Giveaway Ideas for Businesses With an Online Presence

We see you have an online business and we know you aim to make money. However, if you’re willing to play the long game, implementing giveaway ideas for businesses could take you a long way.

We’re not talking about a photo contest that requires judging. I’m talking about a giveaway that requires the very least from an IG user. If you’re interested in knowing how promotional giveaways could help your business of any size, keep reading.

What Is a Giveaway in the Context of Social Media?

If you’ve lived on this earth long enough, you’ve heard of a giveaway or two. Maybe you haven’t heard about one existing solely on social media channels. What is a giveaway on Instagram? 

A social media giveaway is not the type of giveaway where people typically purchase raffle tickets. They enter by offering up something that means a lot to the giveaway host. They enter by liking, commenting, and sharing a particular Instagram post.

The host of the giveaway typically chooses the winner at random. The prize could be specific to the host of the giveaway or unrelated to him. Sometimes, you can claim it online, or the host ships it to the winner.

3 Reasons Why You Should Be Looking Up Giveaway Ideas for Businesses

Online business giveaways are a great alternative to using Instagram ads. It may cost you the price of the items you’re giving away. Still, it likely won’t cost you the price of an ad. You just have to make sure that you are advertising a good giveaway. That’s the great part of having good Instagram giveaway ideas. The customers come to you instead of you going out to find them.

The fact that you save money is not the only reason to consider a giveaway on Instagram. We can get into a few more reasons to secure giveaway ideas for businesses.

1. It Will Expand Your Reach

An IG giveaway will give you that reach you’ve always wanted. We aren’t talking about the reach where many random accounts come to your account. We are talking about the reach where you attract followers who like your content. You may have had problems closing the gap before. A good Instagram giveaway would solve that.

If you play your cards right with the entry requirements, other IG accounts could expand your reach. People interested enough to enter would be sharing your post with other interested people. Ideally, it will cause a ripple effect in your target audience.

2. It Will Boost Your Engagement

If your engagement rate has been stagnant for a while, good social media giveaway ideas could fix that. Are you looking for more likes, comments, and shares on your content? A good way to secure this is by asking entrants to do it.

You can exchange active engagement for entry into the giveaway. This is a popular way for IG accounts to host contests. These are also activities that don’t require much of other users. It takes a few seconds to like and comment on a post. Of course, if you make the entry requirements too demanding, you could deter people altogether. So, try not to ask them to do too much.

3. It Should Lead To More Sales

We’re talking about business, right? What matters is the bottom line. You want to make sure that this promotional activity leads to sales. You could have a higher chance of that by hosting a giveaway.

While the giveaway is taking place, continue to promote your products. Chances are, the entrants will continue to follow you until the winner announcement. While you still have their attention, you must try to keep it.

5 Cheap Giveaway Ideas Every Business Needs

Giving things away for free in this economy might be shocking for you. If the concept of a giveaway is a total turn-off, that is reasonable. Nevertheless, the benefits of a giveaway are undeniable. Consider whatever you give away as an investment in the future of your business.

This is easier said than done, of course. You’ll need some cheap giveaway ideas to engage in the concept of a social media contest. A weekend for two at Sandals Resort is out of the question. We get it. Here are some options that will still attract people who like free things or to save money.

1. Gift Cards With Deadlines

Some social media giveaway ideas involve gift cards. A gift card to your store accomplishes a few things. It gets a few new customers familiar with the type of goods you offer the public. If they like it enough, they will return and make further purchases. 

The deadline is useful because it creates a sense of urgency to do this. If they forget that there is a deadline attached to the gift card, it costs them nothing. When they win, they’re simply happy to be chosen out of many.

2. Two-for-One Deals

People are more likely to enjoy an experience if they have a friend to do it with them. Maybe they’ve always wanted to do something but couldn’t force their bestie to join them. This giveaway is for them. If you can impress two people at one time, they may go on to spread the word.

This is an opportunity for twice the marketing you would have if you only had one winner.

3. Small Business Giveaway Ideas for the Local Shop

Small businesses likely do not have a huge budget allocation for marketing. This doesn’t mean they should miss opportunities to find more followers and make potential sales. Some Instagram giveaway ideas could be what they exactly need for that extra boost.

Of course, the specific needs of a small company will differ from a normal-sized one. Before you go ahead and make plans that are better suited for a venture of a different size, keep reading. Here, we talk about the small local shops run by your neighbors. These concepts should dominate your small business giveaway ideas.

4. Localize Your Hashtags and Keywords

We love that social media brings us closer to people around the world. The Instagram page for your small businesses could have followers in a time zone eight hours ahead of yours. This is great for your social proof but may cause issues in a giveaway.

Let’s fast-forward to the time to give products to the winners. Are you sure you can afford the price to send items halfway across the world? Some countries have local laws that levy fees on items valued over a certain amount. You don’t want your winners to have to come out of pocket anyway.

You would have to limit the size of your giveaway to some degree. Don’t view this as limiting your potential. Localizing your target audience will only work out for you in the end. This is a great way to invest in future foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar business.

Ensure that you attract clientele from your surrounding areas. You’ll have to use keywords that reflect that. Your hashtags should include the city or state of your business. It could even be a street where people can find your business. Here are some examples:

• #IceCreamShopInBrooklyn
• #HairstylistInBuckhead 
• #MiamiThriftStore

Now, the people who stumble upon your giveaway will probably be in the area already. This is a very intensive form of marketing. As a small business, you should maximize on actual paying customers, not internet clout.

5. Collaborate With Local Shops

You’ve heard that teamwork makes the dream work. This is no different when it comes to Instagram giveaways. If there’s another small business in the area, consider collaborating on a giveaway. It would be helpful if there is some nexus between the companies.

You may specialize in artesian soaps. That boutique shop that creates soy wax candles could be a great teammate for this giveaway. Then again, the products you each sell don’t have to be similar. This could work out for you. You could use each other to access very different fan bases.

You’ll Need a Good Instagram Giveaway Picker

You aren’t in the clear yet. After choosing your giveaway prizes and stipulations, there is still a very important task at hand. It’s the moment that they’ve all been waiting for. It’s time to make good on your promises to your people. You have to pick a winner.

Yes, it’s time to disappoint some people and get very few of them excited. How are you planning on choosing this winner? It’s a very serious aspect of the giveaway. It’s the point where your credibility is at stake. You can’t just choose the winner yourself. You need an Instagram giveaway picker.

While this might sound like a very sophisticated program, it doesn’t have to be expensive. There are online resources that you can use to pick a winner solely at random. You could try Gleam or Wask.

Plixi Makes You the Winner

Our methods are not random at all. The growth we secure for our clients is deliberate and calculated, just like our giveaway ideas. That’s why it’s also long-lasting. 

We already give away so much information on the site for free. By now, you should trust that we know what we’re talking about.

We even have the tools to back up all our claims. Have you heard about our in-house platform of Instagram influencers? Our propriety AI targeting algorithm is highly impressive. 

After all, we’ve been working on it for about a decade. Working with us will feel like winning the lottery. Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today.