Quick Tips on How to Run a Contest
How many times have you entered a giveaway for a free tropical vacation? How about buying a raffle ticket? Or dialing into your favorite radio station trying to win free tickets to a concert?
We’ve all entered contests before, for one solid reason: the possibility of winning free stuff! If you have a TeePublic shop and are looking for ways to boost your store’s popularity, running a giveaway can be a great way to get some new eyes on your designs. This can be especially exciting if you've just launched a new collection of designs, or are ramping up promotion for our site-wide sale!
Here are some ways you can set up a contest or giveaway for your TeePublic store.
One key to growing your t-shirt business is creating a brand around your art. If you already have an Instagram account dedicated to your brand, consider running an Instagram-based giveaway! You can order your own designs from your TeePublic shop to give away, or if you’d prefer, you can set up a custom limited-time coupon for your store that one lucky winner would get (just be sure to email [email protected] to make arrangements for this before you start your giveaway).
Be sure to announce the giveaway in advance, and build up some hype around it. The kind of contest is up to you - you can tell users to tag a friend in a specific post that you make, or comment with what they would do with the item they’re entering to win; you could even create your own hashtag. You make the rules! Just remember to tell the people who enter your contest to follow your account, and be sure to tag @TeePublic on Instagram so we can ❤️ your posts!
We here at TeePublic have partnered with Gleam in the past, and they make it super easy to set up contests through their framework. They have a super-intuitive system for running competitions and giveaways, and when users enter, they can be incentivized to get more entries by following you on more social media platforms. This means that your contests will not only help more people visit your TeePublic store, they can also help get you more social media followers. Win-win!
Similar to having a branded Instagram account, it’s a great idea to create a Facebook page dedicated to your art, so that fans who are on Facebook can easily stay engaged with your brand and keep up-to-date on your latest designs and announcements. Did you know that you can stream live on Facebook? Not only that, but Facebook Live is one of the platform’s most popular features; in 2018, over 3.5 billion people streamed Facebook Live videos! Plus, viewers tended to watch live posts 3x longer than they did pre-recorded ones. It’s an awesome way to engage your fans and customers in real-time, and interact with them closely.
Just like with Instagram giveaways, it’s important to announce your Live giveaway in advance, so that your fans, friends, and customers know when and where to tune in! With Live giveaways, it’s a good idea to have the merchandise you’re giving away in front of you, so if you’re planning on giving away your own TeePublic items, order those in advance.
Schedule your broadcast through Facebook Live and be sure to make the video shareable, so that you’re reaching the widest audience possible. Then simply interact with your viewers! This is where you can really have some fun, and create your own rules for what will yield a winner in your giveaway. You can have them comment something specific on your video, or share your post in order to be eligible to win - there are even apps like Woobox that offer a Facebook Likes & Comment Picker tool, so that you can choose a winner at random in real-time!
Similar to Gleam.io, Rafflecopter is a site that lets you streamline your giveaway’s setup and deployment. You can run your giveaway via email or social media, and can have fun with cool themes and customization. They also have a huge resource library to help you get started and answer any questions you may have.
As with any contest, be sure to announce your winner in a timely manner, and say thanks to everyone who entered! You can also tease the possibility of another upcoming giveaway if you’d like to, and ask entrants what kinds of prizes would make them more likely to enter again. Keep in mind that each state and country has different rules for giveaways, so make sure to check up on yours! And remember: No matter how you choose to run your giveaway, remember to have fun with it.
Have any questions for us? Send an email over to [email protected] and we’ll get back to you right away!
Cheers!
