How to Run a Giveaway to Promote and Grow Your Podcast Audience
We all love winning free stuff right? The chance to win a prize excites us. It’s why we play the lottery and carnival games and fill out random surveys. A chance to win motivates us to take action, especially if the prize is something we actually want.
On Podcasting Step by Step, I talk about how to use giveaways to grow your podcast audience, and share a special giveaway just for you.
Earlier this year, I participated in a giveaway for tickets to the first She Podcasts Live conference. I was able to give away two tickets, and both winners told me how much fun they had and how much they learned. I even got to have dinner with one of them. Hi, Caitlin!
Giveaways are a great way to engage your audience, and, in addition to that, they can help you build your email list, your social media following, and promote you in other ways.
Legal considerations of running giveaways
Unfortunately, there are a lot of legal things to consider when running giveaways, contests, and lotteries, which are all different. A giveaway, or sweepstakes in legal terms, is kind of like a lottery, but there is no monetary fee involved. Sweepstakes’ contestants enter to win a prize, and the winner is selected randomly from the submitted entries. A contest, on the other hand, is merit-based, so you shouldn’t call your giveaway a contest unless you are actually judging the entries on a set of criteria.
To recap:
giveaways/sweepstakes = Winner chosen at random. No purchase to enter.
contest = Merit-based. Winner chosen based on skill.
lottery = Pay to play.
Rules and regulations around giveaways vary across social media platforms, and from country to country and state to state. But basically, you have to be clear that you don’t have to purchase anything to win and to state your official rules, like who is eligible; open/close dates; how the winner will be chosen; and other rules. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
Since there are legal issues to consider when running a giveaway, using a service to help you is a smart idea.
This week, I’m testing out KingSumo, a company that helps people host ‘viral giveaways.’ This is totally free, but they do have a pro version.
How KingSumo giveaways work
You as a podcast host offer something your ideal listener wants to win, and they enter to win by signing up for your email list. But then they get bonus chances to win if they take more actions, like follow you on Instagram or like your Facebook Page. They can even get points for subscribing to your podcast (though this one is on the honor system). KingSumo lets you choose how people can get extra points, and how many points each action they take is worth for the bonus entries.
As part of my KingSumo experiment, I am offering one lucky person a chance to win a spot to my online course Podcast Launch Academy, which will open its doors later in November.
Now, I could have offered you something more generic, like an Amazon gift card, but anyone can offer you that. I know how important podcasting is to you, and I want my prize to be really beneficial to you. That’s what makes a great giveaway: Offering something really special that’s ideal for your ideal listener.
Setting up the KingSumo giveaway is simple
KingSumo sets up everything for you. Register for an account then fill out:
Title of the giveaway
Description
Start/end date (defaulted to one week)
When the winner will be chosen
Time zone
Number of winners
Who’s running the giveaway and their email
Prize name (what you’re giving away)
Prize value
Upload an image
Once you fill out all your info, hit save and you’re good to go. You’ll get a few options to promote your giveaway. It’s easier if you have WordPress. If you don’t, it’s not a problem. You’ll get a link, which you can share in your newsletter on social.
Choose how people can share the giveaway
Once people click on the link and enter their email, they’ll get a confirmation email, and then they’ll be given extra chances to win the giveaway. The first way is by sharing on social, and by default, KingSumo has Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, and email featured as sharing options and you can also add LinkedIn and Pinterest. I actually deselected Twitter and Messenger because I didn’t want to overwhelm my audience.
Then people can get bonus entries for extra actions, like the ones I mentioned before.
During the competition KingSumo sends out a few emails on your behalf. On their site they say they send out three for legal reasons and to boost promotion: 1) a confirmation email 2) a mid-giveaway email, and 3) a ‘24 hours left’ reminder. This is all automated, so a computer is crafting these emails, which makes me a little nervous.
Sidenote: The guy who created KingSumo also created Sumo, which helps people grow email lists with pop ups and other tools; AppSumo, which gets people super software discounts; and FAM, a new automated email app that does everything. Literally everything, which sounds a little crazy to me. I want to write to you. I don’t want a robot writing to you.
Your chance to win a spot in Podcast Launch Academy
So we will see how this experiment goes. My giveaway ends Nov 7, 2019 at 8pm New York time. So you have from now until then to enter to win a seat in Podcast Launch Academy, which opens its doors later in November.
If you’ve been wanting to start a podcast for awhile, but fear of getting it wrong is keeping you silent, you are not going to want to miss this. Podcast Launch Academy is the roadmap you’ve been waiting for to walk you through the exact steps you need to plan, launch, and grow a podcast that builds your brand and influence, connects you to your community, and shares your message with the world