Fun Way To Create Store/Team Traffic During Slow Sales Months

[Former_Member]

~Organize a giveaway with your teammies or Etsy store owner mates.
~Open up a treasury to offer a giveaway.
~List 16 donated items (put these items into reserve status in each store listing).
~Ask treasury viewers to leave a comment to be entered into random name drawing.
~Post the giveaway closing date (and other pertinent entry info).

See example of how our team is doing it here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTQ5Mzc4NnwyMDA5MDUzMTM3/comment-to-win-this-entire-noir-team

[Former_Member]

nice idea! :)

[Former_Member]

:) Thnx!!

[Former_Member]

Does this works even if you dont have sales but you have to give a freebie?

[Former_Member]

Hi HK,

The idea with this promotion is to generate traffic to your store.

If you donate one of the items in your store to a giveaway treasury, this can increase the number of viewers/visitors/potential buyers that see your store.

Who doesn't want a chance to WIN an entire treasury of Etsy hand crafted goodness?

Most of us have this or that slow moving or inexpensive item that we can afford to donate to a giveaway. Think of it as a good investment in building your brand name. It promotes you and your store and costs a lot less than most methods of advertising.

[Former_Member]

HK - an idea is to join some teams and offer to organize giveaways for the team members.

[Former_Member]

I think this is a fabulous idea. I'm game - any takers?

[Former_Member]

Im game too! So if someone has experience in organizing this count me in!

[Former_Member]

If you are the organizer for a giveaway treasury, is it still faux pas to include your own item?

[Former_Member]

Oh heavens no...by all means include one of your pieces. This works a bit differently than creating a regular treasury.

If you do the work of organizing a giveaway, then you need a return on your time and energy investment, too.

[Former_Member]

I see Tattered Rouge. I get your point. I thought we have to buy the items in the treasury list and give them away to the people that come and visit our store.. In this case would be donating one my brooches.

[Former_Member]

Thanks Tattered Rouge, for the quick response and for the suggestion. I think this is a great idea!

How do you promote it? I'm on a few teams that are promotion oriented, so I would promote it in those for sure. But, if we do an Etsy Success one, is it okay to promote it here?

When your team did it, did you reach out to your external fan bases too? Is it appropriate to expect everyone in the treasury to do a little promoting or is the organizer the one?

[Former_Member]

Yes - to all of the above, except this..... Treasuries links per se are not permitted in the Etsy Success Forum. This is admin's info on this:

UPDATE: Please no sharing of fan pages, Treasuries, new item listings in the Etsy Success Forum, unless you are sharing or asking for small business advice. Thank you!

Post your giveaway info everywhere off-site that you can think of....
Twitter
FB
Blogs
Etsy Promo Teams that you belong to
Giveaway websites
Your personal mailing lists
Include an info note in any item you mail out to your buyers.

It is appropriate to ask everyone (on your team, as well as the donating individuals) to participate in getting the word out about the giveaway.

[Former_Member]

Also, if you plan your giveaway far enough in advance, you can print up flyers to hand out at shows and post in high traffic areas of your local hang outs.

This offers a great opp' to regular and future buyers and gives you more brand recognition..
.

[Former_Member]

Superb idea! I was thinking of giveaway this month, and looking at the FB guidelines and the price it takes to have one....I was wondering HOW? Fabulous!

[Former_Member]

Not so hard to do....just takes a bit of organization and it helps if you can share the set-up with 2 or 3 other people.

[DeerGirlDesigns]

this is a really cool idea. Thanks!

[Former_Member]

It works really well for exposure.

We did this for a wedding team a year ago and got over 3000 views? 2000 at least.

[Former_Member]

Bumping this thread....

Try out this treasury giveaway idea to bring traffic to your teams and your own store.

[Former_Member]

I loved this idea so much, I decided to start a "Springtime" giveaway treasury with my AVID team. We have 10 people participating so far and I've also extended it to another of my promo teams. Any other suggestions for getting more people interested?

[ancienesthetique]

woo this sounds fun.. i'd like to be involved...

[ecoPaperie]

I'd be happy to donate a set of stationery to someone who is organizing a giveaway... just contact me to let me know what I can do!

[Former_Member]

Who pays for the shipping on these "free" items that they win? HOw is that handled?

[Former_Member]

I did one with Avid Treasurers this past week, and it has generated 2007 views so far, which I'm really thrilled about. It generated an explosion of views and favorites in my own store (although no sales). I haven't yet polled the other contributors to see how they've fared so far. But, I will post here how it went once it's done on March 1st. I definitely recommend doing it. If anyone else decides to do one, let me know. I may do another one myself too.

With regard to shipping, my plan is that all of the artisans will ship their items individually and pay for it so that the winner doesn't have to pay anything. But, I suppose you could put that into your terms for the winner, that they'd pay the shipping. I don't advise it though. You'd have a 'winner' paying 16 separate shipping fees. What a pain. Best to think of it as a marketing expense.

[Former_Member]

I would love to participate in a giveaway treasury!