Instagram Giveaway: How To Run One (+ Examples)
If you’ve never thought of hosting a giveaway on Instagram, then we think it’s time for you to consider it.
Instagram as a social media platform is not just your regular social media network.
The number of daily active users it has is enough to help get your brand name in front of your potential customers.
However, if you’ve ever considered running a giveaway on Instagram but you perhaps, do not know how to go about this, then you do not have to worry as we’d be sharing the top six ways to run a successful giveaway on Instagram.
If you’re new to Instagram giveaways; you might think – What’s the need for running an Instagram giveaway?
Why you should run an Instagram giveaway?
As a platform with billions of users, having Instagram for your business should probably be among your top choices.
This is because irrespective of your target audience, Instagram allows your potential clients to find, connect and perhaps, purchase from you.
In case you may not know, Instagram recently has become a hotbed for most businesses because of its massive potentials and its encouraging business features.
Nevertheless, with so many brands on Instagram – how do you get more attention to your page?
Although there are several ways to do this, outsourcing it to a growth service is one of the best choices to consider.
And it’s a hell of fun too.
Perhaps, you’re trying to gain some traction on Instagram, to grow your audience, celebrate your recent achievement on the platform, or even to promote your brand – whichever one it is; hosting an Instagram giveaway is certainly your best choice.
However, it is crucial to always remember that various brands are steadily competing for the attention of your potential customers hence, there’s no room for you to be permissive.
Therefore, whatever you intend to achieve with your Instagram page, running a successful Instagram giveaway can be very useful.
Now, that you know why it’s crucial to consider running an Instagram giveaway, you need to know that to run a successful giveaway on Instagram, you must have a plan or strategy in place before delving into it.
After all, they say – ‘Working without a plan is like planning to fail’ and you do not want that!
How to Run Successful Instagram Giveaway
Nonetheless, in this article, we’ve compiled the best six steps to follow if you want to run a successful Instagram giveaway.
- Know the purpose for your giveaway
- Choose an attractive and irresistible price
- Keep your giveaway rules simple
- Set an emotion around the urgency of your giveaway
- Aggressively promote your giveaway
- Pick your desired winner
Let’s go over each now:
Know the Purpose for Your Giveaway
To enable you to run a successful Instagram giveaway, you must know the reason why you want to host it.
If you intend to run a successful Instagram giveaway, there are certain questions, you want to ask yourself. This includes:
- what do you want to achieve by running a giveaway?
- how you intend to measure the success of your giveaway?
These questions are crucial in ensuring that your giveaway is a success.
Your goal for running a giveaway might be because you want to get more Instagram followers, gain brand exposure, email signups, increase website traffic, referrals, and so on.
Just remember that whatever your goal may be, it is important to identify it as this will guard your steps down the lane.
Choose an Attractive and Irresistible Price
Now, there’s one thing you should know and that is the fact that - there are various businesses that are vying for the attention of your audience.
You won’t be the first to run a giveaway either would you be the last.
Other brands host giveaways occasionally, hence; you must give your audience a reason to participate or consider your giveaway.
Now think of it: What if you offer a very attractive and irresistible price – wouldn’t people want to join such a giveaway? Of course, they would.
Therefore, you must research for a price that can capture the attention of your audience.
However, you need to know that when choosing a price for your giveaway, is best to choose a gift in your business niche.
For example – If you have a clothing business, you could offer a price that is centered around your brand or clothing. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a cash gift or something too expensive.
Keep Your Giveaway Rules Simple
When running a giveaway, one thing you must know is that to make it successful; it is essential to keep your giveaway rules short and simple.
No one likes to enter a giveaway with too many rules.
That’s a huge turnoff.
Plus, people would only consider such giveaways if you have an expensive or a gift of high value attached to it.
Nevertheless, when you’re just starting and you’re looking to achieve a certain goal; it is highly recommended that you keep your rules simple.
By keeping your giveaway rules simple, you will not only encourage people to participate in it but also share the word about your giveaway.
Set an Emotion Around the Urgency of Your Giveaway
If you intend to host a successful Instagram giveaway, there’s one very important thing and that is the timeframe for your giveaway.
Your giveaway should have a start and end date. Also, it shouldn’t be open for too long.
This is because if you open your giveaway for too long, people will deem it as “not important or not urgent”.
Although they might want to partake in it, however, but by making it long, you’d be giving them room for procrastination and that is the last you would want.
Therefore, to get people to rave about your giveaway, you should have a start and end date which should be visible to your audience, and don’t forget to keep it short.
Aggressively Promote Your Giveaway
There’s a difference between just promoting your giveaway and ‘aggressively promoting your giveaway’.
When you aggressively promote your giveaway, this means that you should use every marketing tactic available to get the word out there.
Promoting your Instagram giveaway is crucial because if you do not promote your giveaway, there’s no way people or your potential audience will know about it.
Hence, to do this you could promote it using
Prelaunch
If you want to run a successful giveaway, then it is crucial to start talking about it before you do it.
This will help you build a sense of enthusiasm among your audience.
Hence, it is important to prep your audience before you even launch the giveaway.
Friends and Family
One less expensive way to promote your giveaway is by telling your friends and family to share your giveaway on their individual social media pages.
By doing this, you’d be tapping into the social circle of your friends and family hence, helping their friends to see your giveaway.
Instagram Ads
If you have a larger budget to spend, then you should consider using Instagram ads to reach a larger audience.
By using Instagram Ads, you’d be getting your giveaway and brand in front of your potential audience.
Thus, increasing the exposure of your giveaway
Instagram Shares & Tags
For those who have already seen your Instagram giveaway and entered it, you could encourage them to share your giveaway and tag their friends to join the giveaway.
This enables you to get more exposure for your giveaway.
Promote on Other Social Networks
If you have a Twitter, Facebook, or even a Pinterest page, you could share your giveaway there.
It is important to be careful when you do this to avoid being classified as Spam.
Hence, for this – it is recommended that you have a good Social media graphic and an interesting caption that is worth a reader’s attention.
Email Newsletters
Apart from sharing your giveaway on other social networks; if you have an email list, then you can send out a newsletter to your audience and get them to participate.
In your newsletter, ensure to create a sense of urgency to make them act immediately.
Pick Your Desired Winner
Let’s assume you’ve been able to host a successful Instagram giveaway and reached this point - congratulations!
The next step is to pick a winner.
It is essential that you pick a winner to maintain your brand’s reputation.
No one likes to participate in a giveaway, where there’s no winner.
Therefore, ensure you pick your winner fairly and if possible, showcase your winner on your Instagram page (with the person’s permission).
You could also try to get a positive statement from the chosen winner on how he/she felt about the giveaway and upload it on your Instagram page.
This will not only enhance your brand’s reputation, but it’ll also make people participate in any Instagram giveaway you might decide to do in the future.
Running Instagram Giveaway: Final Thoughts
If you want to run a successful Instagram giveaway, following the above steps will help you achieve your aim in no time.
However, it is crucial to know that when you do it right, it could bring maximum exposure to your business.
Therefore, take your time to strategically plan your giveaway and do something irresistible!
Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter here at GrowFollowing. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.