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Your client wants to send a discount email. So does every competitor in their inbox.
Here's what most freelancers miss: the offer isn't the problem. The delivery is.
A flat "Get 15% off" sits on a screen. A spinning wheel or a scratch card makes the recipient do something. And doing something feels better than reading something.
Two mechanics that punch above their weight:
Wheel of Fortune
Spin for a discount, free product, or "try again." Perfect for seasonal sales, re-engagement, holiday campaigns.
Scratcher
Digital scratch card revealing a hidden code or prize. Great for loyalty rewards, post-purchase surprises, anniversary emails.
Same discount. Different feeling. One gets skimmed. The other gets played with.
The numbers aren't subtle:
• Kärcher Ukraine's Wheel of Fortune email: 17.5% CTR (average email CTR is 2.6%)
• Gamified signup widgets convert at 20-30% vs 3.8% for standard ones
• 90% of sales managers say gamification lifts sales, with some brands reporting 300% ROI gains
Here's the freelancer angle: most of your clients have never sent a gamified email. They don't even know it's an option. Walking in with "have you considered a spin-to-win for Black Friday?" puts you miles ahead of whoever's pitching them another flat promo template.
Stripo's Interactive Module Generator builds both visually, no code. Set your segments or hidden prizes, connect data storage to collect results, save it as a module, reuse it forever.
Browse the mechanics: https://stripo.email/interactive/
What's the most unexpected gamified campaign you've shipped for a client?
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
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Last month we hosted a session with Contra's CEO Ben Huffman and Stripo's CEO Dmytro Kudrenko on how freelancers can earn more with email marketing. If you haven't had a chance to watch it yet, here are the main takeaways.
1. The opportunity is real. Email returns $36-$42 for every $1 spent. Over 70% of businesses need outside help to execute their email marketing. And on Contra, email marketing projects average $2,000+ per engagement.
2. One project can become a retainer. The path: one-off design from a brief, then original creative, then A/B variants, then a full email design system (modules, brand kit, reusable templates). Once you build the system, maintaining it is the retainer.
3. Stop selling emails. Sell systems. When a client's brand kit, module library, and templates are all built by you, switching means rebuilding from scratch. That's not lock-in. That's value.
4. Speed is capacity. Faster production means more clients, more campaigns, same hours. holito went from slow, generic email production to 10x faster with a reusable design system built in Stripo.
5. Interactive content is a differentiator. Quizzes, scratch cards, polls inside emails. When a client's subscribers start expecting that from every campaign, and only you can deliver it, you stop being a vendor and become infrastructure.
@Omotayo A, one of our Stripo experts on Contra, is a good example of this approach in practice. He builds reusable module libraries that carry across client projects, connects each client's ESP directly to his Stripo account, and tests everything independently before handoff. One system, multiple clients.
Full session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrxwB43ML5g
What's your approach to turning one-off email projects into recurring work?
Nobody tells you this when you start freelancing.
I spent weeks asking around. Forums, communities, other writers. Everyone had a different number.
$10/hr. $25/hr. $50/hr. "Depends on the project." "Depends on the client."
Nobody agreed. And I still didn't know what my work was worth.
So I started low. Like most people do.
What I didn't understand was that a low price doesn't just hurt your bank account. It changes how clients treat you. Not because they're bad people. Because the price is the first signal you send about how to value what you do.
I learned that the hard way.
Later I met writers with more experience than me charging less. Not because they weren't good. Because they never raised their price and now it's part of how they show up.
Experience doesn't protect your rate. Knowing what you're worth does.
And nobody teaches you that in any forum.
Have you ever undercharged just to land the client?
#freelancerlife #ghostwriting #copywriting #freelancewriter #independentwork
This is on another level compared to what I usually see in this space. You’ve clearly raised the bar. What do you think sets this apart from others you’ve done before?
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