How To Set Up A Giveaway
Hey friends and foes. Have you ever seen someone do a giveaway on instagram and wondered why are they doing this? For more followers? For some kind of mysterious promotion? How does one even set up a giveaway? What are the rules? How do you get someone to do it with you?
I’m here to answer those questions. Last year I put on a giveaway with the wonderful Friday of Friday Afternoon Teas and it was super successful. I’ve done three giveaways with Friday in total and this one was a little different for us. The first two that we’ve done were still photo giveaways, this one was a video. At the time of our giveaway, Instagram was favoritng the Reel heavily so I wrote us up a script, we each filmed ourselves, and then i edited and posted it.
We each gave away about $30 worth of items and gained new followers and for myself, new clients. I was able to get two commissions because of the work I did on the giveaway. Score!
In the past I’ve had giveaways gain me lots of followers, comments/engagement on my other posts, views to my website, and painting sales- but not all during the same time.
Giveaways are a powerful tool, if you wield it correctly.
As the example for this episode of what to do and what not to do, I’m going to be using my most recent giveaway with Friday as a touch stone. Feel free to check it out on our Instagram pages, stephaniescott.art and @fridaytea
Here is my list for running a successful giveaway:
Set your mindset. A giveaway is, at it’s core, advertising. It’s putting something of monetary value down in exchange for more eyes on your product.
When you change your thinking from ‘simply giving away your artwork’ to ‘expanding the reach of your brand by putting something of value and reaching new customers’ your viewers will see the difference, the sharing of your giveaway will expand, and you’ll see the results differently. ‘
Figure out what you want. I set an intention with each giveaway I organize. For this one with Friday, I wanted people that were a fan of her tea shop to come see my work- not just more followers, but loyal customers who liked the nerdy and contemporary.
To help get them over to my page, I made sure to post lots of art that were based on characters that matched the tea’s that she based off of those same characters.
Examples of things I’ve wanted in the past: subscribers to my newsletter (i enter them in a giveaway for a free print if they sign up), new followers from Washington State (where i work), Engagement on posts surrounding the giveaway posts, people to share my artwork in their stories ( and hence being seen by their smaller networks).
Nail down what you want to give away
Things I’ve given away in the past: Postcards, full size prints, tote bags, stickers, sketchbooks, pens, and original art. Because of how much effort these giveaways are, I like to have the total value be at $30 or higher. My latest one with Friday was over $100
Find someone to collaborate with.
I’ve done 3 giveaways with Friday, one with a baker, another 2 by myself. The ones that have at least 1 collaborator are usually twice as successful, if not more. Having someone else do a giveaway with you gives you automatic access to their audience. I don’t think I've had more than a 50 person cross over with anyone elses audience before so this is a big deal. PLUS it makes the prize pool bigger, which makes it more attractive, and therefore more people will enter it.
Write out the language you want to use for the giveaway.
This includes how you will hook people into entering, describing the prizes in their juiciest form and coming up with hashtags that are under 50k uses. Remember, you don't want just anyone to join your giveaway- you want people who will be big fans of your artwork. So instead of using Hashtag Art, use Hashtag abstract painting giveaway
Pick a day and time you will be choosing the winner
I like to have a giveaway that lasts 3-5 days and not any longer. State the date and time the giveaway will close in the comments
Pick out the rules to enter. If you want more followers, they have to follow you (and your collaborator account) to win the prize. If you want email subscribers they have to go to your website and enter their email. If you want engagement, they have to comment on your last three posts. Etc. Pick one goal and have that be the main way to enter your giveaway. I usually have people Follow the account, tag a friend, and share the giveaway in their stories. Each tag counts as an entry.
Winners will be chosen ONLY if they follow the rules of entry.
Bonus entries. If people save the giveaway, they get a bonus entry. If they share in their stories about the giveaway, 5 bonus entry. If they tag more than one person in the comments, bonus entry. If they tell you a funny joke in the comments, bonus entry! Get creative
Storing the entries. Sometimes i will manually write everyone's entries in a spreadsheet. But other times I will use a comment picker program that you can find with a quick google search. I ALWAYS double check if that person followed the rules of the contest Pick another winner if they didn't
Mention that the giveaway isn’t affiliated with Instagram or whatever platform you are doing this on.
Celebrate the winner, post in your stories, let your collaboration partner know, send them a DM and then mail off the prize
The 3 posts you do before the giveaway and after are very impactful.
Before: these should be some brilliant photos or a fun catchy reel. Show case your products the most here as a big influx of people will be coming to your page and looking at your most recent work. They will probably engage with them too.
AFTER: The next three posts you make will show up on your new followers timelines. These next few will determine if you stay on their feed or disappear. Make sure you are using good hooks for your first sentences of these posts, that they have prompts for people to comment on them, and that these posts happen within a week of your giveaway ending. You’ll ‘get the most bang for your buck’ this way.
After all of that I like to send a dm to everyone who entered the giveaway. I’ll send them a discount code to my shop, I’ll comment on their posts, send a fun meme, and thank them for entering the giveaway. This is a peak chance for you to develop a relationship with them and potentially turn them into your collectors. I’ve gotten the majority of my sales through the dms after the giveaways.
Hope this was helpful!
As a little treat Get 10% at Friday’s online teashop using code STEVIE10 https://www.fridaytea.com/
Host and artist Stephanie Scott breaks down the practicality of the art career with topics including: sustainable creative practices, social media skills, and the mindsets that keep it all together. New episodes every Tuesday!
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