For a small business that doesn’t have a lot of extra money to throw around, giving away free product may seem counterintuitive. But in fact, it can really benefit your brand in a lot of ways when done right.
In the long run, giveaways can actually make you money and bring in more sales – which is always the ultimate goal. Below are 5 ways that giveaways can help your small business.
Build Brand Recognition
The first and simplest way running a giveaway can help you is by building familiarity with your brand. By getting the word out about a giveaway, you’re inherently getting the word out about your brand and your offerings as well. Your giveaway may introduce new people to your brand who like what they see and become immediate customers. Additionally, after seeing your giveaway, consumers are more likely to remember your name and have your brand come to mind next time they are in the market for one of your offerings.
Communicate With and Engage With Customer
Whether you’re running your giveaway at in-person events, in-store, or through a post online, it can be a great way for you to engage with potential customers. It opens up an additional avenue through which you can communicate with people. You can answer questions about your brand and chat about your products or services to not only entice people to enter the giveaway, but also to make purchases.
Collect Customer Contact Info
Brand recognition is an important first step, but there are also more tangible benefits giveaways can offer as well. Being able to reach potential customers directly, whether through emails or social media, is essential to driving more sales for your brand. Giveaways can help with this by being a means through which to collect customer information. It is standard practice for entrants to provide an email address or follow your social media channels to enter your drawing. You can use the information you collect to re-target those people, share exclusive offers with them, and keep them aware of your brand’s offerings.
Bring in Customers With Consolation Discount Codes
One specific way to make use of the customer info a giveaway helps you collect is with consolation discount codes. Most entrants (in fact, all but one) will not win your giveaway. That doesn’t mean you can’t still offer them something valuable to convert them from an interested potential customer into an actual customer. Sending a discount code or exclusive one-time offer to everyone who did not win the giveaway can encourage people to go ahead and make a purchase anyway. They were interested enough to want to try your product for free, so take advantage of the interest and strike while the iron is hot!
Attention and Promotion From Winners
Sometimes your brand can even benefit directly from the winner of your giveaway. Ideally, they like the free product they won so much that they become a regular customer for your brand. But in addition to that, they can also help with promotion for your brand, even if it’s not intentional or deliberate. People are generally excited about winning giveaways. They tell their friends, family, or even post on social media about what they won. This word-of-mouth can help further spread the word about your brand and expose even more people to what you offer. Multiple new customers could be brought in just by your giveaway winner sharing their excitement and pleasure with your offerings.
Thus, giving away products or services can actually be a great money-making and attention-grabbing tactic for your business. From brand awareness to increased sales, there are a range of benefits you can get from merely giving away a handful of offerings each year. A small cost in the short-term could mean large gains in the long-term. Try running a giveaway for yourself to see how it can help your small business!