I’m currently running a giveaway on Facebook, and I was reminded of a conversation I had with a lovely lady a few months ago. She wanted to run a giveaway, but she had no idea how to go about it or how it would really benefit her business. This is for her, and for anyone else considering running a giveaway.

Five benefits of running a giveaway

It will boost your reach and get people engaged quickly.

You will get some more followers – and they will be your ideal client! Now they will see your future posts, and have your products or services in mind.

You will get a list of people who are actually interested in what you have to offer. This list can help you to determine who your ideal client really is and start to build up relationships with them.

You might get some invaluable information. If the product you are giving away doesn’t sell very well, but a lot of people actually want it, could you reduce the price in the future? Do you need to target a different audience?

People, especially us Brits, really love free stuff!!

How to run a giveaway

First, you need to choose a product or service that you are happy to give away for free. Then you need to create a post on a Social Media platform of your choice with the details – I would recommend running a giveaway on only one platform and directing people to that. Your post needs to include:

• What you are giving away. You might also choose to include the price you usually sell it at, but this is optional.
• Where people can enter from. Is your giveaway open worldwide? Just in Europe? Just in the UK? Just in your region?
• When your giveaway ends.
• How to enter. You need people to follow you, partially so the giveaway benefits you more, but also so you can contact the winner. You need them to do at least one of the following: like, comment, share, tag a friend. What the requirements are is up to you! I personally chose to only get people to follow and introduce their business in the comments. Asking people to do too many things can sometimes turn them away – besides, I wanted people to be able to share it without entering.
• How people can get multiple entries to increase their chances of winning. This point is optional.

Once your giveaway ends, find a way of randomly picking a winner. You might just put all the names in a hat or you can find a random name picker online like this one.

Warning

This article is all about giveaways. If you are thinking of doing a raffle or something similar, please be careful about the rules. A raffle is considered a form of gambling and you must have the correct permit to organise one.