The holiday season is upon us, and Shopify stores are gearing up to rake as many customers as possible! The holiday season is crucial for almost every e-commerce store because sales during this period make up almost 30% of the entire year.
But the question is: how do you make the most of the holidays, especially Christmas? Well, this calls for Shopify owners to level up their creativity in their marketing strategies, and one of the platforms they must hop on is the social media giant Instagram!
Well, let’s dive in to go through the perks of being on Instagram, along with a few tips, tricks, and Instagram Christmas contest ideas that will help you get as creative as possible!
Drive Your Shopify Product Sales on Instagram!
Saying it would be great to get on Instagram would be an understatement. Everyone with a Shopify store and looking to peak their sales MUST get on Instagram; here are a couple of reasons why,
- Massive User Base: Instagram is home to 2.35 billion active users. With this kind of user base, grabbing their attention with your product content has huge potential.
- Seamless Integration: With Instagram, you can connect your Shopify store with your Instagram store. This makes it a very smooth journey for your customers.
- Interactive features: Instagram offers stories, remixes, partnering, and go-live features that are the most interactive ways to amplify engagement with your followers. Not to mention engagement through likes, comments, and shares.
Timing It With The Season: Christmas and Holiday Marketing Tips
Now that you understand Instagram’s impact on your Shopify store’s reach and engagement, it’s all about timing it right.
With the holiday season, these are a few marketing hacks that boost user engagement and spread the holiday cheer:
1. Planning It Early
Giving your theme and strategy some thought beforehand is a crucial practice. It helps you review the expected sales based on the previous year’s figures and plan production and delivery.
Based on this, your holiday theme and promotions will be easier to decide.
2. Festive Branding and Aesthetics
With Instagram’s visual platform, aesthetic appeal is the best way to attract and hook viewers. Revamp your brand page to match a festive palette, and watch the visitor count surge!
3. Festive Countdowns
Start a festive countdown on Instagram, showing possible promos to build suspense and excitement. You could give sneak peeks at Christmas offers through weekly deals before the big day.
4. Bundling Your Products
Bundling products boost sales. By adding products that pair well with a high-selling product, bundling products helps even out sales and boost engagement for less-viewed products, too.
5. Post-Holiday Engagement
Some ideas of keeping the discounts or offers for a period after the big day help build brand loyalty, and giving discounts to customers returning for another purchase are great ways of building a loyal following and spreading post-holiday cheer and engagement.
6. Create Limited-Time Offers
Using limited-time offers helps create a sense of urgency to make a purchase. This trick helps sales all year round but is especially effective for holiday marketing.
7. Contests and Giveaways
During Christmas, one of the best ways to boost engagement and interactions is to conduct quizzes, contests, and giveaways for your brand’s product!
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10 Christmas Contest Ideas To Unlock Holiday Sales
To assist you with your Christmas Instagram marketing, we have curated ten unique Christmas contest ideas for Instagram that have garnered spectacular user engagement:
1. Use Festive Themes!
Using festive themes for Christmas contest ideas for Instagram would keep the spirits bubbling with the Christmas vibe!
An example could be a contest inspired by a lovely Christmas carol, “12 Days of Christmas.” Your business can offer giveaways each day of Christmas. Festive themes like these gain much traction and keep users engaged and excited for the next giveaway!
The kids and baby retail company Indigo has a steady following of 65,000 users and has used this contest idea and Christmas colors to boost festive appeal.
2. Hashtag Giveaway!
One of the quickest ways to increase engagement with Christmas contest ideas for Instagram would be with a hashtag contest. You can start by asking followers and viewers to post creative photos and use a specific hashtag to compete in a giveaway contest.
This will help you easily boost engagement and gain user-generated content, which you can use, with consent, to showcase the brand image. The contest could also gain enough traffic to boost your sales.
Here is an example of a social travel platform, Tripoto, which has 1.1 million followers, posting a hashtag contest for an exquisite giveaway.
3. Paid Partnership!
As a business, paid partnerships with influencers hold great value as they also expand reach into the influencer’s follower base! When you add Christmas contest ideas for Instagram to this concept, the power is amplified!
Viewers are excited to win a contest and engage simultaneously. The main advantage is that your brand credibility also increases in the eyes of the loyal followers of the influencer with whom you collaborate.
Here is an excellent example of a dog-friendly hospitality company, Le Domaine Nova, partnering with a zoo therapist influencer to promote a Christmas giveaway!
4. New Product Giveaway!
This Shopify Christmas contest idea is driven by how much more appeal a new product has. It is also a great way to market your new products amidst a product launch.
Here is an example of the patio and furniture brand Backyard Expressions posting a giveaway contest for a new product. Combining this with the holiday season is one of the most appealing Christmas contest ideas for Instagram engagement.
5. Tag a Friend!
Businesses gain traction with more views, and in the holiday season, engagement holds great value. In this contest idea, you can invite your followers to enter the giveaway contest by tagging their friends.
This is a Christmas contest idea for Instagram where the relevant audience base increases as followers would mostly tag friends who share an interest in your content. An example would be what the apparel company Everlane did on its Instagram page!
6. Promote Likes and Comments!
Your followers will be delighted to see Christmas contest ideas for Instagram with rules like liking and commenting! This is a simple way of boosting engagement, but it has other perks.
When followers send in their comments, they also share views and ideas related to your contest, which can tremendously help with brainstorming for upcoming contest plans. This post by Sunterramarket does a beautiful job of just that!
7. Quizzes and Puzzles!
With the help of quizzes and puzzles, you can create Christmas contest ideas for Instagram with rewards for your followers who solve them first. While making the quiz, you can also incorporate your own products or mottos so that your brand image improves while there is a boost in engagement.
Here is a perfect example of a quiz-based contest conducted by Deutsche Bank Art. Incorporating this into your holiday theme may just become your secret sauce to traffic!
8. Contest Supporting a Cause!
There’s nothing more heartwarming than bringing a smile to someone’s face or helping them when they’re in need. Instagram businesses can team up with influencers to organize donations to charity in exchange for a chance to win prizes!
This Christmas contest idea for Instagram allows your followers to contribute to a great cause as well as have a chance to win prizes.
A brilliant example would be Detroit’s No. 1 Furniture and Mattress Store, Gardner White, which hosts a Christmas contest for which the donation will be made to the winner’s charity of choice.
9. Photo Contests!
A great way to interact with artists and get great user-generated content is through photo contests. Similar to hashtag contests, ask entrants to share creative photos of using your products.
This Christmas contest idea for Instagram is lovely for gathering testimonies. Ask people to contribute their best brand, product, or page-related personal anecdotes. You can repost any entry, but the rules must state that you can.
Here is a wonderful example of a photo contest by a business called Hummingbird Eatery & Space.
10. Decor Contest!
Of the many things about Christmas, gifting and decoration hold a special place. That is precisely why hosting decoration contests allows followers to showcase the decorations they are proud of.
This Christmas contest idea for Instagram boosts engagement, builds festive spirits, and makes it a memorable event, appreciating the followers during Christmas.
This business page has hosted a fantastic decor contest and boosted engagement,
These are the ten most creative Christmas contest ideas for Instagram that you can boost engagement! Now, let’s get to the part where we make things seamless for you with Predis.ai!
Creating Contest Ideas with Predis.AI!
Predis.ai generates content, bringing holiday contest ideas with a few clicks and a snap of your fingers; here is a guide on how to get that done!
- Open Predis.ai or mobile app: Login to your predis.ai account, and it will open in your dashboard. Click on the content library tab on the left side panel!
- Click Create New: Start by clicking “Creating New” in the upper right corner.
- Select the post type: Select the post type based on what post you wish to generate. To create a Shopify product post, click “e-comm product to post.”
- Select your product and theme: Remember to link your store to your brand while setting up your profile. This will connect and show your list of products to select from. Then, select the post theme; in this case, it will be a contest. Once done, click next.
- Select your template: Here, choose what content you wish to generate and a template; you can let AI select one or pick one from the vast options. Then, click next.
- Select the tone of the post: In this step, select your tone and your color palette. We will opt for the persuasive tone and AI-suggested palette for this case.
Alternatively, you may choose your brand’s palette, which is the detail you would have provided during brand setup. Then, click Generate.
- Your post is generated: Just like that, your post will appear in your content library. Click on your post and review the captions containing the social media Christmas contest details and hashtags. Next, click share to start posting or scheduling your content.
- Schedule your content: With your account connected to your Instagram page, all that is left is for you to select your posting date and time and click “Schedule.”
In a Nutshell
For Shopify stores worldwide, a huge chunk of sales floods in during the holidays, and contests and giveaways hosted through Instagram are among the best strategies to keep buyers engaged and interested.
Especially during the Christmas season, Shopify businesses must bring their creative A-game to their Christmas contest ideas for Instagram to boost sales and brand image.
That is precisely why you must bring in content generation experts like Predis.Ai to maximize your Instagram engagement and sales! Get started now!
