How to Do a Giveaway in 8 Easy Steps (Beginner’s Guide)

Are you wondering how to do a giveaway and make it a success? Creating an online contest is a great way to drive massive traffic to your website, increase your follower count, and generate targeted leads for your business.

While creating a giveaway contest might seem complicated, it’s not, especially when you use the right contest software to simplify the process.

This article will show you how to do a giveaway or online contest, step-by-step, using RafflePress.

People also find giveaways exciting and difficult to resist. As such, running a giveaway can cause users to get the fear of missing out (FOMO), increasing their chances of entering and engaging with your brand.

How to Do a Giveaway in WordPress to Boost Sales

Step 1. Set a Goal for Your Online Contest

Before creating an online contest, you need to set a goal. Setting a primary goal for online giveaways will help you determine your giveaway’s success and measure the results. So, ask yourself: What do you want to accomplish with your giveaway contest?

For example, you might decide to do a giveaway to…

• generate sales
• boost brand awareness
• increase user engagement
• drive traffic to your website
• get more email subscribers
• gather user-generated content
• get more social media followers
• create buzz around a new product or service

Choose a giveaway contest goal that aligns with your business and marketing objectives. Once you’ve chosen a goal, running a successful contest will be much easier, and you’ll get the results you’re looking for.

Step 2. Choose a Good Contest Prize

People love getting free stuff, but they won’t make an effort to enter your contest if there isn’t a good prize. If you want to create an online contest that gets a lot of buzz, new followers, and a lot of entries, be sure to choose a high-quality grand prize that will attract many people.

Some of the most popular contest prize ideas include:

• Money
• Gift cards or gift certificates
• Free products/services

So, what are good giveaway ideas? Check out our complete list of contest prize ideas to find out.

You’ll want to ensure that your online giveaway prize is relevant to your target audience and your brand. For instance, Supreme House Fitness offered a fitness package as a product giveaway prize.

Choosing a prize that you know your target audience would love will help you attract more contest entries from your ideal customers. Picking the right prize is an integral part of how to run a successful giveaway.

Step 3. Determine the Contest Rules

The next step in learning how to do a giveaway is to plan out the contest rules and logistics.

First, you need to choose what type of contest you’ll run. There are several different types of contests you can choose from. For instance, will you be running a contest where people enter for a chance to win?

Or will you require something from people who enter? For example, you could run a photo contest to get more user-generated content. Or you could learn how to make a contest to get feedback.

Running classic online giveaways is a bit easier. More people will likely enter because they’re not required to submit anything.

Other details you need to create an online contest include:

• Online Giveaway rules: Who can enter? Are there age or location limits?
• Start and end dates: What is the length of time people can enter?
• Giveaway Entry methods: How can someone enter your giveaway? How often can they enter?
• How to pick the Giveaway winner: Will you use a random draw, vote, or another method?

Make sure that the entry methods you use align with your goals. For example, if your goal is to grow your email list, it should be required to enter. In the next step, we’ll go into more detail on raffle contest entry methods.

Note: You should check with your social media platform when setting up entry actions. Some platforms, like Facebook, state that you should not ask participants to like and share your giveaway contest in their terms and conditions.

After you’ve planned out your contest by setting a goal, choosing a good prize, and nailing down the contest rules, it’s time to build your giveaway.

So how about we dive in and learn how to set up a sweepstake?

Step 4. Create a Giveaway with RafflePress

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market.

RafflePress makes it easy to do a giveaway online and even an online raffle contest. Plus, it gives you everything you need to accomplish your giveaway goals, whether to grow your email list, increase website traffic, or boost social media followers.

If you’re wondering, “How do I set up a giveaway?”. Here’s how it works with RafflePress’s giveaway maker.

Create a New Giveaway

Follow these steps to learn how to do a giveaway with RafflePress.

First, you’ll need to download the RafflePress plugin.

Pro Tip: Don’t make the mistake of getting RafflePress nulled – it could seriously harm your website.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on installing WordPress plugins if you need help.

After installing and activating the RafflePress giveaway maker plugin, on your WordPress dashboard, hover over the RafflePress icon and click Add New to create a giveaway.

Name Your Giveaway and Choose a Template

Once you click Add New, the plugin will take you to a new screen where you’ll name your giveaway and choose a template for your contest.

First, type in a name for your giveaway in the text field at the top of the screen. Choose any name for your giveaway. For instance, if your contest prize is an iPad, you can name your giveaway “iPad Giveaway.”

Next, choose your giveaway template. As you can see in the screenshot below, RafflePress offers several pre-made templates designed to reach particular giveaway goals, such as Grow Your Email List, Refer-a-Friend, Pre-launch Campaign, Grow Your Facebook Page, and more.

For this tutorial, we’ll choose the Classic Giveaway template. This template allows you to create any type of giveaway contest using the easy RafflePress builder, including running a blog giveaway.

Choose the Classic Giveaway template by hovering over it and clicking Use This Template.

Set the Giveaway Prize Details

After selecting the Classic Giveaway template, it’ll take you to the RafflePress giveaway builder. The first step to building your online giveaway is to set the giveaway prize details.

First, click on the pencil icon under the Giveaway Prize Details section.

Here you can choose the name of your prize, for example, “iPad Giveaway,” and write a short description of the prize.

You can also upload an image of your prize by clicking the Select Image button below the description box. You can then choose an image from your media library or upload an image from your computer.

When you’re happy with your prize name, description, and image, click on the Done Editing button.

You can click the + Add Another Prize button if you have multiple prizes to add more.

You can also set the date, and the time your giveaway will start and end and choose your timezone underneath the Start and End Time section.

Click the Save button to save the changes. Remember to save your work throughout building your contest periodically.

Choose Your Raffle Entry Methods

RafflePress is one of the best contest apps for learning how to run a giveaway because you can give users multiple ways to enter your contest. These actions will also help you reach your goals for your viral contest.

For instance, you can allow users to receive 1 contest entry for signing up for your email list, a 2nd contest entry for visiting your Facebook Page, a 3rd entry for following you on Pinterest, etc.

Most users will take all the actions they can because it gives them more chances to win.

So, click on the Actions tab to select the ways users can participate in your online competition. The raffle contest entry methods are groups by goal:

• Get More Subscribers
• Get More Social Engagement
• Get More Traffic

Just click on any action you’d like to add to your giveaway.

Once you’ve chosen an action, you can set the entry options. These settings include the title, value (how many entries the action will be worth), whether the action is mandatory, and a field to add your Facebook Page URL.

If you add many entry methods, ensure that the most important actions are worth more entries.

Click the Save button to save your changes.

Repeat the process for any other actions you want to add to your contest; you can add as many as you want. For instance, you can also add a Join an Email Newsletter action to boost subscribers, including an opt-in confirmation checkbox and integration with your email marketing service.

You can easily rearrange actions for your contest by dragging and dropping on the left side or delete actions by clicking the trash can icon on the right side.

Related: How to Create a Daily Giveaway With Multiple Entries

Design Your Contest

Next, you can customize the look of your online giveaway in the Design tab. You can choose from 2 different layouts (display image, then header, or header, then image) and several fonts and button colors.

If you’re creating a stand-alone page for your contest, you can also choose the page color background and a background image if you want.

Hit the Save button once your contest looks precisely the way you want.

Configure Contest Settings

In the Settings tab, there are 6 different sections: General, Giveaway Rules, Email Verification, Success Tracking, Success Redirect, and Social Logins.

One of the most important settings you’ll need to configure is the giveaway rules.

RafflePress makes it easy to get started. You can use the Rules Generator Template to quickly get a head start on creating your contest rules. Clicking this button will allow you to type in the sponsor name, email, address, eligible locations, the minimum age to enter, and more.

You can check out our documentation for details on all the RafflePress settings.

After configuring your settings, click Save.

Publish Your Online Contest

Now you know how to run a giveaway, it’s time to make your contest live! RafflePress makes launching a giveaway easy. Just click on the Publish tab at the top of the screen.

You have 3 publishing options for your contest:

• RafflePress WordPress Block – Embed the giveaway widget in your WordPress post or page (new WordPress block editor).
• WordPress Shortcode – Embed the giveaway in the classic WordPress editor, sidebar widgets, or inside your WordPress theme.
• Giveaway Landing Page – Create a distraction-free landing page on your website for your giveaway.

A dedicated landing page for your contest is an excellent option for getting more contest entries. Since there’s nothing else on the page to distract users, they’ll be more likely to sign up for your contest.

So, let’s choose the giveaway landing page option.

Click the View Page button to see your contest landing page.

Voila! You now have a fantastic landing page for your giveaway.

Step 5. Promote Your Giveaway

Now, you can’t just sit around and wait for people to enter your contest. Instead, it would be best if you started promoting your giveaway to help spread the word. A good contest marketing strategy will help your giveaway to go viral so you can grow your audience and generate as many leads as possible.

There are several ways to promote your giveaway. One of the easiest ways is to share it on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest and ask people to tag a friend in the comments section.

For instance, check out this Instagram giveaway contest post from Brimhall Farmers Market’s Instagram Account. Their Instagram post includes a photo of the grand prize to let users know what they can win and #giveaway to widen their reach on social networks and Instagram feeds.

You can also promote your contest by:

• Creating an email newsletter
• Creating a popup with OptinMonster
• Adding a link to your website home page
• Submitting your giveaway post to contest and sweepstakes directories
• Adding relevant giveaway hashtags to your post on social media
• Reaching out to relevant bloggers and influencers to mention your giveaway
• Encouraging users to tag friends in the comments

Start promoting your contest weeks before it goes live to get tons of traffic and entries on day 1.

Check out our article on more contest promotion ideas to make your giveaway viral.

Step 6. Pick a Winner for Your Giveaway

When your contest is over, it’s time to choose the winner. So, how do you pick a winner for a giveaway?

The fairest way to pick a winner is by a random draw.

RafflePress makes this easy. When your giveaway ends, navigate to RafflePress » Giveaways and click the Needs Winners link on the right.

You can see all the people who entered your contest and how many entries they each have. To choose a winner randomly, click the Pick Winner button, select your options, and click Choose Winners Now.

RafflePress will highlight the winner instantly. You can easily click to email them and tell them the good news!

Step 7. Follow Up After the Contest

After you’ve picked and contacted the contest winner, it’s important to follow up with everyone who entered your giveaway. Following up with all of your giveaway entrants will allow you to form better connections with them and mention your contest one last time.

Follow up after the contest by:

• Social Media – Announce the winner and the prize on your social media accounts.
• Email Newsletter – Send an email to announce the winner. You should also thank everyone for participating and invite them to join you for your next giveaway in the email.

Related: How to Email Non-Winning Giveaway Contestants (5 Tips)

Congratulations! Your contest has ended, and now you don’t just have 1 happy winner but many new fans.

Step 8. Track Your Results

Lastly, smart marketers always analyze the results, so they know how to run a giveaway that’s even more successful giveaway the next time. And RafflePress includes insightful Entry Reports that make it easy to visualize what worked best for your contest.

You can find it by heading to RafflePress » Giveaways and clicking Users under your giveaway. Then at the top of the screen, click the Entries Report link.

You’ll see a pie chart breaking down each giveaway action based on the total entries on the following screen. With this information, you can see which actions resulted in the most contest entries. That way, you know which actions are most effective for future giveaways.

Another easy way to get the actionable data you need to optimize your giveaways is with MonsterInsights, the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.

MonsterInsights makes it easy to track your contest landing page visits, traffic to your website, referral traffic, website activity, eCommerce promotions, etc. You can see all of the MonsterInsights dashboard reports right from WordPress.

By analyzing your website data with MonsterInsights, you can see which promotion strategies drove the most traffic to your contest page and use that information to improve your next contest’s success.

Even better, with MonsterInsights’ real-time stats, you can monitor your website traffic during the contest and make adjustments as you go.

If you’re interested in learning how to do a giveaway on various social media platforms, take a look at these detailed guides:

• How to do a giveaway on Facebook
• How to run a Pinterest contest
• How to run a social media photo contest
• How to do a YouTube giveaway
• How to run an Instagram contest
• How to run a Facebook flash giveaway
• How to run an affiliate giveaway contest

Creating an Online Contest is Easy with RafflePress

Now that you know how to do an online giveaway get out there and get started! Creating an online contest will bring your target audience joy, and your company will see benefits such as more traffic, increased brand awareness, and lots of engagement.

And if you’re confused about the terminology, you can learn about the difference between Sweepstakes vs Lotteries vs Contests here.

If you liked this article, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for RafflePress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.