Motivating Mum UK

For small businesses, marketing budgets are tight. Many ‘toy’ with the idea of running give aways to attract new customers but find themselves asking… ‘Does it really work? Will I get enough new business to cover the cost of my give away?’

Over the years I have run lots of give aways and I can give you some Top Tips for running a successful Give Away from the experience I have gained.

Firstly, notice I choose to advertise my promotions as Give Aways and NOT COMPETITIONS. This is because there are a lot of rules to adhere to when running competitions and with a Give Away you have a little more freedom/discretion to tailor something to really meet your marketing needs.

If you are looking to run a give away through Facebook or Twitter you can use www.rafflecopter.com or similar however my advice is to run your give away from your own website or blog and just use Facebook and Twitter as a few of the methods of sharing news of your give away to your fans and beyond by posting images and links in places your target market frequent. Note: Facebook has strict rules on running/promoting competitions through their site.

As the saying goes, ‘Something for free will attract people who want everything for nothing’. Obviously serial ‘compers’ who search out give aways online might not be your ideal customers, however if you look at your give away as just another form of Advertising / Marketing and those who SHARE your give away for you as your unpaid Marketing Team rather than your ideal customers then this suddenly becomes an even more valuable exercise. There are a high number of ‘compers’ with huge networks who are loyal to supporting and helping promote small businesses who run give aways too.

When you think of it as a Marketing exercise it is important to remember to promote your give away with the widest reach possible and pay specific attention to promoting in places your ideal customers may frequent. This can be

• putting posters up in local places such as shops, play groups, networking groups and cafes
• sending out features and press releases to websites / blogs / online magazines with links to your industry or target market
• adding articles that link to your give away on certain sites,
• sending press releases to printed magazines and local papers,
• promoting in different relevant Facebook groups,
• using multiple hash tags to promote via Twitter,
• directly asking certain people with an interest / large network to RT your link on Twitter,
• Sharing in different ways and using different images online via various social media sites such as Twitter/FB/Pinterest/GooglePlus/Flickr and so on.

There are a lot of opportunities to get your business in front of a new audience of potential customers and advocates. All these opportunities are created around ‘the prize give away’ before even taking into account actual sales that may result from people finding you and gaining interest in your business through your give away.

The bigger the prize the more people you will attract. I have been running gift guides and prize bundle give aways through my site with great success. I gain a massive amount of traffic to my site, multiplying the already high average number of visits per day by five, sometimes even more. This is because, as well as the forms of marketing mentioned above, I “Make The Most” of Giving by…

• Collaborating with multiple other business who all donate a prize and so have a vested interest in the give away and so are also promoting the give away. On average I link 50 small businesses through a promotion such as Supportive Business Mums Christmas 2012 Prize Bundle Give aways! We have Four prize bundles up for grabs and all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning gifts for mums, gifts for dads, gifts for kids, uk handmade gifts, toys, chocolates, pamper products, stationery, jewellery, bags, homewares and much more is to BROWSE our gift guide and SHARE the features on Facebook/Twitter  http://www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk/christmas-gift-guide/pls-rt3-xmas-gifts-give-aways-great-prizes-free-entry-via-sb_mums/
  
• I also ”Make The Most” of Giving by… running other targeted give aways along side the main one. For example for Christmas 2012 I have teamed up with IcedJems to bring you some great ‘Easy To Make – Christmas Baking’ ideas of things to bake with your kids. You can win a lovely prize bundle by submitting a photo of what you and your child make.  http://www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk/christmas-gift-guide/pls-rt3-xmas-gifts-give-aways-great-prizes-free-entry-via-sb_mums/
  
• Another example is our Christmas 2012 ‘Kids Colouring Fun Activities’ give away where you can win a £25 FireStarToys gift voucher and a fab art set from Supportive Business Mums. http://www.supportivebusinessmums.co.uk/christmas-gift-guide/pls-rt3-xmas-gifts-give-aways-great-prizes-free-entry-via-sb_mums/