Tuesday's Trade Tips: Giveaway marketing

As the founder of EtsyGiveaways, I'm (obviously) a big fan of the whole indie giveaway trend. My general take on them was that they were the most enjoyable way to advertise and get helpful feedback at the same time. Most of my giveaways have resulted in an increase in views and a better understanding of what items in my shop were most appealing, and I considered that a success, since I tend to have a pretty long-range view towards advertising and shop improvement.

The giveaway that just ended a few days ago on ModernCat, however, was a demonstration to me of the other potential of a well-placed giveaway: direct and immediate sales. This is the first time that's happened, and I'm very excited about it. I'm even more excited, however, about the fact that the giveaway got 406 individual respondents, the vast majority of whom were unfamiliar with my shop prior to encountering the giveaway. That's a lot of new potential customers being introduced to my work, and all of them are solid members of my target market since they're readers of moderncat.

Over the last year I've read a lot of debate over giveaways and whether they are a good marketing strategy. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all response to that question. If you can't have fun doing a giveaway for the excitement of it, then maybe you shouldn't do them. If you love entering giveaways though (I know I do), then you might consider creating your own a way of keeping the fun alive even if they don't directly result in sales.

That said, if you are doing a giveaway, there are definitely things that help and things that hurt. Because I'm contrary, and in a sassy mood, I'm puttiong together a list of

Things to do to make sure your giveaway fails spectacularly:

1. Host it on a blog that has almost no readership or has a readership with no interest in what you sell. This is a great way to make sure your giveaway is like that proverbial tree in a forest that falls when no-one is around. Try posting your anti-gun t-shirt on a pro-NRA blog, your expensive and beautifully detailed pottery on a pro-Walmart blog, your "animals suck" poster on a pet lover's blog, and so on.
2. Provide pictures that are fuzzy, out of focus, or look dirty. This way, no-one will be certain just what they'd win, or if they'd even want to win it.
3. Give away an item that you don't want. After all, if you hate it, surely everyone else will too.
4. Keep quiet about your giveaway. Don't post about it on twitter, or in the forums, or on sites like EtsyGiveaways. Don't share it in your newsletter or with your previous customers. Don't mention it in emails. In fact, generally just try to pretend it doesn't exist.
5. Don't ask people to visit your shop and leave a comment about what they liked and why in order to enter the giveaway. This way, you'll learn nothing about what's most appealing in your shop and you won't get fresh eyes on your work. This is a particularly brilliant strategy if you want to have plenty to complain about later.
6. Expect your giveaways to generate instant and overwhelming sales every time. This one is particularly important to combine with number five, so that you are sure to have nothing to show for your giveaway if no-one buys anything immediately. If you decide to maintain this expectation, you can increase your frustration by also not thinking of the giveaway as an opportunity to expose new people to your work who may become customers weeks or months down the line.

Alright, I guess that's enough smart-@$$ery for one day. I realize it probably sounds like I'm picking on people, but I'm really not--I was just trying to make the suggestions more entertaining than a traditional list would be. Hope I didn't tick anyone off in the process :)

Oh - one real tip (I couldn't think of how to frame this in a contrary way). Consider giving away a gift certificate to your shop. I'm fond of the $15 gift certificate--it's large enough to get a 5x7 print plus shipping, so that people don't have to spend any money (which is very important--no-one will enter a giveaway if they think it's just to win the equivalent of a discount), but I've had people decide to spend beyond the gift amount, which can't happen as easily if they're just winning a particular item.

Now this is funkalishous for sure

I'm giveaway obsessed (as you might have already guessed, seeing as I founded EtsyGiveaways and all), and periodically I like to share my latest fave--and this one definitely counts.

Talk about funkalishous Valentine's fun--I sooo want to win this one! So I'm blogging about it to share the wonderfulness, but if you go and enter and win you'll give it to me, right? ;) It ends soon though, so you'll want to scoot over there quickly.

Cat Snow Angel postcard set giveaway (ends 12/16)

It's been a little while since I've had a giveaway here on my blog, so it's time to remedy that situation. So, without further hemming and hawing...

• What you can win: a set of 5 Cat Snow Angel postcards (these aren't holiday specific, as you can see from the comic, so they can be sent out throughout the winter months).
• How you can win them: leave a comment below with a link to your favorite item in the PurrPrints etsy shop, zazzle shop, or cafepress shop and a brief explanation of why it's your favorite OR a suggestion as to something else you'd like to see in one of my shops that isn't there (yet). You can get a second entry if you blog about this giveaway and post a link to that blog post here in a separate comment from your first one. Make sure to leave a way for me to contact you as well.
  
• When the fun stops: Tuesday, December 16th at midnight EST

I will use randomizer.org to determine the winner and post that info here on my blog once I do.

Anyone else want a central location for finding exclusively etsy giveaways?

I should start with this confession: I am, at heart, lazy. I'll watch a mediocre show rather than search for a lost remote or eat a lukewarm meal rather than find the waitress to ask that i be warmed up. This same principle applies to finding giveaways--I love them, I love entering them, (I'd really love winning them, though thus far no luck), and I especially love it when the prize is a neat handmade item from a fellow shopkeep on etsy. What I don't love, however, is finding them.

Since laziness is the other mother of invention (maybe the not-evil-but-just-tired stepmother of invention?), I figured i might be able to solve this dilemma by creating a central location for finding out about etsy giveaways. To make it work, of course, I need people who do these giveaways to join in, however. So do that. 'Cause goodness knows I'm far too lazy to go tracking you down and writing you up on my own ;)

Speaking of giveaways, I've decided to edit my RME giveaway--now everyone who enters gets a prize, and there's no longer any closing date for the "contest" (guess it's not much of a contest any more either then, huh? A contest where you're guaranteed to win something for doing very little--hey, sounds perfect for my fellow lazy-kind!)

Contests & Giveaways

Here you can find info on any active giveaways (both those on the PurrPrints blog or giveaways of PurrPrints items on other blogs.)

Giveaways with deadlines:
None currently

Ongoing contests/giveaways:

The newsletter contest is periodic; some newsletters will include a giveaway just for newsletter subscribers--usually a cat photo contest with a chance to win a gift certificate to PurrPrints on etsy. Learn more about this contest and the newsletter, or simply sign up for the newsletter using the form in the upper left corner.

EtsyGiveaways, a blog I co-author with a few others, is also a great spot to find giveaways all over the internet of etsy items. If you're a giveaway addict like me it's a great place to visit (or to get overwhelmed by all the cool giveaways going on--consider yourselves forewarned!)