7 Tips For Running An Instagram Contest For Painting Businesses
According to Instagram statistics, accounts that run contests on Instagram receive a follower growth rate of 70% more than accounts who don’t.
Running an Instagram contest can be a rather tricky matter, so it’s best to have a solid plan set in place before you begin.
Let’s look at 7 tips for running an Instagram contest for painting businesses:
1. Offer Multiple Ways To Enter
As good as your Instagram contest may be, it will be that much better if you allow people to have more than one way to enter.
You’ll be able to better do this if you use a special contest entry app, like Gleam.
With apps like Gleam, you can add several ways to enter your Instagram contest, like following your page on Facebook, tweeting out a certain thing, etc.
The more ways you let people enter your Instagram contest, the better it will be for you as almost all of them involve spreading the word about your company.
[Related: Pros & Cons: Facebook Business Page, Facebook Profile as Business Page, LinkedIn Business Page, Instagram Business Account, Instagram Personal Account]
2. Make The Contest Run For A Short Period Of Time
One of the things you will find quite often in the world of marketing is the idea of scarcity.
By this I mean anything that is viewed as “rare” is often thought of as more valuable.
Take McDonald’s for example — the way they bring out the pork sandwich known as the McRib once every few years… but only sell it for a few months.
Every time it comes back to the menu, people go running for the nearest McDonald’s even though they could find a better pork sandwich at many other restaurants.
You can do something similar for your Instagram contest by making sure to only run it for a short time, and advertising that.
However, you don’t want to make it too short of a time frame, or else some won’t have time to discover it.
Try 2-3 weeks.
3. Offer A Prize People Would Want To Win
The tricky thing about Instagram contests is that you have to realize that a lot of people that are entering are entering just for the prize.
You can hope that all of them are genuinely interested in your company and what you offer but that’s not too realistic.
With that being the case, you’re going to need to offer a prize that people are going to want to win.
This prize doesn’t have to have anything to do with the services your company offers — it can be completely different, in fact.
A fun thing you can do that could even help you offset the cost of the prize is to team up with a local company for the prize.
You can offer a product that the company allows you to offer, and in doing so get publicity for both you and that company.
If there’s a local coffee shop, for example, you can ask them if they would offer gift cards, free coffee for a week, or a mug, as a prize.
4. Create Good Contest Hashtags
Having good hashtags is important on just about every post you make on Instagram (as well as other social media) but it can make a contest run that much better.
At least one of the hashtags that you should create for your post should be unique enough that people won’t find anything else on Instagram using it.
This is the hashtag that you are going to want to use as a method of entry (see #1) and that will make your contest easier to find.
If you use a plain hashtag, it will be too difficult to separate your contest from contests that other companies are holding, which will lose your company in the mix.
Spreading your contest hashtag will encourage more entries, which in turn will encourage advertising your contest and company.
Here is a video about creating good Instagram hashtags in 2020:
5. Check The Official Instagram Rules For Contests
It might sound like it is going to be boring, but it’s really important to read over all of the Instagram rules for contests before you run one.
You can find the Instagram rules here and you will find that they are pretty easy to follow as long as you read them first!
One example is that you aren’t allowed to tell people to tag themselves in a picture if they aren’t in the picture.
You also have to acknowledge the fact that Instagram itself is not sponsoring your contest.
6. See Other Contests For Inspiration
When you’re looking to create a contest on Instagram, you can do really well by looking at what other companies do for their own contests.
Of course you’re not going to want to copy another company’s contest exactly, as that would be a bad look for you.
You can certainly get some inspiration from the contests that are similar to the one that you are going to run.
Here’s an Instagram contest being held by Dollar Tree DIY (They encourage people to make projects using finds from the Dollar Tree) :
7. Consider A Photo Contest
Lastly, consider making your Instagram contest a photo contest — after all, what is Instagram but a place people share their photos?
There are many ways you can decide what kind of photos people should submit for the contest, but they don’t always have to be related to what your company does.
If you specialize in painting kitchen cabinets, for example, you certainly can encourage people to submit photos of their cabinets.
You can also have people branch out beyond just strictly painting related photos to post photos of things that inspire them.
For example, you might ask people to post a photo from nature that inspires the colors that they might use in painting their home.
Here is a tutorial on running a good Instagram photo contest
Quick Recap:
1. To ensure that you get more entries, offer multiple ways to enter the contest.
2. To entice people to enter the contest, make the contest run for a short period of time.
3. If you want more people to enter the contest, offer a prize people would want to win.
4. You want people to find your contest on Instagram — create good contest hashtags.
5. To ensure your contest does not violate the terms and conditions of Instagram, check the official rules for contests.
6. To help you create a good contest, see other Instagram contests for inspiration.
7. If you want to make a contest that will encourage a lot of creativity in the entries, consider a photo contest.