5 Steps to Engaging an Influencer For a Giveaway

Let’s face it. Securing a creative, engaged, intelligent, well-followed, and much-loved influencer can be a beautiful boon to your brand and business. To get your think tank firing at influencer-strategy-full-speed, we want to share with you our 5 steps to engaging an influencer for a giveaway and how it can help amp up your business.

Why Use Influencers for Giveaways?

While an influencer sharing their experience with your product or service can be a great way to promote what you offer, giveaways are a popular and effective marketing strategy to get your biz out there and get people talking about how amazing your offerings are! Finding a fab influencer to get that giveaway reaching far and wide is a smart move – when done right.

Strategic giveaways can help you:

Reach new audiences

Increase your following and brand awareness

Improve your trustworthiness and authenticity

Honest feedback and engagement through the right influencers can further enhance these benefits. Check out our blog on 10 Reasons Brands Should Work with Influencers for a deeper dive into how they can support your business.

5 Steps to Locking in the Right Influencer

These 5 steps can help you lock in an on-brand rock star of an influencer for the most impactful, effective giveaway possible:

Define Your Giveaway Goals

Ask yourself, what’s the goal for your giveaway? Are you trying to increase the activity and/or follower count on your socials? Drive more traffic to your website? Secure a smashing new product launch? Create more brand awareness? Your answers will impact which influencer you engage.

Find the Right Influencer

Do your due diligence and don't just select an influencer because they have a gazillion followers (as simple as that is to do). Consider:

Are they actively engaged with their audience?

What are their demographics?

Are there other products that they promote that are similar to your own?

You don’t want a Gen X product or service pitched to a Gen Z audience.

Be Legally Legit aka make sure you have a contract!

It’s imperative that you comply with applicable laws, as well as codes and standards for giveaways and the engagement of influencers, plus any rules that the platforms (i.e. Facebook or Instagram) set out. Lots to think about!

Schedule Your Giveaway

Plan the specifics. Consider:

Who needs to be tagged?

Who are you reaching out to?

What are the specific directions?

Promote, Promote, Promote

And follow through! Make sure you have all marketing collateral organized and ready to go so you don’t miss a beat or leave the influencer hanging.

Dos and Don’ts for Successful Giveaways when working with Influencers

Buuut it takes more than just 5 steps to make the most of your giveaway and influencer engagement. Here are a few dos and don’ts to help take your process to the next level.

DO:

Allow the influencer to be creative. Their creative expertise is part of why you’ve chosen them!

Make sure what you’re giving away is compelling. A bookmark and a cat mug ain’t gonna cut it. Get your audience hooked with what you’re giving away.

Understand what you want to accomplish and the result/outcome you’re after. This will affect the way you and your influencer will approach your giveaway.

Be clear on scope with the influencer and their tasks. Our Brand and Influencer Agreement can help with this – as well as some other important bits and pieces!

DON’T:

Go in with half-baked goals, wishy-washy offers, or an unclear demographic.

Be a tightwad. There. We said it. Seek out influencers with a good track record who are on brand for your business, values, offerings, and market.

Forget to be legally legit or fail to clearly share any rules and guidelines you have with the influencer. To help ensure you’re where you need to be legally, read up on our New Influencer Marketing Code blog.

Questions pop into your head while you were having a read? I’m here for you!

***Disclaimer. Please read!!***

This article is for general information purposes only and should be used solely as general guidance. It does not and is not intended to represent legal advice or other professional advice.