Pixelrage.net

Have you ever attended a sales demo in a store or trade show that offered you a box where you could drop in your business card or contact information for a chance to win some great product? It seems like the iPhone or MacBook are the two prizes of choice, and they sure are in high demand. Is this legit, or just a dirty trick to get more sales leads?

If you think of it this way: have you ever seen one of these companies announce who the winner was? I can honestly say that I never have. Ever.

Chances are that you’ll forget that you had entered the drawing within a half of a day after doing so, anyway. The same applies to online raffles for a Wii or XBOX. What if nobody wins? What if there is no iPhone or XBOX from day one? This could all be an elaborate way to get more valuable phone numbers and email addresses. Have you ever seen one of these sites say “Congratulations to (username)” or “Congratulations to John D. for winning our (whatever) raffle” with a link pointing to that user’s profile, making it public and available for anyone to instant message them and ask “hey, did you really win that thing?” Once again, I haven’t!

This all comes down to business ethics. Lie about a giveaway, you might get away with it…but boy are you in trouble when someone with no life calls you up someday and asks who the winner was. It could be a potential public relations nightmare.

Here’s some good practice…if you’re going to run one of these raffles, make sure you physically give the product away at the end of the day, and make it is well known and publicized. Not only will it increase confidence and interest, but it will force people to come back to see you at the end of the day, giving you double exposure. Otherwise, your company looks deceptive and crooked if the raffle is held days later at the office…if at all.