7 Giveaway Mistakes That Will Waste Your Money And Business Opportunities

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You’ve gotten your giveaway prize and are excited to launch your giveaway.

But you need to watch out for these giveaway mistakes that can waste your money and time.

I see these mistakes in giveaways every week.

These mistakes will doom your giveaways to underperformance.

So, I’ve highlighted 7 giveaway mistakes and what you can do to correct them.

Let’s dive in.

Risky giveaway mistakes

1. Using the wrong giveaway prize

Many times, I see giveaways on Instagram and TikTok using iPhones as their prize.

But when I visit the organizers’ profiles, their products and services are unrelated to iPhones.

If you’re in that camp, stop wasting your money.

What’s the wrong prize for your giveaway?

A prize that fails to attract your ideal buyers.

Let’s consider an example of a hypothetical business selling diapers.

This business runs a giveaway using an iPhone as the prize. Who do you think this giveaway will attract?

A lot of people who won’t buy diapers in the future. 

Even if these people follow your business account for a chance to win an iPhone, they have little long-term value for your business.

However, if this business’s giveaway prize is 5 packs of diapers, who do you think will enter the giveaway?

People who are taking care of babies and need diapers.

If these people follow your accounts, they’re more likely to take up your product offers in the future.

So, the wrong giveaway prize (like an iPhone in this case) can create more frenzy, but it contributes little to your business’s long-term goals.

How to correct this mistake

The best way to correct this is to use your product or service as the giveaway prize.

Here’s an example in a giveaway by pH fragrances and SunDrunk:

You’ll see that the businesses used their products as the giveaway prize.

With the right prize, you’ll attract people who need your product and can buy it in the future.

2. Having a mismatch between giveaway prize and entry requirements

Imagine a giveaway with an entry requirement to visit a location and take a video. Also, imagine that the prize is a pack of pencils.

Will you enter this giveaway?

No. 

Because buying a pack of pencils is a better deal than the giveaway.

While this example may look extreme, many businesses expect participants to jump through hoops for a chance to win a gift that’s not worth it.

Now, imagine another example.

You have to follow the account, like the post, and drop a comment for a chance to win a pair of Nike Air shoes.

Many people will enter this giveaway because the prize at stake far outweighs the effort required.

Having entry requirements that outweigh your prize will chase many participants away.

How to correct this mistake

Ensure that your prize outweighs your entry requirements by at least fourfold. Doing this will encourage participants to take the risk of entering your giveaway.

After all, every participant knows there’s a good chance they won’t win.

3. Not promoting your contest

Many businesses mistakenly think that their elaborate prize will promote their contests.

Even if your contest prize is a 5-bedroom duplex, millions of people will still miss out on the contest.

Doing little or no promotion will doom your contest to underperformance.

If you had 1,000 participants without contest promotion, promotion could have gotten you to 3,000 participants.

How to correct this mistake

You have to promote your contest before and during the campaign.

Some ways to promote your contest include:

• Announcing it multiple times on social media before and during campaigns
• Announcing it on your website
• Announcing it to your email subscribers
• Creating a referral system to encourage participants to share with their friends

With effective promotion, you’ll attract as many participants as possible to your contests.

Here’s an example from Stan Winston School of Character Arts, which shows contest entries during the campaign:

This will encourage even more people to enter the contest.

4. Having no giveaway strategy

I often see giveaways using irrelevant prizes with the aim of getting more followers.

Some of these giveaways have no goal they want to achieve.

The giveaway is just to create a frenzy.

Of course, you can still achieve something with the frenzy.

But why settle for less when you can go for more?

How to correct this mistake

A giveaway goes beyond just throwing out a prize and making your audience happy.

It also has to benefit your business.

A giveaway strategy includes details like:

• Giveaway goals
• Contest promotion methods
• Giveaway tool to use
• Giveaway prize

With a strategy in place, running a successful giveaway is easier. Also, it’s easier to judge how successful your giveaway is.

5. Lack of giveaway rules

You’ve probably seen a giveaway where the only instruction is to follow the page, like the post, and drop a comment.

If you run a business, providing just this information is risky.

It can open up your business to legal issues from people who feel aggrieved.

How to correct this mistake

You have to provide rules that guide the giveaway process.

These giveaway rules will provide information such as:

• How to enter the giveaway
• The giveaway prize
• Duration of the giveaway
• Location eligible to enter
• How winners will be selected
• How the prize will get to the winners

Once you spell out these rules in your giveaway post, every participant understands the process.

And this reduces your legal liability.

So, spell out the rules in your giveaway post. A giveaway tool like SweepWidget has a rule generator to help out.

Apart from that, you can have a page on your website that provides general rules about your contests and giveaways.

This page should be prepared or checked by an attorney to ensure it covers all bases. 

6. Not announcing the giveaway winner(s)

This is common.

You see a giveaway post that specifies the end date and when the winners will be picked.

But then, this day comes, and all you hear is… crickets.

You watch out on the brand’s account but there’s no announcement of a winner.

So, who actually won the giveaway?

This is the question your giveaway participants will be asking.

And if, after a few days, the winner announcement never comes, some participants will conclude you ran a giveaway to farm engagement.

Here’s the problem with that:

These participants won’t enter your next giveaway and may lose trust in your brand.

How to correct this mistake

Announce your giveaway winner after the giveaway ends. 

Some businesses that pick winners randomly even do a live draw so that participants can see how the winner is picked.

This also increases engagement on your account. After picking the winner, announce it on your page.

If possible, tag the winners so that participants can visit the winners’ accounts to confirm they’re real people.

This gives your giveaway closure in the eyes of participants.

Here’s an example from Meelie Mobile:

With this, every participant knows the giveaway has officially ended.

7. Letting losers go empty-handed

This doesn’t apply to giveaways in which participants only have to follow your page, like a post, and drop comments.

But I’m talking about contests that participants put in a lot of effort to enter.

For example, participants have to create a video of them performing a task or visit a location to create content.

This requires time and effort.

And only a few people will win the prize.

If other participants get nothing, it can be demoralizing. And they may back off from participating in your next contest.

How to correct this mistake

There should be at least a little reward for people who didn’t win the ultimate prize.

Of course, you won’t announce this during the contest.

But while announcing the contest winners, you can mention the little reward for people who participated but didn’t win.

One simple reward you can give to participants is a discount offer. Send a discount code to every participant.

This means they get some money off their purchase, and you get to sell more products.

Rewards like this encourage participants to go the extra mile if your next contest requires effort.

Conclusion

This is not an exhaustive list of every giveaway mistake, but these are the ones I often see.

If you make any of these mistakes during your giveaways, fix the mistakes and see the improvements.