Fortunately, there are a few specific Instagram marketing strategies you can implement that have proven effective. For instance, you might optimize your posting times to ensure maximum engagement. Moreover, you can partner with an influencer to spread awareness. You can also designate a content creator to craft more compelling content.
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Additionally, to delight your current followers and attract new visitors to your page, you might consider hosting an Instagram giveaway.
Simply put, an Instagram giveaway allows you to offer something for free in exchange for an Instagram like, comment, or other pre-determined requirement.
Today, we’ll be taking a look at giveaways and similar promotions on Instagram to build your fanbase and reach new potential customers.
What Are Instagram Giveaways?
Instagram giveaways are limited-time promotions in which brands promise to give away a product or service to one (or more) lucky entrants according to a specified set of criteria.
If you spend any amount of time on Instagram, you’ve probably seen a giveaway in action firsthand. Household-name brands and small businesses alike use Instagram giveaways to create buzz about new product lines, reach new fans, and grow their social followings.
Sometimes the prizes are incredible, while others may be… a little lackluster. Regardless of what you’re giving away (or trying to win), Instagram giveaways can be a great way to create some buzz.
Why Giveaways?
There are a few reasons why giveaway works:
- first, co operation of two accounts enables both to reach the other's audience.
- Second, asking people tp tag their friends doubles the reach you might get.
- When done correctly, giveaways can help you establish your brand on Instagram.
- You can cultivate a loyal following, and share your impressive products or services with a larger audience than you could organically.
The more people participate, the farther your post will be shared, which means more entries, which means more followers, which means more shares… you get the idea.
How to Run an Instagram Giveaway
Okay, so you’ve decided to take the plunge and run your first Instagram giveaway! So now what? Well, now you have to actually set up and run your giveaway.
1. Choose the Prize for Your Instagram Giveaway
Before you get started, you need to decide on a suitable prize for the lucky entrant(s) to win.
This will vary depending on your goal.
Alternatively, perhaps you want to partner with a brand and create a unique prize that will appeal to each of your audiences.
Lastly, you might try offering an experience instead of a specific product or service. For example, a weekend trip, a spa day, or the chance to meet a leader in your industry.
Choosing a suitable prize is a balancing act. You need to make sure people have enough incentive to enter your giveaway by offering something sufficiently attractive, but without taking a serious loss on the product you choose to give away.
2. Choose a Goal for Your Instagram giveaway
The second step is to define a goal for your giveaway. For instance, you might want to:
- Generate more engagement on your posts.
- Grow your Instagram following.
- Get more people to sign up for your email list.
- Produce user-generated content (UGC).
In general, giveaway are a great way to grow your audience and expand your reach on Instagram. When using contest requirements to “tag a friend in the comments,” your existing audience does the work. They shate your content with their friends. And if their friends have similar interests and like your Instagram contest, they’ll enter and tag their friends too. Your follower count then grows exponentially.
If you’re launching a new product or service, a giveaway campaign can be a resourceful way to drum up excitement and interest. For product-based businesses, UGC is a powerful way to generate fresh content and gain a new perspective about how your product is being used.
Instagram contests will usually boost your post engagement, resulting in multiple benefits in relation to the Instagram algorithm.
With your post performing well, it may rank higher in hashtag searches, allowing new audiences to find your content. And if your audience isn’t typically responsive to your normal posts but engages with a contest post, it can help bump your regular content higher in their feeds for a period of time.
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3. Decide How Long Your Instagram Giveaway Will Last
The next decision you need to make is how much time you’ll give your audience to enter your Instagram giveaway.
Nicky opted to run her Instagram giveaway for seven days. She had originally planned to launch the contest on a Monday – which meant it would have ended on the Sunday night – but due to an unforeseen last-minute complication, she had to push the contest back by a couple of days. In the end, she ran the giveaway from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening, giving entrants a full seven days to enter.
The length of your Instagram giveaway might depend on several factors.
For one, there’s the size of your existing following. It may make more sense, for example, to run a shorter giveaway if you have thousands of followers.
Also, think about time zones and international audiences. Not all of your entrants are likely to be in the same time zone. So, be sure it’s crystal clear precisely when your contest ends.
You could also post reminders to help people remember that the contest is coming to a close – which is another way to encourage last-minute entries!
4. Consider influencers or brand partnership for Giveaways
Giveaways are particularly successful when new brands partner together. For instance, a brand might post a recipe, and then mention specific brands in the ingredients section. A successful giveaway is typically when a brand partners with a content creator or Instagram influencer to make something specific, and then they push that prize out through both of their channels.
Ultimately, a giveaway could allow you to reach a similar brand's followers, and vice-versa -- a win, win.
5. Define Giveaways Rules or Conditions
Going beyond the information listed, you may have some rules. You should announce your rules or condition before running the giveaway. For example, do participants have to be a certain age or are there certain restrictions (like U.S. residents only)?
6. Select a campaign hashtag for Instagram Giveaways
On Instagram, hashtags help your content surface on Explore channels, and oftentimes increase visibility on the platform.
Consider creating a compelling and unique campaign hashtag to help spread awareness of your giveaway. For instance, along with #giveaway, you might include #winitwednesday #[your brand]giveaway #[your brand]contest, or something of similar nature.
7. Create the Perfect Instagram Giveaway Post
So, you’ve done all the prep work, and now you’re ready to actually launch your Instagram giveaway. Before you can do this, you’ll need an actual Instagram post to use.
The “perfect” Instagram giveaway post will vary widely from one account to another. However, there are a couple of elements that every Instagram giveaway post should include. These are:
- A strong, color image to serve as the basis for the post
- Efficient use of text announcing the giveaway
While there are no hard-and-fast rules about how to create Instagram posts for giveaways, it’s worthwhile considering your post from the audience’s perspective.
If you’re giving away a specific product, it makes sense to include an image of that product. It would be misleading to include an image of a Maserati sports car in an Instagram giveaway for a weekend yoga retreat!
8. Announce the Winner of Your Instagram Giveaways
Well, that’s it. You’ve ran your Instagram giveaway and selected a lucky winner from the horde of entrants. All that’s left to do now is notify the lucky winner!
Sure, you could just send the winner a direct message, but that would be a missed opportunity. Why not make the announcement of the winner as much of a spectacle as the rest of the contest?
Letting the lucky winner know they’ve won your Instagram giveaway is yet another opportunity for exposure and growing your following. It lets the winner know they’ve won in a fun and exciting way.
Moreover, it gives you the chance to thank the unlucky entrants as well as let your audience know about relevant forthcoming sales or future competitions.
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Instagram Giveaways Ideas
Here's a list of some of the more common giveaway ideas:
- Like to win: Have followers like your post for a chance to win a free product or service. This helps you boost engagement.
- Tag a friend to win: Have followers tag one of their friends in the comments. This allows your brand to reach new potential leads on Instagram and grow your audience.
- Like and share to win: You might ask followers to like your giveaway and repost it on their own channels for the chance to greatly expand your brand's reach. If ten followers with 100 followers each re-post, that's a chance to reach 1,000 new people.
- Follow to win: Ask followers to follow your brand, or a partner (or both) for the chance to win. This is a popular tactic since it's an easy way to increase your follower count.
Giveaways Ideas
- Photo contest: Ask participants to upload a photo of themselves using your product or service. This is another easy opportunity to spread brand awareness, since your participants' posts will be seen by their own network of followers and friends. You should ask participants to include your brand's hashtag, or tag your brand, for optimal visibility.
- Caption this: Some brands post images and leave the caption section blank with a "Caption this for a chance to win" command. Your participants will enjoy the chance to offer creative captions for your image. In addition, you'll be able to add the caption to your post with credit to the winner once your giveaway ends.
Conclusion
No matter what kind of business you’re in, Instagram giveaways are an excellent way of reaching new prospective fans with your products or services, growing your social following, and engaging with your fans.
Obviously some kinds of businesses will be better suited to Instagram giveaways and promotions more than others. But hopefully, this post has given you some ideas for things to try during your next – or first – Instagram giveaway.
Have you used this kind of contest in your own social media campaigns? Get at us in the comments with ideas, suggestions, and tips of your own for running an Instagram giveaway.