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.
this is a lovely post, jessika. you’ve totally hit the nail on the head, each example is so perfect to illustrate the bright side of giveaways.
nicely done!
oh what a sweetie you are to share these – i’m honoured to be included and blush at your kind kind words! thanks so much.
such great ideas here. you’re wonderful – and thanks for the leading the way in the handmaking world, sweetie!
Thank you so much Lesley for your kind words! I know from my first giveaway post that you’ve had concerns with giveaways and I thought of your comments when putting this together: )
And thank you too Ms Lovely RikRak-your blog inspires me all the time with it’s handmade community spirit!
I may have told you this before but I am so glad i came across your blog. I absolutely love it! It is super fun and brightens my day!
Thank you so much,
Heather
Heather thank you so much!!! That is the sweetest thing & it makes me so happy: ) YAY!
Hello, and thank you for such a great blog and competition. Like you, I am very much into making homemade gifts. I just do it as a hobby though for family and close friends. Your blogs gives me so much inspiration and new ideas and I hope that I will be able to share mine with you too. I have checked out the sites you have included in this competition. I love the Bamboletta website but their newsletter subscription doesnt seem to be working (a broken link). I really love their dolls, and I think my two little girls, Bethany and Jessica, would too. Thanks again for a lovely competition and I look forward to returning to your blog v soon xxx
Hi Tracy-I am sorry but I think you might have misread the post, this is not a giveaway or a competition it is a round up of examples of giveaways and how bloggers can create great giveaways of their own: )
You picked some great examples of what goes into making a killer giveaway. I also have to say, I personally prefer the ones with only one easy type of entry (like leave a comment) as opposed to the giveaways where you can enter in fifteen gazillion ways. Keep the barrier to entry really low and you’re more likely to have lots of people entering instead of 5 people entering in 20 ways!
Thanks! Some of my favorite giveaways are the ones where you need to leave one comment about the post/something it made you feel. But on the flip side giveaways are held to drive traffic to a site/build followers for a business so the multiple ways to enter can be great for them.