How to Run a Referral Giveaway That Explodes Brand Growth

A Referral Giveaway is a cost-effective yet powerful marketing strategy to supercharge a brand’s reach. Every entrant can refer unlimited new leads and customers to your brand. This referral format is a recipe for viral marketing. 

Looking to grow your brand’s email list, social media, or brand awareness? A referral giveaway can help achieve these goals. Giveaway entrants will refer people who have yet to discover your brand, leading to tremendous brand exposure.

There is a catch, as with all giveaway campaigns: not all giveaways will drive exceptional results. If your prize isn’t enticing or the entry method is confusing, your participants will be disengaged and vanish when the giveaway ends. 

In this referral giveaway guide, we will explore ways to create a referral giveaway that will encourage people to take the time to refer friends and family to your brand. We will focus on how to create campaigns that deliver high-quality leads and generate massive buzz for your brand.

Now, let’s dive right in and create a referral giveaway that will work like a viral growth machine!

1. Start With a Clear Goal

Every giveaway should start with a clear set of goals. Ask yourself these questions:

What do you wish to achieve with your giveaway?

When structured correctly, giveaways can help you achieve specific goals like:

• Build an email list
• Grow your social media and increase engagement
• Increase signups to your platform or free trials
• Get people to download your app or software
• Increase brand awareness

Figure out what goal most suits your brand’s present requirements before you begin planning your giveaway. 

Can the giveaway achieve multiple goals?

Yes. We have giveaway case studies filled with brand success stories. These case studies feature brands that achieved multiple goals with just a single giveaway. 

Topaz Labs increased their email leads, social media audience, and trial accounts with a single giveaway (see Topz Labs Case Study).

Learn which goals your brand finds the most valuable and work towards creating a giveaway that will encourage people to take action towards achieving your goals. These actions can be submitting their email, signing up for your trial software, or engaging with your brand on social media. 

How can I structure my giveaway to reach our goals?

Here are a few ways to structure your giveaway according to your goals:

• Email – Users must submit their email to enter the giveaway. 
• Website traffic – “Visit our website to enter.” This will boost traffic with all those looking to enter the giveaway. 
• App downloads – “Download our free trial and create a picture to enter.” Asking entrants to submit content made with your app will encourage them to download your app. 
• Social media engagement and discovery – “Tag your friend in the comments to enter.” Or “Answer the question in the comments.” These entry methods will instantly boost engagement on your socials. 

Clear goals will help you shape the giveaway and select a relevant prize.

2. Choose Irresistible Incentives 

An excellent giveaway prize will:

• Attract a target audience.
• Quickly gain the trust of potential entrants.
• Motivate people to take action and submit their entries.
• Help achieve the goals you set for your giveaway.

For example, a makeup influencer can create a large bundle of smaller items like lip gloss, foundation, eyeliner, and more. This prize bundle will tick off all the points mentioned above. 

Makeup Giveaway Prize Bundle

Cosmetics4less hosted an Instagram giveaway with the prize being a “MEGA package” worth 200 Euros. This is an excellent example of a makeup prize bundle. Take inspiration from this giveaway example to create your own prize bundle.

The above makeup prize bundle will:

• Attract a target audience: ✅ The majority of entrants will be people who wear makeup and find it useful in their lives. 
• Quickly gain the trust of potential entrants: ✅ Entrants will understand that it takes time and effort to put together a helpful makeup bundle. It requires a certain level of knowledge and understanding to do this, which leads people to believe that the brand that created the prize bundle must be trustworthy.
• Motivate people to take action and submit their entries: ✅ A makeup prize bundle that has fresh, new items will entice people to act quickly and enter. 
• Help achieve your goals for your giveaway: ✅ Giving away a single item like lip gloss may not seem worthwhile for people to enter. A larger prize bundle of products will motivate people to submit their email, engage with you on socials, subscribe, etc.

NB.: If the makeup influencer chooses to go with a generic prize like a smartphone or TV, that prize may not tick all the boxes above. A smartphone will attract a large audience that is not interested in makeup. Such an audience isn’t useful for makeup brands. 

Too many people have been scammed with smartphone or TV giveaways. Having a smartphone as a prize might make your brand seem untrustworthy.

Learn more about hosting makeup giveaways, from choosing a relevant prize to giveaway examples and ideas.

Click here for our Makeup Giveaway Guide.

Types of Prizes 

There’s no specific item, product, or service that you must select as a prize for your referral giveaway. As long as what you choose best suits your brand, audience, and goals. 

Consider offering prizes like these: 

• Exclusive products and services: Limited edition products. VIP access to events. New app/software launches with winners being the first to try the software.
• Store credit: Give people the opportunity to select their own prize with a gift card giveaway.
• Big ticket prizes: Experiences, like spa days or a night out on the town. Also, wine tasting, vacation, or concerts. 
• Prize bundles: Put together a few small products to create one large prize bundle. 

Getting More Referrals

Regarding referral giveaways, the prize should also motivate users to refer more users to enter the giveaway. Think about it from the user’s point of view. For every successful referral, a user must complete additional actions (after they enter), like asking someone else to enter the giveaway. 

Having to do “more work” after entry might be asking a lot from your audience. The prize must be worth it to motivate people to dedicate more time to find a successful referral. 

A solution for this would be to offer entrants an incentive to refer more users to the giveaway. So, apart from standing a chance of winning a prize, entrants can receive a guaranteed prize for referring people to the campaign. 

Testbook offered “bonus prizes” to the top 10 entrants that referred the most people to the giveaway. This is an excellent example of investing a little more on gaining more referrals.

Click here for the full breakdown of Testbook’s Referral giveaway in our Testbook Case Study.

Ideas for referral incentives include:

• Gift vouchers
• Store credit
• Free downloads
• Free digital gift

Referral Contest

Consider a referral contest if you prefer to stick to just one massive prize. This is a campaign where users must compete with each other to refer as many new entrants as possible. 

The user with the most referrals wins the grand prize. With this campaign, all entrants will find it hard to generate as many referrals for your brand. The results can be extraordinary and exponential as referred users compete to deliver more referrals. 

Once again, Testbook used this strategy to their advantage. Users who referred other users to the campaign were awarded points. The users with the most points won.

The interface above is VYPER’s giveaway management software. The page is a dashboard meant for giveaway entrants that wish to complete referrals and other actions to earn more points (or bonus entries).

The issue with referral contests is it can be discouraging for many who may not have the means or time to complete multiple referrals. These users may simply choose not to participate, which will end in your brand losing valuable leads. 

Another crucial aspect of finding more referrals is the referral process. We dive deeper into this in the next section.

3. Design a Simple Referral Process

A complex referral process will deter participation. People value their time and will not be interested in filling out paperwork or taking part in a prolonged exercise to refer a friend to enter. 

Keep the process of referring others to the giveaway as simple as possible. The process must seem effortless to those wishing to participate and refer friends or family to the giveaway. 

The quickest and most straightforward way to refer someone to a giveaway is to tag them in the comments section of the giveaway post. 

For example, Host an Instagram giveaway by creating a post that features the prize and rules. Ask your audience to tag their friends in the comments section to enter. 

What’s Popping PMB hosted a Valentine’s Day giveaway on their Instagram profile. They created a giveaway post and asked users to tag who they love to enter.

Benefits of “Tag To Enter”

Tagging people in the comments is an exceptional entry method for these reasons:

• Referral Giveaway: Entrants will automatically refer more entrants to the giveaway. Referred entrants will refer even more, creating an exponential burst of new entrants/leads.
• Engagement Boost: When a user tags another user in the comments, it counts towards the post’s engagement. The same way a comment (or like) is seen as engagement. Entrants tagging away will instantly boost engagement on your giveaway post, potentially making the post go viral. 
• Discoverability: When a user is tagged they will receive a notification to view your post. This means that even users who do not follow you will not have access to your content and will not discover your brand. The boost in engagement from tagging will also increase the post’s discoverability, as Instagram will suggest the post to more people on the platform due to its high engagement numbers. 

More Ways To Refer

Tagging people in the comments is the quickest way best suited for social media giveaways. If you are hosting your giveaway on a different platform, then consider these referral options:

• Use a service/software like VYPER to automate your referrals.
• Create a dedicated landing page for your giveaway.
• Allow users to share a referral link on their socials, email, text, etc.

4. Promote Like a Pro

Your referral giveaway will not gain traction on its own. It is up to your brand to properly promote the campaign towards success. 

Yes, referral giveaways increase leads exponentially and boost social engagement. However, you will need to find entrants at the start of the campaign. Entrants that are willing to refer more users to the campaign so that it can begin growing exponentially. 

Here are a few tips for promoting a referral giveaway: 

• Use Email: Ideal for brands with an extensive list of email contacts. Send out an email to your contact list on launch to inform them about your giveaway. Encourage them to enter and refer more people to enter and submit their email addresses. This strategy will help grow your email list even further. 
• Social Media: Publish your giveaway post on all your social channels and encourage followers to enter. Offer small discounts, digital media, or ebooks to incentivize participation and refer others to enter. 
• Paid Ads: Ads on social media can help boost your referral giveaway at launch. This is ideal for finding a bunch of entrants instantly who will then refer more entrants. 
• Influencer Partnerships: We highly recommend influencer giveaways. Partner with an influencer to host a referral giveaway. You sponsor the prize, and they will promote the campaign to their followers. 

We have already mentioned how much we love recommending influencer giveaways. Influencers are very compatible with brands and have a target audience. Its a no brainer to partner with an influencer to host a giveaway as they can help promote the campaign to their audience. 

Click here to learn how to host an Influencer Giveaway.

5. Build Urgency with Deadlines

A huge part of the virality of giveaways is FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. Giveaways have firm deadlines which encourage users to act instantly and submit their entry before the campaign ends.

Your brand should leverage FOMO when setting up the campaign. Select a duration for your giveaway that will best suit this. For example: Host an Easter Giveaway two weeks before Easter weekend. Then, announce the winner over the Easter Weekend.

We always recommend hosting a giveaway over Two weeks. Two weeks gives you enough time to promote the giveaway and get people to enter while also being short enough to encourage urgency and FOMO. 

Here are some tips to leverage deadlines to create urgency and FOMO:

• Use countdown timers: Invoke a sense of urgency by displaying a countdown timer at the top of your giveaway landing page (see image below). A ticking timer will create pressure and drive users to enter the giveaway quickly before missing out. 
• Highlight scarcity: Use phrases like “Hurry! Just 3 days left to enter.” Or “Don’t miss out! The giveaway ends tomorrow.” Make people understand that now is the time to take action and enter because time is short and entries will close soon. 
• Foster decision-making: Use the above timers and scarcity to encourage people who are sitting on the fence (can’t decide) to make a decision. Be careful not to over-pressure people as this can seem like you are forcing them to take part, which may lead them to turn away.

Giveaway reminders: Create a post on social media or send out an email to inform users that there is a limited amount of time left to enter the giveaway.

6. Track Performance and Optimize 

After the giveaway has concluded, start analyzing key metrics to evaluate the campaign. Consider some of these metrics: 

• New referrals generated: The total number of people referred to the giveaway.
• Total entries: Total number of entries/leads gained. This can be email addresses, subscribers, followers, etc.
• Website traffic: The website analytics throughout the campaign. This can be total new users, page views, blog visits, etc. 
• Sales: The total sales during the campaign and the conversion rate of customers.
• Social media: Engagement in the form of Likes, Comments, Shares, and Tags. Also, measure the amount of new followers gained during the giveaway.
• Other metrics: What metric is considered vital to the existence of your business? This can be app or software downloads, free trials activated, new accounts opened, sign-ups, and more.

When using a service like VYPER to host a giveaway, you will have access to a backend dashboard with settings, design options, and results (analytics). VYPER will collect important data like pageviews, entries, engagement, etc. and create insights for your campaign.

7. Follow Up and Nurture New Leads

Referral marketing is a powerful strategy that relies on building connections and trust with a target audience. Nurture newly referred leads in a manner that will encourage them to refer even more new leads. 

Your new leads would have come in the form of emails, subscribers, followers, signups, etc. First impressions matter! So contact these leads and welcome them to your brand’s inner circle community. 

Start nurturing leads with these tips:

• Welcome emails: Make new leads/customers feel appreciated with a simple welcome email. Help them understand what to expect from your brand and the benefits associated with your brand. They should feel like the made the right choice choosing your brand. 
• Exclusive offers: Thank participants of your giveaway by rewarding them with a discount or special offer. Free delivery on their first order is another example. 
• Ongoing nurture campaigns: Use content marketing to keep your brand top of mind. Share educational content, product information and launches, and community-building initiatives.

Q&A: How To Run a Referral Giveaway

TL;DR: How To Run a Referral Giveaway

Referal marketing is a powerful strategy that turns your customers into brand advocates. Customers will seamlessly call upon other potential customers and advise them to interact with your brand. 

Referral giveaways are even more explosive as users are motivated to refer as many people as they can within a short space of time. However, you will still need to setup your campaign correctly for best results. 

This guide covered the following referral giveaway tips:

• Set clear goals: Clearly define what you want to achieve (grow your email list, socials, signups, etc.).
• The prize: Select a prize that is relevant to your audience. 
• Boost referrals: Offer additional incentives like gift cards to further encourage more referrals.
• Simple referral process: An easier referral process will lead to more referrals. A complex referral process will discourage people from referring more users. 
• Promotion: Use email, socials, ads, and influencers to promote the giveaway.
• Create urgency: Use countdown timers to highlight scarcity and drive more entries and referrals.
• Track results: Analize campaign results and key metrics like referrals, traffic, engagement, etc.
• Nurture leads: Send off welcome emails and exclusive offers to keep new leads engaged. 

We hope you loved this referral giveaway guide. Please do share some of your own ideas in the comments below. 

Feel free to ask for help when setting up your next giveaway.