Once your contest's submissions start arriving, manage them in six steps: review the first round and shortlist, send submissions to your Review Panel, evaluate reviewer feedback, bulk-move submissions to the next stage, send bulk messages, and repeat for each round. Most contests run through 2–3 cycles of this loop before announcing winners.
Step 1: Manage the first round of reviews
Submissions arrive automatically into your first stage (typically New). Open the Submissions view, work through each one, and start qualifying which submissions move forward.
Use the Discuss tab to capture internal notes on each submission.
Move clear no's to a 'First Round Not Selected' or similar stage as you go — these submissions stay in the system but are out of contention.
Move strong candidates to a 'Round 1 Shortlist' stage.
Important: at this point, stage changes are internal — creators won't be notified yet. You'll send bulk messages later. Make sure the creator-facing stage names are correctly configured as creators will be able to see which stage their submission has reached.
Step 2: Send submissions to your Review Panel
When you've narrowed to a manageable shortlist, send those submissions to your panel.
Open the Stages view.
On the relevant stage column, use the three-dot menu → Send for Review.
Confirm — every submission in that stage goes to the assigned Review Panel.
Reviewers see the submissions in their personal Review Account and start scoring.
Step 3: Evaluate the reviews
When reviewers return their feedback, you (as an Admin or Team Manager) can see every score, vote, and comment on each submission.
Open any submission → Reviews tab.
See average scores, leading votes, and individual comments.
Read every reviewer's comments before letting the average score decide — outliers often have important context in the text.
Decide: move to the next round, move to Not Selected, or keep under discussion.
Step 4: Bulk-move submissions to the next stage
Once you've decided, bulk-move groups of submissions in one go:
Open the Submissions view.
Filter to the decision group (e.g. 'reviewed', 'in current stage').
Tick the rows and use With Selected → Move Stage.
Pick the destination — Next Round, Not Selected, or wherever appropriate.
Full guide: How to Bulk Move Submission Stages
Step 5: Send bulk messages
Once submissions are correctly placed, communicate with creators:
Filter to the stage where you want to send a message (e.g. Not Selected).
Tick the submissions.
Click With Selected → Message → choose a template.
Toggle Allow Replies off for rejection messages where you don't want a back-and-forth.
Send.
Create separate templates for each stage outcome — rejection, shortlisted, winner — and reuse them every round.
Step 6: Repeat for each round
For multi-round contests, create a new stage and a new Review Panel for each round. Continue the loop: review → send for review → evaluate → bulk-move → message. Use a Stage Automation on each stage to fire the messages and panel-send automatically once your structure is dialled in.
Best practice for managing contests
Create message templates before the contest opens — by the time bulk-message time comes, you don't want to be drafting from scratch.
Use Saved Views for each cohort — 'Round 1 Shortlist', 'Awaiting Round 2 Decision', etc.
Communicate timelines to creators up front — share important dates in your project description so creators know when to expect news.
Don't ghost rejected creators. A short, kind rejection email is far better than silence.
Document your process in a one-pager so the next person running the contest doesn't have to reinvent it.
Where to go next