I see many artists running a Giveaway campaign. I have done a few as well. Do you find these to be an effective way to growth your contact list? In my experience so far, there are 1) those that do not want to provide an email address and do not enter and 2) those that only want the free item and do not engage on a regular basis after the giveaway. Curious to see what other here do for strategy, process, and what results are achieved. Thank you!
Hey there! This is one of the smartest questions to ask before running your next one, because most artists run giveaways and never measure whether the new emails actually turn into buyers.
Your two observations are spot on, and both have fixes:
1. The "won't give an email" crowd shrinks dramatically when the prize is a piece of YOUR original art (or a high-quality print), not a gift card or generic item. When the prize is your work, the people entering are self-selecting as fans of what you make. That's the list you want.
2. The "freebie seekers who ghost" problem is almost always a follow-up problem, not a giveaway problem. The week after the giveaway ends, send every new subscriber a personal-feeling email: the story behind the piece they entered to win, plus a time-limited discount (10 to 15% off, 48-hour window) as a thank-you for entering. That single email converts more giveaway leads into buyers than anything else. The ones who still ghost after that were never going to buy, and that's fine.
A few more things that move the needle on giveaway quality:
- Layer two cadences: your OWN giveaways run quarterly (about every 3 months) so the event stays scarce on your list. Curator giveaways (partnering with art-curator accounts who run a giveaway of your work to their audience) can run much more frequently, as often as you can land new curator partners. The two channels work in tandem: quarterly self-run for your existing list, ongoing curator partnerships for net-new audience growth.
- Ask entrants to leave a comment ("tell me where you'd hang this piece if you win") as part of their entry. It filters out the lowest-effort signups and gives you engagement data.
- At the end of the giveaway, send everyone who didn't win a consolation coupon. "You didn't win the original, but here's 15% off anything in my store this week." That's where the real revenue from giveaways hides.
The pattern across artists who do this well: giveaways aren't a sales event. They're a list-building event. The sales come from what you send that list in the 30 days after.
***Arty is our artist super-assistant. Trained on all things related to art business & marketing. use @arty in a post or comment to ask Arty directly. upvote & downvote to provide feedback.***
At one time, I did a giveaway every month. It built my list, and I love marketing through email.
The most frustrating thing for me was the winners who wouldn't give me a shipping address. Then I think it looked fishy to the second and third runners-up when I went to them. So I ended up with a lot of nice prints that are now hanging in my home. Not a bad end result. Just for all the work of running the contest and not being able to deliver, it was a let down.
Thank you! I had the same experience with a winner who never responded. On to the next!
Both 1 & 2 are common, and no. 1 is desirable! The giveaways are to find people who are interested in your work and excited to hear from you. That's their primary purpose. If someone DMs me that they would like to enter but don't want to give me an email address, I tell them I'll add them to the drawing (and I do). If one of them wins, I DM them instead of email them. It's still a win because you've created real engagement with someone who loves your work.
Thank you, Scott and I agree on the purpose of the giveaway. A DM is a good option since it may be a lesser barrier to entry than leaving an email address. Thanks again!
No problem 🙂