How to Run a Podcast Review Giveaway

giveaway is like in full swing. We are listening to this like hopefully you have entered I've like even better if you have won one of the prizes this week for the Proffitt Podcast review, giveaway. But if you have no idea what I'm talking about, and you are listening to this at a later time, like way past April 2021. Let me break it down for you because we're talking about how to run a podcast review giveaway. So let's get right to it.

Welcome to the Proffitt Podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?

podcasting so much. And I get questions about podcasting all the time that just frickin light me up, get me so excited. And today's episode, I feel like has been like three years in the making. Because I get asked all the time about Have you ever done a podcast review giveaway? And I'm like, No, I need to do that. Have you ever done a giveaway and given away prizes and done that? I'm like, Well, I did that when I launched my book,

but I've never done it for a podcast. Well, as of me recording this, like we are in full swing of the review giveaway. So before we get any further, let me tell you the details that you need to know. First, if you're listening to this after April 2021, the giveaway is over. Okay, let's just be very clear. If you're listening to this in a future date, the prizes are gone. We've given them all out. This is a timely giveaway that we are

only doing in April 2021. Now be on the lookout, okay, because we'll probably do some more in the future. But in real time, this is happening right now. And if you're listening to this in the future, I hope that you have some great insights but you've missed the giveaway. Okay, that's first and foremost, we had to get that out there. Second of all, if you are listening to this in real time, and you have not submitted your entry, go to KrystalProffitt.com/review. There's going to be a

link in the show notes. We'll talk about those in a second. But I want to make sure that you are entered into the giveaway because there's only a few more hours if you're listening to this in real time. It is actually ending tomorrow to-morrow on Friday, April 30 2021. The like grand prize giveaway is going to be gone after tomorrow. Okay, like it's being given away. So, okay, there's my there's my two things. I wanted to make sure if you're listening to this in the future, sorry, you

missed out. Hang around, Mike. We'll be doing some other cool giveaways later on. But I am so dang excited to be doing this.

giveaway mean? They means that you're giving away something of value, something that's fun, something that's cool, something that's quirky, something related to your brand, to your audience in exchange for reviews, and specifically, we're To get into the details like that is what today's episode is for, I want you to know how I set it up. And then in the future, probably in the next six weeks, I'm going to be doing a podcast

episode. That's like the debrief of everything that we did to make this review happen, how it all went, and what I learned from doing it. But I wanted this to be like the precursor to that episode, so you can see what I've done to set it all up. And then we will always link back to this episode as hago. If you want to set up set up a review, giveaway, here's how you do it. The other episode will be kind of like a case study of what

I learned. Here's the do's and the don'ts and like, you know, the ups and the downs and things that happen. But as of me recording this, we're right in the middle of it. So I'm all happy, like nothing's wrong. Like we're, we're in good here. But okay, so this is where my go a little nerdy on you already from the beginning. I wrote all this information out in my journal, because it's what I do, like, journaling has been so therapeutic in my life, and oh my gosh, it's never been more true

than living through 2020. I actually have. It's funny because I didn't do this, like on purpose. But I started almost a brand new notebook. And they usually last me about one or two now, probably two months. When I start one. I started one right when the pandemic hit last year, and I look at and it's black. I never have a black notebook ever, ever. Like I always have blue and green and orange and like just like really

colorful. This one is black. And I'm like, Huh, well, ominous, they're like little precursor to what was actually going to be coming in March 2020. But I look back at that. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I just, it's therapeutic to me like to write out how I'm feeling and what's going on in my head. I do it. I journal when I'm overwhelmed,

or I'm trying to figure something out. So I journaled about the review giveaway actually did this a while ago, to get the idea out of my head of when I wanted to do this what it looked like. So really, if we back up, probably six months ago, when I was looking at what I was going to do in

2021. I had review giveaway as something I was so excited to do in April. And the reason why I chose April is because I had some other really big projects at the beginning of the year. And I wanted to follow those up, like I was turning my program on evergreen and I was redoing the website. And we were like trying to get through some launches and spring break and all those things. And I said I want something to look forward to. And it was this giveaway, because I

knew it was going to be an experiment. It was going to be fun, it was going to be something that I it's like me going first to figure it out. And then being able to turn around and be the super nerd and say, Oh my gosh, y'all, this is what I did. This is how it happened. These are like all the fun like, behind the scenes information that I know y'all love. And so I've been journaling about

this for a while. And I have in front of me. Some of the notes that I have, I actually have several pages, and I would never ever, ever rip up like my journal pages. But I do wish for today I could like just rip them out and have them all in front of me. I guess people that are like, well, that's what digital is for. I'm like, Yeah, whatever. Okay, this this is how ideas come out of me. And then I put them in a sauna. Okay. But that is something that I did. I did like a big brain dump

of what do I want this to look like? Why am I doing this? How is it going to help me? How is it going to help my audience? And so I wanted to go over a few of those first and foremost, because if you're thinking about doing a giveaway, you have to ask yourself, why? Why would you ever do a

review giveaway? And the reason why I am doing it, like I just said is because I needed to go first before I could teach you how to do it well, because there's going to be things that I will learn over the next week that's like oh my gosh, like don't don't do this, or I did this and it worked fantastic. You have to use this software, this program, or you have to post on this time of day or in this way, like I'm gonna have so many things after this whole giveaway is over. But

that's the reason why I'm doing it. I want to teach you how to do it in an awesome way. But also I want to do it for marketing purposes.

do a YouTube video on this too. So I'll show you the behind The scenes of I have, where I was before how many reviews and ratings I had I did the five stars I did the one stars like I have all that information ready to go. So after we're done with all this, I can see, well, this is where we were, this is where we are now. And this is a direct correlation of getting more reviews on the Proffitt Podcast. So that's a big reason, I want

to show you how this is all going to work. So that's part of my why the marketing piece is the

social proof. Now, for those of you that are just getting started with your business, and you're like, I need some social proof, and I am not really working one on one with clients, I don't have a course that I'm out there selling, I don't have workshops where people give me reviews, your reviews for your podcast can absolutely be used as social proof on your website, you can share them on your social media, you can put them in your emails, like if you have a welcome sequence, and

you're like, Oh, I want to add a review for my podcast, like someone gave you a glowing review. And like said all these amazing things about you, there are so many different marketing ways that you can use those. And we're going to talk about that and the debrief episode after we collect new reviews. And we come through them and we see how we can use them in different ways. But those are some of my why's and the reasons why we're doing

this review giveaway. Okay, so now we're going to jump into the practicality like the tactical logistics, I just said a bunch of words that I think are pretty much synonyms, like practical tactical, like all the things right, we are going to dive into logistically how I set this up.

on. I didn't have a bunch of meetings that week, and then have a bunch of interviews, I actually, I cancelled all my interviews, or I didn't cancel them, I blocked off and calendly you can select, like, if you want to have interviews on certain weeks or days or opt out of those. I cleared my calendar for this week, because I knew this is

when I'm going to do it. And then I decided this is again, where the scientific experiment comes in, I wanted to do five days, I wanted to do Monday through Friday, because I have prizes. That's really what this is based on. And we will absolutely get to prizes in a second because I know if you've won some prizes, or you've seen me talk about them on social, like you already know what I'm talking about. But I wanted to give away several things over several days, instead of just

having one grand prize winner. The reason behind this is the marketing aspect of word of mouth, where I'm hoping that you know someone enters the giveaway. And then they share it with their social media platform, or they share it with their friends like say, hey, like, enter this giveaway. And you can have a chance to win these prizes, right giveaways and contests. Like those are always super fun. And people get really excited

about them. So I wanted my audience to have the opportunity to get excited about them, which is why you've heard like you had dynamic content on this podcast. If you were listening in real time to this episode, you've probably heard me talking about the review giveaway like it's coming. It's coming. It's coming. Well, now it's here. I wanted to have plenty of a runway so that you weren't just blindsided, like, Oh, I missed it. I missed a giveaway. Like if you're an active member of this

community, you knew it was coming. And that was intentional. But I didn't want it to just be a one day we're going to give away a whole bunch of stuff in one day, I wanted it to be a gradual build up to a grand prize. So I decided we're going to do Monday through Friday, the cutoff time was going to be 3pm. On Friday would be when I announced the grand prize winner and then it's done.

not want to do that for this giveaway. I did do that when I launched my book start a binge worthy podcast in October 2020. And it got a little complicated, simply because I was like okay, well if I do that, then I have to add in this other piece of software. And while that software was great in many respects, what I didn't love about it is I only got someone's email. I didn't even get somebody's name. So all of a sudden I have, like, I mean, and there's a video of it. I'm like,

like covering my eyes a little bit. I'm like, Oh my gosh, it was such a disaster. I was trying to announce winners live. And then I realized, all I have is arrays, email addresses. I didn't even have anybody's first name. So I was like, crap, I can't even call people out. I don't want to say a bunch of people's names all over Facebook and YouTube. Like I wouldn't want my email address getting like shared that way. So that was kind of

a disaster. So I decided, I'm going to do this as simple as possible.

to be the right fit for you. If you're looking for a way to understand exactly how podcasting works. You want to know how to create content, how to launch your podcast, how to get it on all the players but most importantly, how to tell people about it without feeling like you're alienating your friends, your family, your neighbor like I want you to go check out Proffitt Podcasting. So go to KrystalProffitt.com/course, to learn more about Proffitt Podcasting and to enroll today.

KrystalProffitt.com/course to check out more. Okay, let's get back to today's episode.

a review? So I actually put in the FAQ section, I knew that people were gonna be like, wait, why do we have to submit a screenshot if we're doing it in Apple review, or, you know, doing an apple podcast? Well, the reason why and this is actually before all the apple podcast updates that they just announced, like I didn't know that those were coming specifically in like the last week and a half, I didn't know that they were coming when they were. And Apple typically takes 24 to 48

hours before they populate a review. It's not automatic. It's not something that like, Oh, I typed in, this is an amazing show. This is the first thing that I learned and I can't wait to learn more about XYZ. If I type that in and hit submit, it doesn't populate automatically. I don't know what their specific review process is to get those out into the world. But it's not immediate.

So what I wanted to do is I wanted to have the review an apple podcast, but I also wanted to have the proof from the person who did it, they submit the screenshot, and then we can say, awesome, yes, we see your screenshot, we see that you entered, here's your prize, here's what you win. And so that's the reason why I did that. Now, you can choose however you want to do this with your giveaway. This is the reason why we chose to do it this way is simply because we can see who actually

left a review what that looked like. And it's not a perfectly seamless process.

hiccups than I had previously anticipated. But we're just going to press on and push through and hopefully everything works. Hopefully everything works. People can still submit reviews, fine an apple podcast, if they don't and if we can't, then it's going to be a learning learning situation. But it's gonna be fine. It's fine. I just think about Ross every time I'm friends. It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. Okay, so let's talk about we talked about the Google Form. We talked about

how I kind of did a brain dump in Asana. Let's go back to Asana real fast, because I knew that I wanted to create the Google form. So I put that like, assign that to myself as like, Hey, you got to create a Google form. Here's what it should say. So I did like a rough outline in Asana first before I got into Google Forms, and I made it to where it would just flow nicely. And I had all the

information that I needed to have. Then in Asana, which is a project management tool, if you've never heard of Asana: A-S-A-N-A, it's something that I use for all of my projects, I started using it for my content calendar. And it helps me just kind of hold myself accountable for all the projects and the promotions, and all the things that I'm doing. And so I go in there, I created a

specific project for the giveaway. And I wrote out all the tasks that I needed to do like creating the Google Form, writing the emails, creating social posts, like doing all of those things. And then I put a deadline on them. Like when do I want to have all this done, so I'm not stressed out, and it's finished by the time the giveaway starts. So I did all of that in Asana and made it happen, I did the Google Form.

And at the top, they say, hey, by the way, we're in the middle of a giveaway, you're going to get lots of emails this week, you can click this link here to opt out, and you don't have to get them like you'll just get our regular weekly emails, I highly recommend doing this, if you are going to be sending a lot of emails to your list, there's going to be a percentage of the people on your list that don't care about your giveaway, or that don't want to get emails every single day, and

there's a higher chance that they're going to unsubscribe. So what I like to do is say, hey, there's a big promotion going on, or there's something happening, you can click this link right here, if you don't want to hear about it. And then I don't send them emails for the rest of the week about that thing. I just like, Hey, you opted out,

you'll just get our weekly stuff. So I highly recommend doing this for any kind of promotion, not just for a giveaway, but for any kind of promotion that you have have, like give your people and opportunity to self select out of the email promotion that you're in the middle of. Okay, so emails, I wrote my emails, then I uploaded them in ConvertKit. And I made them to where they were centered around what the giveaway was about.

through to make this happen. So I'm going to take you back to Asana for a second because I had to come up with the terms and conditions and everything. And the thing that I kept asking

myself is how do I want to announce these prizes? How do I want to make sure that everything is on par with what my business is like what we actually do? And so I decided, I'm going to announce all the winners on Instagram stories, because it's where I interact with a lot of people in my audience. And I know a lot of people watch my

stories. And so I said, Okay, I'm going to announce them every day at 3pm Central on my stories, because then it's shareable people can say, Oh, my gosh, I won and they can get excited about it. Or they can see hey, you know, I didn't win today, but I'm hoping that like it's that social share aspect that I really wanted to play with and experiment with. So that's why you've seen me posting on Instagram stories all week about the giveaway because I wanted to make it a

big deal. But now, I also had to think what if everybody who enters isn't on Instagram, that's okay, that's okay. Because not everyone will be not everyone will be on the same platforms that you use. So I had to have a backup. My backup was will also send you an email with The like how we're going to deliver your prizes to you. Like if you have something tangible that has to be delivered like physically to your house, we're going to send an email and send that out to you.

So I wrote that email, I wrote that email along with all the other emails ahead of time, because I didn't want to be stressed out the week of the giveaway, right? I didn't want to be like, Oh my gosh, I didn't send out the email for today. Oh, my gosh, like I wrote all of that out in Asana

beforehand. I scheduled it to go out at early in the morning as early in the morning as possible for the week of the giveaway, because I wanted people to have plenty of time to read those emails to enter into the contest or the giveaway to be able to have a chance to win a prize. Hmm, y'all This is like, I thought that this episode was going to be like 15 minutes. And here we are over 25 minutes in and I'm just like, Oh my gosh, there's still so much more I want to cover.

aligned with what you already do. So the things that I decided on for prizes for this giveaway, are all centered around podcasting, it would not make any sense for me to say, Oh, you know, here's some Target gift cards. I mean, I guess it would, because everyone could go to Target, maybe people will get excited about Amazon gift cards or Target gift cards. But at the end of the day, those

aren't directly related to podcasting. So the daily prizes when I sat down, I was like, Okay, what is something that is going to be affordable for me, right as the giveaway host, what's something that's going to be affordable for me, but what's also something that my audience is going to be excited about, I want you to think about this, if you're thinking about doing a giveaway, what is something your people would be excited about? Maybe it is Starbucks gift cards,

or Amazon gift cards or things like that. But then people are thinking, I'm just entering to get that prize, not I'm excited about this prize, I really, really want to enter, because I've been wanting this thing. So my daily prizes, were signed copies of my book, because I have them here at my house. And it wouldn't cost that much money for me to send them. I'm also giving away private one on one coaching sessions with me because I know my audience is always asking, and I don't typically

advertise coaching sessions. So this is kind of an

exclusive offer that I can give to a few people without it overwhelming me. And also, it's something that's exclusive to this giveaway. I also am giving away access to my digital program Proffitt Podcasting. This is a way for me to talk about my program, but also get people who are like, Oh my gosh, like I have been wanting to join this program forever. I'm absolutely going to enter, I'm going to do my review, I'm going to you know, go submit my entry because I want access to

Proffitt Podcasting. And then the grand prize winner, y'all I'm so excited about this. I cannot wait to give this away. Because it is everything we just talked about. It's signed copy of my book, start a binge worthy podcast, it will be a one on one coaching session with me. It's access to my program. And I also have a road pod mic, microphone, and a Focusrite interface. What does this mean, right? If you're like what, which does

she's speaking English anymore. Basically, it's a fancy podcast equipment that I wish I would have had in the beginning of my journey. And I know there's a lot of you listening right now they're like, Oh, I want that I've been wanting to get a dynamic microphone. I've been wanting to try out an interface. I've been wondering what it would be

like to have an XLR cable microphone. Like all the things I know, because I had all these questions too, whenever I was first starting, so I knew I got to throw something into this grand prize like, Oh, I want to win that. I want to get that right. So that is my mentality behind choosing prizes. They were affordable options for me, right because I could handle the postage and mailing of my books. It doesn't cost me anything extra other than my time for coaching sessions, and access to

my digital program. It's already complete. It's just a matter of adding someone to the program for something that I hope they're really excited to start because right you're probably listening to this and you want to level up your podcast or start a podcast.

equipment. So that in a nutshell, in a nutshell, almost 30 minutes later, that is the idea behind the review giveaway, I have so much more to share with you I have so many more, I guess like, I don't want to call them like trade secrets, but things that I'm doing behind the scenes that I can't wait to talk about that went into different decisions and how I'm approaching the giveaway, but you're just gonna have to wait until we do the

debrief episode in the future. And y'all I was just looking, and we're on episode 250 250 episodes of the Proffitt Podcast. And if you have been listening to this, and you have not written a review, now is the time it is literally the episode that I'm going to call you out and say, you can leave a review for this podcast and be entered in to win some really amazing prizes. Again, if you're listening to this after April 2021. The giveaway is done like we are done after

April 30 2021. But I hope that you learned some interesting information. And I hope that you follow up this episode with the future one that we do about everything that I learned. It's the review giveaway debrief. That's like Be on the lookout for it. It's coming in the next few weeks. And I'm already excited to share with you all the things that I've learned because I have learned so much in doing this. I've learned it takes a lot of

work. It takes a lot of planning, but it can absolutely happen and I hope to see more review giveaways for podcasts in the future.

If anything that I've learned from the apple podcast updates and all the things that are changing like podcasting is in the spotlight right now. And I am so fired up and excited about it. So make sure that you have subscribed to the podcast so you get updates on when we put out new episodes. Leave your review, enter it into the giveaway and I cannot wait to share with you so much more in the next few episodes because we have some really fun stuff coming up. But that's all I

have for you today. So remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.