For Sponsors: Successful Contests or Giveaways

By Sara Urquhart. Photography by Annakelle.

This post is a part of our blogging series for sponsors. See the rest of the series right here.

First, you must know what your goal for the contest or giveaway is—Twitter followers, Facebook likes, or simple brand exposure—and then find a blogger who has the ability to help you achieve that goal. Find out more about discovering the right blogger here.

Once you’ve established your desired outcome and talked about compensation, work with the blogger to establish a time frame and rules. She may have a standard protocol for giveaways on her blog, and that may be agreeable to you. If you’re working with several different bloggers, establishing one set of rules that everyone follows may be in your best interest. If you’re including cross-promotion with another blogger, blog promotion plus additional promotion on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you can offer one generous price for the entire project, or break down each item by individual price.

After the contest or giveaway, follow up to determine success. Ask for their numbers or run your own numbers and see if they match. Be forthright about what you loved about the experience, and frank about what you wish had gone differently. Listen to the blogger’s feedback as well. She may have a different measure of success, or suggestions for improvement that you hadn’t considered.

Keep in mind the value of these long-term relationships. As you build a list of bloggers who create successful campaigns and are easy to work with, they become relationships that will benefit you for the rest of your career.