E-commerce has seen tremendous growth recently, with coupon giveaways emerging as a powerful way to engage customers and boost sales. Giveaways are a tried-and-true method for e-commerce businesses to increase brand visibility and attract attention.
Typically, businesses offer a product or experience in exchange for an email sign-up or social media sharing. Combining giveaways with coupons can supercharge your marketing efforts.
If you’re currently running a giveaway without offering a coupon to participants, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity. So, in this article, we’ll guide you through integrating coupons into your giveaway strategy and share best practices for maximizing their impact. Let’s get started!
How To Run Coupon Giveaways In WooCommerce
Coupon giveaways not only increase customer engagement but also drive traffic to your site and boost sales. When executed correctly, you can leverage this combination to maximize your marketing efforts and ultimately drive more sales.
But how do you do this? Let’s find out:
1. Offer a discount after entry
Offering a discount coupon code can spur people into action after they’ve just entered your competition. Not everyone will want to wait and see if they’ve won to get their hands on your product.
Some people just want it now, now, now!
To get maximum bang for your marketing dollar, you should only expose the coupon code after they have entered the competition.
This could be on the thank you for entering the page or via an email thank you (ideally both!)
Risk Removal
You also want to make it risk-free for them to purchase while the competition runs.
I suggest telling entrants you’ll give them an exclusive discount on your product after they enter and that if they buy now and win, you’ll refund 100% of their purchase.
Removing this question of “What if I win?” might be just the thing they need to pull the trigger and purchase now instead of after the giveaway ends.
Coupon End Date
The other important factor here is clarity about when the coupon finishes.
You technically can have it last until beyond the competition, but to spur people on, I suggest you make the coupon end date the same as your giveaway competition end date.
Making the coupon finish the same day as the competition means that people are entering to get the coupon and using it too. You don’t want them just entering and forgetting about the coupon because they think they still have a month to use it.
2. Offer a bigger discount on sharing
What if your potential customer is super helpful and ends up sharing your giveaway competition?
Surely that kind of thing should be rewarded… right?
Most online competition tools these days, such as RafflePress or KingSumo, let you reward people with more entry points. As a bonus, I suggest you reward people who share your competition with an extra discount or even a free item they can’t get otherwise.
The trick with running a viral giveaway is to incentivize the sharing as much as possible.
The more you can incentivize sharing, the further your competition will spread and the bigger the impact it will have on your business.
3. Post-entry email sequence
The final thing I’d like to touch on is to ensure you have set up your post-entry email sequence correctly. Making contact with people after the entry is super important, and you want to remind them multiple times without being too much of a pest obviously.
Still, enough that you’ll be in their mind, and they’ll be 100% aware they only have a limited time to use your coupon. Ideally, you want to include reminders of everything you need them to do.
Adjust the following for your comfort level and your audience, but a follow-up email sequence after the entry could go something like this:
- Immediate – Thanks for entering. Here’s your coupon! (Coupon Reminder #1)
- Day 1 – Earn extra entries & a bigger discount (Sharing Reminder #1)
- Day 3 – Why wait? If you win, we’ll refund your purchase (Coupon Reminder #2)
- 3 Days Before Finish – Have you shared the competition for extra entries? (Sharing Reminder #2)
- 1 Day Before Finish – The competition & the coupon ends in 24 hrs! (Coupon Reminder #3)
- 4-6 Hrs Before Finish – Last Chance! (Coupon Reminder #4)
But what if you get emails from people who missed out after the finish?
With a giveaway of any substantial size, this is almost inevitable.
One or two people always complain that they didn’t get a chance to use it. “Ohhh, my grandmother’s dog died, and I couldn’t get to a computer…” or “I was on sabbatical and away from internet access for two weeks, but I want this!”
It’s up to you how you handle these people. I tend to lean on the friendly side and either create a custom coupon code just for them or open up the discount code for another 24 hours a few days after the competition/giveaway ends to capture those last few people.
Conclusion
When it comes to marketing your products, giveaways are one of the most popular ways to attract new customers and drive sales. You can use a giveaway strategy as an effective way to promote your e-commerce business and sell more products at once.
There’s no better way to get people excited about your brand than by offering them exclusive deals and discounts for a limited time. With that in mind, this article covered how to use coupons with your giveaways to incite much-needed customer interest:
Do you have any questions about using coupons with your giveaways? Let us know in the comment box down below, or send us a message!
