What’s your ideal strategy to grow your Instagram following? Many brands focus on the jumbo number count and fall flat on the engagement. But with almost 80% of Instagram users following at least one business, it seems crucial to boost your visibility on the platform. So, what can you do?
Instagram giveaway is the tried and tested method to achieve active fans instead of passive followers. In the long term, Instagram thrives on engagement, not just big numbers; hence working upon growing organically with this effective marketing strategy works wonders. With the right plan in place, you can cultivate a strong sense of community around your brand and market your products or services among people who rely on you.
Instagram giveaways promise to delight your customers and boost new visitors’ presence on the Instagram page. It works by offering your product or services for free in exchange for a like, comment, share, tag, or other pre-determined requirements.
Are you eager to work upon crafting a giveaway strategy but clueless on how to start? Find the needed inspiration and strategize your marketing goals with the proven steps given in this article.
Why Run An Instagram Giveaway?
Instagram giveaway has been proven effective because it:
- Boosts your brand presence.
- Encourages engagement.
- Helps in reaching a new audience.
According to a study from Tailwind, Instagram giveaways increase the growth of your following by 70% in three months. But it is also true that you can witness a drop off in the followers after the giveaways are closed. The catch is — always plan a well-defined, intentional giveaway. When the giveaway is done correctly, it can help reach the target audience who would actively stick around and engage.
Crucial Steps To Run An Instagram Giveaway
The way you run your Instagram giveaway can be the difference between a successful giveaway and an incredible one. To strengthen your marketing goals, you can run your giveaway by using the steps mentioned below:
Set Giveaway Goals
First and foremost, navigate the marketing goals you wish to achieve from the giveaway. For instance, you might want to:
- Grow your Instagram following.
- Generate more engagement on your posts.
- Attract more people to sign-up for your email list.
- Produce user-generated content.
- Raise awareness of a social issue.
- Show affinity with another brand.
- Or want to give back to the followers.
Whatever your goals are, map out your strategy around them, as it will help keep your giveaway campaign on track. Why? Because understanding the benefits you want to reap will help you track your progress and optimize your strategy for better results.
Think About Giveaway Prizes
Next up, think about what you are giving away to your audience? Your prize should be an exciting reward that encourages engagement, sharing, and word-of-mouth marketing.
If it’s a product, service, or an experience you are giving away, it should match your target audience’s needs.
- Giveaway prizes broadly differ depending on your goals. If you plan to spread awareness around a product launch, to illustrate, you likely want to giveaway the product as the winning prize.
- On the other hand, you might want to partner with a brand to offer your audience something unique they would love as a giveaway prize.
- You can be incredibly thoughtful and offer an experience as a giveaway, like a spa, a cheat meal, or meet a celebrity.
An interesting Instagram giveaway example comes from beauty retailer SpaceNK, who partnered with a luxury retreat destination to offer their community the opportunity to win an exclusive getaway. Ultimately, you would want their experience to participate in the giveaway to be valuable.
Rules For Giveaway Entry
Once you have figured out the prize for the giveaway, you need to define the entry criteria. The criteria should relate to the goal of this campaign. If your goal is attracting more followers, specify clearly in the giveaway rules to “follow [brand name].”
You should also consider the “tag a friend” rule for whatever goal you choose. Asking your audience to tag 2 – 3 friends is a great way to boost awareness and engagement.
Here are some other things you’ll need to consider when setting your rules:
- What is the time limit for entry?
- Which countries are eligible to enter?
- Does your audience have to be a certain age to enter?
These details may seem more obvious, but transparency is the key to running an impactful giveaway contest
Spread The News About Instagram Giveaway
It’s time to launch your Instagram giveaway, and before the big move, you need to get the word out through all avenues – whether through Stories, grid Posts, Reels, or Live.
Follow these tips to ensure that the word gets out about your giveaway:
- Incorporate a clear call-to-action (CTA) with strong imagery to encourage entries.
- Promote the contest when your audience is online.
- Re-promote the giveaways on your Story to get your audience to participate more actively.
- If your brand operates on multiple social media platforms, opt for a cross-promotional strategy.
- Consider promoting on other platforms, including your website.
How To Pick The Winner for Instagram Giveaway?
Once the Instagram giveaway has been closed, it’s time to pick the winner. While this could be an overwhelming task, it should be fair and objective to determine the deserving winner.
Let’s take a look at two of our favorite ways to pick a winner
1. Randomized Excel
You’ll need to manually add all the entrants to a spreadsheet and use the random function to pick a result for this method. However, this can be a time-consuming task.
2. Use an Automated system
To speed things up, you can use software such as:
Easypromos: This tool uses the official Instagram API to import comments from your giveaway post to select a winner.
Instagram Comment Picker: This is a free tool that picks a comment for posts on the Instagram creator or business accounts.
Wishpond: This software names and tracks all the active entries.
Special tip: Trust is paramount in a giveaway, and you should ensure that it doesn’t create a negative brand presence.
Bonus! Giveaway Ideas
There are many ways to launch your brand giveaway, but here are some common tactics you can seek inspiration from:
1. Tag, Follow & Share To Enter
As it is called, the triple threat is the most common and effective strategy to introduce a giveaway. It is actionable and seamlessly brings social traction by garnering tons of engagement from various avenues through a single post. Almost every giveaway seen on the feed has this tactic incorporated to generate quick results.
Example: The brand F Miller took advantage of this idea and asked users to tag a friend to avail a chance of winning their fifth-anniversary Necessity Kit. The giveaway was a huge success in drawing a loyal following and skyrocketing brand awareness.
Figure 1: F Miller Skincare Giveaway on Instagram. Source: Instagram
2. Influencer Collaboration
A powerful tactic to use is influencer collaboration. You can turn heads and bring in a new batch of followers by collaborating with like-minded, niche-based influencers. Simply put, influencer collaboration could be a partnership made in heaven.
It gives double the traction and engagement, both for your brand and the influencer. This collaboration can be a win-win scenario if done correctly.
3. Experiment with Task-Based Entry
Why not bring in extra creativity and ask your potential entrants for a task-based entry? You can ask your followers to come out with a great Instagram giveaway caption, create content or answer a question. These are quick ideas to bring a creative spin to a monotonous giveaway format.
For example, the famous documentary maker Louis Theroux did something exceptional and encouraged his audience to redesign the cover for his new book, Gotta Get Theroux This, to win a signed copy. The giveaway’s mind-blowing result amassed over 13K likes and 585 comments, while the contributions were shared widely.
Figure 2: Louis Theroux Instagram book giveaway. Source: Instagram
Use Instagram Giveaway Tactics For Future Campaigns
Now you know how Instagram giveaways could be a treasure trove marketing strategy for your brand. A well-executed giveaway creates a buzz and brings followers who connect with your content. You can also plan your future campaigns by following the above steps and garner more effective results.
Today, all brands, big and small, are strengthening their brand presence and bringing the most with giveaways. If you want to excel in your business goals, increase visibility, drive social shares, and boost brand awareness, now is the time to craft a giveaway strategy that works.
And while you are investing energy into driving results for your giveaway, work with Atisfyreach to connect with the finest influencers in the business. Our AI-driven platform redefines the influencer marketing space by offering solutions that automate the entire influencer marketing workflow with a single tap.
Register your interest with Atisfyreach.
