My Love/Hate Relationship With Loop Giveaways

Boy oh boy, bet you never thought you’d hear me say love and loop giveaways in the same sentence, huh? For the longest time I was anti-loop giveaway. I frowned upon every blogger who did them and I strongly advised other bloggers not to do them… until now.

The other day I was doing my normal Instagram browsing and I came across one of those loop giveaway photos, you know, the “GIVEAWAY! MACBOOK PRO OR $1000 CASH PRIZE!” and I thought ‘ugh not again’ and then I looked at whose picture it was and it was one of my favorite bloggers! So then I was totally shocked and dumbfounded! Here is someone I looked up to as a businesswoman doing a cheesy loop giveaway, what is happening?!

Next, because of my inquisitive nature, I had to ask her what the deal was with the loop giveaway, so I sent her a DM. She basically blew my mind about why she does them and how they aren’t so bad after all. I was both shocked and inspired which led me to write this blog post arguing both sides of the loop giveaway controversy.

why I dislike loop giveaways

I’m going to get really real and be a little harsh for like 5 minutes so bear with me…

First and foremost loop giveaways seem desperate to me. In my opinion it’s a blogger’s attempt at getting more followers.

I also think they’re slightly misleading. Most of the captions are something like “I’ve partnered up with some of my favorite bloggers…”. Here’s my beef with that: you most likely have never had any contact with the girls you’re in the loop with. You may not have even heard of them. So to say you’ve partnered with some of your “favorite bloggers” just seems fake to me. Let’s call it like it is.

You’re doing this because it’s good marketing, not because you love the girls you’ve partnered with, which is fine… just own it.

I’m also not crazy about making your followers jump through hoops and to win a prize. It’s like you can win this brand new MacBook as long as you follow me, follow her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, tag 50 friends, like this picture, repost this picture, use the hashtag, follow us on this other app… it’s exhausting.

But on the flip side…

why I love loop giveaways

While loop giveaways can be perceived as negative, they can also be seen in a positive light which I never thought of before I talked to that blogger.

Like I said before, loop giveaways are a marketing technique just like Facebook or Instagram ads. The people who engage with the loop giveaway choose to engage. They’re not being forced to enter, they’re not being tricked, they know they could win the prize and they know they could also not win the prize. There’s really nothing slimy or grimy about loop giveaways after all.

Plus, you pay to be in loop giveaways so just as your followers put in work to potentially win, you put in work too. So yes, you end up gaining some followers but these people aren’t forced to stay your followers, in fact, a few of them drop off after the giveaway is over (about 15-20%) and then the ones who stay were able to discover your kick ass blog. How cool is that?!

If you happen to do a loop giveaway, find a credible host (like me!) and make sure that host is strategic in partnering you with other bloggers who have a similar aesthetic or niche to yours. This way your follower retention will be higher (aka you’ll keep more followers from the giveaway than you would if you partnered with random bloggers unrelated to your field).

Most importantly, and the main reason why I love them now, loop giveaways are a way for bloggers to give back to their communities. Think about it, as a blogger we’re always asking for this, telling our audience to do that, so it’s only fair that we try to give to our followers as much as they give to us. As my blogger friend told me, ‘How cool would it be if one of my followers won?!’. Well yeah, that would be pretty cool, and something I never even thought of before.

Though, I still have reservations about some loop giveaways (you know, the scam-y ones), I am really loving giveaways in general and what they can do for your business. You can argue both sides but like I always say, testing is the best way to really know whether something works for you or not. For more info. on joining a legitimate loop giveaway, CLICK HERE.

What are your thoughts on loop giveaways? Love ’em? Hate ’em? Have no idea what I’m talking about? Tell me in the comments below!

xx

my latest obsessions