Contests via email marketing aren’t anything new and highlighting winners with a picture is a nice touch.  But take heed, marketers: sometimes it’s a bad idea.

The case in point here is Meadowbrook, a concert venue in New Hampshire who has been running contents using Facebook and smartly using email marketing as a way to promote.

In other words, they’re using a marketing mix which is fantastic.

However, I didn’t like how they designed this email for several reasons:

- The pics they used are not good. In some cases, they didn’t have a profile pic and used the default image (take a look at William). Really? You’re pointing to a contest you’re running and you don’t even have pictures of everyone?

- By using profile pics, they fall at the mercy of whatever the user puts up there and in some cases, they aren’t effective. The one that stands out the most is Jessica, whose picture makes her look like she’s challenging someone to a fight. Is that fair to her? Is that the picture you want to paint of your core fans?

A little common sense here would have gone a long way. Ask the users to send in a picture to feature. If they don’t, you don’t put them in the email. It’s that simple. If you don’t have images, use text and some clever design to create something that looks good.

It’s a great idea to point out winners of contests in email, but there needs to be some caution taken in how you present them. They’ve put trust in you, so repay the favor when you tell people about them.

Josh Nason is the Inbound Marketing Director for SendLabs, a New England-based email marketing software company with great customers across the street and around the globe. Follow him at @joshnason and @sendlabs.