How to Host a Giveaway for Your Jewelry Brand
Who doesn’t like free stuff? I can guarantee that your customers would surely appreciate it. In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, we’d like to celebrate the spirit of giving. When was the last time you gave back to your followers and customers as a way of showing your appreciation? Hosting a giveaway can be one way to demonstrate your thanks.
If you’ve never executed a giveaway before, you’re probably wondering if giveaways are right for your brand. You also probably have a lot of questions like:
- “How much should we give away?”
- “How should we promote our giveaway?”
- “What should we ask for in return?
First, you’ll need to decide if a giveaway is right for your brand. The truth is that giveaways can potentially work for any jewelry brand, from fashion to fine. You don’t necessarily have to give away products if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. You can give a virtual consultation, a chance to tour your studio space, a gift certificate, a repair/refresh of an existing jewelry piece, or really anything else that you can imagine. The value of the prize should be equal to the value of the return you hope to receive from your giveaway. We’ll share more about that below.
Set a specific goal
What do you ultimately hope to achieve from hosting a giveaway for your jewelry brand? Do you want to raise brand awareness? Do you want to grow your email list? Do you want more social media followers or website traffic?
The only “right” goal is the goal that’s right for your individual brand. Before you can even start planning your giveaway, you’ll need to set your goal and stick to it. The more specific you can be, the better. Give yourself a time frame for your goal and make your progress measurable. In addition to setting a goal, you’ll also want to set realistic expectations.
Decide on your prize
When deciding on your prize, you’ll need to consider many factors. Now that you have your goal in mind, you’ll need to know how much achieving that goal is worth to you. For example, if you want to grow your email list, then you’ll need to answer the question – how much is a new subscriber worth to you?
Let’s pretend that you have a landing page on your website for your giveaway, and visitors need to provide an email address in order to enter. According to one resource, a benchmark conversion rate for lead-collecting landing pages across all industries is less than 12% , so you can reasonably expect that fewer than 12% of visitors will actually enter your giveaway.
If you know that approximately 500 visitors come to your website every week, and you’re going to be running your giveaway for a week, you can make an educated guess that the number of email signups or entries will be approximately 50. How much are 50 new leads worth to you? Your answer will help you decide on the value of your giveaway prize.
You’ll also need to think of a prize that’s compelling to your target customers and proportionate to your goals. If your target customer’s average order value is $2,000, then they might not get excited about a $500 prize. At the same time, if you’re hoping to get 500 new emails, offering a $2,500 prize may not be worthwhile either – unless you’ve decided that each new lead is worth $5 to you.
It may seem obvious, but your giveaway prize should also be memorable and related to your brand. Through this process of thinking through all the factors, you may end your journey here and decide that a giveaway isn’t actually right for your jewelry brand. As you can see, many different variables come into play.
Plan and execute your timeline and promotion strategy
You may think that extending the length of your giveaway will help you get more entries and better results, but this approach will likely backfire on you. Consumers respond to urgency, especially when it comes to digital initiatives. They have short attention spans, and they’re likely scrolling past your giveaway announcement while thinking about something else.
You can tease your giveaway for up to two weeks before the deadline, but the actual giveaway should only last for a few days – up to a week maximum. When your target customers see that the deadline is quickly approaching, they’ll feel more motivated to enter the giveaway immediately.
Once you decide on a timeline, you’ll want to assemble a dedicated promotion strategy and plan, so you’re promoting your giveaway at least on a daily basis, from the beginning of the giveaway to the end.
Depending on the goal and the prize, your promotion strategy will vary. For example, if you want to gain new Instagram followers, you can try cross-promoting your giveaway in partnership with another relevant Instagram account. If you want more email subscribers, you can promote the giveaway on your social media platforms and even on your website. If it’s within your budget, you may even want to run social media ads to promote your giveaway.
Award the prize
After the giveaway is over, you’ll want to choose the winner and inform him or her immediately. You’ll also want to contact the other entrants to let them know the giveaway is over and that a winner has been chosen. You may even want to offer the non-winners a consolation prize like a coupon code to keep them engaged and to further show your appreciation.
To protect your brand reputation and to ensure a fair drawing, you’ll want to use a random name generator in the winner selection process. This article from The Balance Every Day has some great resources and recommendations about choosing a winner for your giveaway.
If you’re looking for giveaway ideas, especially giveaways specifically related to growing your social media follower count, you’ll want to check out the hashtag #jewelrygiveaway on Instagram for inspiration. While browsing the hashtag myself, I came across a recent giveaway for a platinum engagement ring from LX Antwerp with a retail value of $2,200.
For the giveaway, LX Antwerp partnered with Engagement 101, so followers of the @engagement101 account could enter the contest by also following @lx_antwerp and tagging 3 friends in the comments on the @engagement101 post. The contest ran for a month, which I personally think is too long for a contest, especially once that’s being hosted on Instagram. However, the post did receive 340 likes and more than 400 comments, potentially exposing the LX Antwerp brand to 1,200 new people.
I estimate that LX Antwerp probably received at least 300 new followers as a result of this giveaway. The followers are likely very qualified followers, since LX Antwerp is an engagement ring designer, and @engagement101 attracts followers interested in engagement rings. Assuming the engagement ring cost LX Antwerp about $1,000 to make at cost, she paid approximately $3 per new follower, not including any money she paid @engagement101 to help her promote the contest.
Thinking about your own social media goals and resources, would a similar contest be valuable to your own jewelry brand? Do you currently have any ideas for giveaways, especially as the holiday season is quickly approaching? Remember that knowing your goal, choosing your prize wisely, and promoting consistently are the most important factors in a successful giveaway.
Links mentioned at the beginning of this episode:
“Tips for Creating Strong Brand Awareness”