With over 1 billion users worldwide, Instagram has become one of the most important platforms of the modern age. Whilst it’s primarily used for sharing artsy photos and videos (and who could forget, selfies), over the past couple of years it has proliferated in significance and relevance throughout the consumer market and has become a hugely successful marketing platform.
With more and more brands starting to capitalise on this app’s marketing potential, a growing challenge is how to make your brand stand out in your audience’s news feeds and not only grab their attention, but illicit their engagement.
You could look towards paid ads, professional photography and written copy to advertise your brand; however, none of these can promise any ROI. When it comes to Instagram competitions, however, you can be confident of user engagement, attention and interest. You are actively encouraging and enticing people into engaging directly with your brand. They will take photos with your product, tag their friends, and share your posts, all for a chance at winning what you have to offer! After all, no one can resist a freebie.
Below are a couple of the reasons why you should definitely be considering using competitions to promote your brand on Instagram, as well as a couple of tips to get you started!
1. Guaranteed Audience Engagement
This is not overkill. If you run an Instagram competition (and your offering is half-decent), you WILL get people engaging with your content.
When you run an Instagram competition, you would (or at least, should) set a couple of actionable terms and conditions to guarantee proactive engagement from your followers. These are usually a combination of: ‘tag 3 friends’, ‘like the post’, ‘follow our page’ and share our post’ to be eligible for entry. In this way, you are guaranteed to get meaningful interaction with your post. Not only this, your content will inevitably be spread to your audience’s followers, encouraging them to also enter into your competition, thus expanding your reach ten-fold.
Another angle you can take is by encouraging you followers to be creative. Get them to take a picture of them using your product, or doing a challenge with your page tagged and hashtagged. It will get people engaging with your business offline as well as online!
2. Gain New Followers
As previously mentioned, in exchange for entry into the prize draw, your audience must be following your page. When they share your post (another condition of entry), their follower base will also be enticed by your irresistible offer and follow your page for their chance to win; this can potentially go on and on exponentially until the competition draws to a close. Additionally, if you share your contest on your other social media platforms, in front of slightly different audiences, you may draw in new followers to your Instagram page looking for a shot at the prize.
If your Instagram page is relatively new, a competition is a great way to build a relevant and specialised follower base. They have already expressed an initial interest in your business (albeit in the hope to win a freebie), and therefore they will be more likely to be interested in and susceptible to your upcoming content. It won’t be vegans signing up to your ‘Steak Night for Two’ offer; it will be your target demographic served up on a platter.
3. Product Promotion
If you’re launching a new product or trying to push stock in general, running an Instagram contest and giving your product away as the prize is a huge way to promote it. Not only will it put it on your audience’s radar, you are automatically creating hype surrounding your product. Hype is golden when it comes to sales – people may just buy the product because it’s got buzz surrounding it.
It is also always worthwhile making sure the product you’re promoting resonates with you follower’s interests. Unsurprisingly, a collection of makeup brushes for your agricultural supply business will go down like a lead balloon. Give the people what they want, and get your competition off the ground by ensuring your prize is worthwhile and relevant to your audience.
4. Free Marketing
Essentially, in running an Instagram competition, you are inadvertently getting your followers to do your digital marketing for you… for free! Each time they share your post, tag you in their own posts or invite their friends to get involved, they are spreading the word about your business and your products. It’s brand awareness at its finest (and cheapest). They say word of mouth is the best driver of new business – give the people something to talk about!
Like, Follow and Share @christianmichaelsagency to Win Quality Content on Your News Feed
We hope that you’ve been convinced of the incredible value of Instagram competitions for your business. Once you have people’s attention and their investment, the likelihood of them following you on your other socials and visiting your website increases ten-fold. It is a free, simple way of encouraging engagement and building your follower-base. It would be silly not to give it a go - you’ve got nothing to lose! As a digital marketing agency, this is our area of expertise. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need a hand getting started!
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