Instagram can be a very effective part of a strong social media strategy. It is clear, first and foremost, that engaging visual content will continue to play a vital role in online marketing, and your ability to interact with your customers using two-way content sharing platforms will largely define your social media success.
Are you looking for an effective way to engage your customers? Have you ever thought about running a contest on Instagram to promote your brand? An Instagram photo contest could be just the boost you need.
To run an Instagram competition is relatively straightforward. What it starts with, however, is a strong foundation. A good solid action plan, based on well thought out ideas and measured metrics. Here is some advice for running an effective Instagram competition.
Preparation
Set Goals
What do you want to achieve from the contest? Every effective marketing campaign will need some targets to follow to ensure an effective ROI. Do you want 1000 new followers? Or do you want to increase Christmas sales by 50%? Have your marketing team set objectives ahead of time so as to make sure you are effectively measuring your contents.
Define your Audience
You may already have a loyal following and be clear on their demographics and psychographics. However, the purpose of a contest, as well as engaging with your current audience (or followers), is to bring in some new ones. It should already be clear who you want following your page, however, if you lack in a certain area, you may want to tailor the contest towards bringing in more of a certain type of follower.
Choosing the Type of Contest
The first step in deciding on an Instagram contest is to decide which type of contest you want to run. This will be dependent on your product or service and the outcome that you are seeking. Here are some of the contests you can run.
A “Like” Contest
This is the most straightforward type of contest and allows you to jump in with little knowledge or experience. Essentially all you want to do here is to ask your audience to ‘like’ a photo to be entered into the competition to win a predetermined prize. This could be anything from a free meal, if you happen to be a restaurant, to a free coaching call, if you happen to be a business coach. The possibilities are endless.
A Comment Contest
This is similar to the "like" contest but requires a little more creativity. Essentially a prize is given either at random to someone who has commented, or to whoever is selected as having the most interesting or insightful comment. Another idea is to tag a friend into the comments section to be entered – this is great for exposure.
A UGC (User Generated Content) Contest
This is where you ask the audience to create an image or video and attach a hashtag to it to have it entered. This is a great way to get your audience involved – but you will need a clever angle and a decent sized audience to ensure that it is effective.
Choose your Incentive
The incentive will be a large part of what draws your audience to the contest. An effective incentive should:
- Call your audience to act
- Be relevant to the audience
- Be relevant to your business
- Be realistic and deliverable
The above tips should give you a solid foundation for running an Instagram contest. Have you had any experience with Instagram marketing? Let us know in the comments.
About Digital Impact Agency
Digital Impact Agency is a creative firm specializing in interactive media and inbound marketing strategies for manufacturing and technology companies, professional service firms (architectural, engineering, construction, legal and consulting), nonprofits and enterprise companies. We are a team of innovative entrepreneurs focused on creating the most strategic and effective communication channels for our clients.
