How would you like to increase your art sales with a simple Instagram giveaway?
Hosting an Instagram giveaway is the perfect way to get your followers excited about what’s in store for them. In this blog post, we will discuss how to properly word an Instagram giveaway and provide examples of some of the best generators online.
We’ll also touch on why hosting Instagram giveaways is so important.
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Why Should Artists Run Instagram Giveaways
Hosting an Instagram giveaway is a fun way to increase your art sales and get the word out about what you have for sale.
The vast majority of Instagram users follow at least one business, so it is important to increase your visibility on the platform. Still, with so many artists promoting their art on Instagram, this can be a challenge.
Fortunately, certain Instagram marketing strategies are effective. There are several ways to tailor your Instagram content to maximize engagement. For instance, you might optimize your posting times, partner with an influencer, or host a giveaway.
Are you trying to create more engagement on your Instagram account? Hosting an Instagram might your best bet.
Instagram contests have been proven to work and will help you establish your brand on Instagram, grow your audience, and share information about a product or service you are promoting with a larger audience.
When hosting any giveaway, it’s important to promote it on social media and include exclusive offers, and reward those who participate in the contest with special prizes.
Here Is How To Run An Instagram Giveaway
Before you get started, you will want to learn about Instagram’s rules about hosting contests or giveaways. Instagram’s policies are strict, and you will want to be sure not to violate them.
To learn about Instagram’s Policies, visit Instagram Promotion Guidelines.
Now that you know about Instagram’s policies, let’s talk about how you can create excitement for your Instagram account by hosting an Instagram contest or giveaway.
Instagram Contest Objective
One of the first things to consider before hosting an Instagram contest is your goal.
What do you want to accomplish with your giveaway?
- Are you trying to increase traffic to your blog?
- Promote a new art product line or perhaps reward loyal customers?
- Are you hoping to increase your Instagram followers?
- Do you want more website traffic?
- Are you looking for more engagement on your posts?
- Do you need a boost in your art sales?
By determining a specific goal, you’re able to tailor your strategy more specifically and keep track of whether or not your giveaway was successful.
Once you establish what type of promotion you want, it becomes easier to come up with a relevant prize and the rules for the contest.
Pick A Prize For Your Giveaway
After you know your objectives, you will want to decide what prize you will give away.
Several prizes you can offer are:
An exclusive coupon – (ex. a coupon for $100 off an original painting or 30% off a giclee print)
Art print – create excitement about a new painting by offering a print of your latest work for a giveaway.
Greeting Cards – Everyone likes unique greeting cards. Giving greeting cards away will not only create excitement for your Instagram page but will also build name recognition because the winner will more than likely give the greeting card to s special person.
Be creative when picking out prizes – as long as it’s legal! You don’t want Instagram shutting down your contest.
The prizes you pick will vary depending on your business goals. For example, if you want to spread awareness around a new painting, you’ll likely want to give away a print of the new artwork as your prize.
Set The Entry Criteria For The Giveaway
Your business goals will determine the entry criteria for each giveaway.
For example, if you want to build awareness for your brand and increase the number of followers on your social media account, you might ask each participant to like your post and tag in a friend’s name.
Perhaps you want to draw attention to your artist blog or another page on your website. In this case, you might ask participants to find the entry criteria on a giveaway post on your website.
Or maybe you want to increase your follower count. In this case, you will want to promote the contest on different social media accounts and tell your followers you are running an Instagram giveaway, and if they follow your Instagram page, they can enter to win a prize. Also, ask for comments on the Instagram post to help you spread the word.
It is important to have clearly defined rules for the contest to be easy for anyone to enter.
Create A Hashtag That Is Unique To Your Art And The Giveaway
For the best visibility, it’s important to include relevant hashtags in your post. Consider creating a compelling campaign hashtag to amplify your giveaway’s reach. For example, along with #giveaway, #(Your Art Business Name)giveaway #(Your Art Business Name)contest, or something like #(Your Business Name)printgiveaway.
The hashtags you choose should be easy to remember and catchy.
Decide On How Many Days The Contest Will Be Available
Set a time limit on how long people can enter your Instagram giveaway. Typically, it’s about one month before you end up announcing the winner and giving them access to their prize.
If your goal is to get new followers, you might want to shorten the length of the contest to create a sense of urgency.
There is no magic formula for how long an Instagram contest should last. Experiment with a few different time lengths to see which is most suitable for your followers.
Before you launch the contest, be sure to establish when the contest will start, end, and announce the winner.
Launch Your Instagram Contest
The last step is to launch and promote your giveaway on your social media accounts and artist blog. Include images of the prize and a link to the blog post that has all of the instructions.
The best way to promote Instagram giveaways is by:
Writing a detailed blog post explains all of the rules for the giveaway, the prize with a picture, the start and end date, and when the winner will be announced. When the contest is finished, edit the blog post and name the winner. When people read the post after the competition has ended, your followers will be inspired to enter the next giveaway.
Promote your Instagram giveaways on other social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter, and make sure to use hashtags that are relevant to the giveaway. Explain to people who visit your Instagram page to follow and comment on the post to be eligible for the contest.
Create social media posts and put them on your social media marketing calendar. The first post should be one week before the contest starts to create hype, and the last post should be one week after to notify entrants of who has won.
The posts in between should be a countdown to motivate people to enter and keep them informed of the specific date they can win.
Select A Winner
After all, entries have been collected, randomly selecting a winner, and contacting them privately with instructions on redeeming their prize. Post the inner on Instagram, your blog post, and all social media accounts you promoted the giveaway on.
How to select a winner:
Once the contest is closed, it will be time to select a winner. When it comes to picking a winner, there are multiple ways you can choose.
Here are a few popular ways people are picking a winner for Instagram giveaways:
Pick a winner from a bag – When the contest is close, place all of the entries into one large bag and pick a winner randomly.
Easypromos’ Instagram Sweepstakes App – An easy way to organize your giveaway and ensure fairness when picking a winner. The app will filter the finalists and randomly pick a winner.
Google Random Number Generator – number each participant and type in the number of people who entered the contest. Type in the number into Google’s free number generator and hit enter. The app will generate a random number.
How Do You Announce A Giveaway On Instagram
- After picking a winner, announce the giveaway in Instagram Stories (a new feature that allows posts to be up for 24 hours).
- You can also create an original post on your Instagram page.
- Create a live Instagram video showing you pick the winner.
Be sure to announce the winner on your blog post and other social media accounts.
Send a private message to the winner with instructions on how to receive the prize.
Best Instagram Giveaway Tools
Whishpond is an app that makes it easy to host an Instagram giveaway and gives you the ability to create a custom design for your prize.
Gleam is another great Instagram giveaway tool. They offer templates and integration with your Facebook page to make it easier for people to enter the contest.
Viral Loops is a tool that lets you host Instagram giveaways and increase your art sales.
Best Free Instagram Giveaway Generator
Best Free Instagram Giveaway Generator: Prizeo.com is the best free giveaway generator for your Instagram contest.
Their templates are customizable, they have a huge list of prizes from brands to choose from, and their easy entry requirements make it simple for people to get involved with your photo contest. Plus, you can use Prizeo’s promo tools like social media ads or retargeting banners without additional cost.
You also don’t need any coding skills because this tool has everything you’ll need all in one place – including registration forms that allow users to enter automatically when they sign up.
Instagram Giveaway Templates
There are a few ways to create an Instagram campaign image for your Instagram giveaway. Here are some tools for creating social media images to promote your event.
Canva – Canva is an online design tool that lets you create and share professional-looking graphics.
Adobe Spark – Adobe offers free tools for creating Instagram images and the ability to overlay your logo, brand colors, and text on a template.
PicMonkey – PicMonkey is another online design tool with templates specifically designed for Instagram giveaways. They offer filters so that you can transform photos into black & white or sepia tones before adding compelling copy in bold fonts to get people excited about participating.
Postermywall – This tool helps create Instagram images with a call to action.
Best Instagram Giveaway Tips
- Take the time to learn what your followers want
- Keep the costs of the giveaway low – the objective is to increase your art sales
- Make the Instagram rules easy to understand
- Make it easy for people to participate
- Have a clear start and end date
- Make the competition fair for everyone
- Promote the giveaway on all platforms you market on
- Write a clear caption for the giveaway
- Post a picture of the item you are giving away
Not every contest will be a success. Take a look at what worked best for each contest you run and ask yourself what you could do to make the next Instagram contest better?
Final Thoughts on Instagram Giveaways
If you’ve been looking for a way to increase your art sales, hosting an Instagram giveaway is the perfect solution. With so many influencers and artists, and art collectors on the platform, it’s easier than ever to get more exposure for your work.
Before you jump in, search for other artist giveaways and study how they are hosting Instagram giveaways. See what is working for them and determine if their strategies can be used for your Instagram contest.
Don’t forget to ask your friends you are running an Instagram giveaway and ask them to help you spread the word.
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