by Jessika Hepburn, Editor
Today is the cheerful part two to my Giveaway Guidelines post . We are taking a look at 5 examples of giveaways that showcase what I think are five key elements to giveaway success: a large active following, rarity or infrequency, relevance to the readership, a big heart & all around kindness.
1. A Large Following: Bamboletta Dolls
Bamboletta Dolls has an incredibly large and active following which is a key element to a truly successful giveaway. Their following has grown to the point where the company can literally not produce enough to satisfy demand and has had to limit the number of dolls allowed to each household! Their blog and Facebook page are obviously well visited and loved. So it’s no surprise that when they offered up the sweet doll above as a giveaway to celebrate reaching 5000 fans that the post received 1, 878 comments!
2. Rarity/infrequency
Design*Sponge is one of the major heavyweights in design & DIY blogland. Their 3 part series on Internet Ethics & Etiquette is a must-read for anyone interested in blogging-think of it as your foundation year of university. Design*Sponge keeps giveaways few and far between, which means that when they come up they are unique and special-causing readers to sit up and pay attention. Their recent Homemade Living giveaway is a perfect example of a fun giveaway with lots of comments (854 of them).
3. Relevance to readership:
Inhabitots is a large well marketed baby/parenting website with a sustainable & natural design focus. So offering a cloth diaper starter kit to their large readership of mothers interested in natural parenting is a great example of how relevance is a big part of a successful giveaway. Choosing products that directly relate to your readers interests is definitely key & means you need to know your readers too!
4. A Big Heart
When I thought of offering a big giveaway last Christmas I was motivated by my love of handmade and community action and the desire to connect the two. I was amazed by the outpouring of interest from small businesses in contributing to our baskets and then again by the diversity of charity nominations from readers. Giveaways that have a greater purpose like supporting a family, charity or event like our Handmade Holidays giveaway have the potential to do incredible things and engage the hearts of readers.
5. Kindness:
I saved my favorite for the end, Kristal at the RikRak Studio offers regular giveaways to show some love to her advertisers by giving her readers a gift certificate to use in their shops. Go visit her I Heart My Sponsors giveaway to see what it’s all about (pst-this ones still on!). This idea makes me so happy because she is choosing to take responsibility for the giving, it costs the artist nothing and shows readers her love and support of handmade. Kindness for the sake of kindness is beautiful and what we all need more of. Giveaways that are paid for by the blogger or when they buy something to give just because they love it and want to share that love or when someone makes and gives their own handmade away-these are examples of truly ethical and joyful giveaways. Let’s do more of them!
Finally, the biggest key to any successful giveaway is promotion. Daily sharing on Twitter and Facebook, + by readers & other bloggers all contribute to getting the word out. If you are hosting a giveaway be sure to make as big of a buzz as possible especially if you are giving away something for another business.
Please share examples of wonderful giveaways, what you think are key elements to planning & running a successful giveaway and your own fantastic giveaway ideas in the comments-I love hearing your thoughts!
I also need to give some blog love & credit to Pugly Pixel-where I just purchased a premium membership (only $5 a month but there are great freebies too) and used some of the brilliant design resources like tape & photoshop masks to make this post pretty.
