What should I do with people who entered a contest or giveaway but didn't win?

Follow up personally with every single person who entered, even if it takes months. Thank them for entering, acknowledge their idea or participation, and offer them a discount code or special offer. This personal outreach accomplishes multiple things: it builds goodwill through the psychology of reciprocation (you took time to care about them personally), it keeps your relationship warm, and it often converts to sales down the line. One artist took two months to email back all 45 contest entrants individually. While only a couple responded immediately, three to four weeks later she received a large custom order from someone who had entered but never previously purchased. That one sale made the entire time investment worthwhile. The magic of giveaways isn’t just the contest itself—it’s the follow-up and relationship building that happens afterwards.

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Asked by an artist running social media contests · Answered by Karen Payton (sharing experience); Patrick Shanahan (affirming strategy) · art-marketing-podcast · 2025-08-29