20 Giveaway Ideas for Small Businesses to Boost Sales & Engagement
Giveaways can help you grow your interaction, increase sales and reach a wider audience, which are the core points to growing your small business.
By exploring these 20 giveaway ideas for small businesses, you can apply suitable strategies to your business!
1. Product Bundling Giveaway to Promote Products
You can give away a product bundle to your audience to promote your products. For example, bringing related products together or creating a themed gift set bundle can interest your audience.
Adding customer-favorite products and products that are not so popular can also be useful in promoting products.
You can announce the giveaway on your landing page or on social media to grab visitors' attention and encourage them to enter your giveaway!
The Body Shop's giveaway on their Facebook page can be shown as a great example of this. The brand brings its products together in a goody bag, a cloth bag with a branded hashtag and logo on it.
This product bundling giveaway includes related products, and the offer is announced with an encouraging headline, "YOUR CHANCE TO WIN."
In addition, the rules and details of the giveaway are given in an easy-to-read and short paragraph, which is an ideal one not to overwhelm your audience.
📌 See 11 Product Bundling Examples That Will Get You More Sales
2. Seasonal Themed Giveaways to Celebrate Special Days
Seasonal-themed giveaways are the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season with your audience! You can organize seasonal campaign giveaways to increase user engagement during specific times of the year.
If you have seasonal-themed collections or related products, include these items in your giveaway. It doesn't always have to be related to the season, but if you have related items, you can take advantage of this too.
For example, Maple Hill organizes a giveaway on Earth Day to celebrate this particular time of the year by emailing their subscribers.
Clear product images of what is included in the giveaway are given, and the giveaway rules are stated clearly in this email example.
Considering that the brand has related products for this season, they give away their products and partner with another brand to include them too.
📌 See Marketing Holiday Calendar: Dates You Shouldn’t Miss in 2024
3. Organize Social Media Giveaways
If you are active on social media channels, organize a giveaway to enhance your interaction there!
Share-to-win contests can be helpful since people share your content on their profile, which will help you get new followers and potential customers.
"Tag a friend to win" giveaways are also useful since not many people might want to share a brand's content on their profile; they can just tag their friends on your content.
That way, people who can be interested in your product and giveaway can also join your campaign.
If you consider a giveaway on social media, you can use branded hashtags. By doing that, you can increase your brand visibility.
You can organize sweepstakes with multiple steps to take things to another level. 😉
For example, Breville UK's Instagram account organizes a giveaway campaign for Easter and asks its audience to complete various steps to enter the giveaway.
The giveaway post includes an attractive image with provided products, season-themed elements, and a description with catchy language. Related emojis are used, and rules for the giveaway are given.
Another way can be announcing your social media giveaway by sending emails to your subscribers to double your interactions! You can encourage them to follow your social accounts and grow your audience by doing that.
Snif announces its giveaway on Instagram through an email marketing campaign. The email starts with the headlines "Happening now on Instagram" and "giveaway," which are clear and to-the-point headline examples.
Giveaway products' images are also given, and minimal style is used in this email. As in this example, it can be useful to announce your social media giveaway campaigns through email to lead your audience to your social accounts.
4. Partner with Social Media Influencers
As a small business, you can partner with influencers in your niche. Find influencers with an audience that is your potential customers and collaborate with them for effective results.
Since these influencers already have an audience, you can benefit from them sharing your product's giveaway. 🥳
You don't have to find influencers that have millions of followers. Finding creators that have small audiences can also work.
Consider your budget, your industry, and your target audience, and find relevant influencers that you can work with for your giveaway campaigns.
You can use TikTok, Twitter, or Instagram for influencer giveaways. As shown above, there are a lot of giveaways done by influencers on TikTok, and since these giveaways are mostly product bundles, you can partner with related influencers to include yours.
Thanks to influencers giving away products to their small or big audience, you can make your small business brand heard by your targeted audience.
5. Special Giveaway for Customer Loyalty Program
If you have a customer loyalty program, you can reward your loyal customers with giveaways. Organize exclusive giveaways for your loyalty members, and announce them on your marketing channels to encourage your audience to join your loyalty program!
Loyalty program giveaways can provide exclusive offers like special discounts, early access to a new product, or a gift set of your most-loved products.
Try to get creative and show you appreciate your loyal customers for customer retention.
For example, the famous brand Levi's organizes a capsule wardrobe giveaway for its member program. The brand announces the giveaway by sending an email, and the email includes the details of the giveaway with brief explanations and eye-catching photographs.
What people can win by entering the giveaway is also given towards the end of the email, and clear CTAs to enter the giveaway are added.
You can organize an exclusive giveaway that includes your products like this one for your loyalty program members.
6. Provide Gift Cards to Reduce Cart Abandonment
Cart abandonment is a significant problem, and reducing it might seem a struggle. However, you can reduce it by organizing giveaways tailored to your business needs.
Just as your visitors intend to leave your website, you can encourage them to stay by giving them a gift card!
Using exit-intent popups on your website, you can show your gift card giveaway campaign to the right people at the right time. That way, people who want to leave might attend your giveaway, and you can win them back.
For example, show a popup like this one on your collection page to grab your visitors' attention. When visitors want to leave, you can offer them gift cards that can be used on specific cart amounts on their purchases.
By seeing that they won a gift card, people can keep on shopping, and you can reduce the cart abandonment rate of your small business!
7. Ask for Reviews & Feedback
Collecting customer feedback and reviews might be a struggle for you as a small business owner. But if you offer special discounts or gifts to those who leave a review or feedback, you can start collecting them with ease!
Create an email marketing campaign asking your customers to leave a product review or feedback, and indicate that you'll give away special discounts, products, or free shipping coupon codes in return.
For example, you can display a popup like this one on your website and ask your visitors to leave their feedback to get a chance to win a discount.
Keep your popup's description short and sweet, and use clear call-to-action buttons to encourage your visitors!
You might organize bigger giveaways like contests to collect reviews and feedback for sure. For instance, you can ask your visitors through email to share their reviews or feedback to enter your giveaway.
Eventually, you can choose lucky winners and provide them with exclusive gifts in return.
8. Add Fun Quizzes to Increase Playfulness
Add playfulness to your giveaway campaigns by adding fun quizzes to your website! By combining irresistible offers with witty questions, you can encourage visitors to take the desired action.
These quizzes can be about brand trivia, and you can offer exclusive discounts for winners. You can share your fun quizzes to organize a giveaway campaign on social media.
You can add popups to your website for that purpose and offer a chance to win something in return to people who fill out your quiz popups.
💡 Pro Tip: Using a multistep popup for your quiz giveaway can be the perfect solution.
For example, let's say you run a coffee-related business and plan to give away coffee packs to winners of your giveaway.
You can add a multistep popup that starts with announcing your giveaway and explaining how people can attend it. Your second step of the popup can be a related question, as shown below:
You can end your multistep popup with only one question for sure, but you might add other questions to keep the fun going!
Add another related question and lead visitors to the final step, which asks for an email address to enter the giveaway:
Using a popup like this one, you can collect email addresses and increase user engagement with catchy quizzes.
9. Use the Power of Gamification
Gamification in marketing is a solid strategy to encourage customers to engage with your brand!
People love playing games and winning something in return, so combining your giveaways with gamification can be your go-to strategy.
You can add gamification popups to your website, which will skyrocket your user interaction as a unique giveaway example!
You can use a popup like this one for your seasonal campaigns or other giveaway campaigns.
Remember to use a witty or catchy headline to take your visitors' attention immediately. Then, explain what you offer on your gamification popup with a short description, and add a CTA button to start the game!
You can give your giveaway discount code on your winner step of a popup campaign. For those who couldn't win, you can create another popup step that says "Sorry" or "Try again on another campaign" to interact with them.
The key to effective gamification campaigns is using an attractive design with short, engaging copies. Apart from these, the gamification elements like lottery ball or spin to win will do the trick!
10. Re-Engagement Campaigns to Win Customers Back
To win back lost or inactive users, you can offer them special discounts by sending re-engagement emails.
Thanks to re-engagement emails, you can make inactive users interested in your product or service again.
Use sincere language and emphasize your offer with a clear statement. Giving away special discounts can make your inactive audience excited.
For example, Adidas sends a re-engagement email to its customer loyalty program members' offering special discounts on their hand-picked items. The email's headline, "You have access," is catchy enough to lead visitors to take action.
You can use attention-grabbing headlines with welcoming language to interact with your visitors and win them back with an email campaign.
11. Ask for User-Generated Content
You can run a photo or video contest that users will share using your product. That way, your audience will create user-generated content, aka UGC, to boost your brand visibility online.
You can ask users to show their favorite products or display a product in use to attend your giveaway.
Thanks to UGC, you can grab the attention of your potential customers with organic content.
For example, Crate & Kids asks subscribers to share their photos to enter the giveaway through an email campaign. The headline "You could win a $500 gift card!" is a perfect example that draws attention and encourages users to participate.
By organizing this giveaway, the brand aims to increase the user-generated content for its branded hashtag, which is a great strategy to boost engagement in social media channels.
Organizing a similar giveaway and offering exclusive discounts to those who share photos of your products can be an easy-to-adapt giveaway strategy.
12. Referral Giveaways for Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Start a referral program and organize giveaways for those who refer your product or service to other people.
Word-of-mouth marketing works wonders, and you can grow your small business with the help of your existing audience. Offer them special discounts or gifts, and once you refer your product or service to others, it will be a win-win situation for sure!
For example, the cereal brand Surreal sends its subscribers this email for referral giveaways:
The email starts with the headline "We're bribing you," a brilliant and witty example. After grabbing their audience's attention with this headline, the brand explains the referral giveaways' details and adds a clear call to action button.
By applying a similar email marketing campaign, you can encourage your audience to refer you to their audience.
13. Team Up with Other Businesses
You can partner with other businesses for mutual benefits. As a result, both businesses can increase their engagement!
By finding a business partner that has a similar audience to yours, you can create giveaway campaigns. Partners can announce the giveaway on their channels, and both parties can boost interaction eventually.
Pattern Brands' partnership with other brands for a giveaway can be shown as a great example. The brand partners with various brands and offers an exclusive set of many products from these brands.
The details of the giveaway are given in bullet points, making it easier to read. Also, clear CTA buttons are added to the email.
The total value of the giveaway is also stated, which can excite people to try their luck on this campaign.
You can also achieve your business goals by teaming up with other small businesses.
14. Buy One Get One Free Offer to Increase Sales
Buy one get one free campaign can be great for acquiring new customers and encouraging them to make a purchase.
You can announce your BOGO offer using a popup campaign on your website or send emails to your email newsletter subscribers.
The brand Rifle Paper Co. sends an email to its subscribers for their buy one get one free offer. Art prints of the brand are given with an image of a gallery wall and the headline "Buy one art print get one!" is written on one of the frames.
The look of the email is attractive and eye-catching. Apart from the image, a short description of the giveaway is given, and a clear CTA button is attached at the bottom.
Presenting your BOGO offer like this short and sweet example can be easy and effective as well.
15. Thank You Gifts to Show Appreciation
You can organize giveaways on various milestones to thank your customers.
That way, you can show that you appreciate your audience and reward them.
Company milestones or special days can be like your company's birthday, achieving a certain number of customers, or having a certain number of followers on social media channels.
You can optimize thank you giveaway campaign and offer small or big prizes according to your budget and needs.
The brand Bellroy offers a thank-you gift to its community members by sending an email like this:
The email has a sense of mystery, and the question mark on the gift card creates excitement. The headline "Our thanks to you" is a great example that shows appreciation and thankfulness to the community.
For the company milestone giveaway, Mendo gives away its customers a discount on their birthday with this lively email:
The giveaway is announced with the headline "It's our birthday!", and an illustration of a birthday cake with the provided offer is attached. The details of this thank you giveaway are given, and a CTA button is added at the end of the email properly.
Celebrating your company's birthday with an offer like this can be great to appreciate your audience and attain loyal customers.
16. Personalized Gifts to Make Your Audience Feel Special
Personalized gifts are perfect for attracting new customers in different segments!
These giveaways can be a great way to make your business stand out and show your customers that you care about them. By offering a gift that is tailored to the customer's interests or preferences, a personalized experience that will leave a lasting impression can be created.
Let's say you have a clothing store; you can offer a personalized outfit gift set where the winner chooses clothes that suit their style.
Another option can be to offer a gift that is personalized with the winner's name or initials. That way, you can add a personal touch that makes the winners feel special with an item that has their name on it.
You can define your audience's various segments and form different gift sets for each segment you have.
You can use email, social media posts, or popups to announce your personalized gift giveaway.
17. Offer a Year's Worth of Products or Services
You can organize a giveaway to offer a year's worth of products or services to your customers. Offering a year's worth of your product or service as a giveaway is an excellent way to create excitement and engagement around the business.
By offering a valuable prize that lasts for an entire year, you can encourage your audience to enter your giveaway. That way, you can promote your brand to a wider audience.
You need to choose a product or service relevant to your target audience. While doing that, set clear goals and come up with realistic plans.
You need to find a product or service you can provide for a year. It can be a year's worth of stock of beauty products or a yearly hair salon service. Then, you can optimize what you'll offer, considering your business and budget.
Announce your giveaway using social media or email marketing and create buzz and engagement. Define the rules and details of this giveaway, and don't leave any questions in the attendees' minds.
Sprouts Farmers Market organizes a giveaway and offers customers free groceries for a year. A colorful and appealing image of grocery products is given in the email, along with the giveaway details.
In addition, the CTA button "Enter to win" is added to also lead customers to participate.
18. Product Launch & New Arrival Giveaways
A product launch or new arrival giveaway is a fantastic way to generate excitement and buzz! By offering a chance to win your latest product or service, you can promote your products or services to a wider audience.
Organizing a giveaway for recently launched products or new collections can be great to introduce them to your audience with special prizes.
You can use countdown timer popups to announce your upcoming product, which will have a giveaway for lucky winners too. That way, you can create excitement for your product and the giveaway that comes within.
Also, you can announce that you are organizing a giveaway for your new product with a popup like this:
Add a clear product image and announce that you have a new arrival giveaway with a headline like in this example. By adding a form with an email element to your popup like this, you can grow your email list as well.
19. Offer Related Services or Add-ons
Offering related services or add-ons as a giveaway can upsell your existing products or services and create a sense of added value for your target audience.
By offering a deal that includes your core product or service along with a related add-on or service, you can encourage visitors to engage with your brand.
You can get creative while finding related services or add-ons to create more excitement.
Your giveaway rules can be like for those who buy a specific product; you can offer them a chance to win a related service. Also, you can offer add-ons that can be used with certain products.
For example, BarkBox offers to double their subscription box for Christmas with add-ons. An image of the box is given, and a cute CTA button that says "Spoil my dog" is added at the bottom to lead people to subscribe.
20. Provide E-book or Guide to Show Expertise
Providing an e-book or guide as a giveaway is a great way to show your expertise in certain areas. That way, you can provide value to your customers with informative guides or e-books relevant to their interests or pain points.
Find the topic that relates to your product, and create a relevant guide or e-book which will establish your brand as a trusted source of information.
You can offer them to lucky winners or those who sign up for your email newsletter to grow your email list!
For example, if you run a coffee shop or a coffee-related business, you can provide your audience an extensive guide to preparing coffee in various ways.
Also, giving away a styling guidebook to your visitors with a popup that is shown above can be a great way to interact with them as well.
Wrap Up
Small businesses can enhance their online presence and attract more customers by hosting giveaways. Giving away valuable incentives and promoting the giveaway can help them expand their email lists, boost website traffic, and generate social media buzz.
It's crucial to follow best practices and legal guidelines while organizing a giveaway, whether on social media, through a referral program, or as part of a contest.
You should also measure the metrics to monitor how successful your giveaway was. You can grow your small business and compete with more prominent brands in your sector by using these giveaway ideas to promote your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Promote My Giveaway to Reach More People?
A giveaway can be promoted in various ways, such as through social media, email marketing, and cross-promotion with other small businesses.
Consider working with influencers, coming up with eye-catching email subject lines, and incorporating relevant hashtags and keywords into your social media posts if you want to increase the reach of your giveaway.
How Do I Choose A Prize That Will Appeal to My Target Audience?
Consider your target market's interests and demands and the kinds of goods and services your company provides before selecting a prize. Also, do polls or surveys to determine what kinds of prizes your audience would be interested in.
What are Some Best Practices for Running A Successful Giveaway?
Having clear rules and restrictions, a start and finish date, a reward appropriate for your target audience, constant giveaway promotion, and quick follow-up with the winner are some best practices for organizing a successful giveaway.
Additionally, it's critical that you stick to any legal guidelines related to giveaways in your region and be open and honest about the method used to choose the winners.
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