5 Tips for Running Successful Co-branded Social Media Giveaways
People love presents. Birthday presents wrapped nicely, the first price in a lottery or an unexpected goodie bag stuffed with lots of free stuff. Presents spike serotonin levels and make you feel good. So what better way for your business to make your audience and fans happy? Right: giveaways.
I mean who can resist free stuff?
Advertising through social media giveaways
Giveaways are an easy way to gain email subscribers, increase engagement and promote brand awareness. All to establish a positive relationship with your community.
With social media in our lives it has never been easier to advertise your business with a giveaway campaign. You can run a product giveaway with a social media influencer to boost your exposure instantly. But social media is also a great tool for brands to collaborate with each other.
The more presents the merrier, right?
We’ll help you to get the most our of your co-branded giveaway campaign with these 5 tips – and they’re free, too!
1. Pick a memorable theme
Everyone loves a good theme! But choose wisely – be bold, creative and on topic. Don’t just choose special dates for your giveaway, like back-to-school, Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving.
Kudos if you create your giveaway campaign around dates that are related to your goals, mission or choose events that stir up discussion. What you think about World Meat Free Day, Blue Monday or Carrot Cake Day – yes, this is a thing!
2. Find the right brands
Now choose a brand that works with this theme. Keep the brand’s social media following and audience in mind.
Some questions to consider:
- How many followers do they have?
- Would their audience be interested in your product, too?
- Will they post about the giveaway on their social media accounts?
- Are they a non-competitive brand? You’ll want to find complementary brands, not those that would take business from you.
Keep in mind that if your brand hasn’t reached social media super star status – yet! – certain brands may not be interested in collaborating with you.
Don’t lose hope!
It may take some time to become that go to brand that everyone wants to work with. Start with reaching out to local or small family owned business.
3. Create a partnership deck
You prefer to work with professional brands that have it all together, right? Then be that brand. Make sure your brand is just as appealing to other brands as you expect them to be.
A solid way to do it is by creating a social brand partnership tool kit. A perfect way to showcase what your brand has to offer.
Include general information like:
- A brief yet captivating introduction to your business
- Your social media following and stats
- Your brand’s number of email subscribers
Add information specific to the giveaway campaign:
- Goals for the giveaway
- A step by step process on how the giveaway works
- Explain how each brand will promote the giveaway
It’s not rocket science. If all brands participating in the giveaway actively promote it, too, it will increase entries, engagement and so on.
Sky is the limit here.
For optimal collaboration remember that every brand has their own guidelines and approval process for social media copy and content. Be sure to discuss this far in advance so you’re all ready, set, go.
4. Create a timeline
If you are hosting a huge giveaway campaign with several brands it can feel like you’re herding cats.
Save yourself time and headache by creating and sharing a timeline with your brand partners that includes specific deadlines. Also not a biggie:
- Start and end dates for the giveaway
- What date you’d like all of the items for photos
- Due dates for landing pages or any other platforms that will be used during the giveaway
- A social media calendar
- Dates for email blasts to promote the giveaway
- Pick a date when the winners will be selected
- Dates for prized to be shipped to the winners
5. Emphasize benefits of the collaboration
Of course, the first thing brands will wonder when you invite them to your giveaway campaign is: “What’s in it for me?” Up to you to make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Amongst working with you, there are plentiful of amazing benefits for any collaboration between brands:
- Sharing email lists that are collected during the campaign
- Including brand partner’s coupon codes or ads in your post-giveaway emails
- Make it a requirement for entrants to Like or Follow the other brand’s social account
It’s a quid pro quo. Working with other brands on giveaways should be beneficial for all parties involved. Increase the chance of brands working with you by communicating benefits and setting expectations. In this way everyone will reap the benefits with smiles on their faces!
Spread some co-branded love
So there you have it! Social media giveaways can be one of the most powerful tools to use in digital marketing. Once you find the right partnerships with the right brands, it can make a giveaway even better.
Most importantly, though, co-branded giveaways are a wonderful way to give back and show some love to your loyal following.
