Something I hear a lot is, “I enter giveaways all the time and I never win. You just win because you’re lucky and I’m not!” I think many of these people would be stunned to realize that they probably have won giveaways and don’t even know it. As a sweeper who also runs giveaways myself, I have the unique perspective of managing the process of drawing winners, and it is very often that I will have to select a new winner for a giveaway because the first person never responded to me. This isn’t just a case of one email getting lost – I usually send a follow-up email at least once, taking care to avoid links or any other terms that would throw me into their SPAM filter. There are many, many people out there winning prizes and getting 2-3 separate emails about it who simply never reply to claim their win. The very people who bemoan their bad luck may actually be far luckier than they realize!
So how can you avoid this? These are my hints.
Make Sure Your Email is Reliable For Sweepstakes.
I have nothing against Yahoo! Mail, but every time I draw a winner with an @yahoo.com email, I cringe. Why? Because 8 times out of 10, they never respond. Seeing a Yahoo email address is almost a guarantee that I will have to draw a new winner. Why this is, I have no idea, but I suspect they must have an overzealous SPAM filter. Remember, if you’re entering giveaways, you’re going to get a lot of emails that will trigger sensitive SPAM filters, like “Giveaway”, “Win”, “Prize”, “Blog”, and so on.
So what do I recommend? Well, I personally use Gmail, and I don’t usually have issues getting through to winners with Gmail addresses. The worst for reaching winners seem to be Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, and AOL, although Yahoo! is the worst. This is my anecdotal experience, of course, but I think I have a perspective worth sharing given my number of years successfully entering blog giveaways and the fact that I’ve run hundreds of them myself.
Check your SPAM!!
Even if you have the most reliable email out there, legitimate emails are going to wind up in SPAM every once in a while. Make a note to skim through your SPAM folder regularly so you can rescue any prizes that have been labeled SPAM by mistake. And no, those emails telling you you’ve won 100,000,000,000 pounds in the lottery are not legit, sadly. 😉
What Email Are You Using For Facebook?
What does Facebook have to do with giveaways? Well, if you use Rafflecopter to enter giveaways on blogs, you are most likely using your Facebook account to automatically login. When your name is pulled as the winner in a giveaway, it displays the email associated with your Facebook account as the contact information. If you’re like me and your Facebook account pre-dates your interest in sweeping, then you likely signed up with a defunct address that you never check. Check your Facebook profile and make sure your email listed is one that you actually use!
Oh, and in case you’re wondering why I wouldn’t just send a winner a message on Facebook if they are not replying to emails – I used to do just that, but Facebook now charges at least $1 per message to write to “Strangers”, otherwise your message is delivered to Facebook’s “Other Messages” tab – which is the FB version of a SPAM filter. If someone isn’t checking their email SPAM filter, I guarantee you that they aren’t reading their Facebook SPAM messages; and yes, I have tried! Which brings us to another point:
If You Have Social Networks, Check Them
Every once in a while, emails will go astray, so when I’m entering a sweepstakes myself, I try to make myself as easy to reach as I can. How you choose to manage your public identity and personal contact information is up to you; but I like to give the administrator of a giveaway multiple options for reaching me if possible. If I’m entering a contest by commenting on a Blogger.com blog, I leave my email in each comment – IE, supercoupongirl AT gmail DOT com – and my Blogger profile is tied to my Google+ page, which also lists my email address as well as multiple other avenues for contacting me. If I’m entering a contest by commenting on a WordPress-hosted blog (Like this one), I enter the URL to my blog as well as my name and email. (Bonus: That blogger can come and visit me, if they so desire!)
What information you share is totally up to you, but I will urge you that if you are going to use a social network to gain extra entries in a contest…make sure you actually check that network, too. I’ve seen several instances where sweepers will have Twitter profiles to gain extra Tweet entries into giveaways, but who never login to check their @ replies. I know this, because there has been more than one occasion where a winner has not responded to multiple emails, and I will send them a message on Twitter since their winning entry was a Tweet. No response there, either, because they’re not even checking.
I hope these tips help you in your quest to become a prize winner! Not every blog owner/contest administrator has as much patience as I do for trying to get ahold of people, because as a sweeper and softie it makes me really sad to see people miss out on prizes; which is why I thought it would be enlightening for people to realize that some winners are missing out on prize notifications that are practically slapping them in the face in their email and social networks! Don’t miss out on prizes that you’ve already won!
What tips would you add for making sure a prize doesn’t go unclaimed?
I’m always so worried that I’ll miss a winning notification. I do use yahoo, but I started sweeping with it years ago and it’s also the same as my Facebook email so I’m hesitant to switch it. Plus, I already have several emails I have to check, lol. I did recently attempt to set filters so if a fwe words like “win” “congratulations” “winner”, etc. are in the subject or body of an email it routes it to a special folder. I hope this helps me catch any notices. I haven’t won anything in a few months and I’m starting to get the itch!
This is all such good advice! I used to be more of a sweeper than I am now and for awhile my husband would come home and ask: “What did you win today?” It was really fun. Email is so, so important!!
Those are some good tips. Another is to be sure to respond, if required, in the allotted time frame.
Great advice. I’m sure this series will come in handy with all the holiday giveaways that are coming up. Thank you.
Great advice here! Luckily, the majority of my giveaway winners respond without problem but I know of a few of my emails when they’re coming from Rafflecopter that have gone to spam.
This is all so true! I sadly see people that do not answer email or bounces!
trisha