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How to Run Giveaways Post-GDPR

How to Run Giveaways Post-GDPR

Online email marketing has always been an effective way of interacting and engaging with existing customers while also reaching out to new ones. Giveaways have always proven to be really useful in getting user engagement while also collecting new email subscribers. With the GDPR in force, one might think that giveaways are no longer possible. This is not the case. In this article, we will be explaining how you can run giveaways in the current scenario.

What is the GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation is a regulation of the European Union that is designed to protect the citizens of the EU and their data, even if it is being collected by a company outside the European Union.

The GDPR has strict policies regarding the collection of customer data and has posed a lot of limitations on email marketing. If you are not careful and end up violating any of the sections of GDPR, you might face a hefty fine.

What Are Freebies And Giveaways?

Freebies are free resources, like webinars, prizes, e-books, that email marketers offer to customers in order to gain new subscribers.

Before the advent of GDPR, freebies were common, and giving items for free was a good and effective way of getting new email subscribers.

The marketers promoted free items like a white paper or sweepstake entries, but in reality, they were trying to get the implicit consent of customers to send them promotional emails. This marketing technique is called offering gated content. After GDPR, such practices are no longer possible.

How Gated Content Worked Before GDPR?

A user discovers a link to some free stuff (a pdf or something else)

The user clicks on the link and fills a form in which they have to enter their email address

The user is added to the recipient’s list and becomes an email subscriber automatically.

The user gets access to the pdf they wanted.

Why Do Companies Offer Freebies?

The companies provide free access to the important whitepaper. The users don’t have to spend their money, instead, they can get access by simply entering their email addresses. This gives the company a way to send them promotional emails and make new long-lasting customers.

The advantage for customers is that they do not have to pay. The advantage for the company is that they get consent to send promotional emails.

The user, however, can unsubscribe from the emails anytime he wants.

How GDPR Has Changed Giveaways?

The GDPR states that the consent of a user to receive emails must be explicitly given and not forced.

If you are offering someone a freebie in exchange for their email, then you are forcing them to give consent which goes against GDPR.

The consent to receive promotional emails should be explicitly given by filling out a form that is not in exchange for a freebie.

In order to keep getting new customers and comply with the rules, you will have to change the giveaway strategies a bit.

How To Run Giveaways And Expand Your List?

In order to continue doing giveaways, you need to make sure that you tell the customer that this product is not completely free of charge, and they are paying with their data. You also need to make sure that the customer knows they can unsubscribe at any given time

Present The Offer As An Exchange

Make the customer realize that they will be getting access to the information in exchange for their email addresses and that it is not free.

You can use taglines like:

• ● Sign up for our promotional emails to receive this white paper and much more

• ● Every new subscriber gets this white paper in the email

Watch Your Words

If you are going to collect user emails and data, do not use words like ‘free’, etc.

These services or giveaways are not free and the customer is paying using their data. Make sure you make this point clear in order to avoid being fined.

How To Use Contests To Grow Your List?

Ever since the implementation of GDPR, doing contests to boost your email list has become really difficult. In order to keep everything transparent and work on expanding your list, you should follow these tips:

Take Proper Consent

Tell the user explicitly that the fee for entering sweepstakes is an email subscription. This way they will know that they will be receiving your emails in the future if they participate in this contest.

Uncouple Sweepstakes From The Data

Let the users take part in the sweepstakes without having to provide their emails and provide an option to opt-in later on.

This will help you in getting high quality, engaging subscribers who explicitly gave their consent. This will also help you in maintaining a healthy recipients list, while also improving your IP reputation.

This will also make sure that you leave a good impact on the user that will be getting in touch with you for the first time. They will definitely appreciate it if you don’t force them to subscribe.

Why Did TheGDPR Make Giveaways Difficult?

In the past, a number of companies used freebies to lure in users and get email subscribers. The user data they collected could even get misused. The users were spammed with unwanted emails all the time.

GDPR puts a check on this practice and makes sure that a user gives proper consent if he/she wants to receive emails. It also makes sure that users are not tricked into subscribing in the name of freebies and giveaways.

Hence, if you are planning to host a giveaway (using CBT Mass Email Sender), remember to strike the word ‘free’ out. Tell the customer that they will be getting all this in return for a subscription, i.e., they are paying with their data. Follow all these steps and you are good to go!