An Instagram contest is an effective way to attract attention to your brand on the platform that has more than one billion users. Contests and giveaways will help increase engagement and get your content material noticed by the Instagram algorithm.
You should think about what kind of contest makes the most sense for your brand, and your targets for this specific Instagram promotion. Listed below are 7 winning Instagram contest ideas for you.
1. Like and/or comment to win
This is one of the most common Instagram contest concepts. It’s additionally one of the simplest for people to enter—particularly if a Like is all that’s required. It’s simple for you to moderate as well, not requiring you to track hashtags or review incoming entries.
The Italian lingerie brand Cosabella runs a weekly giveaway contest on their Instagram account, normally asking people to love the picture and follow their account, plus comment on something associated to the picture.
The ease of entering this type of contest can really present a challenge for entrepreneurs. When you’re utilizing a contest as a lead-generation strategy, you can bring in a large number of leads, however, they might not be superb quality, particularly if all you ask for is a Like.
Asking for a comment directly associated to the picture, as in the Cosabella example above, will help guarantee people learn something about your brand via the contest, and may weed out people who are just hunting for Instagram sweepstakes to enter.
2. Photo caption contest
It’s human nature to wish to show off our wit and humor. An image caption contest permits followers to do just that while also displaying their loyalty to your brand.
All you need is a fascinating or unusual picture. Publish it on your Instagram feed and ask followers to publish their caption within the comments.
The Sudbury Wolves OHL hockey team used this strategy to get followers interested in their first game of the season, providing an opportunity to win two tickets to the opening game for the person who commented with the best caption for this picture.
3. Tag-a-friend
A tag-a-friend contest could be a good way to expose your brand to people who might not have heard of you before, or who could not yet be following you on Instagram. The concept is simple: ask customers to tag their friends in the comments of your post for an opportunity to win a prize.
Each person who is tagged will get a notification and will likely click via and see your post. When they like what they see, you could end up with a new follower.
4. Trivia or skill-based contest
A trivia contest could be a good way to bring in lots of brand love, as people reply to questions and show how much they know about your and your services or products. You can additionally ask trivia questions about a subject associated to your brand—for instance, a travel firm may ask questions about an area where they sell packages, rather than asking questions about the packages themselves.
People who don’t know a lot about your brand already might end up researching the answers and studying your brand in the process.
Asking followers to show off a skill related to your product or brand is another great choice, particularly when you provide merchandise or resources that help people be taught or develop those same skills. The entries that come in can serve as social proof of how well your products work.
BeatJunkies.TV posts regular challenges on their Instagram account, encouraging followers to show off their DJing skills for an opportunity to win a month’s membership to their service. Rather than simply choosing a winner at random, they select the person who confirmed the best skill. Once they announce the winner, they always say what about the entry made it stand out.
The videos frequently get thousands of views.
5. User-generated content contest
An Instagram contest is an effective way to collect content material from followers that you may share across your social channels. Ensure that it’s clear in your contest terms that you could share the images and text that people submit.
You can ask customers to display themselves utilizing your product, share a story of how your services or products have improved their life, or just post images which are related to your services or products (like images from their run for an athletics apparel firm, or images from their travels for a travel brand).
The freelancing platform Upwork requested followers to share their freelancing success stories utilizing the hashtag #UpworkSuccess, with a $1,000 visa gift card as the prize.
Contest entries gave Upwork an awesome source of user-generated content talking about how effectively their service works and what a positive impact it could have on people’s lives.
That’s better publicity than any house-crafted advert.
6. Instagram Stories contest
Don’t neglect Instagram Stories when thinking about the way to run an Instagram contest. You may run a 24-hour contest from your Story utilizing the questions function to collect entries. Use a great prompt to get customers engaged.
You may also run a contest that lasts longer than 24 hours utilizing Instagram Stories adverts.
The German car manufacturer Opel used carousel adverts in Instagram Stories to encourage customers to take a test to learn which model of Opel’s ADAM car greatest fit their personality.
In just two weeks, they received more than 1,800 entries.
7. Scavenger hunt contest
A scavenger hunt could be a fun method to get your Instagram community involved with your brand. You should utilize your Instagram feed to offer clues that people need to follow to discover a prize or give people a list of picture tasks to finish and post on their own Instagram feed or Instagram Story.
The coding training center DevMountain Dallas took a neat method to an Instagram scavenger hunt by asking people to screenshot toys hidden in the Google Street View of their campus. They asked people to send their entries in by Instagram DM, however you can additionally ask people to post directly on Instagram or Instagram Stories.
The Instagram contest was an intelligent method to get people exploring the DevMountain campus.