Getting Customers to Opt In: Including a Contest/Prize?

Wait a moment - so you're going to email people you don't have permission to email?

I'm assuming you have three values: Opt In, Opt Out, Never Answered, correct?  If your opt-in is just Yes/No, you won't know an Opt Out from a Never Answered unless NULL is allowed.

Instead of a prize how about offering them something like...oh, I don't know....useful content?  Something they'll actually want to stay opted in to get?  A newsletter, or a guide, or exciting announcements.

I agree with @Robb Barrett PRD that a contest/prize won't be the way to go here. I worry you won't get the qualified leads you're looking for. In other words, they'll opt in for the contest and either unsubscribe shortly thereafter or eventually forget they opted in and report you for SPAM.

Because they're previous customers, could you instead offer them a survey? I suppose it matters how long it's been since they'd done business with you, but I've had a lot of a luck in sending a survey when running cookie campaigns, which in some ways is similar.

Hi Robb and Jennifer,

Thanks for your feedback. Our team felt that a content offer would not be enough to generate opt-ins - that an incentive should be offered to quickly get these past leads/customers to opt in and add them to nurturing. I understand all of your valid points and plan to bring them to the table. To summarize, offering an incentive to get these customers to officially sign up for emails is NOT an effective strategy?

Many thanks,
Alexis

Question: Is this to get CASL opt-ins before July 1?

In my past experience, my former company ran an 'open' sweepstakes campaign at a $25K pop, with prize offerings of grand prize trip to Paris for a few nights with airfare included, several iPads, and some other smaller prize.

What we found from this campaign (which was really just about casting a wide net) that after a period of even 2 years and then 3 years later, that we still had almost 98% of the 18K+ leads originally opted in, and a low overall opt out rate.  Velocity of opt-outs was pretty early.  Most leads just stayed without opt-out.

Our net cost per new lead was less than $4.

Now, you can do this if you wish, however what is the target of the objective?

Canadian bonding (in Quebec specifically) can be tricky.

Generally, if you have a prize less than $500 in the US and most of Canada (I think) you can use a general legal statement, and leads that do come in don't have to worry about tax implications.  As well, with the $500 option, you don't have to worry about bonding in states like Florida, etc.