given me something to think about.

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Permalink Reply by Les Abeyta on September 1, 2010 at 1:01pm

that is awesome! hey, i have a suggestion . . . we are attending bridal show in LA and OC on 11 and 12 Sept. If you have business cards or brochures or samples, get them to us (if you aren't attending the show) and maybe we can hand those out . . . especially that you are part of our family now!

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Permalink Reply by Les Abeyta on September 3, 2010 at 3:00am

good morning susan, here is the website for the set we are attending: http://www.greatbridalexpo.com/.

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Permalink Reply by Paperbliss.ca on September 3, 2010 at 1:45am

i wish i could take you up on that offer — all of my printed promotional materials are still in the process of being printed and i don't have anything ready. if you're doing a january bridal show, let me know and i'd love to give you guys some stuff!

thanks again, les :)
-laurie
laurie@paperbliss.ca

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Permalink Reply by Les Abeyta on September 3, 2010 at 3:04am

we want to see how this one goes first. we our doing this to distribute our wedding brochures and generate leads.via our www.caboazulweddings.com/winyourloscabosgetaway/ contest. if successful, we may do more shows.

when you get your promotional items done, send them to me. if you have anything cabo on them - or extra from the wedding in november, that'd help and we may be able to pass those on in our wedding kits.

also, we are seeking active participation on our blog caboazulweddings.blogspot.com from the vendors who have provided services to Cabo Azul. I can start a discussion just for you.

cheers!

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Permalink Reply by lili lutu on September 3, 2010 at 8:45am

The starting point is to decide where you are going to host the giveaway - your blog (if you have one) or your website.

I am making the assumption that all of this is going to be free - so something you can do is talk to the various bloggers whose blogs you follow, and ask them if they will help promote your contest. A lot of bloggers have what's known as Freeebie Friday on their blogs. Many of them scour the internet looking for all the contests - so you may find that they will be very happy if you bring the information to them.

There are quite a few bloggers on BT - so you can probably start here and see what response you get.

You should also make use of Lucky Bride Giveaways. They only list bride-related contests and giveaways. Entering a submission is a cinch because the form is detailed yet really easy to fill in. You are requested to attach a photo and provide a direct link to the giveaway, among other things. It's really really simple - and very effective. I have seen everything from earrings to clutches to $10,000 honeymoon contests on there. You can find them at http://www.luckybridegiveaways.com/

I use http://random.org for my own giveaways - to keep things fair. I then publicly ask the bride to contact me within 48 hours. If that doesn't happen I draw another name. When others sponsor a giveaway for me I ask the host to pass along the winner's email address after the draw.

If you have any other questions about the logistics I'd be happy to talk more with you about it. You can email me at lili@lililutu.com or contact me through my blog at http://lililutu.blogspot.com

Hope this helps!