Why Now is The Best Time for a Graphics Card Giveaway and How to Get Started

Savvy marketing teams are always on the lookout for clever and practical ways to attract new prospects and foster existing customer relations.

Many tested methods exist for marketing teams to reach their target audience, such as:

  • Social media campaigns
  • Supporting a beloved cause or charity
  • Post-sale customer surveys
  • Product giveaways

Each strategy is geared toward fostering good customer relations, and promoting a high-quality product can be effective under the right circumstances. However, it seems like product giveaways are perennial favorites, across the board.

Why Do Giveaways Work So Well?

There’s nothing quite like a thoughtful giveaway prize to show customers how much you value them. Ensuring the prize you select speaks to your customers’ primary interests, according to your research, is potent; especially when it really speaks to the recipient and his or her interests.

David Frey at Frugal Marketing shares a few ideas as to why giveaways are so effective:

  • Your loyal and prospective customers get the chance to test your product or service risk-free and have the chance to realize its value. Best case scenario, you’ve earned a loyal new customer, “hooked” on your offering. Worst case scenario, like anything, you made your shot. Maybe the customer spread the word to friends and family.
  • A free item often sparks a certain amount of psychological pressure for most customers to return the favor by buying something, at some point. Known as the “Law of Reciprocity,” it is simply a way for thoughtful customers to show gratitude, no matter how they feel about the product.

If you’ve decided you like your chances and plan to launch a summer 2018 giveaway campaign, you may find yourself wondering what the right giveaway item is and how to proceed.

Why is Summer 2018 the Best Time to Launch a Graphics Card Giveaway?

If your marketing team is considering launching a summer 2018 giveaway campaign, you may wonder what the perfect prize is for your audience. You might have even tossed around the idea of rewarding graphics cards as prizes. If so, now is the time to do it.

Now that cryptocurrency mining profits are dipping, per Forbes, and there is a current surplus of popular graphics cards, the solution may just be in the cards.

As recently as this past January and February, it will have been nearly impossible to purchase gaming graphics cards. Polygon goes into more detail as to what was going on:

“Cryptocurrency mining requires immense computational power, and miners figured out years ago that the chips in many high-end graphics cards are well-suited to the task.”

At the same time, cryptocurrency was experiencing a surge in value—a single bitcoin going for more than $11,000—providing people with the chance to form “mining rigs” when buying multiple graphics cards for the necessary computing power.

Even if graphics cards were available at that point, their prices were so inflated that it was cost-prohibitive—or at least value-prohibitive—for nearly anyone outside of the cryptocurrency mining game. Once cryptocurrency values started to plummet, so did the hoarding of graphics cards and associated costs.

This current surplus of graphics cards is your golden opportunity to provide a high-value perk for your loyal and potential customers.

Is a High-End Graphics Card the Right Giveaway Prize for Customers?

Understanding more about graphics cards and why this is the perfect time for a giveaway, the burning questions are:

  1. What would the response to a graphics card giveaway look like when presenting it your customers?
  2. Would your customers feel excited and respond accordingly to your projections and expectations?
  3. Would it inspire customer loyalty and repeat business?

If your business overlaps largely with PC enthusiasts, technology fans, lifestyle gamers or all of the above, you probably already have some idea as to how well-received a graphics card giveaway would be for your community of customers.

On the other hand, you may not specifically serve that market, and may simply wonder if graphics cards might appeal to your audience thanks to their recent availability.

Following are a few industries that might do well to offer graphics cards for their next giveaway:

  • Computer Sales
  • Game Development and/or Sales
  • Software Development and/or Sales
  • Virtual Reality Development and/or Sales
  • Mobile App Development and/or Sales

If you believe you can appeal to tech fans looking for more computing power and performance, regardless of your industry or specific business, you might find a graphics card giveaway is the perfect summer marketing campaign that is sure to yield impressive results.

Do You Know How to Run a Giveaway Across Owned, Earned and Paid Media Channels?

If you are running your first giveaway, you may need a few pointers to get you moving in the right direction for success. Perhaps you’ve noticed competitors running their own giveaways via their social media pages or their website.

Promoting your graphics card giveaway by using a variety of media channels is an important factor for success. By working to cover the various media channels—like the ones that follow—you stand to gain maximum exposure and attract plenty of excited entrants.

Owned Media Channels

Such channels would include your website, mobile website, landing page, blog site and social media pages. Here, you can work on your SEO strategies to attract more eyes to your owned channels via searches for associated keywords.

Take your Facebook page, for example. While it is also a venue where you can leverage some earned presence, it is also part of your owned media and can prove extremely effective in your upcoming giveaway campaign. Don’t underestimate the power of a solid paid and targeted marketing strategy on Facebook to make sure the right people see all the details on your graphics card giveaway.

Earned Media Channels

Earned media includes social media mentions, shares, reposts, views, likes, and comments on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and even Reddit. Create an intriguing post about your big giveaway, and you might get your customers and potential entrants talking about your campaign.

Robust, fun and friendly social media activity can lead to even more interests and giveaway participants, as friends, family, fellow gamers and tech fans see the activity and want in on the action.

Paid Media Channels

Here, you can pull out your checkbook and dip into your marketing budget to pay for advertisements on other websites, Pay-Per-Click, social influencers’ services and social media advertisements.

You are not limited to just one of these three channels. While you want to publish posts about your project judiciously, you don’t want to let any resources go to waste. You definitely don’t want potential entrants who would love this prize to miss out.

Use all channels to your advantage to get the word out about your big graphics card giveaway.

What Kind of Contest Should You Run to Make Your Graphics Card Giveaway Fun, Simple and Memorable?

Choosing the type of contest to run is one of the final steps before launching your graphics card campaign. You can have some fun here when trying to figure out how to challenge your audience to remind them of how valuable the graphics cards while still keeping things fun.

Following are just a few of the types of contests you might consider:

  • User-Generated Content Competitions 
    • Set your audience on a mission to submit photographs, videos, memes, gifs, drawings or blog posts that relate to your brand or product in some way.
    • Set up polls to let fellow visitors vote on all the registered contestants’ work then select the winner or winners, depending on the scope of your giveaway.
  • Games, Polls, Quizzes, and Trivia
    • If you suspect your contestants may prefer some intellectual challenges, come up with some games.
    • Your questions may focus on your brand, the graphics cards themselves, gaming or anything you believe would get your players in the game.
    • You may decide to set up a leaderboard showing the daily winners and who advances to the next round each time you play to keep the excitement and engagement building.
  • The Classic Giveaway 
    • Give your potential entrants the chance to sign up in a few different ways, such as through a downloadable form on your website, a click on your social network page, or instantly upon purchase.
    • While this contest provides somewhat less opportunity for direct active engagement with customers, it makes it easier for your registered contestants to get on board without the need to take time out of their day to do a project or participate in a game.
    • And honestly, the thrill of an instant win is a real crowd pleaser and can be exhilarating for contestants.

Are You Ready to Launch Your Summer 2018 Graphics Card Giveaway?

If you are ready to start working on your graphics card giveaway but could use a little more advice or would just like to talk it out, The Woobox Support Team can help! We can help you define, design, develop and deploy a fun and rewarding-for-everyone giveaway campaign.

Call Woobox Support at 360-450-5200 Monday through Friday, from 9am to 5pm PST, or send us a message at woobox@support.com anytime so we can start discussing the best ways to make your upcoming giveaway, contest or instant coupon a huge success.