Giveaways are a surefire way of getting some more eyeballs on you as a streamer and maybe even gaining some new viewers in the long run. If you have some money to spare or maybe you just got a gift you don’t really need then why not try a contest? Before you go spamming Twitter saying you’re giving away that Amazon gift card, look over the following pointers to make sure you’re getting the most out of your giveaway.
Identify Your Goals
Before doing anything, you should figure out what you’re trying to accomplish. More often than not, if you’re streaming then you’re probably trying to go for more follows on your channel. But how many do you want before you give the prize away? Try to go into the giveaway with a number in your head to set some expectations.
Make sure your expected number is reasonable compared to your actual prize too. Try to think of it from a marketing standpoint – what is the cost per acquired follower? If it’s a $25 Amazon Gift card, maybe you want at least 25 followers so the cost per follower is $1. Use this line of thinking when determining your goal.
Prize Wisely
The item you choose to giveaway will determine what kind of viewer you draw in. If you’re trying to cast a wider net then go for items that don’t tie a viewer to a certain platform or service. For example, a new copy of Uncharted 4 is only playable on a PS4 so that immediately cuts any potential interest out from PC and Xbox owners.
On the contrary though, maybe you’re primarily a Smash streamer that wants to giveaway a SSB GameCube controller. That severely cuts your target demographic down but at least you know that you’re gaining followers from viewers who watch Smash and are really engaged with that community. You’re likely to retain a potential follower this way because you’re aligning your interests.
Organize it right
There’s more than a few services out there to accomplish what you’re looking for but we’re big fans of Gleam. It allows you to run a giveaway for absolutely free and offers some solid features even at a free tier. Some of these features are 1-click entering (aka quick and hassle free), built in sharing, and many 3rd party integrations like Twitch and YouTube so users can easily follow your account on those services for an entry.
Gleam also gives you a hosted landing page and allows you to embed your contest anywhere. But where will you post it, you ask? Well that brings us to out last and final topic…
Promotion is key
You can do everything else correct but if you don’t put the giveaway in front of anyone, does it matter? Probably not. We’d recommend at least 1-2 weeks run-time for smaller prizes (under $0-$150) and even up to 3-4 weeks for larger prizes ($150+). If you’re going to spend this money then you want to get your money’s worth, right?
Before and during the giveaway, you’ll want to reach out to your existing viewers and let them know what you’re doing. Some other not-so-obvious tactics would be to tag the product in a tweet in hopes for a RT or even try to reach out to the company themselves, ask any of your friends to promote the giveaway, post on /r/giveaway, potentially partner up with a larger influencer on a giveaway, and take out a FB ad if you have more budget.
Also, make sure you have one or even both of the following: 1) information or a panel dedicated towards the giveaway on your streaming platform 2) some branding on your actual stream that instructs viewers to enter the giveaway.
Well that’s going to do it for this rundown on organizing a giveaway as a streamer. Did we miss anything? Come yell at us in our Discord if so and maybe we’ll even let you promote your own giveaway on it as well.
