Are you marketing your business on Instagram? Do you need more engagement? Add Instagram photo contests to give your feed a viral boost. It’s no surprise that businesses small and large are increasingly using interactive tools like photo contests on Instagram. Using contests on this massively popular mobile photo-sharing site can get your brand marketed and shared by millions. They’re also an amazing way to get real user-generated content connecting your consumer with your product. In this presentation, I give you 47 tips to make your next Instagram contest an instant success! See more social media marketing tips at: blog.wishpond.com

1. 47 Tips:
Instagram
Contest
Success

3. Table of Contents
Pre-Contest Planning1
2 Build Your Contest
Promote Your Contest3
Monitor Your Contest Results in Real Time4
Post-Contest Follow-up5
Repeat6

4. Pre-Contest Planning1

5. Pre-Contest Planning
To make your contest a
success, you need to plan it
out.
The better you prepare, the
better chance your contest will
give you the results you need.
Hey, it might even exceed your
expectations.
Here’s a few contest planning
tips to get you started.

6. Pre-Contest Planning:
1
Make goals: Without them, you won’t
be able to measure your results, or
your return on investment (ROI) -
which means you won’t know how
successful you are with your Instagram
contest.
Define your target market: Think
about your customers, and the
particular target markets you want to
engage with on Instagram.
2
Make your budget: Know your budget
- and stick to it!3
Your contest will be vastly different if
you’re marketing to teenage girls in the
13-15 year old range than if you’re
marketing to college aged males.

7. Pre-Contest Planning:
4
Choose your prize: Determine your prize. The prize of a contest is
what gives people motivation to enter. It’s one of the most important
elements to success.
Choose the type of contest: There’s many kinds of contests you can use
to generate consumer interaction. There are sweepstakes, group offers,
vote contests, essay contests, video contests, and tons more.
On Instagram I'd suggest a photo contest, to get your Instagram fans
doing what they love - sharing photos.
5
Make sure your incentive:
● spurs action in your consumer
● fits with the ask from entrants (if you're asking for
one photo, that's pretty easy for your market, and
your incentive can be fairly simple; if you're asking
for a creative video, you'll want to give away a
bigger prize)
● is related to your business (give away a gift card to
your store or a new product you’re promoting)

8. Pre-Contest Planning:
6
Run and manage your contest: On Instagram, you could set up a contest
by simply using a specific hashtag, and getting entrants to use it in their
photos to enter, but…
You’ll gain a lot more in-depth contest management tools by use a third
party app (well, with Wishpond’s apps you do). It makes it easy to set-up,
and use on your other social sites, too. There’s even easy email and
customer management tools.
7
For example, If you are
a travel agency, run a
photo contest to get
great photos of people
on vacation.
Make a theme for your contest: If you’ve chosen an Instagram photo
contest, for example, choose a topic required for contestants. Keep in
mind the market you want to attract, and your goals. With a photo
contest, you can gain user-generated content (UGC).

9. Pre-Contest Planning:
8
Determine your Instagram contest time frame: How long will your
contest be? Does it give you time to promote? Does it create quick action?
Determine rules and guidelines - Yup, you need to get all your rules and
regulations sorted out. For example, if you’re looking to use the UGC
later you need to make sure you’ve got the proper legalize for it.
10
Determine the frequency of your contests: If your contest is one week
long, will you make weekly contests?
Tip:
Weekly contests build momentum for you, as the contest spreads
through “online word-of-mouth” via your contestants social networks. If
you’re giving something away every week, you’ll build a habit in your
consumers.
9

10. Pre-Contest Planning:
11
Decide on your entry method: Decide how
your contestants will enter your Instagram
contest.
● Can they enter only via Instagram?
● Will you allow them to enter through
Facebook, too - or Twitter, your
website, and so on?
● Do they need to use a specific hashtag
to enter?
Sort out your tools for measuring success: Get your analytics tools set
up prior to the start of your promotion. This gives you a baseline to
measure your achievements.
Instagram doesn’t have built in analytic features, so:
● set up a Google analytics campaign
● use Facebook Insights (if you’re running in conjunction with
Facebook)
● use a third party contest app that has in depth analytics - like
Wishpond
12

11. Build Your Contest2

12. Build Your Contest
Now that you’ve got
the foundation set for
your marketing
campaign...
it’s time to build your
Instagram contest.
Let’s look at best
practices to build
your contest.

13. Build Your Contest
13
Use an app: Ok, I’m biased, but I would use a contest app to build your
Instagram contest.
Make an attention grabbing title: Make a title for your contest that grabs
people’s interest. Include the prize you’re giving, your company name, and
your contest theme.
Keep it short, with a clear Call to Action (CTA).
14
Why?
● makes it so much easier to manage
● takes about five minutes to set up a contest
● you get real-time analytics and customer management tools
● easy options to host through other social sites like Facebook, Twitter or
your website
It’s your choice of course. Try with and without an app, and see which you
prefer.

14. Build Your Contest
Make a campaign specific hashtag: Create a hashtag for your promotional
campaign. Hashtags are super important on Instagram - it’s an amazing
way to connect with any Instagrammer.
Using a unique tag for your campaign, you make a community for your
entrants and everyone who enters can see the other photos directly on
their mobile Instagram search.
Double check the usage of your campaign tag. If it’s already in use, choose
something different and unique for your contest.
15
Here’s how Pepsi
uses a unique,
simple and witty
hashtag for their
Instagram photo
contest.

15. Build Your Contest
Create an appealing visual of your prize: The prize is very important for
the success of your marketing. Make it look good too!
16
Here’s how Whistler Water shows their prize for entering a recent Instagram
contest. Their prize includes their products, and is in keeping with their
healthy brand image.
17
Include details about your contest rules: Make
sure you include the details of your contest, such
as when it starts and ends, what the photo theme
is, and the mandatory use of your campaign
hashtag.
Include rules about UGC - Yes, this is more
about rules and legalese stuff. But if you want
to get user-generated content to use later for
promotional purposes - be upfront about it, and
make sure you get entrants’ permission.
18

16. Build Your Contest
Include details about how a winner will be chosen: Are you choosing your
winners randomly, through a panel a judges, or through a vote?
Be clear, and let your entrants know.
● This is true particularly with a voting aspect.
● A vote element adds virality to your contest, as entrants will spread
the word to get their friends to vote for them!
● Be clear that the photo with most votes will win your prize.
19
20
Tell how contestants can enter: Include information about how people
can enter your contest.
Some apps (like Wishpond Instagram contest apps) let your contestants
enter through Instagram only, through other social sites (such as Twitter
or Facebook), through computer, through email and more. You can
choose how to limit or expand the ease of entry. For example, you can
make it exclusively available to Instagram users, or you can open it up to
others too.
A clear CTA will increase the number of entrants you get.

17. Promote Your Contest3

18. Promote Your Contest
You’ve planned your
Instagram contest, you’ve
built it - now you need to
market it, because well…
just because you’ve built
it, the reality is, your
market may not come.
Here’s few tips to spread
the word to your targeted
consumers.

19. Promote Your Contest
21
22
Cross promote on social sites: Post your contest on your Facebook
Page, Twitter, Pinterest, and any other social sites you have.
● Highlight your update on Facebook.
● Include your hashtag in your Twitter and Pinterest postings.
Use email:
● Use personalized, segmented emails to reach your target and get
them to engage with you on Instagram
● Create subject lines with clear and enticing CTA’s
● Include visuals of your prize, your company name, and how to
enter
Here’s an example of how
Pilot Pen USA promoted
their Instagram contest
on Twitter too.
Pilot pen hosted this Instagram contest to market their pens. They asked entrants to write a
handwritten note, take a photo and post it to Instagram with their #PowerToThePen hashtag.

20. Promote Your Contest
23
24
Guest blog to promote your contest: If you have the chance to write
guest blogs on industry related sites, do so. (Don’t spam though)
Post an article on your blog:
● Write an article about your contest, with direct links to your
Instagram contest
● Include visuals about your prize and your photo theme
● Make easy, clickable CTA’
25
Use earned media through a press release about your contest: A lot
of businesses miss this opportunity to go through the more traditional
media method.
If you’re a locally based business, try writing a short press release
and send it to your local paper.

21. Promote Your Contest
26
27
Use Twitter ads: Use Twitter ads to reach your mobile market. Use
sponsored posts. Include your hashtag.
Use Google ads: Use targeted ads through Google to reach your market.
● geo-target your ads if you are a geographically based (not an online
store)
● make sure your ads are seen on mobile
● A/B test your ad copy
28
Use Facebook ads: If you’re hosting your Instagram contest on
Facebook, or even if you update a post about it, use Facebook ads to
reach your Fans and beyond. Use Promoted Posts, or other ad types.

22. Promote Your Contest
29
30
Put QR codes on your printed promotions: Print QR codes that link
directly to your Instagram contest. Use on:
● in-store promotional pieces
● any other print marketing
Entrants scan the code with their phones, and get to your contest.
Put a banner on your website: Promote your contest with a banner on
your homepage.
31 Include the contest details in your e-letter: Include visuals and
clear, clickable CTA’s.
32
List your contest on contest sites: Here’s 19 popular contesting
websites

23. Monitor Your Contest
Results in Real Time
4

24. Monitor Your Contest Results in Real Time
Once you’ve got your
contest up, and
promoted, measure and
keep track of your
successes.
Tweak your tactics to
optimize your results.
Here’s a few tips to
monitor your Instagram
contest.

25. Monitor Your Contest Results in Real Time
33
34 Use Google Analytics: Monitor clicks. Monitor Google ads. A/B test
ads for optimization. Reword your copy, tweak your target, etc.
Use Google Alerts: Monitor company and campaign hashtag mentions
through Google Alerts.
35 Use Facebook Insights: Monitor Facebook updates and any Facebook
ads you runs. Tweak to optimize results in real time.
36
Use Twitter/ Pinterest analytics: Monitor your tweets and posts about
your contest. A/B test any ads you’re running on Twitter.

26. Monitor Your Contest Results in Real Time
38
Tweak your marketing campaigns: Based on your real time results,
tweak your ads and other promotional methods.
For example, send out a second email blast to market your contest,
and measure the results.
39
Tweak your contest: Get the best contest results. Optimize your
contest to improve, based on real time results.
For example, add better keywords to describe your Instagram contest,
or post better visuals of your prize.
Use third party app analytics: Here’s another massive benefit to using a
third party contest app. Use the application’s analytics to easily monitor
your contest.
37
Wishpond’s Social
Marketing Suite, for
example, gives you
comprehensive real time
analytics to monitor your
entrants, collect emails,
view potential reach and
more.

27. Post-Contest Follow-up4

28. Post-Contest Follow-up
When your Instagram contest
has finished, your work has
not ended.
Now is the perfect time to
keep connected with your
participants to further
develop your relationship and
gain more potential
customers.
Here’s a few ways to follow-
up after your contest is done.

29. Post-Contest Follow-up
41
Promote your winners’ photo on Instagram: Give you winner a bit of
fame. Promote their photo by reposting it to your company
Instagram.
Choose a winner, and notify them: Once your Instagram contest has
ended, choose your winner or winners. This could be done through
public voting, random draws, or a panel of judges.
Let your winner know they have won. @mention to them on Instagram.
Send them info on how to collect their prize.
40
Here’s an example
from Whistler
Water, using
customer photos
on their Instagram
feed.

30. Post-Contest Follow-up
43
Promote your winners on Facebook - Facebook and Instagram have
a seamless integration. Post your winners Instagram photos to
Facebook to further value your winners, and promote your next
contest to your Facebook Fans.
Promote the winning photo on your website: Instagram now lets you
embed Instagram photos onto your website.
Use this feature to showcase your winner(s) and runners up too! Write a
short article about how the winners won, and to promote your next
Instagram photo contest.
42
Starbucks does an amazing job at
promoting their Instagram fans on
their Facebook Page. They choose
their favourite customer Instagram
images and use the photos as their
Facebook cover. They always give a
shout out to the Instagrammer.

31. Post-Contest Follow-up
45
Promote your winning photos on Pinterest: Pin your winners’ photos
on your Contest Board on Pinterest.
46
Promote your winners on Twitter: Tweet to your winners via an
@mention (if you have their Twitter handle). Give them a shout out.
Showcase their photos in a few of your tweets.
44
Email all participants: Send a follow-up email to all of your
participants.
● Thank them for taking part
● Give them a small discount to your store
● Keep the connection between your business and your potential
customers
● Invite them to your next contest, and keep the momentum going

32. Repeat4

33. Post-Contest Follow-up
Run Instagram contests regularly:
● Repeat your contests, with varied themes.
● Tweak your campaigns to optimize as you go.
● Run your contests every week on Instagram.
● This builds habits in your consumers, and momentum for your
contests.
47

34. Thank you for viewing!
Check out blog.wishpond.com for more!
Wishpond makes it easy to run social media
marketing campaigns.
Learn more at Wishpond.com