Monday, October 15, 2012

Thinking of Hosting a Giveaway to Promote Your Handmade Goods?

Have you been brainstorming ways to promote your handmade goods, and seem to spend hours each week on Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media sites trying to drive traffic to your handmade site? Maybe you have thought about hosting a giveaway or donating your products to one. Recently, in the Middle TN Etsy team, we had one seller host a massive giveaway, with many team members participating. This has sparked some interest with other people curious about how to start their own giveaway. Today, we will be talking to Amy Averitte of FAveritte Creations, a Middle TN mom and seamstress, who organized a huge giveaway with over 20 prizes. Her Etsy shop received an award from a women's business site as one of the top woman-owned small business of the year!

Handmade Peace Sign Bags
Here is a link to her shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/fAverittecreations

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions about your giveaway, Amy. Starting a giveaway seems overwhelming, and you helped to answer my basic questions. I hope this interview helps anyone else who is struggling on how to get started with a giveaway.

Custom Made Peace Sign Pillows


1) Please tell us a little bit about your creations, how you got started, and what you sell in your etsy shop?

My creations are bright, cheerful, a mixture of colors and patterns that tend to be on the silly side and most are custom made and personalized specifically for each customer. I create kids bedroom decor items from personalized pillows, custom prayer flags, personalized pillow cases and more. I also have tooth fairy pillows, unique hobby stick horses, silly stuffed toys, baby security blanket loveys and more fun creations.

My main goal is for the young at heart that receive a fAveritte creation as a gift: that at first they smile and then find enough joy in my creation to drag it around with them everyday...until the corners become a bit frayed and they may become a little dingy from all of the adventures they traveled on together.

fAveritte creations was started in 2009 when I found out I was pregnant with my first son. I wanted to make all of his nursery decor: monsters with primary colors. I was also in a college fibers course at the time and I presented all of his decor for one of my projects. A fellow classmate suggested Etsy to me...and I have never looked back!

2) Why did you decide to do a giveaway?

I love participating in giveaways because it is a great way to get my products out there PLUS it does bring quite a bit of exposure to my little creative world.

I decided to put together my Handmade Holiday Giveaway for the simple goal of trying to spread the love of handmade this holiday season. I hope that the entrants were exposed to new handmade artisans on Etsy and will keep them in mind for their holiday shopping and gift giving. I have discovered hundreds of fantastic shops here on Etsy and let's face it...I spend many hours on Etsy so I can easily share any great creations I find with my friends, families and followers.

3) I saw that you were recommending not to do a giveaway on Facebook; is it against their policies?

I had found a few articles online explaining the rules that facebook requires for giveaways...the following link best describes their rules and regulations with giveaways.
www.bloggingbasics101.com/2011/07/running-a-successful-facebook-giveaway...

I already have a blog and quite frankly it is easier for me to administer and host a giveaway from my blog than on facebook.

4) How did you find sponsors for your giveaway?

I simply posted an explanation of my giveaway and goals in the many teams I am involved with on Etsy and asked any shops interested to contact me. I also asked a few of my creative Etsy friends and shop owners if they would like to participate.

5) How much of an increase in traffic and blog/facebook followers did you see?

I personally saw an increase of about 80 facebook likes during the duration of my giveaway, BUT the last two days of my giveaway I also participated in another giveaway on a different blog that brought traffic too.

I also gained over 10 new blog followers and over 60 new twitter followers.

Adorable Tote Bag


6)What do you think about the Rafflecopter widget? Where can one dowload this to do a giveaway? How easy was it to use?

I like the Rafflecopter widget because it is easy to use and makes it so simple for anyone to enter the giveaway. You control how you want the participants to enter and Rafflecopter makes it simple to copy the giveaway widget. Rafflecopter uses Random.org to choose a winner and allows you to announce it directly on the widget on your giveaway. Just simply check out www.rafflecopter.com to start your next giveaway!

7) When is your next planned giveaway?

Well that may just be a big secret...BUT I can say it will be sometime in the spring and I will definitely put together another Handmade Holiday Giveaway for next October also.

8) Where else can we find you on the internet (blog, twitter, facebook, pintrest....)

Facebook - www.facebook.com/pages/fAveritte-creations/167262824900
Twitter - twitter.com/AmyAveritte
Pinterest - pinterest.com/favecreations/
Blog - www.faverittecreations.blogspot.com/


2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much Mylana! If anyone has any questions about hosting a giveaway...please feel free to contact me through Etsy and I would be happy to help :)

    ReplyDelete