What are some contest and event ideas for email deliverability?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 3 Jun 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
8 min read
Email deliverability isn't just about technical configurations, it's also deeply tied to how engaged your audience is with your emails. When subscribers actively interact with your messages, it signals to internet service providers (ISPs) that your content is valuable and desired. This positive engagement can significantly improve your sender reputation, which in turn helps your emails consistently reach the inbox.
Contests and events are powerful tools to boost this engagement. They create excitement, drive interaction, and provide genuine reasons for subscribers to open, click, and even forward your emails. Beyond the immediate buzz, these activities can also help you gather valuable insights into your audience's preferences, allowing for even more targeted and deliverable campaigns in the future.
Thinking creatively about how to integrate deliverability principles into these engagement strategies can lead to substantial improvements in your overall email program. It's about making email a two-way street, where your audience feels valued and motivated to participate.
Technical skill challenges
Interactive contests provide an exciting way to test and enhance the technical aspects of email deliverability, often turning complex concepts into engaging challenges. These events can simulate real-world scenarios that deliverability professionals face daily, fostering a deeper understanding and practical skill development among participants. They are not only fun but also highly educational.
For example, setting up a DNS puzzle challenge where participants are given a domain and must correctly configure its DNS records (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) to achieve successful email delivery. The first one to send an email that passes all authentication checks wins. This directly addresses common misconfigurations that lead to deliverability issues.
Another idea could be a troubleshooting race. Participants are presented with a scenario involving a simulated deliverability problem, such as an email going to the spam folder or being rejected due to a blocklist (or blacklist) listing. They would then race to identify the root cause using provided diagnostic tools and propose the correct solution. This type of contest could highlight the importance of efficient problem-solving under pressure.
DNS authentication challenge
Setup: Provide a dummy domain and access to its DNS records.
Goal: Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records correctly.
Win Condition: First to send a fully authenticated email.
Blocklist remediation race
Scenario: Simulated blocklist listing for a given IP or domain.
Goal: Identify the blocklist (or blacklist) and find the delisting process.
Win Condition: Fastest to outline the correct remediation steps.
User-generated content contests
Leveraging user-generated content (UGC) through contests is an excellent way to boost engagement and improve deliverability. When subscribers create content related to your brand or products, it indicates a high level of interest and connection, which ISPs favor. This content can then be integrated into future email campaigns, adding authenticity and further driving interaction.
One effective contest idea is a customer success story competition. Encourage your subscribers to share how your product or service has helped them improve their email deliverability, reach their audience effectively, or solve specific email marketing challenges. They could submit short testimonials, videos, or case studies. The most compelling stories could win prizes, and the best submissions could be featured in your newsletters, sparking further engagement from your entire list.
Another creative option is a template design contest. Ask your audience to design an email template that embodies best practices for deliverability, focusing on clean code, mobile responsiveness, and engaging content. This not only encourages creativity but also educates participants on what makes an email deliverable. You could even provide a specific email testing checklist for them to follow, turning the contest into a learning experience.
Educational webinars and workshops
Educational events, such as webinars, workshops, or virtual summits, are excellent ways to engage your audience while providing immense value. By offering free or low-cost access to expert knowledge, you build trust and authority, which strengthens your sender reputation. Promoting these events through your email list also provides a strong call to action, encouraging opens and clicks.
Consider hosting a deliverability masterclass series. Each session could focus on a different aspect of email deliverability, such as email authentication protocols, list hygiene, content optimization, or IP reputation. You could invite industry experts to speak, creating an even more appealing draw. Offer a certificate of completion or exclusive resources to attendees to increase participation and drive registrants.
A live Q&A with deliverability specialists is another impactful event format. Subscribers could submit their most pressing deliverability questions in advance, ensuring the content is directly relevant to their needs. This interactive format fosters a strong sense of community and provides personalized insights, encouraging long-term engagement and trust. This can also provide valuable feedback for what topics to cover in future email deliverability training resources.
Holiday and event-themed campaigns
Tying your email deliverability efforts into seasonal holidays or popular events can create highly engaging campaigns. These event-based campaigns naturally generate excitement and give you a relevant hook for your content, leading to higher open rates and clicks. The key is to find creative ways to connect the holiday theme with deliverability concepts in a fun and informative way.
For example, you could run a Halloween-themed deliverability challenge called 'Spooky Spam Traps.' In this contest, participants would identify images or phrases that are commonly associated with spam triggers within a mock email. This gamified approach teaches about content-based spam filtering in an entertaining way. Similarly, a 'New Year, New Inbox' campaign could offer tips and tricks for improving deliverability going into the new year, perhaps with a contest for those who implement the most improvements. This email marketing idea boosts engagement.
Another option is to host a themed quiz event. For example, during a major sporting event, you could create a quiz on 'Email Playbook: Scoring Inbox Placement Goals.' Questions would cover various aspects of deliverability, from sender reputation to authentication. Participants with the highest scores could win prizes. These campaigns not only keep your audience engaged but also reinforce their understanding of key deliverability concepts in a memorable context.
Deliverability audit challenges
Engaging your audience with a deliverability audit challenge provides a hands-on way for them to apply their knowledge. This type of event encourages deep dives into their own email infrastructure, promoting practical learning and direct improvement of their sender practices. The competitive element motivates participants to uncover and fix issues, leading to tangible deliverability gains.
For this challenge, participants would submit a report detailing their current email deliverability setup, including their SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, IP reputation, and recent sending metrics. They would then be tasked with identifying potential weak points or areas for improvement. The winner could be the participant who identifies the most critical issues or proposes the most comprehensive and effective solutions. This fosters a sense of accountability and highlights the importance of regular audits.
This could also be structured as a reputation recovery simulation. Participants are given a hypothetical scenario where their domain or IP has been placed on a blocklist (or blacklist). Their task would be to outline a step-by-step plan for reputation recovery, including identifying the blocklist, understanding the cause, and detailing the delisting process. This directly relates to real-world challenges faced by email marketers and deliverability professionals, offering practical skills training within a competitive context.
Before the audit
Many email marketers overlook the importance of regularly reviewing their email sending infrastructure. This can lead to unnoticed issues that slowly degrade deliverability over time. Without proactive checking, a domain or IP can end up on a blocklist (or blacklist) without warning, severely impacting campaign performance. Problems like misconfigured DMARC records or unexpected DKIM errors often go undetected until a major deliverability crisis occurs.
Traditional approach
Reactive fixing: Addressing deliverability issues only after they impact campaigns or result in blocklist listings.
Limited visibility: Lack of continuous insight into sender reputation and email authentication status.
Manual checks: Infrequent, manual checks of DNS records and blocklist status.
Deliverability audit challenge
Proactive identification: Participants actively search for and report potential deliverability risks.
Enhanced learning: Practical application of deliverability knowledge in a competitive format.
Skill development: Develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills for email professionals.
Conclusion
Contests and events offer dynamic ways to improve email deliverability by boosting engagement and educating your audience. From technical challenges that hone skills to creative content contests and educational webinars, each approach contributes to a healthier email ecosystem and stronger sender reputation. Implementing these ideas can transform how your audience interacts with your brand, ensuring your messages consistently land where they belong: the inbox.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Always ensure contest rules are clear, transparent, and compliant with all relevant regulations to maintain trust.
Use a dedicated email address or subdomain for contest-related communications to protect your main sender reputation.
Integrate a preference center into your contest sign-up process, allowing participants to choose what content they receive.
Segment your audience based on contest participation and engagement to send more targeted follow-up emails.
Monitor your engagement metrics closely during and after the contest to understand its impact on deliverability.
Common pitfalls
Not clearly communicating prize details or entry requirements, leading to participant confusion and dissatisfaction.
Collecting email addresses without clear consent or providing an easy unsubscribe option, harming sender reputation.
Over-sending promotional emails to contest participants who only joined for the prize, causing high unsubscribe rates.
Failing to clean your list of disengaged subscribers after the contest, which can lead to spam complaints.
Ignoring the technical setup for contest emails, resulting in authentication failures or blocklist (blacklist) listings.
Expert tips
Encourage participants to share your contest via social media and provide easy sharing buttons within your emails.
Consider offering multiple tiers of prizes to incentivize participation across different engagement levels.
Follow up with non-winners with a consolation prize or exclusive offer to maintain goodwill and engagement.
Use contest data to personalize future email content and offers, showing subscribers you understand their interests.
If your contest involves user-generated content, clearly state how their content might be used in future marketing.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that at deliverability conferences, there should be contests and games, like how fast someone can enter a Microsoft support ticket.
2024-05-01 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says they wanted to have a contest where participants are given a domain and DNS host, and the first one to successfully deliver an email from it wins.
