Using Giveaway Contact Info

We talked about giveaways, where you try and target to a specific audience that is interested in your product. Remember, if you plan on doing anything with the information you collect, disclose it when people sign up for the contest. Now, what are you going to do with all of the contacts you get from the giveaway?

Hopefully, you thought of that and asked people to opt-in to receive future communications from you about your products and services. I highly recommend an opt-in program, rather than expecting people to remember to opt out, or worse, forcing them to agree to future contacts as part of the contest entry.

You want people who freely give you permission to contact them. Don’t force it. If you require agreement for future contacts in order to enter the contest, people will give you false information or a designated spam email (an address they only use in contests and that they never check or read). Yes, people do this. When they say they don’t want to be contacted, they mean it.

Once you have a list of customers who have agreed to let you contact them, think of what info they would want to receive. Don’t abuse the relationship by emailing too frequently. Bimonthly or monthly is more than enough for most people. And remember to use benefits in your contact. Tell the customer about your new product or service. Explain what’s cool about it. But do it in the context of how it helps them.

Give them useful information. Offer a discount or freebie or special extra if they use a code from your email. Try to find something that gives them the incentive to become your customer. They entered a contest because they wanted something from you for free. Now what are you going to do to convince them to pay for it?

image: sxc.hu