20 Giveaway ideas to increase your brand awareness and sales
Summary/Overview
Giveaways offer a unique opportunity for your business to boost brand recognition and drive sales by attracting potential customers and promoting engagement.
With 33% of contest participants open to receiving information about the brand and partners, your company can use giveaways as a marketing tool to increase brand awareness and improve your marketing strategy.
A simple Instagram contest or gift card giveaway can be a fun way to engage your target audience, get shares to reach new customers, and make a good impression.
Contests have a conversion rate of almost 34%, higher than other content types, making giveaways a powerful tool for increasing sales. And nearly 95% of the time, users share the promotion immediately after they register — further spreading brand awareness and reaching more potential entrants.
In this article, we’ll dive into the world of promotional giveaways, with plenty of ideas for swag and giveaway prizes. We’ll explore different types of engagement like hashtag contests, Instagram giveaways, working with influencers, and more. But first, let’s talk about some of the best prizes you can offer.
Ten giveaway prize ideas
Before you decide what kind of giveaway you want to run, figure out what you want to give away. Some giveaway prize ideas for your brand might include:
- Product samples or merchandise
This is a great way to introduce your products to new customers and give them a chance to try them out for free. It can also get existing customers to try new products, or to upgrade to higher-level versions.
- Gift cards to your store
Give the winner the flexibility to choose what they want with a gift card. This simple option can also encourage existing customers to shop at your store more often.
- A trip or vacation package
This high-value giveaway prize can generate excitement and buzz around your brand. For example, if you’re a wellness influencer, the trip might include a trendy wellness treatment you’ve been promoting. It can also be a way to reward loyal customers or to attract new customers who are interested in travel.
- Experiences
Experiences, like VIP tours or special events tickets, are a great way to give your customers a unique and memorable moment connected to your brand. It can also be a way to promote your brand to a new audience. For example, if you’re an influencer, offer a meet and greet with you or a behind-the-scenes tour of your business.
- A feature on your social media platforms or websites
Here’s a great giveaway idea for small businesses: If you have lots of other small business owners like yourself in your audience, offer them exposure to the rest of your audience. If you have a large following, cross-promotion could be a very valuable gift for fellow entrepreneurs looking to increase their reach.
- A free year’s supply of your products
If you’re feeling generous, or maybe you have a surplus of products, this giveaway prize might be the perfect way to show appreciation to your customers and followers. Plus, once they get the chance to try your products on a regular basis, they’re likely to share their experience with others, earning you that highly coveted word-of-mouth exposure.
- Coupons or coupon codes
Giveaways don’t have to be flashy. Something as modest as a discount code for your online shop can attract followers with a little extra value, and with the added benefit of encouraging them to make a purchase.
- Branded swag
Another giveaway idea for small businesses is to get some ideas into printed swag, like a tumbler, tote, or a custom T-shirt bearing your company logo. This shows your appreciation for the winner while also getting your brand in front of potential customers every time they use or wear it.
- Early access to new products or exclusive content
This prize rewards loyal customers with something special that’s exclusively theirs. It can also be a way to generate excitement and buzz around your new products or content. If you’re a subject matter expert, teacher, or coach, offer a free class. If you sell products, you could offer the winner something that’s yet to be released to the public.
- Personalized product or service
Show your lucky winner that you care about them with a personalized experience. They’ll appreciate the individual attention, and you can learn something about your audience in the process. If you’re crafty, you could offer them a handmade, one-of-a-kind product just for them. If you’re a podcaster, celebrity, or influencer, your audience might love a special public shoutout or video message
Ten giveaway promotion ideas
Now that you’ve got your prizes picked out, let’s see which of these top 10 giveaway contest ideas is your best bet:
- Hashtag competition
Set up a contest on your preferred social network, like Instagram or X, and ask participants to share posts using a specific hashtag. To promote the hashtag contest, consider working with influencers or running ads aimed at your target audience.
You can choose the winner at random or based on their level of creativity and engagement with your brand. Then, reward the winner with a prize related to your brand and announce the winner through your social media channels.
- Engagement challenge
Select a prize for the winner, create a unique hashtag for the challenge, and post about the challenge on your social media channels.
Instruct followers to comment, like, share, and follow your account to enter to win. This type of social media contest includes the popular “tag a friend” or “follow to enter” challenges that can help you get more social media followers.
- Email subscriber sign-up contest
Ask your audience to sign up for your email list in exchange for a chance to win an exclusive product or experience. You can also combine this with other marketing strategies, such as offering discounts, promoting upcoming sales events, and announcing new features and updates.
For example, you can send subscribers who entered and didn’t win a special discount code. It’s a win-win: you grow your email list, and all your subscribers get a deal.
- Brand ambassador contest
Here’s a great way to reward customers and grow your brand’s reach with user-generated content. One way to do this is to recruit participants to become ambassadors for your brand. Once they apply and are approved, you can give them a unique referral code they can share with anyone interested in making a purchase.
For each purchase made using the ambassador’s code, they’ll receive points toward their total score. At the end of the contest period, the ambassador with the most points wins the grand prize.
- Promotional rewards for referrals
Rewarding followers and customers for referring your brand to others is a great way to incentivize spreading the word about your brand. In fact, referred customers are 37% more likely to be repeat customers.
You could let customers refer friends using their unique code. When a referred customer makes a purchase of, say, over $50 with the code, the referred person will receive a choice from one of your promotional items or products.
In turn, the referring customer receives a bonus reward for helping promote your brand. For example, Walmart has a referral program where both the referring customer and referred customer receive a $10 digital gift card when the referral purchase is over $50.
- Referral contest
Another effective way to get your existing customers to spread the word about your brand and bring in new business is to run a referral contest. Use unique checkout codes to track which new purchases are attributed to which referring customers. Whomever made the most referrals resulting in sales when the contest closes wins a prize.
- Content contest
In a content contest, participants submit content, such as photos, videos, or blog posts, usually based on a common theme, making it a great way to generate creative content and engage with your audience. You can choose the winner at random, or even have your audience vote for the winner for even more audience engagement.
- Social media scavenger hunt
This is a fun giveaway idea that can be a great way to engage with your audience on social media. To run a social media scavenger hunt, you'll need to create a series of clues that lead participants to different locations or websites. Participants can enter the giveaway by following the clues and completing the tasks. The first person to find all of the clues and complete all of the tasks wins the prize.
- Sweepstakes
Participants enter a sweepstakes by filling out a form or submitting their contact information to you, like subscribing to your email list, so you'll need to create a landing page where they can enter. Sweepstakes can be a great way to generate leads and collect email addresses.
- Livestream contest
To run a livestream contest, you'll need to create a live video on social media or your website. In the video, you can announce your giveaway prize and give instructions on how to enter. You can also have participants interact with you in the comments section. The winner of the giveaway can be chosen at random from the participants who interacted with the livestream.
Tips for running a successful business giveaway
With a conversion rate of almost 34%, social media giveaways can help you use your channels to grow your reach. To improve those odds, consider the following tips for the most effective social media giveaway:
Define your target audience
Who are you trying to reach with your giveaway? Make sure the prize and the messaging align with their interests and preferences.
Choose the right social network
Different social networks have different audiences and user behaviors, so choose the one that makes the most sense for your target audience and goals.
Make it shareable
Encourage participants to share the giveaway with their friends and followers, as this can help increase reach and engagement.
Keep it simple
Make sure the rules and steps to enter are clear and easy to follow. The more complicated the giveaway, the less likely people are to participate.
Offer a valuable prize
The prize should be relevant and appealing to your target audience and align with your brand.
Promote the giveaway
Use all your social media accounts and other marketing campaign tools to promote the giveaway and reach as many people as possible.
Promote your next giveaway with stunning marketing materials
These giveaway ideas for businesses are great starting points for connecting with your audience in lots of meaningful ways. From email marketing to referrals and rewards, you can apply these strategies to your own social media campaigns and across all your marketing channels throughout the year to keep them coming back for more.
You’ll also need great visuals to get your message out. Whether you want to design flyers, banners, logos, or other types of promotional materials, Adobe Express can help you make standout visuals for your next giveaway. Get started today and see where your next giveaway takes you.