How to Promote Your Instagram Giveaway in 15 Easy Steps

Looking for easy ways to promote your Instagram giveaway contest?

Running a giveaway on Instagram is an excellent way to promote your products or services. Yet, ensuring the right people see your contest comes down to promoting it successfully.

In this article, we’ll show you how to promote your Instagram giveaway in 15 easy steps.

But first, what are the benefits of running an Instagram contest?

What Is an Instagram Giveaway?

An Instagram giveaway is a promotional campaign that targets Instagram users. Users have to perform specific tasks such as liking a post, leaving a comment, etc., in exchange for entry into your prize draw.

With that in mind, how do you create an Instagram giveaway from your business website? Let’s find out!

How to Create an Instagram Giveaway on WordPress

If your business has a WordPress website, you can host your Instagram giveaway from your website easily. One of the easiest ways to do this is with a giveaway tool like RafflePress.

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It makes it easy to grow your email list, website traffic, and social media followers with viral giveaways and contests.

The drag and drop giveaway builder lets you create incredible giveaways in minutes, right from your WordPress site. And with ready-made giveaway templates, getting started takes just a few clicks.

RafflePress has tons of built-in giveaway actions to grow your brand online. For instance, you can ask users to visit your Instagram profile, Instagram posts, share your contest, and more.

You can also see everyone that entered in the contest app right inside your WordPress dashboard. This makes it easy to pick a winner with the built-in random winner picker.

From there, you can click and email the winner to give them the good news.

Check out this guide to learn how to run an Instagram giveaway in WordPress with RafflePress.

How to Promote Your Instagram Giveaway

Once you’ve created your Instagram giveaway, the next step is to promote it to secure as many entries as possible. Promoting your Instagram giveaway makes it easier to reach your target audience and as a result, grow your brand.

Follow these steps to promote your Instagram giveaway for the best results.

1. Tease Your Contest on Instagram Before Launching

Before launching your Instagram contest, it’s a good idea to give your audience time to prepare by telling them a giveaway is coming soon. That way, they’ll remember to check in with you when your contest launches to enter.

An easy way to do this is to post “teaser” content on Instagram, releasing information about your giveaway bit-by-bit in the lead up to its launch.

Here’s an example from Shanti Soy teasing their upcoming giveaway for reaching 1,000 followers. They ask their followers to spread the word so there’s maximum excitement for launch day.

2. Require Sharing on Social Media

When you’re building an Instagram giveaway with RafflePress, you can require users to share the contest to earn more entries.

For every person that enters to win, you can increase your leads if they share the contest with their friends. This is one of the easiest ways to go viral and drive more brand awareness.

When choosing how people can enter your Instagram giveaway, keep your main goal in mind. For instance, if your goal is to collect more UGC, you should ask users to upload a selfie or other types of photos by giving that action more value in RafflePress.

You can even make it mandatory to submit an image to enter your contest. That way, you can boost your chance to go viral while still gathering UGC.

3. Optimize Your Giveaway Landing Page

After building your Instagram giveaway, it’s a good idea to make a giveaway landing page on your website. Your landing page is the link you’ll share when promoting your contest on other platforms.

Creating an Instagram giveaway landing page is easy with RafflePress. When you make your contest in RafflePress, you can choose a custom URL for your landing page, and RafflePress generates the page for you.

You can customize the page’s background color and background image to make it more attractive and user-friendly if you like.

After, it’s simply a case of sharing the page link on Instagram to promote your giveaway and encourage people to enter.

Check out these giveaway landing page examples for more inspiration.

4. Announce Your Giveaway on Instagram

When the time to launch your giveaway comes, it’s important to announce it on your Instagram profile. Even if people saw your teaser post, they may forget to check back and enter.

All you need to do is create a giveaway post on Instagram and include the following details:

• An eye-catching image or video to grab people’s attention
• What the giveaway is, and why you’re running one
• Instructions for entering the contest
• Any rules and guidelines
• When the giveaway ends

Here’s an example from Built By El that ticks all the right boxes.

Don’t forget to include several giveaway hashtags to reach even more people.

5. Add the Giveaway Link to Your Instagram Bio

Another important step to encourage people to enter your contest is to add your landing page link to your Instagram bio.

Since Instagram doesn’t support clickable links within Instagram posts, adding the link to your bio tells people where to go to enter your giveaway.

When creating your giveaway announcement post in the previous step, you can include the words, “Click the link in my bio to enter.”

This directs people to your Instagram profile, where they can click your bio link and visit your giveaway landing page.

6. Redirect Website Visitors to Your Giveaway Landing Page

Even though you’re running an Instagram giveaway, everyone who visits your website is still a potential lead. So, why not let them know about your giveaway so they can enter?

You could do this by adding links to your giveaway page throughout your website. Yet, this isn’t very noticeable, and you’d need to remove them when the contest ends. As such, it isn’t the best use of your time.

The easiest way to promote your Instagram giveaway on your website is by using OptinMonster to create floating bars across the top of your site. That way, you can easily grab your visitors’ attention and entice them to enter your contest.

A floating bar is an excellent way to do this because it stays in place and doesn’t distract your visitors from reading. You can even add a countdown timer ticking down until your contest ends to create urgency.

You can also schedule your OptinMonster campaigns to automatically stop showing when the giveaway ends, saving you time and effort.

7. Promote Your Giveaway in Exit Popups

What if a website visitor is going to leave your page before entering your Instagram giveaway?

In this case, you can use OptinMonster to create an exit-intent popup to capture people’s attention before they leave your site for good.

KnivesShipFree.com used this tactic and convinced over 8% of their visitors to enter their contest with a simple exit-popup campaign.

8. Send Emails to Your Subscribers

Chances are you have a ton of fans that don’t follow you on Instagram. Yet, it’s highly likely they’re subscribed to your email list.

It’s these people who are your biggest fans, making them more likely to sign up for your giveaway and share it with their friends. So, send your subscribers an email promoting your Instagram giveaway.

With an excellent email marketing service, you can create eye-catching emails to promote your Instagram giveaway, like the example below:

You should send at least 2 promotional giveaway emails:

1. Send the first email message right when your Instagram giveaway opens.
2. You can send another email a day before the contest closes, giving subscribers an extra chance to win.

Make sure you include a strong call-to-action linking to your giveaway landing page.

9. Promote Your Giveaway in Instagram Stories

Another easy way to promote your Instagram giveaway is to post about it in your Instagram stories. They have so many unique features, such as animations, music, and live streaming, that make them stand out from other platforms.

This is a great way to build hype and interest throughout the giveaway’s duration.

For example, you can:

• Share highlights of creative giveaway entries
• Add a question box so people can tell you what they’d most like to win
• Announce your giveaway hashtag so people know which hashtag to use to keep up with the contest
• @ mention your contest winners once the giveaway is over

You can also reshare stories from people that have tagged you. If your contest is set up where people can use a story post to earn extra entries, you can reshare them on your story to promote your giveaway and share examples of entries.

And to widen the reach of your Instagram promotions, try adding an Instagram Feed to your website. You can easily embed an Instagram feed anywhere on your WordPress site using Smash Balloon.

With Instagram Feed Pro, you can display hashtag feeds, Instagram Stories, IGTV videos, and more so that your website visitors can see your Instagram giveaway content too.

10. Promote Your Instagram Giveaway on Other Social Networks

While Instagram is typically the most effective platform for contest marketing, don’t forget about the other social media platforms.

You can promote your Instagram giveaway to tons of people on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn.

Here’s an example of how StFX Campus Food promoted their Instagram contest to win a custom beverage on their Twitter profile.

11. Add Your Giveaway to Contest Directory Websites

One of the most straightforward ways to promote your Instagram contest is to submit it to sweepstakes and contest directory websites.

Websites like this link directly to your giveaway landing page. Plus, they have a vast audience who check their sites daily for giveaways to enter.

Adding your contest to online contest directories gives your giveaway tons of exposure to new audiences. It’s also a great way to find fun contest ideas for your customers.

12. Create and Share a Promotional Video

Social videos generate 1200% more shares than text and image-based promotions. This makes using video a super-effective Instagram contest promotion idea.

You don’t need any fancy tech to make successful videos, either. With just your smartphone or tablet, you can quickly create a video to share on YouTube and other social media channels.

When making your video, try to include:

• Your contest prize details
• Information on how to enter your giveaway
• A call-to-action (like telling people to click the link in the description or bio to enter)

You should also ensure your video has good lighting, is filmed in front of an attractive background, and your appearance is presentable.

13. Reach Out to Bloggers and Influencers

Partnering up with influencers is another excellent way to promote your Instagram giveaway.

Start by finding bloggers and social media influencers with an audience interested in your brand’s industry and prize.

For example, if you’re a fashion brand giving away the latest seasonal trends, look for fashion bloggers and influencers.

Once you’ve found the influencers you’d like to contact, send them a personalized email and explain how promoting your contest will benefit them and their readers.

For this promotion tactic to be successful, it needs to benefit you, the influencer, and their audience. So, think about how to present those benefits when you send your message.

If you’re new to the world of influencers, check out this influencer marketing guide for beginners.

14. Promote Your Contest with Instagram Ads

To reach an even larger audience on social media, consider creating Facebook or Instagram ads.

Facebook ads allow you to promote your Instagram giveaway to more people online. Plus, they also let you target the exact type of audience most interested in your giveaway.

For instance, you can set the criteria by gender, age, location, interests, and more.

If ads are too complicated, you can always just boost your contest’s Facebook post. Boosting your post shows it to more users and can cost from as little as $5.

15. Try Offline Marketing Tactics

Even though this article has focused on promoting your giveaway online, don’t forget offline marketing tactics.

You could create flyers to and out at local events or even make posters to put up in community centers and other businesses. It’s also possible to use offline marketing to promote your Instagram contest to existing customers. Just add promotional cards with your contest details to the orders you send.

Now that you have tons of great Instagram contest promotion ideas, your Instagram giveaway is sure to be a hit online. Remember, start promoting your giveaway on Instagram before it goes live to get plenty of entries from day 1.

After picking the winner, don’t leave your audience guessing. Make sure you announce the winner on your website, Instagram, and all of your social media accounts.

With these tips, your Instagram giveaway will be such a success; you might even want to start planning your next giveaway right away.

And why you’re here, why not check out how SeedProd 3X their sales with viral RafflePress contests.

If you found this article helpful, be sure to join us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for more giveaway guides and tutorials.

Stacey Corrin Writer

Stacey has been writing about WordPress and digital marketing for over 10 years and on other topics for much longer. Alongside this, she's fascinated with web design, user experience, and SEO.

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