How to run a nomination giveaway and turn the entrants into customers
The exact form fields to ask for, a plan for announcing the winner, and a follow-up email that treats every nomination as a lead.
- Ask for full name, phone and the nomination story. The story is what makes each entry a real lead.
- Give away something meaningful from your own service rather than buying a prize.
- Announce the winner publicly so the community sees the whole thing play out.
- Email every non-winner a thank-you offer on the same service.
By the end of this guide you will have launched a nomination giveaway for your local service business and set up the follow-up that turns the people who did not win into customers. Before you start you need two things: a giveaway idea drawn from your own service, and a way to publish a form people can fill in.
Why the form fields matter more than the prize
A nomination giveaway asks people to nominate someone else, a neighbor, a relative, a friend, who deserves the thing you sell. A roofer might give a free roof to a family that cannot afford one. A home inspector might give a free inspection to a first-time buyer. A restoration company might give a full cleanup after a storm. The prize comes from your own service, so it costs you your labor and materials rather than an ad budget, and it puts your actual work in front of the community.
The form is where the money is. Every person who submits a nomination gives you their full name, their phone number, and the story behind the nomination. That story tells you why someone in their life needs your service, which is close to telling you they need it too. Treat each entry as a lead from the moment it arrives, because the person who nominates a neighbor for a free roof is a homeowner with a roof.
Build the nomination form
- 01Pick the prize from your own service
Choose one deliverable you already provide, such as a roof, an inspection or a cleanup. Write one sentence describing exactly what the winner gets.
- 02Write the nomination question
Ask people to nominate someone who deserves it, and tell them in plain words what the winner receives.
- 03Add the three fields that make it a lead form
Ask for the submitter's full name, their phone number, and the nomination story in a free-text box. The story is where the interest shows up.
- 04Add a field for the nominee
Ask for the nominee's name and how to reach them, so you can verify the story and deliver the prize.
- 05Publish the form and share it
Post the link wherever your community already sees you, and let people submit as many nominations as they want.
Keep the form short. Three or four fields beat ten, because each extra field costs you completions and the story box does the heavy lifting anyway. A person who writes three sentences about why their neighbor needs a new roof has told you more than any dropdown menu would.
Announce the winner
Announce the winner publicly, in the same place you ran the giveaway, and tell the story of the nomination when you do. The community watched the giveaway from the start, and the announcement closes the loop. Name the winner and the person who nominated them, and describe the work you are about to do. This is the part that builds your reputation, because everyone who entered sees that the giveaway was real and that a local business kept its word.
The announcement also gives you the material for the follow-up. You now have proof of your work and a story people in town already know.
Email every non-winner
Send a thank-you email to everyone who nominated someone and did not win. Thank them for participating, tell them the winner's story briefly, and offer them something on the same service, such as a discount, a free estimate or a first look at your schedule. Every one of these people already showed interest in your service when they submitted the form. The nomination was a lead wearing a costume.
Send the email soon after the announcement so the giveaway is still fresh. People who entered last week remember you. People who entered three months ago do not.
Where a hosted form tool fits
Any form tool that can publish a page will collect nominations. What a hosted tool adds is the follow-through. greetform, a form and survey platform built for newsletters, creators and events, captures each answer and syncs it to the subscriber record in Beehiiv, ActiveCampaign or Mailchimp as fields you can segment on. That means when the giveaway ends, your non-winners are already a segment in the email platform you use, ready for the thank-you offer. It also has conditional logic built in, so each answer decides what comes next, and it has a free forever plan with no card needed. Nothing changes on the email platform side, so you keep the setup you already have.
Where people get stuck
Nobody enters. The form probably asks for too much or the prize is unclear. Cut the fields back to the three essentials, full name, phone and story, and state in one sentence exactly what the winner gets and from whom.
The nominations feel thin. Read the stories. If people write one line, your prompt is too vague. Ask a sharper question, such as who in your life needs a new roof and why, and the stories will carry more detail.
Non-winners ignore the follow-up. Check that the email leads with the winner's story rather than a discount. People read the story of the family who got the roof. The offer rides along after it.
