Promote Your Giveaway: Email Newsletter

While email marketing has evolved a lot on the past 5 years, email certainly isn’t dead. If you’ve ever launched a promotion or sale with the help of a large email subscriber base, you probably know all too well that email marketing channels can make a huge impact. Promoting your giveaway on your email list something you should think about if you don’t to it already. Here you’ll learn a few tips to get your giveaway an extra boost through email marketing.

Email newsletter timing

If you’re planning on sending out a newsletter and want to include a link to your promotion, there are two specific times you'd be recommended to do so:

• 24-36 hours after launch. Your giveaway has launched and you probably can’t wait to announce it to your email list subscribers. Show some patience though! Consider waiting a day or so after the giveaway has opened. This will give you a chance to promote it across a few other social networks first to make sure the giveaway is running smoothly. Wait a day after launch to make certain the giveaway is set up exactly how you’d like before telling your subscribers.

• 24-36 hours before the end. It’s a great idea to give your giveaway a shoutout on your email list just before it closes. On that note, consider giving at least 24 hours of notice to your subscribers. If you send out your newsletter with 12 hours left, there’s a chance some people won’t read the email before it closes. While it’s a great idea to use messaging like "Last day to enter!" or “Hurry! 24 hours left to enter…”, make sure you include the end date and time (Monday @ 12pm EST midnight) so there isn’t any confusion. Saying “the giveaway ends tomorrow” will catch some people off guard if they’re living in different time zones depending on the time of your send.

If you were going to send out a max of two emails during your giveaway, these are the two best recommended times. You may decide to send more than just two emails while your giveaway is running. The amount of emails sent to an email list can vary from organization to organization. Although one to two emails a month might work best for most, it's up to you and your goals to dictate what will work best for your brand.

Transactional emails

In addition to your newsletter, perhaps you send out other transactional emails to your readers. For example, when someone uses Rafflecopter to run a giveaway, they’ll be sent an email when they sign up, as their giveaway starts, when their giveaway ends, 24 hours before it ends, when someone downloads a spreadsheet of their entries, etc. While your giveaway is open, consider placing a 80 character message in the bottom of your transactional emails linking to your giveaway. The additional exposure should help!

Embedding giveaway in a newsletter?

If you’re thinking about embedding your giveaway in a newsletter, you should reconsider. While it’s theoretically possible to try this, it wouldn't be very practical given that most email clients strip out or disable javascript in order to prevent malicious code execution or other security issues. Since the Rafflecopter widget is a javascript application, you’d be best not to try this.

In addition, there are significant benefits to keeping your giveaway live on one landing page that entrants can link their friends to. Your best bet is to link your newsletter subscribers to your site or your blog where the giveaway is taking place.

If you plan on running your giveaway on Facebook, your best bet would be to first write a Facebook status update that announces your giveaway and then link to it. Once that status update is live on your Facebook timeline, link your email subscribers to that status update that includes the mobile-friendly URL vs linking directly to the mobile-friendly URL.

Have a well-built email marketing plan

Having an active & engaged email list is something any savvy marketer should have. Here’s a curated list of other compelling blog posts and materials about email marketing that you’ll find helpful:

• 10 Simply Awesome Examples of Email Marketing

• 10 Email Marketing Campaigns Analyzed to Increase Email Conversions

• Email Marketing: How to Push Send and Grow Your Business

• 10 Examples of Brilliant Email Marketing (and Why They're So Great)

• 20 Tips for Great Email Newsletter Design

• 5 Killer Examples of Retention Email Marketing

Next: Read about other sites where you might promote your giveaway