How To Plan An Engaging Instagram Giveaway
If you use the platform, it’s almost a guarantee you’ve seen an Instagram giveaway. Many brands use this excellent tactic to drive engagement and potentially build brand excitement and loyalty. Giveaways are popular and effective because people love the chance to win something, especially if it’s something related to your brand. Maybe they’ve always wanted to try one of your products but they think it might be a little out of their budget. They’ll likely enter your giveaway, and if they win, your product might just convince them that it’s a great value and that they should become a customer.
At the end of the day, people want to feel connected to a brand, and giveaways can help make that happen. Before you just rush headfirst into a giveaway, though, you’ll want to think and plan strategically so you know that your Instagram giveaway will be effective. Today we’ll walk you through the six steps you need to follow to create your next giveaway.
Planning An Instagram Giveaway: 6 Steps
If you follow these steps, you can be confident that you have set your Instagram giveaway up for success.
- Decide What Your Goals Are
What do you want out of this giveaway? We’re talking about marketing goals here. Do you want to get more Instagram followers? More purchases? More likes? Do you want to get a certain number of comments? Do you want user-generated content that you can share on your social pages? Are you looking to gather more email subscribers?
You can choose whatever you’d like for your goals but stick with one to three goals. If you want too many things, it’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed, and your giveaway will likely suffer. Instead, pick a couple of key goals that you want to meet through this giveaway, and then set numbers for them. Don’t just say you want “more followers,” but say you want to “grow your following by 5%,” or whatever feels like a good goal for your brand.
- Determine Brands To Work With & What Prize
While you can certainly do a giveaway on your own (and plenty of brands do), it can also be fun to collaborate with other, complementary brands for an Instagram giveaway. You won’t want to pick a brand that’s a direct competitor of yours, because it’s likely that neither of you will be happy with the arrangement. However, if you sell baby strollers, you might want to collaborate with a baby clothing boutique.
Once you know who will be involved in the giveaway, it’s time to set the prize. This can really be anything you want, but it’s ideal if you stick with something related to your brand. For example, if you’re working with three other brands in the fitness space, if you each contribute one item from your product shops, you can either give away a package of four items, or you can have four winners – one for each item. Or, you can give away something unrelated, like cash, an iPad, or a designer bag.
- Select What The Entry Criteria Will Be
To decide what your entry criteria will be, you’ll want to go back and think about your goals. If you want more followers, the criteria should be following you. (Or, it should be tagging a friend and they both have to be following you!) If you want more email subscribers, then the criteria should be signing up for your email list. Whatever you choose, you don’t want it to be too difficult. The more things people have to do to enter or hoops they have to jump through, the more likely they are to give up and not enter. They’re also more likely to give more information or do more if they’re entering to win a bigger prize.
- Create The Post
Once you have all your decisions made, it’s time to actually create the post! You’ll want to use an engaging image and copy so your audience will stop and read about your giveaway. There are many different things you can use as your image. You can showcase the product(s) you’re giving away, you can use a celebratory-type image or you can use an image that has someone from your team holding the giveaway prizes. There are plenty of other image ideas, too, but these are just a few to get you started. It’s typically a good idea to use an image that has a person in it because people are connected to people, but if you can’t, it’s not the end of the world.
When it comes to your copy, you need to create something attention-grabbing in the first line. This post will have to be long to explain the giveaway, and entry criteria and to include the disclaimer information that you need to use to post a giveaway on Instagram. So, your audience will have to click “read more.” Because of this, you’ll need to make that first line captivating. Something like “EXTRA, EXTRA” or “Big news, we’ve got a GIVEAWAY going on!” can help stop the scroll. Most importantly, though, make sure it sounds like your brand.
Finally, include some language at the end of your post that explains this: “Per Instagram rules, this promotion is in no way sponsored, administered, or associated with Instagram, Inc. By entering, entrants confirm that they are 13+ years of age, release Instagram of responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.” You can use that exact copy, or you can write something very similar.
- Launch, Promote
Once your post is ready, it’s time to launch your giveaway! You (and your giveaway partners, if you have them) are ready to hit publish on your post and wait for the entries to roll on in. Once you hit “post,” though, you’re not done. In many ways, the real work is just beginning. Now it’s time to promote your giveaway so you can get entries.
The easiest way to promote your giveaway is to put it in your Instagram Stories. You can link to the post directly from a Story, talk about the giveaway in your stories or talk about your giveaway partners and their products. But, don’t discredit the idea of cross-promotion. You can always post about your giveaway on other social media platforms, include it in your email newsletters, or add it to your website.
- Choose A Winner
Once your giveaway reaches the end of your entry period, it’s time to choose a winner. You’ve most likely created a drawing-type giveaway, so you can use any giveaway picker software online to choose a random winner. Or, if you created a giveaway that involved submitting photos and the “best” photo would win, you’ll need to choose the best. This can be done either by your team or by a community vote.
After you determine your winner, you need to tag them in the post to let them know they’ve won! You can also mention them in a Story if you’d like, too. Ask them to send you a direct message with their contact information so you can send them their prize.
5 Examples Of Great Instagram Giveaways From Brands
Now that we’ve talked about how to create excellent giveaways, let’s look at some great examples.
- Barely Xtensions
Our first example is from @barelyxtensions. They created this excellent mosaic to promote their giveaway. They began teasing it with the oldest post, and then the most recent post that actually says “Give” on it includes the instructions to enter an explanation of the giveaway. This is also a great giveaway because it includes the super-popular Dyson Airwrap as well as two sets of their 18” extensions!
- Ayurecare Dubai
This Ayurvedic wellness company is giving away five gift baskets. This is a great way to encourage more participation. Some people might assume they’ll never win a giveaway and get discouraged before they even enter. However, offering more than one prize, it increases their chances of winning. So, more people might be likely to participate.
- Think
Think has partnered with Chocxo and Dermae to give away organic chocolates, suncare, and skincare. It’s a sweet summer giveaway, and it’s a great way to cross-promote across the three brands. They’re all related, but they don’t sell the same thing, so it’s a good partnership for this giveaway.
- California Giant Berries
This is an interesting giveaway. The berry company isn’t giving away berries, but they’re giving away something related: a Williams Sonoma gift card. They’ve created this as a “backyard BBQ” giveaway idea. They include their berries in the giveaway image, which ties back to their brand. However, they probably understand that shipping berries across the country might not end well. A gift card is a much better prize option.
- Milani Cosmetics & Naturium
This giveaway is fun because it requires something more than a simple like or follows. They’ve asked people to comment on their dream summer travel destination, and they give a way to earn bonus entries. This is an exciting way to make your giveaways a little more interesting – both for you and your audience!
Time To Start Planning!
Now you know the six steps to follow to plan an engaging Instagram giveaway, and you have some great examples of giveaways. It’s time to take this information and inspiration and put it to good use. Have you already thought of a goal or a brand you could partner with? It’s time to get to work.
