The anatomy of a 100,000 subscribers giveaway

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Giveaways and email marketing have more in common than you may think.

Disclaimer: not for the best of reasons 😬

• Reason A: Both have bad rep amongst marketers (especially those who don’t use them)

• Reason B: People think they don’t work anymore

To be fair, a couple of years ago I’d agree with both statements.

But that changed when I started reading more and more case studies of people who’ve used both to successfully grow their businesses.

Spend $2,000 to get 100,000 subscribers? Sign me up!

That’s $0.02 per subscriber.

While these are not everyday results, giveaways are one of the most cost-effective options to grow your newsletters. But they’re also extremely easy to screw up.

Hence you hear people swearing by Reason B.

In today’s issue of Newsletter Navigator, I’m going to uncover the exact blueprint of a giveaway aimed at getting you new newsletter subscribers.

To illustrate that, I’m going to use a giveaway that I launched for a productivity author and YouTuber, Ali Abdaal.

That giveaway generated over 100,000 net new subscribers.

And really, there are 5 core components that you have to remember about.

Let’s dive in.

Focus on the newsletter and the newsletter only

Do you know what this image looks like?

It looks like a completely wasted opportunity.

You see, it’s enticing to run a giveaway that helps you grow your email list… and your YouTube channel… and your Facebook page!

But in reality, you’re only diluting what could be one significant number into many insignificant contributions to various platforms.

The first rule of a successful giveaway is to keep it simple.

Make the only way to enter it via a newsletter subscription.

If you want to then point people to your social media accounts, do it after they join. Sure, you’ll get fewer conversions with no additional incentive (like in the above example) but if growing the newsletter is your priority then it’s a hit worth taking.

Celebration time!

Another reason for the giveaways’ bad rep is that back in the day every influencer and their dog would run a giveaway. Every single week.

Your giveaway should be a celebration.

You should have a reason (a milestone, achievement, something significant) that you want to share with your audience. Therefore, you’re not just giving away free stuff. You’re celebrating a milestone that couldn’t be achieved without them.

Here are some examples:

• 100,000 subscribers on YouTube

• 5,000 followers on X

• 100 videos published

• 50th issue of the newsletter

• $10,000 MRR

• 2,000 podcast downloads

Frame it so that it’s a joint celebration and your gift that you’re essentially giving back.

Make it relatable

This is a bigger issue with marketing but when people see one brand succeed they copy/paste whatever they did hoping that it’ll work just as well across their audience.

Please, don’t be that person who launches another referral program with branded mugs, stickers, and caps. (unless that’s what your audience genuinely wants!)

Whatever you’re giving away should resonate with your content (specifically the one that you’re “celebrating”) and therefore with your audience.

Here are some real-life examples:

• Ali Abdaal → Productivity Booster Set

• SavvyCal → Deep Work Kit

• Molly Mae → Louis Vuitton bags

• Colin & Samir → Creator Starter Kit

• Morning Brew → MacBook Pro

Make it something your audience wants, something that you can frame nicely in the context of your content and the milestone you’re celebrating.

Aim for quality, not quantity

This is probably where most doubts kick in.

The myth of low-quality subscribers.

Sure, some people are going to join your giveaway just for the prize.

But, surprisingly big chunk are going to stay active if you implement these couple of steps (and stick to the core principles):

Auto-purging automation

This is something that you should implement anyway so treat it as a friendly kick in the butt.

Having an always-on automation that cleans your list 24/7 in the background is the key to a healthy email list.

Create a re-engaging automation that gets triggered when someone joins your newsletter but doesn’t interact with it.

You want to wait 3+ months to reach out to such cold leads with the re-engagement sequence.

Ask them for a click-based interaction. If that doesn’t happen wait another month. Repeat. Another two weeks. Repeat. Another couple of days. Repeat. Last notice. No effect? Bye!

Keeping your list clean is far more important than focusing on vanity metrics like the size of your email list.

Get data

Again, this can be a standard process that you implement for every email form you have (giveaways, newsletters, lead magnets) but doing it for a giveaway when you’re expecting a one-time influx of subscribers is a must.

As soon as someone opts into your giveaway, you should try to activate that new subscriber.

One way is right on the thank-you/confirmation page.

On it, you can embed a quick survey using tools like RightMessage, Typeform, or Interact.

Ask your new subscribers about the one thing that you could help them with (their #1 challenge or priority). Then add 4-5 questions to each entry point.

This way, you’re activating your new subscribers while getting first-party data.

Another way of doing it is through a thank-you/confirmation email.

Typically, to confirm an entry to a giveaway, you’d send an email confirming that “they’re in”. In there, you have two options:

#1 - Ask them to respond with their #1 challenge or priority (thing that you could help them with). Here you’re doing the same thing that you’d do using a survey but you’re also warming up your sender’s domain.

#2 - Recreate the opening question from a survey by listing out all the answers and making them clickable. Then collect data from those link clicks. You can also make those clicks redirect to a separate landing page with the remaining part of the survey.

Either way, you not only want to get as many subscribers as you can but you want to get as many qualified subscribers as you can.

Do it quickly, do it right

Giveaways work best as a concentrated push.

That’s why you need to introduce urgency and think about the distribution strategy before the launch.

First, decide on the time period.

Any time between 24 hours (high urgency) to 7 days (medium urgency) will work.

Then, think about the content you’re going to use to announce the launch, sustain the momentum, and promote the last 24 hours.

My tip would be to do it using a variety of formats - video, written posts, images - and on all your platforms.

And that goes back to our first point (focus on the newsletter and the newsletter only) → what you’re really trying to do here is to take the audience you generated on borrowed platforms and bring them to your own.

So, let’s assume you choose to do it across 7 days.

1 - Create assets for your launch day and distribute them in the first 24 hours. This can look something like this:

Launch day

• X - announcement video + post

• YouTube - regular video w/ giveaway plug (you can cut it out later)

• Instagram - post + story

• Facebook - post + story

• LinkedIn - post

Days 2-5

• X - auto-plug under your posts and threads

• Instagram - story

• Facebook - story

• LinkedIn - auto-plug under your posts

Last 24 hours

• X - announcement video + post

• YouTube - community post

• Instagram - story

• Facebook - story

• LinkedIn - post

Summary: The Anatomy of a 100,000 Subscribers Giveaway

1. Focus on the newsletter and the newsletter only

2. Celebrate a milestone

3. Make it relatable

4. Aim for quality, not quantity

5. Do it quickly, do it right