Get More Engagement With Your Contest by Adding Amazing Emails

Marketers today use video campaigns, webinars, and other trendy (cough Tik Tok cough) opportunities to reach their customers in the current digital era. However, that shouldn’t distract you from one of the oldest and yet most effective messaging platforms – email. You might be wondering whether email marketing is worth your time and efforts. Well, it is. Research shows that 99% of email users check their inbox every day, meaning that you can rely on emails for customer engagement.

What’s more, emails are mobile-friendly, universal, and their return on investment is pretty handsome. Research shows that the ROI on email campaigns is $42 for every $1 spent.

Adding emails to your contest keeps people engaged. In turn, engaged people share more, refer friends, and take more actions. Lets talk about the emails you should be adding to your next campaign!

The Best Emails and Email Practices to use for Better Results

So we sold you on adding email to your contest campaigns.

What contest emails will get you the results you want? Which automated emails should you add? What emails should you send regularly? Which are the best practices for all emails?

Automated Emails to Add to Your Contests

For creating a compelling brand identity and delighting your customers, what tops an email? An automated email. An automated email is sent out to your leads without direct initiation from you. The message is automatically sent from your email service provider in response to the lead’s actions made on your website.

We’ll look at some of the automated emails you can create for your clients and what should be included in each.

Auto-Response When Someone Signs up: This email includes a brief description of the contest, what they can win, and how they can earn more points and entries in order to improve their odds of winning or earning rewards. Pro-tip: Include your KickoffLabs unique status link for an easy way for leads to check their status and share with friends!

Reward Level - Low Bar: This is the email you send to your email subscribers when they do the most basic actions after their initial signup. The primary purpose of this email is to let your clients know that you’re paying attention, remind them that they’re earning points or entries, or build their way to earning giveaways at higher point levels. For instance, after the lead takes 2-3 contest actions and earns some points, you send this email to show them you’re aware of their existence and remind them how to keep earning points and why they should.

Reward Level - Approaching Rewards: This email is sent if you give rewards for a certain number of points earned by a lead. The email notifies the leads that they are close to a point level needed to earn a specified reward. Its primary purpose is to motivate the lead to keep going. For example, you may tell the lead that “A shopping voucher worth $55 is all yours if you earn five more points. Keep referring!” This example mentions how the lead can keep more points (referrals) and why they should do so (get a shopping voucher).

Reward Level - Earned Reward: This is the email to send when a lead earns a reward. Its primary purpose is to notify the lead that they have earned a reward, the next reward, and how they could unlock it. This email could include unique coupon codes or sales links distributed through KickoffLabs for your store/site.

Reward Level - Influencer Level: This is among the killer features you’ll find at KickoffLabs. When someone earns many points/entries in your contest, it might indicate that they are influential. In most cases, this is anyone that gets points worth five or more referrals. You write an email to them, inviting them to a private Slack Channel or group where you create a stronger connection to them. 

An automated email is an excellent way to keep the reach of your customers at all times. The email could work for you 24/7, reminding customers of your existence and how they can access you. However, several regular emails also play a vital role in the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

Let’s see below some of the regular emails to send.

Emails to Send Regularly to the Entire List

These are the regular emails sent to individuals to get the best out of the contests. They include:

Contest Announcement/Opt In: This email is used to let your existing audience know about your latest contest. Use the KickoffLabs “Instant Signup” feature so that existing leads can just join the contest without entering their email address again and go straight to sharing and earning points.

Weekly contest updates: Send an update mail to all the participants to remind them to keep participating in the contest. A good suggestion is to regularly add new contest actions, including “This week’s goal is to watch our latest video” or “Refer friends on Reddit.”

No Action Emails: This email is sent to everyone with no points in the contest. In the mail, remind them how to get engaged and why. Sort of a follow-up to the auto-reply email. 

Now that you know the automated and regular emails to send to your clients, you may be wondering how you can get the best out of your email campaigns. Hang on there as we explore some of the best practices for all emails.

Best Practices for All Emails

Knowing what to include in your regular or automated emails is key to your business’s success. Let’s see some of the things your emails should or shouldn’t have:

Branded Subjects: This maintains your business professionalism. Put your brand name in the “from” field or go with something along the lines of “Peter Smith from KickoffLabs.” Also, make sure to call out your customers with their first names to personalize the experience. KickoffLabs features some of the best templates to use for branding.

From a Real Person They Could Reply to: People are more comfortable working with individuals than brands. Personalize your email to show your clients that they’re working with an individual and not the brand. You may use such lines as “Peter Smith from KickoffLabs” in the emails to show them that they’re communicating with individuals. Further, show your customers that you care about their opinions by avoiding the “do-not-reply” or “no-reply” emails.

Thankful for Their Current Participation: Show your clients that you appreciate them working with your brand. A simple ‘’thank you” can go a long way toward increasing your sales and revenues. Luckily, KickoffLabs offers you pre-filled thank you messages for your emails.

Call-to-Action Link: Your email should feature the Call-to-Action link that directs your leads on the next course of action to take. Ideally, the CTA should redirect the customers to the contest status page to start getting entries and points. The CTA can also allow for social sharing. Note: KickoffLabs comes with an integrated Viral Boost feature that allows for social sharing. The link could feature a name such as “Start earning points today!” or “Get a shopping voucher!” or “sharing is caring. Show your loved one you care!”

Readable: Remember that people on the web don’t read. They scan through a message. If your email isn’t legible on a user’s device, they won’t bother deciphering it. Make sure that your email is readable by the users.

Fewer Images (since they are blocked by default): An image makes your email more visually stunning. However, you don’t want to distract your audience from the core purpose of the email. Use images, if necessary, and ensure the images are themselves a URL that leads back to your site.

Short and to the Point: Readers online barely go through the entire message. They scan through it. That’s why you should make your emails short and straight to the point.

Sample Emails: Examples Leveraging the Best Practices

Let’s see how you can draft an email message for the following emails.

Email 1: Auto Reply / Follow-up Email

Hi Bill,

You’re on the list! We’ll begin moving users off the waitlist in November. Want to gain early access faster? Move up positions by sharing with friends using the link below (unique status page link here)

Have any questions? Email us at support@kickofflabs.com or back here and we’ll be in touch!

Thank you again!

Peter Smith From KickoffLabs

Email 2: Reward Level “Almost There” Email

Hi Linda,

First, I’d like to thank you for your participation in our weekly contests. Also, I have noticed that you’re almost achieving the target for monthly referrals. You’re two referrals away from walking home with a cash prize worth $500. Keep referring!

Cheers,

Peter Smith From KickoffLabs.

Email 3: Contest Announcement

Hi Maggie,

I want to thank you for your participation in our contests. I’d also like to invite you to our latest contest. Refer friends, follow us on social media, and share our posts to earn points and stand a chance to win a brand new Macbook Air Pro.

Thanks and regards,

Peter Smith From KickoffLabs.

Email 4: Contest Update

Hi John,

Thank you for your continued participation in our weekly contests. I want to let you know that this week’s goal is to refer friends on Pinterest.

Kind regards,

Peter Smith from KickoffLabs

Sending Emails Through KickoffLabs

The benefit of setting up and scheduling these emails for your KickoffLabs contest is that you’ll have regular engagement with your audience and, most importantly, motivate them to share with friends and grow the size of your online audience, so you’ve got more people to sell to.

At KickoffLabs, our goal is to provide you with the tools and resources to help you generate more leads and get more conversions. In our experience, keeping leads engaged is key to get leads talking about your contest..turning one lead into many more!