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The only thing that comes second to the love for money is the idea of not having to spend any money at all. An entertaining and engaging Instagram giveaway is sure to have them looking your way.
Whether you are looking to promote your brand or say a huge thank you to your followers for their awesome support, a giveaway should do the trick.
Running a well-planned giveaway will help you:
- Attract more followers- More people will become interested in your brand, and you may even acquire some loyal customers along the way.
- Strengthen the relationship you have with your current audience- Giving something away will make your audience feel much closer to you and your brand.
- Be social proof of your brand- The more your feed gets traffic, the more Instagram will regularly feature your content.
Here are five pointers to get you going on your giveaway journey and keep followers excited about your brand.
1. Have a Theme and a Goal for Your Instagram Giveaway
It’s important to know what you are working towards and set achievable goals. For instance, maybe you want to acquire more followers or create brand awareness? Or perhaps you would like to get user-submitted content.
Figuring this out will help you design your giveaway post and analyze data acquired from the giveaway afterward.
Your followers should also know why you’re running the giveaway. Maybe you’re celebrating the holiday season or the fact that you’ve achieved a certain number of followers.
Your fans will respond better to something they can relate with.
2. Pick a Coveted Prize
On to the most important part of your giveaway: the prize. While most followers will be happy to receive any prize, especially a lavish and expensive one, you have to give it some thought.
Giving out something posh like a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes will get you the traffic you need, but it most likely won’t attract potential and loyal customers (unless you partner with Louis Vuitton)
Your prize should always be something your target and current audience needs. A great way to pick one is to check which one of your products excites customers the most.
3. Set Clear, Simple Ground Rules
For your contest to be effective, you have to set the bar just high enough to avoid any issues once you select the winner. A small mix-up could be enough to turn away clients.
Some of the parameters you might want to be clear about:
i. The Deadline
Decide beforehand how long you want your giveaway to last for. Don’t assume that keeping your giveaway going for long is going to make a bigger impact online. If it lasts for too long, your audience will slack and lose motivation.
A limited time offer, on the other hand, will make people want to act faster. However, this depends on the number of followers you have.
A company with an audience that is highly engaged could successfully have a giveaway that lasts for 24 hours. For companies with a modest following, it might be better to extend the timeframe, say have it for 3-7 days, for members of your audience to have time to react to it.
If you foresee that you will have participants who are out of your time zone, clearly indicate exactly when your contest comes to a close. This way, things will run smoothly until the contest ends.
ii. Requirements for Participation
The requirements you set will really have a huge impact on how many people end up participating. Set too many, and people will avoid your contest. Set too few, and you will have a huge pool of participants who just hopped on for the prize.
First, you need to read through Instagram guidelines on giveaways to avoid innocently going down an illegal path. This will help you filter through available giveaway structures.
Here are a few common ones. You could request your audience to:
- Follow your account
- Like the post you’ve shared
- Comment in response to a question of your choice
- Tag your brand in one of their posts
- Post a picture with a specific theme and hashtag
You have the freedom to combine three or more concepts just to make things interesting.
More sensitive criteria like reposting or mentioning your post on their story should be for bonus entries as most people are particular concerning what they want to appear on their feed.
4. Scream It From the Rooftops
Well, not really, but you should promote your giveaway to the best of your abilities. Otherwise, it will not achieve its maximum potential. Here’s how you can easily achieve this.
i. Create the Ultimate Instagram Post
Now that you’ve done all the planning and prepping, it’s time for the fun part, getting creative!
The ultimate giveaway post differs from one brand to another, but certain key elements should be present.
- Accurate and creative use of text and different fonts
- An appealing and eye-catching image to serve as the background for the text
Of course, you can play around with this rubric to get it to match your brand and style. You could even design the post from the audience’s point of view.
Which posts have previously gotten the most traffic and responses? Those are a great benchmark.
ii. #Giveawayforallmyloyalfans
A giveaway hashtag is very important, especially with Instagram. You want to pick the hashtag you’ll use with great caution. Using something like #giveaway might attract people who randomly join all contests with that hashtag.
Pick something exclusive, which will even make it easier to keep a record of entries. A good hashtag:
- Is long
- Is descriptive
- Contains the words giveaway or contest
For example, a company that deals with supplying kitchenware might decide to go with #jadedceramicsetgiveaway
iii. Create Reminder Posts for Your Instagram Giveaway
It’s up to you to know how frequently you’ll post reminders for your audience. They should be as eye-catching as the original post and maybe even remind users of your criteria. This way, you might even get some last-minute participants who had missed your first post.
However, publishing too many reminders might not bode well with some of your audience members. Let it feel like they are being gently nudged, not being pushed into entering your contest.
iv. Promote! Promote! Promote!
Before you even post your giveaway, you want to get people excited. Tell them something huge is coming. You could even hint as to what you’ll be giving away. You could do this via email, your stories, virtually anywhere you legally have access to potential clients.
Your audience will stay vigilant and keep a very close eye on your feed for new information. Don’t prolong the excitement for too long though. No one likes a persistent tease.
5. Announce The Instagram Giveaway Lucky Winner!
Once the giveaway ends, don’t forget to announce that it’s closed for people who might not have read your guidelines.
Export all the participants’ names into a random generator to fairly pick a winner. People who have bonus entries will be entered into the draw more times than their counterparts just to be fair.
You can then confirm if the winner followed the criteria you had laid out after the generator works its magic. Afterward, reach out to the winner and announce them so that people don’t think that no one won the contest. If you have the participants’ emails, you could send them a coupon or a discount code as a nice thank you gesture.
Giveaways will remain an efficient and effective way of engaging with fans for the longest time possible, hence the need to incorporate them fully into your marketing strategies.
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We are a passionate digital marketing team that takes pride in helping clients unlock their full social media potential. If you have any questions concerning Instagram giveaways or growing your business via social media, don’t hesitate to contact us.