How to promote Instagram account using a marathon

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The essence of the marathon is the fulfillment of tasks designed for a certain period of time. Your subscribers are “running”; Their goal of overcoming the distance is to reveal their talents, to learn new things.
Your goal is to improve with this – sales.

How marathons help promote an account and recruit subscribers?
All marathons in Instagram are “tutorials”, which are really useful for subscribers. For example, you run a women’s clothing store account, and you have a goal – to quickly increase brand awareness, loyalty to it and increase the number of followers. What should be done?

  • You run the marathon “Change the style in the spirit of Cinderella”.
  • Every day during the week you publish tasks, how easy it is to change your style.
  • Participants repost your announcement of the marathon and report on the performance of each task in their accounts.
  • The winner receives a prize – a subscription to buy in your store.

Thus, you attract new subscribers to your account and increase your reputation as an expert, and the “races” in Instagram are relevant for everyone: from famous bloggers to small accounts with an active audience

Read also : 6 typical mistakes when publishing posts on Facebook.

Now – a couple of examples of marathons.

Blogger with a million subscribers recently closed the marathon “March without pants.” Participants were supposed to switch to dresses only in the first spring week. The winner was determined by voting among the subscribers of the account and received a subscription to shopping at the rate of 3 thousand dolars.
Interesting idea + great prize = 100% chance of success

This blogger has only 1,000 subscribers, but its linguistic marathons are also in demand.
Each marathon evokes a lively response from the participants

Why a marathon? Is it possible without it?

The success of the promotion in Instagram depends on the combination of different promotion methods: mass-targeting, barter advertising, targeting advertising, competitions, marathons.
If you develop an account in Instagram for the future and strive for loyalty, then it’s better not to neglect the marathons. First, they are very popular now. Secondly, you are getting closer to customers. In a marathon, you are together “in sorrow and joy.”

If you conduct a training account in Instagram, then the marathon is prescribed for you as a gastritis patient – soups on the water. If participants like to study in the marathon, many of them will come to you for a training course.
We will not open America to you if we say that people come to the social network for communication. Where else will you meet people, who lives in Paris and bakes the most delicious gingerbread? Commenting helps people get acquainted, and marathons bring together. All participants share common goals – to reach the end, to cope with tasks, to leave the comfort zone. Participants in the contest add each other as friends, exchange experience and support. So they find their like-minded people.

Read also : 10 easy and simple ways to increase the number of retweets.

Required marathon attributes in Instagram

Interesting tasks. Should be of interest to the participants. Let it be something relevant to them at this point in time. There are topics that will always be important: self-development, weight loss, appearance. Share your experience. As a rule, personal information is always more useful and interesting.
Skills development. Ideally – when you solve your problem with a marathon. People lose weight, learn femininity, get used to the order. You make a person happy, thereby forming a point of emotional contact with customers.
Prize. A marathon is a way out of the comfort zone, and for many, incentives are reward at the end. Participation is already valuable in itself, as it develops new skills, but today no marathon in the social network can do without a prize.

Determine the theme of the marathon in Instagram

If you enter the word “marathon” in hashtags, then in the first lines you will see “marathon_pp” and other hashtags associated with losing weight. But this does not mean that people come to the marathon, first of all, for this: often the organizers come up with an original, author’s hashtag for their marathons, which does not begin with the word “marathon”.
The choice of topics depends solely on the subjects of your business. Here are a few ideas.

The photo
Now, many participants of Instagram try to find a photographer in themselves and develop a taste for objective photography. Marathons help them in this. Users learn how to build a composition, make beautiful layouts, express individuality with the help of a photo. Such marathons are usually conducted by photographers and photo studios.One Photographer in her marathon “The course of beautiful layout” teaches not only to build, but also to feel the photo. The girl in the account has 70 thousand subscribers. Such photos can be done by those who finish the course.

Drawing / illustration
It is possible not to become Van Gogh or Monet – it is enough to be able to convey beauty. Artists in Instagram help them in this, thus attracting attention to their creativity. In marathons, sketching is most often taught.

Writing
In marathons, an average of several thousand people take part. And although everyone understands that it is difficult to win in such a situation, they still participate. The reviews are always enthusiastic. With writing marathon you taught people simple and effective techniques of writing.

Slimming
The essence of the “weight loss” marathons is to switch to new eating habits and make friends with the sport. The demand for such marathons is very large.
The announcement conveyed the essence of the marathon and created intrigue by mentioning the prizes

Self-development
It would seem that the common between the visual social network and self-development? In fact, there is a connection. Psychologists teach in their accounts how to set goals and achieve them, change their thinking, realize themselves, manage everything.
Psychologist bloggers together with colleagues in April 2017 held a marathon “Learn to fulfill your dreams in 5 days”. Specialists shared psychological techniques, the performance of which approximates the fulfillment of desires.
The current problem + simple rules = the success of the marathon

Linguistic Marathons
Many people have a passion for learning languages, but at the same time they meet complexity. Professional philologists help to remove language barriers, show how you can learn the language effectively and interestingly.
Whatever your business, you can still organize a marathon. If it is useful, interesting and promises a valuable prize – people will participate.
Take inspiration from your other accounts.

Read also : Social Media. What to expect?

I made up my mind! Getting ready for a marathon

1. Identify the audience
We form a real portrait of the client. Who will interest your services in Instagram? Usually these are the same people who buy from you offline. Let’s say you want to sell a text-based training course in Instagram. Perhaps the descriptions “people who want, but are embarrassed to write” will not be enough. This is too abstract and does not provide an understanding. We formulate more precisely – “private entrepreneurs with a business account in Instagram and the number of subscribers up to 2000”.

2. Determine the purpose of the marathon
First, your goal as an entrepreneur – you want to increase the number of subscribers, sell a training course, increase sales? Then determine what you want and can help your subscribers? What talents do they reveal? Continuing the analogy, you, for example, want to convey to people that everyone can write. You have learned it for a long time and you can teach it to others. Or you have a building store and you “ate” the dog on the choice of building materials for repair. Write a task plan that will help you achieve this goal. For example, you are running the marathon “My Perfect Bathroom”. The task of the first day is “to think over the layout of the room.” The task of the second day is “to choose a shell”. Step by step you will help subscribers to transform the bathroom.

3. Create a banner ad about the marathon
Take care of the aesthetes. Some owners of visited accounts very carefully monitor the quality of the photo in their profile. They can refuse to participate in the marathon, only because they found the banner unattractive. Ideal in most cases – pastel background / flatley in combination with beautiful fonts. The exception is marathons of “aggressive” themes. In any case, make sure that your banner is to be placed on the best pages of Instagram.
Everything that Instagram users love: nice coloring and beautiful layout

4. Think Organizational Points
Participants can receive jobs in various ways: by mail, in your account, in a separately created for the marathon account. How many participants are planned? Can you manage alone? Which hashtags you will use?

5. Decide on the prize
Examples of successful prizes: “Subscription for purchase”, “Personal consultation”, “Training course”.

6. Once again, carefully study the task plan
Make sure they are consistent, interesting and useful.

7. Publish an announcement of the marathon.

Read also : White Hat SEO methods of website promotion

I’m running a marathon and I’m not nervous.

Stage 1: Announcement

Post your ad 3-7 days before the start. Not all of your subscribers check the tape every day. If you announce a marathon for a week – use the second announcement a couple of days before the start to warm up the audience. Tell me in the announcement how much experience you invested in this marathon, which experts supported you, and any other information that will emphasize the importance of the event.
The first announcement is simple, informative and descriptive. Think of it as a lightweight version of the selling post. Without “buy at the price / the stock will end,” but with a description of the benefits and benefits.

Example of an advertisement:
From May 15 to May 27 we conduct a #nicemovie marathon in the @videotuttorial account.
The marathon will help you:
To get acquainted with the principles of video shooting in practice.
Choose themes and create short films in your style.
Will give confidence in their abilities.
Rules of participation:
You must be subscribed to @videotuttorial account.

Put a photo on your page with the announcement of the marathon. Publish a banner from this post with the signature “I participate in the marathon from @videotuttorial. #nicemovie »You can add your own text. It’s important not to forget to specify the hashtag and @videotuttorial account address. ”
If you have a closed account, open it for the duration of the marathon. We need to make sure that you fulfill the conditions.
Publish your e-mail under the photo. We will send assignments there daily for a week.

You may not publish reports on the completion of assignments, but for those who want to receive a prize – this is a prerequisite.
In describing the benefits of the marathon, be sure to indicate what benefits the participants will receive. Someone will decide to participate for the sake of new impressions, others – for real good. Show that your marathon as a 3D projector – affects all aspects of life.

Stage 2: Launching an advertising campaign

If you simply publish an announcement in the newly created account with a dozen of subscribers, there will be no effect: the marathon will still have to be promoted at least at the initial stages. There are two ways to plan an advertising budget for a marathon.
1. Proceed from the amount that you are willing to spend.
2. Proceed from the number of subscribers you want to attract.

Let’s say you want to attract 2,000 new subscribers per week. Based on this, you allocate 100$ for advertising.
We are interested in the target audience, so we use the following methods:

1. Advertising from bloggers
Estimated cost – from 10$ rubles per post, but prices can vary greatly. The blogger sets the price independently: it depends on the subject of the account, the number of subscribers, the involvement, the quality of content, the status of the blogger. The effectiveness of placement depends on such factors as the degree of audience confidence, the frequency of advertising posts in the blog, the nativity of your post, the relevance and quality of the photo, the time and date of publication, the atmosphere in the account, and the time “in the top”. The credibility of this type of advertising is gradually decreasing, so it is extremely important to strive for nativity. The cost of the subscriber in this case is difficult to calculate. A good price should be paid for a sympathetic audience: there will be many targeted comments under the posts in the selection.
It is generally believed that an honest price – it’s 1-2 rubles for 1 like. That is, if a blogger is an average of 2000 people, then the fair price of advertising is 2-4 thousand rubles per post. We look at the husky, because they roughly show how many people will subscribe to you. Most often this is 15-20% of the likes. The indicator can fluctuate in different directions.

2. Advertising in thematic public relations
From 20$ for a post. Broader coverage and a democratic price. If you publish in several public places from the same network, you can get a discount of up to 30%. The price of a subscriber using this method of promotion will be 15 cent’s. If there was a very accurate hit in the target audience, then 10 cents per subscriber.

3. Target Ads
We set up an advertising campaign for our target audience. Marketers and business account owners call different prices for subscribers. Most often mentioned range of prices – from 10 cents  per subscriber. With due perseverance and luck, the price can be reduced to 5 cents for a new person.

4. Guest posts in thematic public places
They will cost you free. Prepare quality material that will attract the attention of subscribers.

5. Distribution by customer base
Invite your customers to subscribe to your Instagram account. Send beautiful selling letters with the announcement of the marathon. In the letter, specify the link to the account, the dates and the prize to the winner.

Stage 3: Quests

1. Issue assignments
Give feedback on each assignment. If you do not have for all to be happy (do not fit into the limit for likes), appoint the curators. Let people know that their post has not accidentally passed you by. The limit for likes for accounts from 6 months is 1440 per day; Limit for likes for new accounts – 720 per day.

2. Morally support the participants
Write posts in which you tell why your audience is the best. Let them feel their uniqueness, because it is on this that the stories of the most successful brands are built. Make it clear to subscribers that you understand their discomfort and are ready to support. Ideal – become a full participant in the marathon.

3. Create posts with feedback
For example, a banner with the inscription “Day 1. Feedback”. And the caption: “Tell me how it turned out your first video. What was difficult in the task? What was easy? “Such posts will be your funnel of sales – you can see at what stage people left your marathon, and get acquainted with the reasons for withdrawal / discontent.
I exhale and sum up the results

Stage 4: Define the winner

You can choose the participant who has coped with the tasks better than others, or instruct this task to the curators. You can choose the best 9 and organize an interactive among subscribers: in this case you create a collage of 9 participants, your subscribers go to their accounts and give their vote under a post with a collage.

Stage 5: Results

Publish the final post. Read the comments and try to answer / everyone. Count how many positive responses and negative you received. What did the audience lack?

Stage 6: Evaluate the success of the marathon

This point is the most important. To assess the success of a marathon is necessary, first of all, by whether you have achieved the set goals.

We propose to evaluate the achievement of goals in the future.

1. Select the evaluation period
If the goal of the marathon was to sell the training course, then evaluate in a week – how many courses were sold and how much you spent on advertising. With other goals, a longer evaluation period is chosen.

2. Register in the statistics services
Choose the one that you like more. For example, Iconsquare. In this service you can find detailed statistics: the most popular photos, the number of new subscribers, the number of unsubscribed. There is an opportunity to analyze the behavior of a permanent audience on all sorts of graphs and diagrams.

3. Track activity and speed of development of accounts of competitors
How many subscribers have they changed? What is the average number of likes under the posts?

4. Analyze changes in engagement rates (coverage, impressions, comments, likes)
What do we have – deterioration of the situation, improvement or previous level?

5. Analyze changes in sales
Let’s say you have more subscribers, but there is no more sales. Cause? Absence of selling posts or simply prices in posts.

6. Evaluate the effectiveness of different advertising channels – the price and the influx of subscribers.

To consider each item separately is to find the bottleneck and take the right steps. Even if a month later all the people who came with the marathon unsubscribed from you, look for the buried dog in another place.
Promotion in social networks is a complex work, therefore it is necessary to evaluate the effect of the marathon in a complex way; On this basis draw conclusions and adjust the plans. It is not so difficult to attract subscribers as to keep them. You need to give them such valuable content, create a brand from your account and skillfully engage in dialogue, so that they come to Instagram for your posts.

Instagram promotion infographic

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