If you’re running a business which trades in physical products, have you ever thought about partnering with a blog or publication to run a giveaway or competition? This can be a great way to get your foot in the door of bigger and better sites and magazines than you may have cracked in the past, as you’re providing something in return, rather than approaching cap in hand asking for coverage. Take a look at the tips below to make sure you generate the right amount of exposure to make this option work for you.
- Check the readership of the site or publication in question, and the relevance of the audience. Make sure the advertising you receive will be of a greater theoretical value to you than the items you are providing, otherwise the exercise is wasted. If the readership is too small, you’d be better off pitching for straight forward coverage, and if the readers aren’t the type to be interested in buying your products, rather than just winning them, have a rethink.
- Make sure your prize is worth winning. This may sound obvious, but many companies think that they can get away with sending out past sale stock in return for the free exposure, but it’s not going to happen. In order to give you valuable editorial space, publications are going to want the two Es… something exclusive, or something expensive. Think like an editor; in their mind, the quality of the competition reflects the quality of the magazine, so offer something before it officially launches, something created specifically for the occasion, or something of a higher value. Don’t forget, the better the prize, the better you look, the more entrants there will be, and the more successful the venture.
- Don’t forget the publicity… agree on what you’ll receive in return for the products before the competition launches, whether it’s a link, an image and a small bio, or full advertorial feature. Providing the goodies is all fine and dandy, but only one person will be the winner, whereas all the readers should get your brand message and info from the competition.
- Make the competition interactive… think outside the box, and if you have the leverage, pitch a more exciting format than ‘answers on a postcard.’ If you can come up with something that involves entrants having to visit your website in order to find the right answer, or having to repost promotional material for you, you’re laughing.
- Don’t overlook the admin involved in hosting a competition. Will there be terms and conditions, and will you send the prize to the publication, or the winner, and will there be any hidden costs?
- Make sure you understand all the ins and outs before you commit.
This has, of course, been a general overview of attracting the attention of consumers; if you’d like to read detailed information and advice on how to self yourself correctly, Sarah-Jane will shortly be releasing a set of immensely helpful business E Books, covering this, and many other topics of interest to young creatives, in depth. To receive news of when these guides become available, please send your details to sarahjane@sarahjaneadams.com, or join her on Facebook.
Editor’s Note … Due to unfortunate and dare I say un-Trespassarian negativity, and given the nature of this column is not an op-ed but a generous sharing-of-knowledge from someone who has gone through the hoops, comments on Get Rich or Die Trying are now closed.
