How to use giveaways to increase brand awareness
If you believe your brand can increase its digital footprint, have more impact on its followers, and be a real sales machine through social media, but you still don't know how to get there, we have a suggestion: promote giveaways on Instagram.
Instagram is an excellent network to promote your brand and create a community, and the best way to please your potential customers is by giving them what they want: who doesn't like to win and receive gifts?
Therefore, take this opportunity to proceed with a suggestion that not only creates engagement and notoriety, but also increases reach and traffic, while bringing you closer to your audience and promoting your brand. When doing a giveaway, your page will have more visits, more shares, more interaction and more recognition.
Set your goal
There are different approaches to different goals. Is your goal to generate more engagement? Increase the number of followers? Increase brand notoriety? Promote the creation and sharing of content?
Different methods result in different outcomes, so it is important that you understand what your goal is before deciding how your giveaway will work.
Plan your giveaway
It is crucial at this stage that you know your target audience and understand what they are willing to do to win. In fact, only by knowing your audience will you know what you want to achieve! Failing in this step can destroy the whole purpose of the giveaway.
Select the prize
The prize must be interesting to your audience and should never be a mystery. What will motivate people to participate is the guarantee of compensation, so the choice of the prize is very important.
The prize must always be proportional to the amount of “work” involved in participating in the competition. The more steps the contest requires, the more compensatory the prize should be - otherwise the public will see no value in completing all the steps.
As for the choice, it is important that you choose a product of your own, or on which your brand has had an impact, because picking a product that is not yours can result in the loss of followers at the end of the giveaway. On the other hand, drawing a product of your brand attracts followers interested in what you produce, and may result in the purchase of that product in the future.
We leave you some suggestions: a product of your brand (a best-seller, a new release, a product you want to dispose of), a gift basket, an experience related to your brand, loyalty points, free subscription to one of your services, a voucher (money or percentage), etc.
Set limits
It is important for you to be explicit about the number of winners and prizes to be drawn. The rules must always be clear and this part is essential. Whether a product for 5 winners, a single winner of 3 products or several products for several winners, all numbers must be accurate and precise.
The deadline must also be very clear. Announcing directly when the giveaway starts and ends is essential and, by creating an urgent scenario, you can generate more interaction - the public will feel a bigger need to participate immediately, without much consideration.
Determine the participation rules and conditions
It is important that the instructions of your giveaway are clear and preferably short. The post should contain all the rules of participation in a direct, appealing and easily to understand manner.
It is important that you follow the laws of your region and Instagram, and that you are explicit about the rules. At this stage, you must clearly announce to whom the giveaway is directed, that is, who can participate (explaining any restriction), how many times they can participate and how can they do so.
Examples of more common rules:
Once you realize what kind of giveaway applies to your business, it is important to choose one of the following ways (or combine several). These “techniques” can be combined according to the purpose of your brand, so don't let yourself be limited - let your inspiration run free and create a customized opportunity to meet what your followers are looking for.
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Like a post: This is perhaps the most common and easiest way to participate. By asking your followers to only make a like, it is more likely that there will be a greater adhesion. However, this solution will not result in a significant increase in the engagement, so we suggest that you associate it with another.
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Follow the Instagram page: This step is crucial, and we advise that it should always part of the rules, since, as mentioned above, it is important that the giveaway translates into an increase of followers. At this point, it is important that your online presence is distinctive and constant, in order to create a positive impact on new followers and make it easier for them to remain connected to your brand.
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Tag friends in the comments: Here, followers are encouraged to tag friends in the comments of the publication, which attracts new followers. Tagging friends means attracting more public to your page, increasing brand notoriety and reaching possible new customers.
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Leave a comment: Whether to identify friends or not, a good way to create engagement is to appeal to comments in the publication. The more comments your publication has, the greater the reach, and we advise you to encourage the participation of your followers. Make them realize how important they are to your brand.
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Share the publication: Ask your followers to share the publication (in the stories or feed), using, for example, an exclusive hashtag or tagging the page. This is an excellent way to reach a larger audience, but once again we stress that it is important to take into account the number and type of tasks requested from each participant.
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Make a post: Asking your followers to make a post on their personal profile will increase the reach of the brand and will promote the creation of content (which can then be shared by the brand). However, we reiterate that by asking more of your followers, you must make sure that the prize pays off the effort required.
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Use your hashtag: Combined with some of the previous proposals, creating and encouraging the spread of your hashtag, or a giveaway-specific hashtag, is advantageous in the sense that it increases notoriety and helps establish a bond with the public. Creating a unique and exclusive hashtag for your giveaway is important, but this should be catchy, be innovative, funny and, of course, easily associated with your brand.
Choose a hashtag for your giveaway
The hashtag of your giveaway is essential to promote your contest and to help identify the entries. The choice is simple: it should be related to your brand and the prize you are offering. This hashtag should be unique and individual, so before you share it, check that it is not being used.
This type of hashtags may be longer than usual, but they should be simple and easy to spell, avoiding long or unusual words.
Set how the winner will be selected and announced
Another important issue is the announcement of the winner. It is important that you are direct about how the winner will be selected (random draw, more creative response, etc.), be very explicit about the date when the winner will be announced, how the announcement will be made (on Instagram Stories, Feed, comments), and how the prize will be sent (by e-mail, by mail, etc.). Only this way can maximum transparency be guaranteed and attract the confidence of followers, while leaving them glued to the screen waiting for the results.
Launch and promote your giveaway
It is important that the image chosen to advertise the giveaway is appealing. Your communication says everything about your brand and goes beyond simple descriptions. Choose a striking image that is highlighted in the feed and that draws the attention of the user.
You should look for the best way to promote your giveaway and make it reach more people but, of course, do not forget that the goal is to reach new potential customers! Therefore, you should advertise your giveaway on all platforms that you have available.
We leave the following suggestions:
Apelando à partilha, pedindo, por exemplo, a uma figura mediática que partilhe nas suas redes sociais o seu passatempo.
- Through a post announcing that a giveaway is coming.
- On Facebook, appealing to a visit on Instagram.
- On Instagram, reminding the followers that there is a giveaway going on.
- On Instagram Stories (a powerful tool) calling for a visit to the feed (specifically, the publication of the giveaway).
- In the newsletters.
- On your website and/or e-commerce.
- Using popular or product-related hashtags (#giveaway, #giveawayportugal, #contest, etc.).
- Calling for sharing, asking, for example, a media figure to share your giveaway on their social networks.
- Through the sponsored advertisements/publications, where you will have greater control of the public who will see the publication.
Do not shy away from experimenting with different ways to promote your giveaway, as the more ways you try, the more participants you will get and the faster you will see which method is best applied to your business.
Evaluate the results
At the end of each giveaway, it is important that you take some time to analyze the metrics. Is the method used the one that suits your purpose best? Has the giveaway been beneficial in terms of increasing followers, clicks on links to the website, etc.?
When deciding on the important metrics for you (number of participation and comments, engagement levels, number of followers, traffic on the website, shop purchases, user feedback) you can examine whether the giveaway was relevant.
Every business is different, so if it did not work, don't give up. Keep trying and trying until you get the results you're looking for: test different prizes, different rules, different times of the year, different content.