In todayβs social media/internet era where keeping the attention of adults and young adults requires you to grab their focus in the first 5 seconds or you miss a sale, you best believe you need to give people a reason to pay attention to your content. Which is why one of the quickest ways to get customers is to build leads using free giveaways!
Now everyone reading this is probably saying, itβs really not that easy! And youβre absolutely right, itβs difficult, but the grind pays off in the long run. Once you get those first few email list clients, it almost feels like the rest are coming in easy if you are consistent and focused on the objective!
To build your email list fast!
When starting off your business, especially your clothing business one of the first things youβll learn is that your returning customers are the ones that are most interested in your email list. These are the customers that will focus on checking when new items drop and you want to give them the most love for being loyal supports by giving you access to them via email address which is one of the most personal things you can have access to in eCommerce outside of direct access to your personal information.
Using a giveaway will be one of your first choices of attracting a potential lead. Many companies use different platforms such as gleam.io, but shopping platforms such as Shopify have built in email systems setup as well. It just depends on the approach you want to have and how much reach you want to push. Some people consider those platforms spamming and prefer simple email landing pages.
Asking your potential leads to join the list to be entered into a free giveaway will encourage those that want a low barrier entry option to something free without trading for say a social blast on all their social medial platforms, which gives off the spammy (and often considered broke energy)
To Drive Social Media Engagement
A great reason to run giveaways for your business is to drive social media engagement. Depending on the approach youβre attempting, as long as the client of the platform accepts the approach you may reach people tagging their friends, or following your page and even reposting your content just for a chance to enter your giveaway.
While itβs considered more of a spammy approach, depending on the clout you have as a business, your customers may just go along with what you have going on.
People also love passive engagement so having people like as a form of entry without forcing them to leave the platform may just increase the chances of someone entertaining your social media style giveaway.
Get Free UGC (User-Generated-Content)
Using a social media or even an βemail usβ style form of content submission opens you up for free content that you can use for your businessβs advertisement! Sometimes people do this in the form of a paid giveaway like submit your design and the top design gets $500. Youβll have a bunch of fans entering your giveaway and you now have an open commission in the style of design99.
This creates user engagement, content and free marketing! It doesnβt always need to be a paid opportunity either. Some companies have people draw fan art, or even have fans send in pictures with their brand on it showing support which opens you up for more free marketing content to post and user engagement. Itβs only a win/win opportunity with this giveaway strategy!
4. Increase Store/Brand Awareness (Even if they donβt win)
The beauty in creating a shirt giveaway is that hundreds–even thousands–of people see your brand whether they win or not.
When it comes to how awareness spreads we should instantly think about social media. Having people that see your content may spark a viral effect and have your giveaway shared across multiple variations of communities. In those rare instances thereβs moments where you may get your giveaway seen by someone looking to support your business.
While youβre trying to make a sale, you may find some people to network with in the process giving you more unique opportunities for your store and brand like brand collaborations with known brands or even having your brand seen by an influencer which may push your brand to their community just because they think what youβre doing is cool or they want to support you in some way.
People who lose will still know of your brand, and you can give them the opportunity to be auto-entered in your next giveaway giving them a reason to return to your website. Them returning to your website may be the moment they decide to buy something because they like what you have available.
So always think of giveaways as another form of brand awareness and advertisement to push your brand.
5. Boost Your SEO Without Paying for Ads
Creating contest pages give you a landing page full of potential for keyword-rich-content. Allowing you to take advantage of niche long tail keywords for the type of free give-way youβre trying to run.
If you notice that posting your giveaways on the big 3: Twitter (x), YouTube and Instagram then google decides to index your giveaway much quicker because itβs fresher content for specific keyword. The goal is to have google respect your website and start indexing your site faster, so posting on the big social media platforms is almost like a cheat-code to this generations SEO.
Compared to ads, giveawayβs can bring in targeted low-cost visibility from visitors to your brandβs site giving you spikes of potential converting customers from just promoting your giveaway across multiple platforms.
Giveaways will always be a long-term traffic growth opportunity because people will always be interested in getting something free if it looks cool enough. The goal isnβt that what you havenβt sucks, itβs that you arenβt getting it in front of the right people!
6. Convert People Sitting on the Fence
Giveaways arenβt just for people that donβt know about your brandβthey poke at the lurkers as well!
You know that saying about how your friends donβt support you until strangers do? Well, this is the same concept with lurkers. Once the people on the fence about supporting your brand, despite knowing you as a person, they will start to have FOMO and jump ship like everyone else that noticed your greatness from the start. The trick is not to make your friends feel bad for missing out, but to get strangers to support you so much that people that doubted you want to support your brand as well!
You can also attempt to upsell your products on the giveaway page, allowing people that are on the fence to maybe find an instant interest in the available products available and they may purchase that product on the spot. Just off the hype alone could be a potential purchase if done correctly.
Seeing social proof allows people to be more comfortable and trust worthy of a brand by seeing the number of existing entries. You can also show text explaining that you have a X % chance of winning by entering now based on current entries without actually showing the total amount of entries, but showing the base amount will give them more comfort and build more trust in said giveaway.
7. Itβs easy with the right Tools
Running a shirt giveaway might sound like a big production, but the truth is, with the right tools, itβs almost effortless. Modern giveaway apps handle most of the heavy lifting for youβfrom collecting entries to picking winnersβso you can focus on the fun part: getting your shirts in front of new eyes.
Hereβs why tools make it simple:
- Automated Entry Collection β Apps like Gleam, Rafflecopter, and social-native contest tools automatically gather names, emails, and social follows in one place.
- Winner Selection Without Stress β No spreadsheets or manual randomization needed. Most tools can pick and verify winners in a click.
- Built-in Promotion Options β Many giveaway platforms encourage participants to share, tag friends, or visit your store for extra entries, giving you organic reach without extra effort.
The best part? Once your first giveaway is set up, you can rinse and repeat for future drops with minimal work. Schedule your posts, track your entries, and let the tool do the heavy lifting. With the right setup, shirt giveaways become a set-and-forget strategy for growing your brand.
If youβve stuck around this long!
And you like the giveaway tips Iβve provided; you can support Big Guy Dripβs Free Shirt Giveaway available in the United States β which runs the 2nd of every month!
Now go give something cool away!