Online Marketing Symposium

Welcome to the Online Marketing Symposium, hosted by the amazing Arlee Bird, Yolanda Renee, Jeremy Hawkins, and
Alex J. Cavanaugh. We're talking marketing---what works and what doesn't.

I've yet to strike sustainable sales nirvana, so today I plan to mostly keep my mouth shut and listen. But I'd like to share with you a few observations I've made in the last year about using giveaways as a marketing tool.

#1 Giveaways don't translate into a noticeable increase in sales. BUT they are great for increasing followers on Facebook, Twitter, etc., which could lead to future sales if I ever figure out how to effectively use those social networks.

#2 Giveaways work better when I keep it simple. The tasks to earn entries must be straight forward and instantly complete-able. I ran a giveaway that required entrants to leave a review in order to enter, and that was too weighty of a requirement. By the time I figured that out and made the requirements simpler, I'd already confused everyone too much, and that giveaway never really picked up any steam.

#3 Don't limit yourself to the usual  "Like" my Facebook page and Tweet this. I've used giveaways to drive my books up Goodreads lists and soon I plan to use one to get YouTube views on a book trailer.

#4 Gift cards get more entries than book giveaways. Even if it's just $5. Lately I've offered a gift card plus a choice of one of my books, and that combo seems to have worked pretty well.

#5 Giveaways work better when it's a team effort. Whether it's one big giveaway that a bunch of authors/bloggers are in on or a hop in which participants post their individual giveaways, I get way more entries than if I'm running a giveaway all on my own---simply because there are many more people out there talking it up.

Click on any of the host links above or the image for more symposiumers.