Over the course of few years, major brands, home-based businesses, individual creators and local shop owners have been driving traffic, generating leads and doing better on Instagram, a social media platform that has become a hub for artists, musicians, niche brands and more.
Instagram is the place where creators and influencers discover ideas, talents, opportunities and appropriate ecosystem to develop other skills as well.
Why do business on Instagram?
Around 80% of Instagram users follow minimum one business on the platform. Thus, despite heavy competition, brands can utilize Instagram marketing strategies that are proven effective online for successful business.
Doing business on Instagram helps brands connect with their fans and –
“Tap into people’s passions to create deeper relationships with your business online and off.”
With over 500 million+ accounts using the Instagram key features every day, one would surely love to promote and advertise here. 
Users can optimize their posts, focus on post timings, involve influencers & create regular content to bring in more traffic and engage customers.
60% of Instagram users say they found a new product and discovered ideas on the platform. There can be no bigger reason than these statistics to start campaigning and doing business on Instagram.
Specific features like Instagram stories, reposting and partnership with influencers can boost business and attract customers.
Similarly, Instagram giveaways are a proven method to grab attention of fans and customers.
What are Instagram Giveaways?
We love gifts and freebies, don’t we?
Instagram Giveaways are one of the coolest ways to engage with existing followers and attract newer ones to the page by involving them in certain contest or event.
Coming across shout-outs on stories, shared posts and reposts are a common affair when on Instagram.
Usually participating followers are given something as a reward or a freebie in exchange of likes, comments, follows or any pre-determined activity.
Such online events help increase followers, engagement rates and also generate proper leads that seldom become customer bases later.
Instagram Giveaways not just motivate users to follow the respective page but also make the brand look relevant & trustworthy to them.
How would Instagram Giveaways benefit businesses?
Brands and influencers have benefited from Instagram Giveaways in many forms and found it to be a proven success in marketing.
The technique brings in equal amount of return on investment if not more than that, thus it is a must try for all.
We have listed down some benefits of Instagram Giveaways for businesses that might help our readers understand its importance and credibility.
1. Increase interaction among followers:
Arranging Instagram Giveaways will set in a sense of excitement among the fans.
2. Community building:
Most of the time people get to know about a brand or business after a friend, family or colleague mentions about it.
Through Instagram Giveaways, brands can develop a strong connection with their audience’s community. It expands customer base and spreads awareness at almost zero costs. 
Brands utilize giveaways to make their fans voice their opinions, reviews, feedback and ideas online that would reach their respective followers.
Many times companies spend a lot and put in efforts to develop a community in the neighborhood thus, online contests are invaluable and amazing.
3. Get exposure for product:
Organizing an Instagram giveaway while launching any product or service of the company can increase its popularity.
Keeping the product as a gift itself would generate more excitement around the launch and increase the probability of the campaign to go viral. 
Such contests are a great way to create buzz around the brand name thereby pulling more followers on the account.
People tend to take more interest and try out products that have a contest alert beside it. Sometimes these contests improve company revenues and influence sales directly.
4. Cost effective marketing strategy:
As marketers, one would always look for ways to generate sales, leads and opportunities at minimum cost.
Instagram giveaways are the most cost effective social media marketing strategy that can attract maximum customers at minimum cost.
All it would take is setting and selecting giveaway prize, plan the time and engagement routines.
Most of the time, the expenditure is usually lesser and predictable, much in advance.
5. Expand business and grow networking:
Instagram Giveaways are a great way to let people know about the brand’s presence and its services.
Much often giveaways come along with a rule of following the creator or brand which helps them grow the number of followers. 
More the followers, more trusted the brand looks, which brings in loyal customers and opportunities too.
6. Impress audience effortlessly:
Instagram giveaways are easy to manage because it involves almost no technicalities.
A basic understanding and idea about the platform can make marketers run contests successfully. This not just saves time and energy but also attracts more followers including new visitors on account.
7. Make audiences feel special:
Instagram Giveaways are a great way to appreciate followers and make them feel included. 
Showing gratitude, rewarding customers is always smart as it helps acquire and retain loyal ones. It benefits the company in the long run.
How to manage Instagram Giveaways?
It is important to note that just knowing about the method is not enough, executing it the right way matters.
We understand that confusions and doubts are common when a brand wants to begin with such social media escapades.
Therefore, here is a sequence of steps one can refer to while running Instagram Giveaways.
1. Decide the results desired from the campaign:
It is very important for the contest runner to set goals, pre-determine giveaways and fix the budget.
Marketers need to sort out requirements that they would like to achieve post Instagram Giveaways.
It can be done to launch a product, increase followers, attract new visitors or to gather user generated content for future use.
Deciding over the budget and reward completes half the task. Hence, it is advised to make appropriate planning in advance.
2. Plan the complete campaign:
Here, brands can decide over who can participate and how will they do so. Now the criteria for entry in the contest depends on what result is desired out of it.
For example:
Campaign runners can ask their followers to like the post and tag 10 friends in comment section if they want to promote the brand. It would help spread awareness about any specific post or cause.
In case there is a video or blog post that one needs to promote then they can add its link in the post as well. Participants can be led to the link for further information and rules about the contest in it.
It would help generate traffic on a desired webpage without much cost.
Instagram Giveaways can be a way for brand partnerships too.
There are leading brands that may ask influencer accounts to include a request to follow their page in return of a product of theirs as a giveaway. It would enhance their brand credibility and gain followers to both partners involved.
It is better to determine whether one wants to increase followers on Instagram, understand the market space better, drive traffic to website or improve direct sales.
3. Decide over duration, hashtag and result announcement of the campaign:
It is essential for marketers to determine how long a content would run. A starting and ending date must be clearly mentioned in posts.
Trending a hashtag relevant to the contest, cause, brand or business would help people find it easily. This increases participation, engagement and help track entries better. 
It is wise to ensure that the hashtag is not in use previously and include it in every promotional post.
Analysing audience plays an important role in understanding user age group and psyche before announcing result.
Suppose most participants are below 18 years of age, brands can choose to DM the results while announcing that the “winner has been selected” in the post.
4. Cross-platform promotion of the contest:
Many a times we think that the campaign is performing but a large part of audience is not reached out to through some campaigns.
Promoting Instagram Giveaways on other social media platforms would expand reach and bring in most number of contest entries. 
Cross-platform advertising spreads awareness about the existing or new Instagram account that unaware people on other platforms can follow.
It is suggested that a link to the Instagram giveaways or contests be included in the posts on other platforms too.
It might look obvious but brands often forget or miss out the link considering the same name for both handles on different platforms. This inclusion makes it easier to drive followers directly and be approachable.
5. Utilise Instagram ads to promote contest:
Instagram ads are a better way to reach the target market. It magnifies the campaign to the particular aimed segment in the market which in turn amplifies the participation.
6. Result analysis:
Measuring the outcomes of the campaign is equally important and it helps design better contests in future. To understand how the Instagram Giveaways are perceived by customers the following metric must be noted:
- Number of new followers attained
- Likes and comments on the original post (engagement rates)
- Number of contest entries
- Traffic on website and landing pages
- Type of Questions and feedbacks on posts
- Sales and revenue records
Best ideas on Instagram Giveaways
1. Photography Contests:
These contests are meant for photography focused accounts that inspire people to go out and click creatively. 
Photography Instagram Giveaways usually involve theme based contests such as street life, city lights, sceneries. Rewards are mostly shout-outs, camera lenses, photography beginner kits etc.
It brings in engagements and entries in large numbers which motivate rookie creators to contribute regularly.
2. Instagram Loop Giveaways:
It is a very popular form of giveaway contest that involves loops of people.
In the contest groups of people form a “loop” or chain that share comments, likes and follows. Interested participants are encouraged to join the loop in order to win rewards in return. 
Most of the time the prize is decided depending on the category that the loop belonged to. As gamers would plan consoles and gift cards while fashionistas might giveaway makeup sets.
3. Caption Contest:
These are the coolest giveaways on Instagram.
It is hassle free and very effective. All one needs to do is post a photo with a request for followers to caption it. 
Such contests bring in a lot of entries and engagements. Captions can be stored as user generated content for future needs too.
4. Product Launch Giveaways:
These are the common type of giveaways on the social media site. Many brands and business use Instagram to promote their new found products to the specific audience. 
Product giveaways bring in high number of entries and encourage users to engage in the contest. This helps increase sales by word of mouth technique that is cost effective and efficient.
5. Selfie Contests:
How can we miss out the most popular practice online.
Selfies describe half of the internet sensations and trends. These contests are known to be driving the maximum traffic through entries. 
By supporting and encouraging followers to take selfies with theme while abiding by the set rules and regulations one can easily engage a lot of fans.
Why Organize Instagram Giveaways?
There are a lot more creative ways to promote art, culture, skills and talents of creators. We can individually develop various unique ways to promote our brands, products, accounts through Instagram giveaways.
Rewarding fans and followers makes them feel appreciated due to which they take more interest in the organiser brand or creator.
Managing a giveaway can be tough at times but mostly it is simple. It requires just few basic ideas about followers along with the business industry. 
Instagram comes with a lot of new features and elements that can help users build a trustworthy brand name. Whether it is spreading awareness about a particular campaign, announcing launches & event dates or popularizing blogs, Instagram giveaways are most effective.
Deciding over the type of contest is necessary hence users must analyse their followers, their interests and demands before starting one.
Planning functions work best after a proper execution takes place. Therefore, results play a key role in contest alerts. Marketing on Instagram is beneficial provided the right giveaways, target audience and contest management are predetermined & well executed.
Hope the above facts, ideas & tips encourage our readers to organize effective & viral Instagram Giveaways.
