Giveaway Email: How to Make Your Prize-related Campaigns Work?

giveaway email cover image with three gift boxes in various sizes

Even successful businesses can face declining customer interest at times. Clients can feel overwhelmed by your brand communication or become dissatisfied with your customer service.

While you might think aggressively promoting your brand will recapture your audience’s love, it could actually lead to email fatigue and higher unsubscribe rates.

So, what’s the best way to create excitement and foster brand loyalty without overwhelming your audience?

Through giveaway emails!

According to Small Business Trends, contests have a conversion rate of 34%, higher than most other forms of marketing.

Running a successful giveaway email campaign can be your gateway to capturing potential audience’s interests, retaining existing ones, and improving your marketing revenue.

We’ll learn the important elements of a giveaway email that will help you create a seamless experience and encourage recipients to take action.



What is a Giveaway Email?

A giveaway email is a type of marketing email that announces a contest and encourages recipients to enter to win a prize. Email contests, sweepstakes, or giveaways are a method to attract potential audiences, grow your email list, and increase sales.

A typical giveaway email contains the following elements:

  1. Attention-grabbing subject line: The email subject line highlights the giveaway to encourage recipients to open and engage.
  2. Prize description: Outlining the prize, so participants can understand the appeal and benefits of winning.
  3. Entry instructions: A simple and clear instruction on how to participate. For example, signing up, clicking on the link, or sharing on social media.
  4. A strong CTA: An action-driven CTA, such as “Enter Now” or “Join the Giveaway.”
  5. Urgency: Most giveaway emails have a time limit to participate which can speed up the customer’s decision making, and increase email engagement.
  6. Social sharing: Prize-related emails integrate social media to improve the likelihood of more people participating.

When done well, these emails can help build rapport and foster long-term brand loyalty, impacting your overall email marketing efforts.


The Benefits of Giveaway Email Campaigns

Imagine sending a mass email campaign and capturing the attention of a large number of people, which eventually builds your email list.

A giveaway email can do that and more:

  1. It can increase engagement: People are naturally drawn to winning prizes for free. This makes giveaway emails more special than standard promotional emails, increasing open rates and click-through rates.
  2. It helps you grow your subscribers: 33% of the contestants are open to receiving further brand information. They are more willing to sign up to receive regular marketing newsletters and updates.
  3. It boosts brand awareness: People share contests with their friends and family, which can maximize brand visibility beyond your email list.
  4. It encourages repeat business: Hosting consistent contests can make your email marketing subscribers look forward to engaging with your brand. This increases the chances of more purchases in the future.
  5. It maximizes upsell opportunities: You can target participants with upgrades or complementary products to enhance the overall buying experience.
  6. It’s cost-effective: Running a contest can get you similar results to running PPC ads but for a fraction of the cost.

Regardless of these benefits, your giveaway email may not succeed if you randomly pick an audience group to send it to.

Each contest must be tailored to specific audience groups to create interest and increase engagement. Let’s learn the art of tailoring your prize-related email campaigns to suit the audience’s preferences.


Tailoring Your Giveaway Prizes and Messaging for the Audience

Messages that reach a large audience are more likely to generate sales. However, sending a mass email alone is not sufficient — you must customize your giveaway emails with the help of customer data.

Here’s how you can personalize your mass email to suit specific audience’s interests:

  • Read your audience: Divide your audience based on demographic and psychographic segmentation methods to understand their values, pain points, and motivations.
  • Choose relevant prizes: Pick a prize that genuinely complements your audience’s needs. For example, if your customers are gym enthusiasts, appropriate prizes would be a fitness tracker or gym membership.
  • Personalize the emails: Keep your email tone fun, engaging, and brand-oriented. Touch on common problems customers face and how the prize can help solve them. Additionally, highlight the perceived value of the product by mentioning its benefits.
  • Use segmentation: Check the engagement levels of different audience groups and provide exclusive prizes for your most loyal customers.
  • Time your emails right: Align your giveaway with holidays, seasonal events, or other important dates for your customers. For example, you can start dropping contest hints from Cyber Monday, run them through Christmas, and announce the winners right after Christmas.
  • Implement cross-channel messaging: Use multi-channel marketing, such as social media, emails, and ads to increase the chances of participation.

Pro Tip: Using Campaign Refinery’s Audience Groups Segmentation feature helps clients target different customer segments for the same email campaign. Additionally, access to advanced analytics, data-driven insights, and email tags allow for more targeted email marketing campaigns.


How to Create a Captivating Giveaway Email?

Every business handles its giveaways differently because it comes down to its overall marketing goals, audience preferences, and budget. While there’s no standard template for creating an effective giveaway email, good copywriting skills and following email design best practices can save the day.

Follow these 4 guidelines that will make your giveaway emails stand out in the crowded inboxes.

1. Write Amazing Subject Lines

Your subject line is the window to your email content, so it should grab people’s attention immediately. Think of it as a preview; mention the contest, deadline, and other relevant factors.

Here are a few examples for inspiration:

  • “Enter to win [Prize]”
  • “Your chance to win big is here”
  • “Win [Product Name] before [Date] by entering the contest”
  • “Don’t miss out on this exciting giveaway”

The best-performing subject lines are typically between 20-50 characters and mobile-optimized to suit smaller screens.

2. Use Eye-catching Visuals

Use compelling imagery and photos of the prize to let the recipients know what the contest is about. You can use bold banners or start the email with a high-quality product image to capture attention. Ensure to use fonts relevant to your brand personality.

Another way to make your emails stand out is to use colors that match your brand.

3. Utilize the Preheader Text

The email preheader is the part after the subject line and has an enormous impact on your email performance. Including details and telling readers why they must enter the contest can increase open rates.

For example, your preheader text can look like the following:

  • “Enter our amazing giveaway to win exclusive prizes”
  • “Win exciting prizes by clicking on the registration button now”

You can customize the preheader text to coordinate with the subject line and email body. Remember to stay in line with email security best practices to avoid becoming bait to spam traps. This means providing clear and relevant phrases and respecting your subscribers’ time.

4. Create Scarcity and Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency can help customers take immediate action. Mention the deadlines for entries and include the rules and legal disclaimers. This will paint a clearer picture and let the recipients decide quicker.

You can use words such as:

  • “Only 3 days left to enter”
  • “The giveaway closes soon — Don’t miss your chance”
  • “Exciting Giveaway — Register before 9 PM”

Include a scarcity element in the CTA, such as “Sign up now” or “Register before [Time].”

Email blasts are one way to reach more people with your giveaway emails. But making them feel personal can be challenging.

Campaign Refinery lets you capture customer interest through personalized and gamified broadcasts that pull more people in.


Use Campaign Refinery’s Broadcast Feature to Reach a Refined Target Audience

Since broadcasts are one-off messages, it could be your only time to impress your subscribers and convert more leads for giveaway emails. With Campaign Refinery, you can add a layer of engagement by gamifying your giveaway emails.

You can enrich your giveaway emails with a countdown timer so people know when the contest begins and ends. Subscribers love a reward, and you can integrate interactive elements or set up regular flash sales using our Evergreen Flash Sale feature.

Using our broadcast feature will help clients:

  • Customize sender details in each email they send,
  • Create a suppression list for people who don’t wish to receive such updates,
  • And schedule the broadcasts for different time zones.

Apply to become our client and explore our broadcast dashboard with unique features!


How to Grow Your Email List Through Giveaway Emails

Giveaway emails can be a powerful tool to spark interest and get more people on your email list, especially for startups still in the growth phase.

We’ve outlined the steps to growing your email list the right way.

Define Your Giveaway Email’s Goal

Before deciding on the giveaway prize and promotional methods, pay attention to the ‘Why’ factor. What are your goals with your giveaway email? Is it to increase brand awareness? Get more email marketing subscribers? Or drive traffic to your website?

Laying down your goals will help you align with consumer psychology and enhance the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Use an Easy-to-enter Format

If your entry process is complicated, people could find it harder to participate.

Giveaway emails typically require participants to:

Avoid asking personal questions upfront, as that can make people lose interest and back out from the contest.

Promote the Giveaway

The most crucial part is to promote the prize-related emails where people are the most active.

Get the word out through these channels:

  • Your website: Create eye-catching banners and pop-ups to drive people to the giveaways.
  • Social media platforms: Craft compelling posts, stories, and ads.
  • Email: Notify your current subscribers and incentivize them to share the news.
  • Influencers: Partner with influencers to increase your reach.

Keep promotions consistent without overdoing them. For example, you can tie mediums such as email and social media to reach more people. Pace out the emails and posts to offer more room for people to think and act.

Share a Welcome Email

Once the contest is over, follow up with a welcome email to retain subscribers’ interest.

A welcome email is a great chance to:

  • Thank the subscribers for their participation,
  • Introduce them to your brand and offers,
  • Share content that will keep them engaged.

Segment Your New Leads and Nurture Them

Segment your new email subscribers based on their interests and behavior. Send targeted content to build long-term relationships with them.

For example:

  1. You can send product tips and offers to leads interested in product-related giveaways.
  2. People drawn by a service-based giveaway can receive guides, tutorials, or exclusive discounts.

In every phase, ensure to create urgency to prompt users to take the desired action. Including interactive and gamified elements can increase the chances of quicker sign-ups.

We’ve compiled the best giveaway email campaign ideas to get you started.


Email Campaign Giveaway Ideas

Creative giveaway emails stand a better chance for conversion than a regular prize-related update.

The table below consolidates fine giveaway email ideas.

Giveaway Email IdeaHow to do itTarget AudienceExample Incentives
Product bundlesBundle the top-selling products or services.Customers interested in popular products.Free product bundles, service packages
Gift cardsGiveaway gift cards to encourage repeat purchases or attract new customers.E-commerce shoppers, retail shoppers.Store discounts
Discount vouchers
$100 gift cards
Refer-a-friendReward customers for referring new customers to your business.Current customers and their networks.Referral bonus
Free products
Service credits
Early access rewardsProvide early access to a new product launch or service.Loyal customers and fans of your brand.Exclusive first-looks
Early bird discounts
Seasonal or holiday giveawayHost a themed giveaway to engage customers on special holidays and seasonal events.Holiday shoppers, event enthusiasts.Holiday gift packs
Themed products
Seasonal discounts
Flash giveawayRun a limited-time product giveaway to encourage higher sign-ups.Impulse buyers, social media followers.24-hour product giveaway
Limited-time offers
Free service or consultationOffer a free trial or service consultation.Service-based businesses, professionals.One-on-one coaching
Free consultations
Trial services
Giveaway Email Campaign Ideas

Since the holiday season is coming up, we’ll observe the ways brands have used creativity in their giveaway email campaigns.


Giveaway Examples to Inspire Your Next Campaign

Brands use different types of giveaways during the holidays to add to the cheer and spice of the season.

Here are a few ways to make your customers’ holidays extra special.

1. 12 Days of Giveaways — Fracture

Giveaway email example 1
Giveaway email campaign example – Fractured — See full screenshot at the source

Fracture taps into the spirit of Thanksgiving with a 12 day giveaway themed email campaign. The giveaway email includes a daily value of $5000 and a new winner everyday. The brand also offers a 25% off on their story boards to encourage repeat business.

2. Giveaway on World Sleep Day — Deeps

Giveaway email example 2
Giveaway email example – Deeps — See full screenshot at the source

Deeps uses a strategic move to garner the audience’s attention – their giveaway email starts with a mention of the giveaway timeline. The entry process is simple and the terms and conditions are mentioned at the end to avoid confusion.

3. Happy Holidays Giveaway — Designmodo

Giveaway email example 3
Giveaway email example – Designmodo — See full screenshot at the source

Designmodo offers giveaways for the New Year, enticing people to enter the competition for a whopping prize of products worth $5485. The email includes a bunch of articles and other products to give users a glimpse of what they can expect.

Remember, your giveaways must have a strong marketing goal and look professional.

If you haven’t already been using tools for your giveaway email campaigns, we’ll drop a few names below.


Best Tools to Deploy Giveaway Emails

You can choose between an email service provider or a dedicated giveaway email platform to manage your campaigns.

The following list contains the most popular giveaway email tools.

Giveaway Management ToolsWhat’s Special?
WooriseHas a suite of social media tools for integration.
KingSumoBuilt to grow email lists.
ShortStackAllows users to create multi-tiered campaigns.
ViralSweepHelps your giveaway emails go viral.
Giveaway email management tools

Additional Tools

  • Canva is a graphic design tool that helps increase the visual appeal of your giveaway emails.
  • Hootsuite is a social media management tool to organize giveaways.
  • Google Analytics helps you track email performance and analyze user behavior.

If you want a comprehensive tool with analytics, user behavior tracking, and email marketing campaigns, Campaign Refinery is the way to go.


Enhance Your Email Engagement With Campaign Refinery’s Unique Features

Giveaway emails are a powerful strategy to maximize engagement and sales. However, bringing in more customers also means tackling your broadcast emails to fit user preferences and ensuring they reach subscribers’ inboxes promptly.

Campaign Refinery offers the highest inbox placement rate on the market.

Clients can personalize every broadcast email with dynamic content blocks, use advanced segmentation methods, and robust analytics and reporting features. If you would like to connect more tools, such as CRM or social media, it’s possible with our 800+ integration tools.

Deliver personalized giveaway emails and convert more leads with Campaign Refinery!

Apply to become our client today.

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