Social Media: Sweepstakes
(discover how to create the perfect sweepstakes for your audience)

One of the most important resources offered by social networks, and Instagram in particular, is the sweepstakes.

The advantages of doing a sweepstakes are several:

 

• increase the number of your followers

• improve your brand image

• increase the engagement of your audience

 

 

All of this is relatively easy to achieve, both economically and operationally: firstly, because you can decide on the lottery prizes according to what is best for you in terms of price and margin (if they are products from your shop); secondly, because making the perfect draw is very simple and you only need to follow a few steps that we will explain below and an application to perform the final moment of the draw.

Without further ado, we will explain what are the key elements to create a perfect contest and copy that really engages.

 

Elements of a TOP lottery

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• The prize has to be juicy: that is, it has to be a prize that motivates your audience to participate and go all out to try and win. We are talking about a pack of products or a product that has a considerable value or even a coupon worth X euros to spend in your shop. This clearly has to be proportionate to your average ticket, but to give you an idea, if your average order is around 50€, it is important that the first prize is worth at least 100€.

• There must be at least 3 - 5 winners/prizes: draws with more prizes are more likely to be successful, as many people get discouraged knowing that they only have one chance of winning. If, on the other hand, there are more prizes up for grabs, success is assured.

• The context must be unique: there is no point in creating a lottery every week or every month, because you lose some interest. Therefore, ideally you should create a lottery once or twice a year (e.g. at Christmas or other seasonal events and to celebrate something important for your brand such as reaching a certain number of followers or your brand's birthday).

• Participating in the draw should be easy: if we set too many conditions, it might create some resistance from the public; on the other hand, if the conditions are easy, many people will participate. We advise you to like + follow + tag your friends in the comments. These are simple steps that anyone can follow without leaving the app and they also help make your giveaway go viral (which must be your main goal, since the more the giveaway is spread, the better results you will get)

• The recommended duration is at least 3 days: if you leave it for less than that, it won't give it time to go viral and you won't get results, so you will only spend money on prizes. Similarly, if you leave it for a fortnight, people will lose interest in the giveaway. So 3-5 days is the ideal time.

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Elements of a perfect copy

When creating the copy for your sweepstakes, you have to keep one thing in mind: for the sweepstakes to be successful and for people to participate, you have to explain it in the best possible way, clarifying all the most important elements, so that they are not in doubt:

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• start with a simple, attention-grabbing sentence

• detail the winners' prizes

• explain the context and why it is unique

• clarify the conditions for participation

• write the date and time of the draw

• say goodbye wishing everyone good luck

 

You have to create copy with all these elements and, above all, maintaining the unique style that characterises us as a brand.
Below is an example of free copy from our demo shop (handmade jewellery sector):

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💥💥 SUPER sweepstakes 🎁🎁
Christmas is coming!!! 🎄🎄 and we want to celebrate with you having reached 100k followers💯
1st prize: €200 voucher 😱😱
2nd prize: jewellery gift pack worth 100€💖
3rd prize: earrings of your choice from the winter collection💎
Participating has never been easier:
⚡️seguici on Instagram @nombre.tiendaonline
⚡️tagga two different people in the comments
📣📣The winners will be announced on Sunday 11 December at 8pm on our @nombre.tiendaonline🥳🥳 profile.
🍀🍀 We wish you good luck 🍀🍀

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EXTRA TRUCK*: once the draw is over, remember to edit the Instagram post, adding the following information:

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• in the first few lines, the winners (this way, those who will see the post at a later date will already know that there are real winners) 

• in the last lines, the link where the result of the draw appears (so that everyone sees that it was done correctly and real) lottery question.

 

On the day of the draw, at the appointed time, you will have to do the actual draw and for this we recommend a simple and free application: SIMPLIERS.
Once inside, you register with your email and go to: Create Giveaway → Instagram.

 

On the next page, you'll have to choose the number of winners (3-5 winners), the number of alternates (we suggest you put 0 because you won't need it) and the number of tags (we recommend 2, but 1 would also suffice. depending on what you have asked of the participants). Remember to press the Get Unique Users button so that the same person cannot win multiple prizes.

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There are also advanced rules below, where you can choose whether you want people who win to have at least a certain number of posts on their profile or photos or other items. You can skip this part and go straight to the next, where it will tell you how many people meet the requirements of your giveaway. Then select the free option and click Continue.

This will open a page where the previously selected post (the giveaway) will appear and below it the giveaway code, the link and the Start contest button.

 

When you press the button, the draw will start and at the end you will have your winners. On the same page it will also leave you with the link which you can then copy and paste into your copy of the Instagram post.

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The best thing about giving a gift like this is that you will have content for your social networks. For example, you could broadcast the draw live by recording it with your mobile phone or computer so that people can follow along. Or you could record it and post it on other social networks (e.g. you could create a story to post a few minutes after the actual draw). This way you will show your followers that it is real.
Remember, once you have the winners, to add them to the draw post at the top and contact the winners to hand over their prizes.
Then you can ask the winners to post photos or videos of the prizes they have won and you will have even more content for your social media.