Most of the conversation around Free centers on giving away information as a way to broaden your reach. The reason most people can afford to give information away for free is that there are no physical costs. The only thing you are giving up is your time.
But someone brought up this question in the comments the other week: how do you know when to give products away for free? It seems simple enough – send out product for free to gain publicity. But the problem is, there are real costs associated with sending out your products, and it’s difficult to know if you’ll see a return on that investment.
Here are three scenarios where you might be asked to donate or send a free piece, and how you should approach them:
- Charity auctions. If you constantly donate items to charity auctions as a form of marketing, you’re missing the mark. It’s difficult to know if those participating in the auction are your target audience, and it can be scary watching your piece sell for way under it’s value. By all means, donate a piece to a charity auction from time to time. But do it because you truly believe in the cause, not as a form of marketing.
- Press. Never send unsolicited samples to the press. More likely than not, they are just going to end up in the trash. Instead, you should send out a press kit (digital or paper form) and only send samples if asked. But you don’t have to send press samples and expect nothing in return. When sending out press samples, include an invoice that clearly states a return-by date and return address. Make sure you give ample time (usually two months) for a photo shoot, but in the end, there’s nothing wrong with asking for your samples back.
- Online giveaways. There are two types of online giveaways – ones conducted by you, and one where you donate to a blogger or other website for a giveaway. Conducting a giveaway (through your own blog or social media channel) can be a nice way to generate some positive attention. But don’t make it a regular occurrence. Limit it to a few times a year, max, and make sure you get something in return. Holding a giveaway is a great way to get feedback in the form of blog comments, or add subscribers to your mailing list, fans on your Facebook page, or followers on Twitter. You may also get asked from time to time to donate a piece to someone who will hold a giveaway on their own site. It may seem like a great way to generate publicity, but there tends to be a cycle that eliminates immediate sales. When the giveaway first goes live, most people won’t purchase your product because they are hoping to win one. By the time the giveaway closes, they’ve forgotten that they wanted one in the first place. Participate in online giveaways sparingly, if at all.
It might be helpful to set up a limit on the number of pieces that you’ll allow yourself to give away each year. (Not including press samples.) This allows you to factor the costs into your budget, and gives you an easy way to say no if you don’t want to participate. Ultimately, there are better ways to tap into the power of Free than giving away free products. If customers find that you’re constantly giving away products for free, they may start to wonder if they’re worth buying at all.
What do you think? Do you have a policy for giving away products?
There is an artist I know of locally that will donate his work on occasion. But he also makes sure to attend the event, and takes mental notes of all interest shown in his work — particularly by those who bid but did not win the auction. He spends the rest of the night networking, and often ends up picking up lots of commission work — with no fees due to galleries. If you have a strategy for making it part of your overall networking/ marketing, it can work. But handing over work for the “it will be great publicity!” line is a bad trade, every time.
I’ve actually done really well with giveaways on other blogs. BUT, I’ll only do a giveaway on another blog if it’s a high profile blog that’s going to drive alot of traffic to my online store and again, as you said, really no more than a few times a year (3 at the most). I’ve actually gotten lots of sales during and right after giveaways. Some contests require that entrants visit your site, pick a piece or two of your product that they like and comment about it. At that point the shopper has connected with your shop and product and might find an item that isn’t part of the giveaway that they can’t live without.
Just make sure that the giveaway is with a well known, popular blog. Otherwise, you probably won’t get much out of it. AND, never give away product because someone wants to write a review of your product on their blog. I get requests like that all the time. Those are often scams for free stuff.
I just sent 40 samples to include in swag bags at a local craft show that will be given out to local boutique/store owners. All of my materials were recycled or free, so it only cost me the time. I’ve already received some great feedback and the swag bags haven’t been given out yet!! The women who put them together have already contacted me about my products. I think it pays to give out free products if it gets your business name and products in front of potential buyers.
Elisa, I’m glad to hear you’ve had good luck with well known blog giveaways. I’m doing my first one in a few weeks, and I’ve been a little nervous.
Does anyone know much about the tax issues for charitable donations? IANAL, but I have heard that as an artist, when you donate a piece that you made, you cannot deduct the market value of the work, only the cost of making it. I don’t usually have enough deductions to itemize, so I don’t worry about it, but for others this might be a big deal.
Well put. I agree that frequent give-aways waters down the impact of your brand as do frequent sales.
I choose to regard give-aways like advertising and budget them the same way.
I give to charities that I believe in. I love the idea that Chris mentions her friend does- attend the event. You can’t count on anyone sell you, but you : )
I’ve done several giveaways over the years, and I don’t think they’ve ever resulted in many new customers (if any). I used to get a lot of traffic & hundreds of entries from a site called Bloggy Giveaways which had a huge readership, but I don’t think many of those readers ever turned into customers.
I agree 100% about donating products to a charity you believe because it’s a cause you want to support, not because you expect to get anything out of it (you probably won’t!)
On my e-tail site we give product to charities, some giveaways and some press. Whether we give away product largely depends on the ROI we think we can expect from it. I wrote an article specifically about evaluating the ROI on sample requests here http://smallerbox.net/blog/pr/giving-away-the-store-how-to-know-when-giving-away-product-is-good-for-business/
A timely post. I was just contacted through Etsy to donate a cat toy to a charity auction in Tampa. I am in Duluth, MN and plan to let them know that I prefer to support local organizations.
Anyone have thoughts on donating part of the cost of an item to a local charity? Will more people buy the item because part of the cost is helping out a good cause?
Thanks for the great advice. I just found your blog and I have just spent the past hour reading through many of the posts. Since I am just starting out it is tempting to try to get the word out any way I can. This post in particular helped me put the cost versus the benefit into perspective.
I have had several giveaway blogs contact me recently about donating my hats to their site and I’ve politely declined, largely because they were all startup blogs and didn’t have a huge readership. Even if it was a well-known blog, I would still have reservations because I’m not convinced it will pay off in new sales. I did donate two hats to a local charity auction in March and I don’t think it increased any traffic. It was my first charity auction and I donated solely for marketing purposes, not because it was a cause dear to my heart. I donate regularly to 2-3 charities that ARE dear to my heart, but I donate money, not product.
Btw, my tax advisor told me last week that the charity donations I made last year from my business account ARE NOT tax deductible unless I use them for marketing purposes. When I told her I have both a table top sign and a flyer insert about my charitable donations, plus I list them on my website and online stores, she said that doesn’t count. Fortunately, my name was on the receipts for the donations so she was able to deduct it on the personal side (just not the business side). Beware of this. She said I would’ve been better off paying myself the donation amount, then donating from my personal account.
I didn’t ask her about writing off the value of the hats I donated to charity because there were only two of them so it seemed negligible.
I am glad you posted this when you did because I was thinking of putting one of my most expensive items up for a giveaway. The item expires tonight on Etsy. Because of what you said, I will reconsider and just list it in my Zibbet store.
I do donate items to raffles held by ferret shelters. Their “customers” are my pin-point target market, and I love donating to the fuzzy cause. Most of the time, I donate a flier/voucher for a free custom stuffed ferret. Winners of these have also paid for an additional custom ferret or something in stock in my Etsy shop, so I find that it works out. I politely decline requests from non-ferret animal causes simply because I don’t want to give the whole shop away with little chance of a return.
Great advice. It is so hard to say no to giveaways sometimes!
Another suggestion I heard from a local businessowner was to set a monetary value limit per year on your donations. This makes it easier to see donation requests objectively; you can respond with a “I’m sorry but I’ve already reached my donation limit” with much less guilt.
Megan,
This was very very vitally valuable information that you responded to my question 2 weeks ago.
I have watched co-crafters do give away after give away, and I was tempted to join their marketing efforts but it seemed a little prostitute-ish to me. We all work so hard and somehow I feel this type of behaviour denigrates our industry.
On the other hand, the Big Guys do it too; I mean retailers all over are offering all kinds of free.
I don’t mind donating, or being liberal with my generosity; but not to an audience that only wants free. I personally do not have the stamina, the time, or even the emotional energy to keep those fires stoked and burning. After all, there are so many other parts to running our businesses.
Thank you, and the infomation on your blog is so valuable that I will pass it onto others who are needing to read what you have to say. I also like Seth’s comments that you posted about telling your story. This really puts you and me, the artists, in touch with the Why of What We Do!
Constant comparison and becoming a part of the rush rush, mega mega, do do, tweet tweet, copy copy, is also denigrating to the Why of artistry and even business. I mean, consider the flowers of the field and the diversity of creation, and then tell your own story.
I for one, think it is so awesome to even have a story to tell; and to use our art, or our blog, or our labels, or even our charities to shout that out the the world in which we live.
Until next time!