How to do an Instagram giveaway [+4 tools you’ll need]
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 6:04 am
Every single day, the number of people logging onto Instagram grows.
No wonder the platform now has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it one of the fastest-growing social media networks.
And as the number of Instagram users grows, so do your chances of growing your customer base.
But how can businesses like yours attract those users and convert telegram database them into engaged followers, potential customers, or even paying customers?
There are several ways to go about it but running Instagram giveaways is one smart strategy to build an engaged following and boost sales.
A study by Tailwand has shown that Instagram accounts that run contests can grow your following 70% faster than if you do nothing at all.
Instagram research on follower growth for companies that use giveaways.
With some planning and the right tools, you can run a simple, effective Instagram giveaway — and pick up a ton of new leads or customers in the process.
Here’s how to run a successful Instagram giveaway and four tools you need to do it.
1. Know the Instagram giveaway rules
Like any platform, Instagram has rules.
And while it’s relatively simple to run giveaways on Instagram, you need to include entry requirements and conditions for entrants based on Instagram’s rules.
Here’s the full set of contest rules from Instagram’s website:
Official Instagram giveaway guidelines.
Source: Instagram’s official guidelines on promotions
The easiest way to enforce these rules when hosting a giveaway is to add a statement of conditions in your giveaway post. Here’s an example of how blogger Rachel-Jean Firchau outlined the rules in one of her Instagram giveaways:
Instagram post featuring the contest guidelines.
And if you are asking people to enter your Instagram contest by rerouting them to a landing page (instead of entering on the Instagram post itself), you can even have a link that takes them to Instagram’s promotion guidelines.
Pro Tip: Make sure that you don’t use the word “lottery” anywhere in your giveaway copy. Under State law, private lotteries are actually illegal, so you need to avoid labeling your campaign a lottery, otherwise you may risk legal action.
2. Be specific with your goal for running your Instagram contest
Once you have the legal jargon out of the way, the next thing to address is your goal for running the contest.
For small businesses, consultants, and freelancers, running giveaways and contests should have a specific goal. Common goals for Instagram giveaways can be :
Increasing your Instagram follower count.
Boosting brand awareness before you launch a new product or service.
Getting testimonials and case studies from user-generated content posted by your followers.
Building up your email list and fan base.
Increasing your website traffic and engagement.
Once you decide on a specific goal, you can build a giveaway strategy and tailor your entry requirements around it.
For example, when Coconut Bowls launched an Instagram giveaway, they had some lofty goals: to generate emails, social awareness, engagement, and sales around their product. The brand did this by creating a custom landing page for their contest:
Example of a landing page featuring a giveaway contest from Coconut Bowls.
The landing page not only gave contestants clear steps on how to enter, but it also asked for their email address as part of entering. This allowed Coconut Bowls to engage with them while the contest was running and allowed them to:
add messaging and a thank you to an email once a person entered.
add a reminder to share the contest with friends in all emails.
send updates and engagement emails every 3-4 days.
This level of engagement helped Coconut Bowls achieve their goals. Not only did they collect 41k new subscribers to their email list, but they also generated social awareness and engagement:
Giveaway case study summary from Coconut bowls.
Pro tip: Always set a goal before building your giveaway strategy so that your contest’s “ask” will help you meet your goal.
3. Get a campaign hashtag and make it memorable
One of the key parts to any Instagram giveaway is a contest hashtag.
A content hashtag allows you to track a giveaway and identify people who have entered it so you can pick a winner when the giveaway is over.
It’s also a great way to build and track engagement around your brand and even create brand advocates. These people can amplify your business to those around them.
This is important because studies show 92% of people trust brand advocates. Long story short: if somebody is using your hashtag in their posts, their friends are more likely to take a look.
Hashtags can also help boost campaigns through likes and engagement. And Instagram posts with at least one hashtag can increase likes by 70%.
Picking a hashtag for your giveaway isn’t rocket science; it just has to be unique to the contest. But because of how large Instagram’s platform is, it’s hard to know if a hashtag has been used in the past.
To avoid this, you can use a tool like Tagboard to ensure the hashtag you’ve chosen for the giveaway is unique.
No wonder the platform now has over 1 billion monthly active users, making it one of the fastest-growing social media networks.
And as the number of Instagram users grows, so do your chances of growing your customer base.
But how can businesses like yours attract those users and convert telegram database them into engaged followers, potential customers, or even paying customers?
There are several ways to go about it but running Instagram giveaways is one smart strategy to build an engaged following and boost sales.
A study by Tailwand has shown that Instagram accounts that run contests can grow your following 70% faster than if you do nothing at all.
Instagram research on follower growth for companies that use giveaways.
With some planning and the right tools, you can run a simple, effective Instagram giveaway — and pick up a ton of new leads or customers in the process.
Here’s how to run a successful Instagram giveaway and four tools you need to do it.
1. Know the Instagram giveaway rules
Like any platform, Instagram has rules.
And while it’s relatively simple to run giveaways on Instagram, you need to include entry requirements and conditions for entrants based on Instagram’s rules.
Here’s the full set of contest rules from Instagram’s website:
Official Instagram giveaway guidelines.
Source: Instagram’s official guidelines on promotions
The easiest way to enforce these rules when hosting a giveaway is to add a statement of conditions in your giveaway post. Here’s an example of how blogger Rachel-Jean Firchau outlined the rules in one of her Instagram giveaways:
Instagram post featuring the contest guidelines.
And if you are asking people to enter your Instagram contest by rerouting them to a landing page (instead of entering on the Instagram post itself), you can even have a link that takes them to Instagram’s promotion guidelines.
Pro Tip: Make sure that you don’t use the word “lottery” anywhere in your giveaway copy. Under State law, private lotteries are actually illegal, so you need to avoid labeling your campaign a lottery, otherwise you may risk legal action.
2. Be specific with your goal for running your Instagram contest
Once you have the legal jargon out of the way, the next thing to address is your goal for running the contest.
For small businesses, consultants, and freelancers, running giveaways and contests should have a specific goal. Common goals for Instagram giveaways can be :
Increasing your Instagram follower count.
Boosting brand awareness before you launch a new product or service.
Getting testimonials and case studies from user-generated content posted by your followers.
Building up your email list and fan base.
Increasing your website traffic and engagement.
Once you decide on a specific goal, you can build a giveaway strategy and tailor your entry requirements around it.
For example, when Coconut Bowls launched an Instagram giveaway, they had some lofty goals: to generate emails, social awareness, engagement, and sales around their product. The brand did this by creating a custom landing page for their contest:
Example of a landing page featuring a giveaway contest from Coconut Bowls.
The landing page not only gave contestants clear steps on how to enter, but it also asked for their email address as part of entering. This allowed Coconut Bowls to engage with them while the contest was running and allowed them to:
add messaging and a thank you to an email once a person entered.
add a reminder to share the contest with friends in all emails.
send updates and engagement emails every 3-4 days.
This level of engagement helped Coconut Bowls achieve their goals. Not only did they collect 41k new subscribers to their email list, but they also generated social awareness and engagement:
Giveaway case study summary from Coconut bowls.
Pro tip: Always set a goal before building your giveaway strategy so that your contest’s “ask” will help you meet your goal.
3. Get a campaign hashtag and make it memorable
One of the key parts to any Instagram giveaway is a contest hashtag.
A content hashtag allows you to track a giveaway and identify people who have entered it so you can pick a winner when the giveaway is over.
It’s also a great way to build and track engagement around your brand and even create brand advocates. These people can amplify your business to those around them.
This is important because studies show 92% of people trust brand advocates. Long story short: if somebody is using your hashtag in their posts, their friends are more likely to take a look.
Hashtags can also help boost campaigns through likes and engagement. And Instagram posts with at least one hashtag can increase likes by 70%.
Picking a hashtag for your giveaway isn’t rocket science; it just has to be unique to the contest. But because of how large Instagram’s platform is, it’s hard to know if a hashtag has been used in the past.
To avoid this, you can use a tool like Tagboard to ensure the hashtag you’ve chosen for the giveaway is unique.