Giveaways and Contests

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

There is a lot of advice out there about how to gain exposure for your Urban Botanic business. Of special interest to most of us are ways to gain exposure and new customers on the cheap. One of the methods that is suggested quite often is to run a contest or sponsor a product giveaway.

Do contests and giveaways "work"? Well, it depends on your goal or what you want the outcome to be. I think the important thing that you ought to be realistic about is whether your goal is to make sales by doing a giveaway or contest or if your goal is simply to get your name out there.

Think about it. Are the people who clamor for free things really looking to buy something if they don't win? Or are they really just looking for a cool new thing for free?

My feeling is the latter.

Is there anything wrong with that? No.

I'd like to share with you my experience doing an online UB giveaway. I had the great privilege of being asked by a well-known blog to sponsor an Urban Botanic giveaway. And I can tell you, I think I may have had my goals mixed up at first. My naive assumption was that the nearly 200 women who signed up for the giveaway would immediately become customers once they found out they didn't win. I was actually quite wrong in that assumption. I did not receive the rush of orders that I expected at the conclusion of the giveaway.

Now...I don't want to give you the impression that I consider the experience a failure. I did achieve a very important goal of getting exposure for my Urban Botanic business. The blog owner told me she had hits averaging 800-900 each day of the giveaway which is fantastic! And through this exposure, I added a team member who otherwise might not have heard of UB. I also gained awareness with an incredibly savvy audience of women. The blog who featured the giveaway has a readership of amazingly creative, sophisticated women.

So I wholeheartedly view my experience a huge success. And, depending on the venue or who the audience might be, I would consider doing another giveaway. But this is key - who the audience would be and whether gaining more awareness to them is going to be beneficial to my UB business.

Here is one other important consideration...don't assume that just because someone signed up for your contest or giveaway (and perhaps gave you their email address or other contact information) that they really do want to receive more information from you. Be mindful about what other people might consider spam. In Washington state, for example, sending spam email is actually against the law. And it could cost you a bundle of money if someone really decided to pursue the matter. I say this because if your purpose for doing a contest or giveaway is to gather contacts for your marketing newsletters or promotions, you should think carefully about that.

All in all, I do recommend that you consider doing a giveaway or a contest as a way to market your business. I just suggest you do it with realistic expectations, clear motives, and really think about how implementing this tactic could benefit you.