Marketing Your Small Business: Promotional Giveaways

If you’re a bar or restaurant that is looking to turn some of your customers into true regulars, try running a promotional giveaway.

Promotional Giveaways are fun events or contests that businesses put on for their customers. These giveaways involve some sort of prize or perk being won by participants. Often, a successful promotional giveaway will directly lead to increased customer engagement and expand your reach within the community.

Here are a few good rules to keep in mind for your next promotional giveaway:

• Make it relevant: Your promotional giveaway should be relevant and interesting to your target audience. If you own a location where a lot of people go to watch the Chicago Cubs play, a giveaway featuring season tickets to the Chicago White Sox wouldn’t be that relevant to your audience.
  
  
• Make it fun: Do your best to make your promotional giveaway as exciting as possible. The more fun your giveaway is, the more likely your patrons will tell their friends and family about it - organically increasing your location’s reach.
  
  
• Be creative: Promotional giveaways are great opportunities to show off your unique brand. Brainstorm giveaway ideas that can showcase your venue’s special qualities and give your target audience an idea about what your business is all about.
  
  
• Have a worthwhile prize: Your giveaway prize doesn’t have to be an all-expenses trip to Europe, but it should be an interesting enough prize to reach people who aren’t already familiar with your business. If your prize doesn’t excite people - even if it’s relevant to your audience - the promotional giveaway probably won’t be as successful as you may have hoped.
  
  
• Promotion is key: As with any event at your location, success is predicated on people participating. Promote your special giveaway at least a few weeks in advance in order to reach as many people as possible.

Keep these notes in mind as you begin to brainstorm a good promotional giveaway for your gaming location, they are extremely important for laying the groundwork for the giveaway’s success. Remember that these events can reach a much larger audience than you might be used to, meaning that, for many, this could be their first interaction with your business. Be sure to use these giveaways to facilitate positive interactions with your participants and promote a fun atmosphere in order to convert these prospective customers into true regulars.

If you’re having trouble coming up with promotional ideas or if you could use help with running it, Accel is always willing to assist our partner locations!