Create giveaway — gain participants and leads

A giveaway form combines a playful question or action with required fields for entry — typically name, email and a consent. The mechanic is simple: whoever fills in the form is automatically entered into the raffle. Goals range from lead capture and social media engagement to brand awareness for a broad audience. Giveaways are well suited to gain many new contacts in a short time.

The difference from pure newsletter forms lies in the incentive and the legal framework. For a newsletter, users give their data in exchange for long-term value such as updates or content. For a giveaway, the incentive is more concrete but time-limited — and different GDPR requirements apply because two purposes coincide: entry into the raffle and the possible use of the data for marketing. These purposes need to be consented to separately, otherwise a marketing campaign quickly turns into a legal warning case.

Giveaways need a clearly linked set of terms of participation — organiser, participation period, prize, selection process, exclusion criteria and legal venue. These terms belong before submit, not on the confirmation page. The consent to data use within the giveaway must be explicit — no pre-ticked checkboxes, but a deliberate action by the participant. Optionally you can offer a second checkbox for marketing communication, ticked independently of the entry.

Publishing the winner is a separate purpose and needs a separate consent. If you plan to show names or photos on the website or in social media, collect this consent directly in the form — with a clear description of what is published where. Always offer an opt-out link for marketing emails. Data minimisation applies here too: only ask for a postal address when the prize is shipped physically. Everything else stays optional or is dropped entirely.

A fair selection process is not only a moral question but also a legal one. In case of dispute, you must be able to prove that the winner was drawn randomly and not arbitrarily. A pragmatic solution: use a reproducible random algorithm with documented seed — for example a function that reads all valid entries, uses a timestamp as seed and stores the result in a log file. That way you can still trace months later how the selection came about.

For high-value prizes — trips, devices in the four-digit range, cash — a notarised process is recommended. The notary either runs the draw or confirms the process in writing. That creates legal certainty towards authorities, consumer protection bodies and individual participants who might raise doubts. Also record which entries were excluded due to incomplete data, multiple submissions or bot suspicion — best in the activity log with a reason. This documentation is your insurance when someone asks.

After the participation period ends, the actual work begins. Draw the winner via a clearly documented process — either a custom script with seed or an external service like Random.org, called via webhook. Send the winner a confirmation email with a deadline (typically seven to fourteen days) and a confirmation link. If the winner does not respond within the deadline, draw a substitute. The process should be described in the terms of participation in advance.

The non-winners are the larger group and the more valuable follow-up audience. A short info email, ideally with a small consolation prize like a discount code, builds goodwill and can create a second conversion chance. If publication was consented to, publish the winners list on a dedicated page. After that, mark the giveaway as formally closed — delete data that is no longer needed, archive the activity log and evaluate the result internally: which channels brought the most participants?