Inexpensive Giveaway Ideas and Prizes Perfect for Memorial Day

Memorial Day is quickly approaching which is why it is a great time to start thinking about hosting a giveaway event to bring more awareness to your company while honoring those who have passed while serving in the armed forces. In this blog we will cover how hosting a giveaway can be beneficial, highlight eight Memorial Day giveaway ideas that are sure to help bring you sales or awareness, and provide some great ideas for branded Memorial Day giveaways. Now let’s get on to how you can take advantage of the holiday weekend!

Why Host a Giveaway

Your business is considering hosting a giveaway, but why? What’s the point? Two key benefits that are common for such events are to attract new customers to your business and to increase employee engagement within the company.

To attract new customers

The more giveaways you host, the more customers you are reaching. Simply put, this results in more impressions for your brand. A recent PPAI survey found that nearly 9 in 10 recipients of promotional products remembered the brand that gave them a promotional product. Also, 83% of survey respondents said they were more likely to do business with the brand after receiving a promo product. Plus, just think about how certain promotional products are used! People carry around items like tumblers, bags, and coffee mugs on a daily basis, leading to their friends, co-workers, and even strangers seeing your brand name or logo. And on the social media side of things, you can post about the giveaway on the company’s social media outlets for further reach that will result in more traffic to your website, greater brand recognition, and even potential sales as people visit your site.

To increase employee engagement

Hosting giveaways has many benefits for your company, including increasing your employee engagement. Giving away employee gifts when your staff has reached certain milestones is a great way to encourage them to work harder, shows them that the company notices all of the hard work and dedication they put into their job, and it rewards them for their commitment to the company. You can give them branded employee gifts, treat them to a lunch on the company’s dollar, or even give them a custom award for their achievements! The more you reward and celebrate your team, the more likely they are to be committed to their job and to stay longer with the company. In turn, this creates a positive and productive environment that anyone will be thrilled to be a part of!

Top 8 Popular Memorial Day Giveaway Strategies

Now that we have discussed the reasons you should host a giveaway for your company, let’s talk more about attracting customers through your giveaways, specifically Memorial Day giveaways! Memorial Day is all about honoring our fallen heroes and allows us to spend holiday time with our loved ones. But, as some of you may know, it's also one of the biggest shopping days in the nation outside of the winter holiday season. Take advantage of this holiday by hosting giveaways that promote more sales for your company. We have come up with eight different giveaway ideas that you could put in place this Memorial Day!

Free Product with Purchase

Encourage your customers to place their order fast by offering a free product with their purchase if they order on Memorial Day. This will encourage people to come into your store or visit your site to take advantage of the deal. Let’s be honest, who can resist getting a free gift?!

Create a Time-Sensitive Sale

Sales are a huge part of Memorial Day and people are much more likely to place an order if they get to save some money! Making a sale time-sensitive creates a sense of urgency and will encourage customers to make a purchase quicker compared to not having a sale at all. So, create a Memorial Day sale, sit back, and watch the sales come in!

Offers Discounts for Active Military and Veterans

The whole reason Memorial Day started was to celebrate and honor those who have sacrificed their lives serving our country. Naturally, Memorial Day is a great time to give a special discount to those who are a part of the armed services family, such as veterans or those currently active in the military. You can offer a flat discount or even give them a gift with their purchase. It will make them feel special and help to generate more business in the future for your company.

Photo Contest

Raise your brand awareness and gain customers by hosting a photo contest on your social media platforms. Ask your followers to tag you in a photo of them enjoying their Memorial Day, a photo of their favorite product of yours, or to upload a photo of a military member they remember along with a backstory. When your followers post a photo on their accounts tagging your business, you gain even more recognition compared to when someone only comments on your post!

Comment to Enter Contest

Out of all the social media contests you could host, this one is by far the easiest: your followers simply need to comment to enter the contest. You can increase your outreach by asking your followers to tag a friend in the comment, helping to gain even more followers for your social media profile. This giveaway will help you increase social media reach and engagement at the same time! Alternatively, you can ask people to like and share the post, but be careful not to  include too many conditions for participation as that could potentially lower the chances of people participating in your giveaway. Set a time period for when the contest will end and then randomly select one of the commenters as the winner. Here is an example of a comment to enter contest:

Host a Barbecue or Outdoor Event

Memorial Day is the holiday where being outdoors with your family and friends is a must. Hosting a barbecue for your company will not only make those within the company feel more connected, but will show that your company has a commitment to the community as well. Since hosting events can be time consuming, it is a good idea to ask other local businesses to collaborate with you on the event. That way you can get to know other businesses, split tasks necessary to arrange the event, and save some bucks in sharing the costs with the other hosts. During this event, you can give away Memorial Day themed items to all in attendance or host a contest to give away more limited items.

Memorial Day Email Campaign

Use Memorial Day as an opportunity to get in touch with your subscribers. It could be as simple as wishing customers a wonderful weekend and honoring those who served, or informing them about the event you will be hosting on Memorial Day. Email marketing has proven to be one of the strongest return on investments in the advertising space, so it doesn’t hurt to send out a quick Memorial Day email. Use an attention grabbing headline or provide some valuable content in your email to see the best effects of your campaign!

Swag that's Perfect for Memorial Day Giveaways