As people started to post more pictures across multiple social media channels, brands have started to find fresh and creative ways to reach their target audience.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a brand, you’d probably know that Photo contests can increase engagement and bring traffic to your website.

With the recent decline in organic reach, photo contests are an excellent promotional strategy to spread awareness about your brand, product or service, get more likes on Instagram and other social media platforms and make your presence felt, all with just a minimal budget.

Here are some of the best ways to create a buzz with a photo contest,

Define a Clear Goal

In order to run a successful photo contest, it is essential to have a purpose – a goal that aligns with the behaviors and interests of your target audience.

So, before you start off with the competition, it is important to establish goals that are relevant, specific, achievable and measurable.

If the objective is to grow your brand’s presence or build a list of followers, it is crucial to set a specific goal that you’d want to achieve at the end of your photo contest.

You must also make sure to prioritize goals that help in achieving desired results and a good return on investment. Thereby, you’d know how successful you’re with the photo contest.

You must also make sure to prioritize goals that help in achieving desired results and a good return on investment. Thereby, you’d know how successful you’re with the photo contest.

So, before investing your valuable time and resources, shift your focus to the audience you’re trying to reach and the type of content or experience they’d like to share.

Create a Unique Theme

As a brand, it’s your job to create an exciting reason for people to participate and submit pictures to your competition.

Since a photo contest runs on User Generated Content (UGC), it is essential to pick a theme so that participants would know what kind of pictures to post.

Asking participants to feature your brand or strike a pose with your product or service is an excellent way to generate buzz around your competition.

Therefore, it is important to choose a theme that aligns with your target audience and doesn’t require too much in terms of resources.

Note: Make your photo contest theme appropriate to the audience you’re trying to reach.

Use a Hashtag

Hashtags are extremely useful to keep track of your submissions and entrants. Without it, there might be no connection between the content (UGC) and the photo contest being created.

So, the key to developing a successful photo contest is to create a relevant and catchy hashtag.

However, creating a perfect hashtag for your photo contest can be quite tricky as there are thousands of hashtags being created every day, making it difficult to create something unique and likable.

Over the course of a photo contest, participants usually submit their pictures manually or by including a branded hashtag. Therefore, it is essential to create an exclusive hashtag that goes along with your photo contest.

Note: If people can’t tag your brand, ask them to use a branded hashtag instead.

Giveaways

A photo contest would perform much better when there’s some sort of prize or incentive associated with it. Providing prizes can help in achieving your primary goals and encourages people to participate in the contest.

So, try to offer coupons, discounts, free product or an opportunity to be featured by your brand.

However, it is essential to give away prizes that are related to your brand or industry. In doing so, you can easily create brand awareness and give people a chance to try out your products or services.

The bigger the prize, the more the incentive.

Promote Extensively

Once you’ve created and launched a photo contest, don’t just stop there. After your photo contest goes live, it’s your responsibility to influence people’s interest through promotions.

You can try using different social media platforms to get the word out about the competition and push more people to participate.

Your brand’s presence on social media and advertising through paid campaigns are the best ways to reach a wider audience with minimal effort.

However, encouraging participants to help promote your photo contest is only possible if you have a decent following on multiple  social media platforms.

Like any marketing campaign, the key is to keep it simple!

Conclusion

Due to the rising popularity of photo contests, it is one of the best ways to achieve your business goals and develop connections with your target audience.

So, if your brand is focused around a specific product or service, running a photo contest helps to strengthen your brand’s identity and boost sales for your business.

You can simply ask people to post pictures related to your product or service and even share experiences about how it has enhanced their life.

Therefore, photo contests are an excellent source to collect user-generated content that showcases your product or service and its impact on people’s life.

Feel Free to Reach out Travel with Shama if you have any question about creating a Photo Contest

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