Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most popular social media platforms used by people and businesses. According to the stats, there are currently more than 1 billion Instagram users. This increasing number of active users defines how Instagram is turning into the biggest online marketing platform for businesses.
So, if you are trying to promote your product or service on Instagram and grab the attention of users, running a contest is the best way. An interesting Instagram contest is a great way to reach the target audience and reward them for engaging with your brand or content. However, the digital marketing team needs to be creative and strategically promote the contest.
Here we are going to mention few steps that can help you plan a very engaging and result-driven contest on the platform of Instagram.
8 Tips to Run a Successful Contest on Instagram in 2021:
1. Set up content goal and objectives
One of the important things that you have to keep in mind when it comes to hosting Instagram contests is that you need to have a ready plan. This is the ultimate key to getting better results. You need a purpose for holding the contest and hence planning out the entire thing can be a real help in this case.
You also need to make sure that your plans include the behavior and interests of your target audience. Do you want to grow the online presence of your brand or do you want to grow the followers that you have on your Instagram account? These are a few of the important questions that you have to ask before you start the planning.
2. Setting a method for entry
There are a few engaging and effective methods that most brands use for entries by the contestants for their brands. Most of them include providing their details and photos. However, you need to come up with something that will be both engaging and simple to do.
This way, your target audience will easily be able to make their entries in the contest. Providing brand hashtags and prompting people to put comments and likes on the page can actually be a great help.
3. Hashtags to push your contest
Speaking of Hashtags, this is another important tool that you need in order to create an engaging contest on Instagram. According to social media statistics, 83% of users find new products and services on Instagram.
In addition, more than 95 million photos are posted on Instagram daily. It becomes really difficult for the platform to deliver the right content to the target audience. This is where hashtags come to the role.
Without having the hashtags, there won’t be a point to the contest since people will not have any particular link between the contest and the generation of the contest.
Not to mention that hashtags help in the creation of more recognition for the brands. Choose some of the most popular hashtags that have a higher engagement ratio than others.
4. Get a clearly defined theme
You must be familiar with the fact that most of the contests on Instagram are (User Generated Content) UGC-based. Hence, you need to ensure that you have a theme picked out for the contest that will help the users understanding the type of entries they need to make.
In an ideal situation, the perfect theme would match the product or the service that the brand is selling. So, make sure that you have a proper theme planned for the content and you will not regret it.
5. A Defined process to select the winner
Have you realized why contests are so popular amongst people? Well, that’s because people are competitive and they like to win as much as they can. So, deciding the process of selecting the winner should ensure that you have everything you need in order to hold the Instagram content successfully without any trouble.
Also, you need to ensure that your participants know how the winner is going to be selected. There are many different processes such as judging, voting, polls, and much more to decide the winner.
6. Select perfect rewards
When you are choosing contest rewards, there are certain things that you need to consider. People definitely like to win things and rewards are just an added incentive. However, you do need to ensure that you are choosing the correct ones for your target audience.
The key is to ensure that you are considering important factors such as audience interests, budget constraints, and goals that your brand has. So, having the right kind of rewards for the winners is really important in this process.
7. Have clear terms and conditions
It is essential to keep in mind that although this is an online competition with rewards and prizes, there are certain legal guidelines that you have to follow. These guidelines will be applied depending on the location as well as the audience that is allowed to enter the contest.
Hence, it is important to seek some legal advice before choosing the contest to hold. You also need to ensure that your contestants are familiar with the terms and conditions so that there is no scope for mistakes in the future. Important details such as dates of the contests, participants’ numbers, legal guidelines, and other rules are sure to be included.
8. Promote the contest
With the help of the above-mentioned tips, you are now all set with the contest. But then, how are people going to know more about the contest? Well, this is where you need to promote it as you’ve never promoted anything else in your life.
There are certain ideas that you can follow such as making blog posts about the contest, posting on other social media sites, and much more.
Social media proves to be the best and the most effective way to get results when you are trying to promote your contests in the best way and that too without any hassle.
See Also:
- How Do You Make an Effective Ad on Instagram?
- How to Grow Your Business on Instagram
- 5 Tips on How to Start Your Photography Business
- What Tools Do You Need for SEO?
- Best Video Editing Software for Beginners
Conclusion
These above-mentioned tips and pointers can be really helpful to hold an Instagram contest for your brand. Now, with the help of these tips, we are pretty sure that you know what it takes when you need to run a very successful and engaging Instagram contest. Follow these tips and the results that you will get will not only help in increasing awareness for your brand but will also ensure that your followers and target audience members are increased in the best way.
