Welcome to The Spark Show! In this episode, you'll learn about Instagram giveaways including how to plan, execute and amplify this growth strategy. 

First of all, what’s a giveaway? It’s when you are giving away something in exchange for something, like a contest you can enter. Someone can enter the giveaway by performing certain actions such as a like, comment, or follow and they then have the chance to win a prize.

I get a lot of my students asking how to do a giveaway and it’s actually very simple. You post a giveaway, you give them the rules on how to enter and when it ends, you choose a winner, and that’s it. That’s the main concept. Now, there are other things you can do to make it more strategic and successful and that’s what I’ll be going over.

Planning a Giveaway

Let’s talk about the plan. I don’t want you to execute without a plan. 

The first thing I want you to consider is: What are you giving away? I’ve done this in many different ways where I have given away stuff that has been gifted to me, or I would purchase a gift card on my own.  

You can also try to work together with a brand and do a giveaway with them - this can be a collaboration where they provide the prize and you post about it or it can be part of a sponsorship campaign where you get paid to post the giveaway. I’ve done both. 

The next thing is: Who will you be doing the giveaway with? If you’re just doing it on your own, great. That’s the easiest way because there are no other parties involved.

Decide if you want to involve a brand or more than one brand. If you want to work with a brand, then you also have to allow for some time for outreach and logistics. You’ll pitch to them just like you would a brand deal (this is what I teach inside Seal the Brand Deal) and then see if they want to contribute a prize and get involved. You can either do this as a collaboration or ask for payment because you are posting and providing content and promotion for the brand. 

Then, you need to decide if you want to involve other influencers who will post the giveaway. I’ve worked with other influencers to amplify a giveaway and it gets a lot more reach and traction, of course. But then, that also requires outreach and logistics. You’ll need to reach out to the other influencers either via email or DM and see if they want to get involved and post about it. Like brands, some will and some won’t - you really won’t know until you ask. Some might do it because they are just looking for more content ideas, and some may like the brand and want to work with them in the future. 

The next thing to plan is when you’re going to do the giveaway and how long it’s going to be for. If you’re just going to post it and do it yourself, you can do it anytime you want. You’ll have to shoot the content if you’re showing the prize or take photos with you and the prize. If you’re doing it with other partners (brands or influencers), they will need to know the dates of the giveaway, when to post, and when it ends. 

Another thing to decide is what people will need to do to enter the giveaway. Most standard giveaways require a follow, like and then you can comment and tag someone in the post. Some giveaways have a limit on the number of entries and some allow an unlimited number of entries. Some giveaways allow entries on other platforms or you have to share something on Instagram stories, it’s really up to you on what you want them to do.

Once the giveaway is done, you’ll need to choose a winner or if you have multiple winners. There are some software solutions that you can pay for to do this or you can do this manually or by using a random number generator and choosing a winner. 

Once you choose a winner, you can contact them via email or DM and let them know that they won. You can announce it on a post or an Instagram story, so it’s another way to create more content. If you’re working with a brand or other influencers, they can announce it too.  

If you have the prize with you, you can ship it to the winner or you can provide the name/address of the winners to the brand and they can ship the prizes directly.

That’s pretty much how you would run a giveaway. You can promote it to your other channels and platforms if you have them so that everyone knows about it.

The Benefits of Running an Instagram Giveaway:  

1. It gets your current audience engaged

Everyone loves winning a prize, especially if it’s something they need or want! So, make sure the prize is something that is exciting to your audience. Because, if they wanna win, they’ll engage with your content, which will improve your reach and overall engagement.

2. It puts you in front of more people

Your current audience or people who enter the giveaway may tag people who’s never known about you before, so you’ll get to be in front of new audiences that may want to follow you long term.

3. It’s a great way to form partnerships 

Brands are always looking for content and campaign ideas, and in my experience, have been happy to participate in giveaways. This can be part of your pitch for a paid sponsorship. This will also be a good way to network with other influencers and cross-promote to each other’s audiences.

If you want to do your own giveaway, definitely start planning it out using the guidelines I talked about and then make those decisions and execute!

The good news is that you get to decide what it is you want to do and how you want to do it.

After the giveaway, you can look at the data and feedback to see if you and your partners gained followers, increased engagement and reach. You can also see after a few weeks if you retain the new followers or if they just wanted to participate in the giveaway. Either way, you’ll get results after you do it.

Giveaways are a great content idea and strategy to grow your audience on Instagram, increase reach and engagement and are an opportunity to partner with brands and influencers. 

Listen to the full episode here: 

Watch the Masterclass

thespark.show/class

Listen to Previous Episodes: 

How Much to Charge as an Influencer

Why Every Influencer Needs a Media Kit

How to Write Your Influencer Mission Statement

When To Have Multiple Instagram Accounts

What To Do When Your Brand Evolves

Connect with Gwen Lane

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