Giveaways have multiple positive effects on marketing results: from increased audience engagement and social media following to improve brand awareness and reputation. It’s a marketing technique used by brands and businesses across the board – from fashion start-ups and tech businesses to multi-national corporations and famous brands.
There’s no sense in doing a giveaway campaign if you don’t do it right all the way. This includes a very well thought out content plan – i.e., the wording for your giveaway headline and description. The headline is the first thing that greets your audience the moment they land on your opt-in page. It can mean the difference between someone joining your contest and ignoring it.
In this article, we’re going to help you create the most epic giveaway description that any user will want to participate in!
Use the Full Potential of Social Media Platforms
Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social media networks where you can organize a giveaway. These sites offer a multitude of options which can serve to increase user’s interest:
- Facebook’s Pin on Top: When you pin a post on top of a page, it’s the first thing a visitor sees when they enter your Facebook page. Therefore, it can catch the attention of your loyal followers and all those interested in your brand and business, as soon as they reach you for the first time.
- Hashtags: on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, hashtags are incredibly useful for boosting the visibility of giveaways. Many users search for keywords that include raffle, prize, contest, giveaway, so you can even reach an audience that wasn’t even in your target pool.
- Promoted posts: all social media networks allow you to boost your posts, i.e. pay an amount for advertisement and reach a higher number of people. When it comes to giveaways, promoting posts should only be used at the beginning of the project – afterward, the community response will do the trick.
Of course, you can also advertise your giveaway beyond social media. You can do a blog post about your contest, ask bloggers in your niche if they would want to mention it or promote your giveaway in e-magazines. Remember to also notify your email subscribers that you’re hosting a giveaway contest!
Make it Simple and Easy to Participate
Don’t go overboard with the complexity of instruction and the number of steps the user has to go through to enter the giveaway. If you introduce too many steps, users will be discouraged by the time it will take for them to enter and they are more likely to give up on entering altogether.
For social media users, speed and convenience are of the utmost importance. Therefore, you cannot introduce an entry description that shows that it takes 10 minutes to enter your raffle.
The most basic instructions you can set which will increase your brand reach is to require users to like your page and share the post. You can opt to reduce the requirements even further by selecting only one of these conditions.
It’s also effective to ask for a comment on the post, because each time a user comments, the post will be shown on their friends’ newsfeeds.
Use Powerful Language
Just like other types of advertising copy, giveaway descriptions should be captivating and urge the user to take action. To create a feeling of urgency, you need to let people know that what you’re offering is valuable. Examples of urgency words and phrases include:
- Now
- Enter now
- Limited time
- Deadline
- Limited edition
- Limited offer
- Now or never
Don’t be afraid to go bold and write whatever it takes to get the highest number of active users possible.
If you don’t know how to go about it, you can see this list of powerful marketing words.
The way you phrase and frame your giveaway description might entice many more people to join than a dry, boring copywriting would. So, you should invest some time and energy to get the wording just right before you launch your promotion.
Set Clear Rules
As we’ve mentioned before, the caption for your giveaway has to be bombastic and ultra-attractive, but it doesn’t mean it should be cryptic. Users should not have to read between the lines to be able to figure out what the contest is really about.
After you introduce the main prize and some details about your company and brand, set up clear details about the giveaway:
- Who can participate?
- How can I enter into the giveaway?
- What type of data will I have to give?
- What do I have to do to be eligible for the prize?
- When will the winners be announced?
If you’re setting up a giveaway on your website, it can also be useful to set up a FAQ page that will clear all doubts your visitors may have and reduce the number of questions in your company’s inbox.
Use Online Tools for Help
Since marketers have started using giveaways on the Internet as a marketing method, many online tools have appeared that help users create, edit and manage giveaway pages and posts. If you’re not a developer, you can use online promotion creator tools to craft the best possible content for your raffle.
You don’t have to limit yourself to a photo with a description of the prize and the rules: you can also include video and insert your promotional description text there. There is also a let of templates that you can use to create an attractive-looking giveaway announcement.
Conclusion
Getting a giveaway description right is no easy feat. That’s why you will have to set some time aside to make sure you invest enough effort into crafting the perfect one.
Sometimes, users may ignore a giveaway contest if the headline is unappealing or the contest description is boring. Remember, your goal is to get as many users as possible to participate, so use language that will speak to a larger audience. Don’t forget that it’s important to Make your giveaway headline about your prize, try to make it as specific and clear as possible. If people don’t completely understand what they might win, they won’t enter.
About the Author: Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she works as a freelance writer at GrabMyEssay.
From a month i was planning to write a blog but from where to start was very difficult for me. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful piece of work.