Benefits of Running Social Media Contests on Instagram

Benefits of Running Social Media Contests on Instagram

If you think about all opportunities provided by Instagram, it will become evident that Instagram is a very useful social marking platform which helps to promote your brand, attract new followers, induce them to engaged, probably make them your loyal customers, generate leads to brand’s website and in this way boost profit.

Actually, to create your brand’s account on Instagram is the easiest part, however what you are planning do after it? Which marketing actions you will take in order to interact and connect with a target audience in a significant way?

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If you don’t have a lot of ideas, you shouldn’t worry about it because we can give you an advice what you can do in order to overcome the similar kind of marketing challenges.

So, a recommendation is very simple – one efficient strategy which needs to be a part of every social media marketer’s tools, yours as well, is running a contest.

When everything is done properly, Instagram competitions are not only playing a role as an assistant in order to earn an attention of a target audience in your market niche and increase brand awareness, but also help when you want to boost a followers’ base, encourage people to engage or even grow sales.

Likely you have already understood that Instagram contests have many benefits when they are organized correctly. So, in this article the tips of running a successful Instagram competition will be discussed and also the reasons why it is beneficial for your brand will be presented.

Let’s get started.

In order to run a successful Instagram contest you should keep in mind several important things:

Prize

When you are thinking about organizing an Instagram competition, one of the main elements is a prize because it makes an impact on people’s decision to participate or not in a contest. Without no doubts, the better prize will be offered, the more popular competition will be.

What is more, a prize is like a chance for you to show your brand and probably get comments on what people think of it. Just think about who will refuse to try new and especially lesser-known brands for free, probably no one.

Clear rules

Another essential rule of an Instagram contest is that it should be simple and clear for everyone. Don’t make it too complicated, because otherwise a number of people who are willing to participate will be reduced. 

For instance, you can make a “comment and win”, “upload photo and win” or “tag and win” contest. What people need to do if they want to participate in a competition, basically it is to follow your account and leave a proper comment to a question or tag a friend. As a practice shows that it is better to choose “tag friends and win” contest because it helps to attract new people and probably make them your potential customers.

Besides, it is advised to prepare a step-by-step list of rules in order to make it easy for participants to understand what they need to do in order to take a part in a competition. 

Hashtags

If you are organizing a photo competition, it is advisable to create a unique hashtag. In this case you will be able to find all images which are participating in your contest, choose your favorite photo and announce it as a winner. Furthermore, while creating a hashtags, make sure that it is original, short and principally contest and band related.

Competition post

When you are making an Instagram competition post which you will share with your target audience, to use an image of your prize is a simple and easy solution, but it is important to highlight that it isn’t very efficient solution. Better upload an edited, good quality photo of your brand or even video and in this way you will make your post more eye-catching. However don’t forget about a compelling caption which helps to grab an Instagram users’ attention and outline contest’s rules.

Competition promotion

Sharing an Instagram competition’s post is an important factor which determines your contest’s success. Organic way to promote your Instagram contest is to share on other social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter or on your official website. In this case you will attract more people to participate in your competition. Also useful way to remind followers about a contest in Instagram Stories.

Now after given recommendations don’t hesitate to try to organize an Instagram competition by yourself, however before this let’s talk about advantages of running a contest.

Reasons why Instagram contests are a good idea:

1. Builds awareness

Idea of organizing a contest is a great way to increase awareness of your brand. Why? It is because when a person decides to participate in a competition, he/she needs to press “like” and “share” buttons or mention your brand name in a hashtag and in this way these people’s friends or just followers become conscious of you brand. Actually it seems like some sort of word of mouth.

Also as it is known that people begin to trust new, little known brands only after when others are talking about them. So in this case try to run an interesting contest and you will see that more and more people become interested in your brand and write queries with a lot of question about your brand’s products or services.

2. Free advertising

Another positive side of running an Instagram competition is that it is a form of your brand’s free advertising. Usually when people are taking a part in a contest, they are re-posting a competition’s image or video on their social media feed and in this way your brand is advertised to their family members, friends and all Instagram fan base.

All in all, organization of a contest can look as a very simple action, however it doesn’t seen as an intrusive advertising. In other words no one will think that a contest is a form of ads and perceive you as an irritating brand who wants to attract customers and foist them products or services. People will consider Instagram contests as a sort of entertainment.

3. Grows target audience

When an Instagram competition is run efficiently, it becomes a great way to increase a number of followers. People see a contest as a chance of winning a prize and trying your brand, which leads them to push “follow” button.

If you organize interesting social media contests with prizes more frequently, you will catch an eye of a big amount of Instagram users who will follow you in order to be aware about your brand’s updates. 

4. Boosts engagement

Having the customers who are engaged with your activity is the main factor which shows your social media presence. So, an excellent way to do this is running a contest.

What you need to do in order to be sure that it works, is organise an Instagram competition and observe how rates of likes, comments and shares which increase when people want to win. Actually, not only your followers, but other Instagram users who aren’t engaged with your profile can become interested in your brand, reach out and start to interact with you.

5. Increases sales

Although a key reason of any social media competition is to make your brand visible and increase a number of a target audience, however without no doubts you will want to convert participants or just interested visitors of your Instagram account into valuable customers. Especially in case of winning your brand’s products or services and satisfying wants, there is a quite high possibility that these people will return to purchase more products of your brand.

What is more, it is significant to remember that if your brand’s products or services are perfectly meeting a target audience’s needs, you will move forward ahead of your competitors by providing people an opportunity to try your brand for free.

In conclusion, if you didn’t try to run a contest, it would be a great opportunity to do it because Instagram competitions have been still a popular way in order to increase your brand’s awareness and visibility, grow a target audience, boots engagement of your social media account, convert leads to valuable customers and grow sales. However don’t forget that it is an entertaining and funny thing as well.

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