How to Announce a Giveaway Winner: Tips and Tricks

Running a successful giveaway requires planning everything from choosing the prize and setting entry requirements to building a landing page and planning how you'll promote it. However, one crucial step that's equally important but often overlooked is announcing and communicating with the giveaway winners. After all, what's the point of organizing a giveaway if it isn't clear who the winner is at the end? Knowing how to announce your giveaway winner properly maintains engagement and helps you boost sales and build excitement for your next giveaway. In this article, we’ll explore various ways to announce a giveaway winner, complete with examples for inspiration.

5 Ways to Make a Giveaway Winner Announcement

1. Notify the Winner by Email

Personalized emails are a popular and effective way to notify and congratulate giveaway winners. They allow you to connect directly, share a thoughtful message, and receive a prompt response. Additionally, emails allow winners to share their addresses for prize delivery privately. Before making a public announcement, it's crucial to notify the winner by email first. This ensures they meet eligibility requirements, permits you to use their name in the announcement, and confirms they’ll claim the prize. Allow three to seven days for a response; if they don’t reply within this timeframe, choose another winner and inform the original one via email. If you’re hosting a giveaway on Facebook, this step ensures you comply with their rules, which require notifying winners privately before making any public announcement.

Example of a Contest Winner Email

Subject line: Congratulations! You’ve won the Raffle Leader Summer Giveaway! Email message: Hi (winner’s name), Exciting news—you've won the $500 Grand Prize in our Raffle Leader Summer Giveaway! Congratulations! To claim your prize, please follow these steps:

• Confirm your eligibility. Please confirm that you meet all the entry requirements.
• Respond within 5 days. Please email us within 5 days to claim your prize.
• Permission to share. Please let us know if it's okay to announce your win on social media.
• Optional: If you’re feeling extra excited, snap a selfie with your prize and share it with us!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at (your email address). I'm here to help! Luckily for you, Raffle Leader makes the process easier by letting you select a winner and send them a personalized email—all within the same platform. 

2. Create an Announcement Post on Facebook

Facebook is an excellent platform for announcing your contest winner, especially if you hosted your giveaway there. Why? All participants will be eager to see if they've won. As mentioned earlier, you're legally allowed to announce your contest winners in a Facebook post, provided you've notified the winner beforehand. A great Facebook post announcing the winner should have these elements:

• Start with a thank-you sentence for everyone who participated and made your giveaway a success.
• If submitting photos or videos was a requirement, include the winning entry.
• Describe the prize and include a photo of it.
• Tag the winner to celebrate their victory.
• Provide a link to your giveaway landing page for those who haven't seen it yet.
• Explain how the winner was selected.
• Inform your followers about when your next Facebook giveaway will launch.

Example of a Facebook Announcement Post

Congratulations to (winner’s name), winner of the $500 Grand Prize in our Raffle Leader Summer Giveaway! Her photo entry was selected randomly from over 2,000 entries. We appreciate everyone who participated and made this contest a success! Watch our Facebook page for details on our next giveaway.

3. Announce the Contest Winner on Instagram

Announcing contest winners on Instagram is a fantastic way to captivate and engage your audience, especially if you ran your giveaway on Instagram. It offers an exciting experience for both the winners and all participants, boosts enthusiasm and drive further engagement for your giveaways.  Make sure your Instagram announcement post includes the following key elements:

• Eye-catching image: Use a visually striking image that grabs attention and encourages people to stop scrolling.
• Show of gratitude:Thank everyone who participated in your giveaway.
• Tag the winner: If you have the winner's Instagram handle or Facebook name, tag them and ask them to send you a private message to claim their prize.
• Call to action: Ask followers to click the link in your bio or follow your account.
• Relevant hashtags: Use giveaway-related hashtags to expand your post's reach and visibility.

Example of an Instagram Announcement Post

Congratulations to (winner’s Instagram handle), our lucky winner of the $500 Grand Prize in our Raffle Leader Summer Giveaway! Please send us a DM to claim your prize.  The winner was chosen randomly from thousands of entries we received.  A heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated and made our contest tremendously successful. Your support means the world to us. If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. Stay tuned for our next contest coming soon! Keep an eye on our Instagram profile for updates. For more details, click the link in our bio. (relevant hashtags)

4. Write a Blog Post Announcing the Winner

Blog posts offer the most flexibility compared to other announcement channels because they offer ample space to include various types of content. You can use this platform to vividly illustrate the stages of your giveaway from beginning to end, incorporating visual elements such as photos and videos. Additionally, publishing a blog post generates new content for your website, which provides valuable SEO benefits. An effective blog post announcing a giveaway winner should include these key elements:

• Introduction: Start by briefly outlining the contest’s details, goals, and duration.
• Acknowledgment: Thank all participants for their time and enthusiasm throughout the contest.
• Winner announcement: Boldly reveal the winner's name (with their permission) and describe their prize.
• Contest recap: Highlight interesting statistics such as entry numbers, participant demographics, or notable trends.
• Visuals: Enhance your blog post with relevant images, such as prize photos or contest entries, to make it visually engaging and shareable.
• Future promotions: Conclude by teasing upcoming contests or promotions to keep your audience excited and engaged.

This structure ensures your blog post informs, captivates, and prepares your audience for future interactions. Example of a Blog Post Announcement Blog post title: Announcing the Winner of our Raffle Leader Summer Giveaway! Blog post: We've just concluded our Summer Giveaway, and it's time to announce our lucky winner! Thank you to everyone who participated and made this contest a success. Drumroll, please... Congratulations to (winner’s name)! She has won the $500 Grand Prize with her outstanding photo entry. View all the contest entries here (link to giveaway landing page). Our panel of judges, which included members from Raffle Leader's marketing and development teams, carefully reviewed thousands of entries and selected the winner based on creativity and how well it captured the contest's theme. Congratulations, (winner’s name)! Enjoy your prize, and thank you for being a valued part of our community.  Stay tuned for more exciting giveaways coming your way!

5. Send an Email to Non-Winners

Once your giveaway winner has responded to claim their prize and given permission to publish their name, you should email contest participants who didn’t win. Initially, they may feel disappointed, so this email is a chance to offer a consolation prize and keep them engaged.  Send them an email to show gratitude for helping make your giveaway a success. Show sincerity by offering a special discount, promo code, or free ebook copy. Anything is effective as long as it’s relevant and valuable to your target audience! Lastly, let them know that while they didn’t win this time, more opportunities to win will be coming their way soon.

Example of a Thoughtful Email to Non-Winners

Subject line: Your Reward for Entering Raffle Leader’s Summer Giveaway Email message: Hi (participant’s name), Thank you for participating in our Summer Giveaway and contributing to its success. Unfortunately, you weren't selected as a winner this time. However, as a token of appreciation, we'd like to offer you a 35% discount coupon, which you can claim here (link to coupon page). Don't worry! You'll have another opportunity to win in next month's giveaway. Cheers!

Conclusion

Announcing your giveaway winner is just as important as every other part of your campaign. If you do it right, it can help you reach goals like boosting exposure, sales, and future campaign awareness.