Growing your email list and eCommerce business is one of the most important things you can do. The more people you have on your list to sell to, the more revenue you can generate.
But growing your list isn't quite as easy as it sounds. My two favorite ways to grow an email list are through product launches and quizzes. But if your audience is on the smaller side, it might not always make the impact that you need.
Giveaways on the other hand will typically generate more email subscribers than most other methods. But like everything else in marketing, giveaways aren't a sure thing. You need a decent size audience, the right strategy, and a few key tactics to get the most out of it.
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Why Do Instagram Giveaways
People hang out on Instagram to be entertained and to connect with their friends and favorite influencers. What they're not on Instagram for is to click through to your website and sign up for your email list.
But we can't just sit back and wait for the day our followers eventually take action on their own.
Hosting a giveaway on Instagram is a great way to get your audience excited and give them a reason to sign up for your email list.
The Best Instagram Giveaway Strategy
Running an Instagram giveaway SOUNDS easy, and for the most part, it is, but there are a few things you'll want to have in place to do them well.
Gabe, founder of PopSmash has seen over 10,000 giveaways and has a few tips for how to do them right.
You Need a Quality Instagram Following
If you want giveaways to be successful and ultimately grow your email list, you have to have someone to market to.
While your following doesn't necessarily have to be huge, even 1000 is enough, they do need to be engaged.
In fact, Gabe's wife did an Instagram giveaway with just 3000 followers. She got 200 entries and 100 validated email subscribers.
Pick the Right Prize for Your Giveaway
When choosing the prize for your Instagram giveaway you want to make it enticing and relevant to what you sell. Don't give away things like iPads or Starbucks gift cards. You want to make sure you're attracting people who are interested in the items you sell.
You also want to consider the price and the value of the prize. Start out with something around 50-100 dollars.
For example. You don't want to give away a $3500 piece of furniture if you only have 100 followers… it's very unlikely you'll see ROI from that.
Create a Great Giveaway Post
It sounds easy enough, but you really need to STOP the scroll with your giveaway post. Typically static images are best but if you do want to use a reel or a video make sure it's really clear that it's a giveaway post through the entire video.
Keep the Rules Simple
If you have too many steps or it's confusing to people, you're going to limit the number of entries you receive. Think of a giveaway of casting a really wide net with the goal to capture a few of the perfect customers.
The best option in terms of rules is:
- Follow me
- Tag 2 friends in the comments
- Sign up for my email list in my link in bio
Don't Run the Giveaway for Too Long
When running an Instagram giveaway 48 hours is the recommended time frame, with a max of 72. Anything longer than that and interest will start to wane.
You'll most likely see the majority of your signups at the beginning and then the entries will level off as your Instagram post gets buried in the feed.
If you want to push another spike of entries, make sure you share a reminder post before the giveaway closes. Instagram stories are a great way to remind people to enter the giveaway and catch those who may have missed your feed post.
Post When Your Followers Are Online
To maximize the visibility of your Instagram giveaway post, make sure you share the initial post when your followers are on Instagram.
If your target customer is an end consumer consider running your giveaway over the weekend when people are off of work.
Clean Your Email List After the Giveaway
No matter how well-targeted your giveaway is, it will naturally attract people who are only there for the prize. A few months after the giveaway you'll want to unsubscribe people who stop engaging with your emails.
If you don't, you'll end up will poor email engagement which will eventually hurt your deliverability.
When is the Best Time to Host a Giveaway?
Giveaways work really well during the holidays. People love to celebrate things, so if you can tie it into a time of the year when people are already in that mood it's likely to get more traction.
You can also time your giveaway to grow your email list right before a really big selling season for you. Once that holiday hits, now you've got a bunch of fresh warm leads that are more likely to buy from you.
How Do I Convert Giveaway Entrants into Paying Customers?
Before you run a giveaway it's really important to have a strong follow-up email sequence. That's typically where conversions happen.
I recommend you build out a custom welcome flow for anyone who enters your giveaway so you can really personalize that experience for them.
Even if they don't buy right away, now they're on your email list so you can nurture them until they're ready to buy.
PopSmash App: The Shopify + Instagram Giveaway App
PopSmash is an Instagram-approved app that manages the giveaway process and lets you build your email list. Check out the video below to learn more and make sure you use the revenue calculator on their website to estimate how much your new subscribers will be worth!
- Get leads & grow email subscribers from your Instagram followers
- Automatically verify all new email subscribers with double opt-in validation
- Supports all email providers that sync with Shopify to update email subscribers
- Automatically enrich customer profiles with name, location & gender with consent
- Start your first campaign in 5 minutes to start growing your email list
Get 50% off your first 3 months with code: BADASSERY
Final Thoughts
Instagram giveaways are a great way to grow your email marketing list and typically have the highest volume of new subscribers. It's important you understand that public Instagram giveaways can also attract people who are only interested in the prize and will never actually buy from you.
If you are going to use an Instagram giveaway to grow your eCommerce email list make sure that you follow the best practices we've covered and manage your expectations about the results.
Meet Gabe
Gabe started his career as an officer in the Marines after college. A combat veteran, he served two years between Iraq & Afghanistan. He taught himself to code in his free time and fell in love with building products. After 8 years he left the Marines to build a startup. He later joined a public tech company as a product manager, before starting POPSMASH. He lives with his wife, Corrie, (who also has a Shopify + retail store), and two kids, Maverick and Samantha, on Cape Cod, MA.
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