Awesome Tips to Run Instagram Giveaways that Inspire

One of the best ways to drive Instagram engagement and increase visibility on the platform is by hosting a giveaway campaign. Given the high level of competition on Instagram, it can be quite difficult to boost awareness about your brand. Giveaways have proved themselves to be an effective marketing strategy time and again for not only delighting your current followers but also for attracting new ones. The basic premise of an Instagram giveaway is that the followers are given something free in exchange for some pre-determined requirements.

Why should you consider hosting a giveaway?

An Instagram giveaway event that is well planned can potentially help you in growing your audience. It can also increase the loyalty of your followers and drive a better brand engagement. Giveaway events are excellent for jump-starting more personal relationships with your followers

• Building stronger relationships: Hosting giveaways helps in fostering a more intimate and emotional connection with the audience.
• Attracts new followers: Hosting Instagram giveaways can help you gain new followers very quickly. It has been found that a single contest can increase the follower count by almost 70 per cent.
• Developing brand image: Giveaway can help in establishing your brand image. A contest can be held to giveaway some upcoming product or feature. This will allow the followers to share the brand content and submit user-generated content.

How to host a successful Instagram Giveaway?

There is a certain amount of planning that goes into running an Instagram giveaway that inspires people. One needs to have a clear understanding of the result they wish to achieve with the giveaway. It is important to tie every decision regarding the giveaway to your business goals to attain the best results. Following are some of the steps involved in the process.

1. Choosing the giveaway prize

The first and foremost step of the process is choosing the product, experience or service that you wish to include as a prize. This product should be chosen depending on the goal you want to achieve out of this event. If it is brand promotion then a product can be used as a giveaway. Alternatively, you can offer experiences in the form of a meetup, vacation or spa day. The key is choosing a giveaway that your audience will love.

The prize needs to be enticing for the audience to drive Instagram engagement for the brand. It is best to offer something that is not just on-brand but also valuable. The best way to determine this is by a method known as interest targeting. In this, you can inspect the Instagram Insights which can provide you with an insight into the kind of content which is more relevant to your followers.

2. Determine the goal of the Instagram contest

You can develop an effective strategy for hosting the giveaway contest only after you have determined the goal of the event. The goal for hosting a giveaway can be anything, from increasing the follower count to boosting sales or increasing website traffic.

3. Setting the criteria for entry

There are a myriad of ways in which you can set the entry criteria for your giveaway. This is also dependent on your ultimate goal. One of the ways to increase your followers is by asking your current followers to tag the name of their friends to receive the giveaway. In case you have partnered with some brand to host the giveaway, then you can ask your audience to follow the brand page in exchange for the giveaway item.

4. Incorporate Instagram’s guidelines in creating your giveaway

To ensure that your giveaway event runs smoothly it is best to follow the guidelines set by Instagram in this regard. Following are certain things you should keep in mind while organizing the giveaway contest-

• List down the rules of the giveaway in clear precise terms
• Determine the eligibility criteria
• Don’t forget to add information about any kind of regulation, whether related to age, nationality, etc.

This information should ideally be incorporated in the caption or comment section of the post.

5. Brand partnership

Partnering with a brand for hosting a giveaway event comes with many benefits. It can be a great way to drive traffic to one’s account and also offers an opportunity to align with new partners and peer brands. Even new brands can partner with each other to boost their respective brand images.

6. Include hashtags

Incorporating hashtags in the giveaway post can help in increasing its visibility on the platform. Compelling and creative hashtags which make your account feature on the explore channel can help in creating awareness about the giveaway.

7. Include a time limit

Setting a time limit for the giveaway is extremely important as it helps in creating a sense of urgency among the followers. It also provides them with an incentive to enter the contest quickly. You can include the time limit in the caption of the giveaway post or in stories. After the specified time limit has passed you can create a post announcing the closure of the contest.

8. Promoting the giveaway contest

You can use other social media platforms to promote the giveaway by linking them back to the Instagram post. The best way to ensure that the post is seen by majority of the people is by planning the launch at specific times when the users are most likely to engage with the content. You can also use the ad feature on Instagram to make a larger audience aware of the giveaway contest. It is important to include the details about how easy it is to enter the contest. The goal is not only attracting the audience but also making sure the post is reaching those who are most likely to sign up.

9. Tracking of Results

After the giveaway contest is over and the winner has been chosen, it is time to re-evaluate the success of the event. By observing the impact of the giveaway process on the pre-determined goal, you can design a better and more successful giveaway Instagram campaign in the future. You can evaluate the success of the event by looking at the Instagram Insights, which give information in the Discovery and Interaction reports.

Common Instagram Giveaway Ideas

Once the goal of your giveaway has been decided, you can pick many ways to host the Instagram giveaway contest. Generally, the participants are required to complete some action in order to enter the contest. Following are some of the ideas for these actions-

• Like-to-win: One of the most common ways to hold a giveaway, a like-to-win contest, requires the followers to like a particular post to gain a chance of entering into the contest. This will eventually help you in boosting engagement.
• Tag a friend: In this method, you can ask your followers to tag a friend in the comment section of the giveaway post. By doing so they will be eligible to participate in the contest, while you will have gained new followers in the form of people who were tagged.
• Like and share: Another way to host a giveaway is by asking the followers to like and then repost the giveaway post. With this, you will be able to enhance the visibility of your page.
• Follow-to-win: This popular tactic only asks your audience to follow the brand page in exchange for a chance to win the giveaway prize. It is one of the easiest ways to increase the number of followers.
• Photo contest: This is one of the most creative ways to host a giveaway. You can ask the followers to contribute a photo of themselves using some specific product or service that you want to promote. You can ask the followers to include hashtags related to your brand in order to increase its visibility across the platform.
• ‘Caption this’: The newest trend on social media platforms is ‘Caption this’. In this, the caption related to some post is left empty and the users provide suggestions for the caption in the comments. You can try a ‘caption this to win’ giveaway to drive engagement with your followers.

Tools for Instagram Giveaways

There are several tools in the market these days which can help you in planning and executing the Instagram giveaway. Some of them are-

• Woorise: This allows you to run the Instagram campaign on both Instagram and your website.
• SweepWidget: You can promote the giveaway on the SweepWidget landing page. It has more than 90 entry methods and can connect to over 30 social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook.
• Gleam: Makes it easier to create contests and track them in real-time.
• Wishpond: Automates the giveaways and contests and generates better leads.
• Shortstack: All-in-one tool to run the whole giveaway contest, from planning to the execution stage
• Vyper: This has been designed specifically for managing referral campaigns and running giveaway contests
• Viral Loops: This has many features like pre-launch waitlist, email campaigns and referral tools for hosting giveaways.

You can start hosting Instagram giveaways to encourage the growth of your brand. By following the framework and the tips given in this article, you will be able to successfully run a giveaway contest that will inspire people.