Gretta, founder of Hey Influencers, here.

Over the past 9 years I’ve been building brands using Instagram (including @smtofficial, @dropbottle and @the5th, which I’ve now exited). I’ve also grown my combined Instagram following to over 16 million followers (across 25+ accounts). 

I’m here today to talk to you about one thing and one thing only — How to hold a Tag To Win Giveaway on Instagram.

This is because a ‘Tag To Win’ giveaway is still one of the most effective giveaway techniques on Instagram to quickly grow your Instagram following.

At The 5TH, with a single Tag To Win giveaway we were able to grow our Instagram following by 20,000 followers in the space of 24 hours, received over 80,000 comments tagging a friend on the post, and according to Iconosquare, we were the most engaged with brand profile on Instagram in the world that day #winning. 

So this is a giveaway technique I have used for years that still works just as well today. 

In fact, recently my friend Iyia from Bambi Boutique launched the brand and grew the @bambiboutique Instagram account from zero to 150,000 Instagram followers in the space of a week by collaborating with three macro influencers (with 1M+ followers) to host a Tag To Win giveaway on their behalf.

Here’s what they did with this:

And the proof of their growth:

So what exactly is a tag to win giveaway?

A ‘Tag To Win’ Giveaway is a giveaway in which the influencer asks their followers to tag a friend on their post and follow your brand to go in the draw to win a prize.

Sounds simple, right?

But we’re going to go a step further and give you the exact caption we used for our @the5th Tag To Win giveaway.

The Caption:

️TAG TO WIN A 5TH TIMEPIECE FOR YOU + YOUR FRIEND ️

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1) Follow @the5th 

2) Tag A Friend under this photo and ask them to follow @thefifthwatches

BONUS ENTRIES: 1 comment = 1 entry and you can tag 1 friend per comment.

Please note you just BOTH be following @the5th to win.

Competition Ends in 48 Hours and the winner will be announced on Instagram. #thefifthwatches #tagtowin

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram. By entering, entrants confirm the release of Instagram of responsibility and agree to Instagram’s Terms of Use.

HEY CASE STUDY: Shameless Media x Calming Blankets

️ TAG TO WIN A 5TH TIMEPIECE FOR YOU + YOUR FRIEND ️

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1) Follow @the5th 

2) Tag A Friend under this photo and ask them to follow @thefifthwatches

BONUS ENTRIES: 1 comment = 1 entry and you can tag 1 friend per comment.

Please note you just BOTH be following @the5th to win.

Competition Ends in 48 Hours and the winner will be announced on Instagram. #thefifthwatches #tagtowin

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram. By entering, entrants confirm the release of Instagram of responsibility and agree to Instagram’s Terms of Use.

HEY CASE STUDY: Shameless Media x Calming Blankets

We recently ran a tag to win giveaway on behalf of one of our clients Calming Blankets which got an amazing response. Out of the @shamelessmedia’s approximate 40,000 followers at the time of the giveaway, the post received over 7000 comments tagging a friend and @calmingblankets grew by over 3200 followers on Instagram across the space of 48 hours. Given the fact they started with 15.9k followers and ended up at 19.1k that is nearly a 20% increase in following in 2 days.

So of course the first step to running an influencer hosted giveaway is of course selecting the right influencer (in this case we knew these girls would convert as they have a very loyal following of listeners from their popular Australian podcast ‘Shameless’ which we’d already organised Calming Blankets to have just been featured on) but the second step is in the execution. We worked with the girls to come up with a caption that we knew would convert based off The 5TH caption above and then added an extra step by asking their followers to share the post to their Stories. I’ve put the exact caption for you below.

The caption read as follows:

🌟 COMPETITION TIME 🌟 our mates at @calmingblankets are doing a giveaway for Shameless listeners!

Do you have a stress-head friend like @michelleandrews1? Well isn’t it your lucky day?! @calmingblankets are giving away an actual calming blanket for you and a friend, valued at $598.
All you need to do to enter is (virtual drum roll etc): 1. Like this post
2. Tag your stress-head friend in the comments below (tag as many stress-heads as you like, one tag = one entry, go wild)
3. Make sure you are BOTH following @calmingblankets (and us, of course)
4. Bonus points if you share this post to your Stories and tag us both

This competition is live for just 48 hours, so get in quick 😍 Good luck, stop stressing! #ShamelessPartner

Tips:

So after running these across my brands, and now our clients, for years, I’ve picked up a few things that make or break a Tag To Win giveaway and compiled them for you below:

• Include a strong, clear call-to-action — It should be as clear as possible what to do right away.
• Make it as easy to enter as possible — The easier it is to enter, then and there on the spot, the better. On this, we actually find that asking someone to tag just 1 friend and then more in additional comments to work far better than asking them to ‘tag 5 friends’ (the max) for example, like some brands do.
• Make the prize attainable — At my brands we’ve found it works better to give away a watch or a teatox, rather than an entire collection or a huge prize like an all expenses paid holiday works. You can see that Bambi took a very unedited, candid shot of their prize pack rather than a beautifully curated image. This makes the entrant feel more likely to win like, “I could win a watch. I wouldn’t win a car” and shows that they really have the prize (it hasn’t been photoshopped).
• Giveaway x2 of the product — This makes it relevant to tag a friend. Why would their friend end up following your account if there wasn’t something in it for them either? (As you can see this is what we did in @the5th’s caption above).
• Limit the timespan of the giveaway to create a sense of urgency and inspire action.
• Use shoutouts or to boost the giveaway.
• Use influencers to hold a giveaway on your brand’s behalf (you can engage with these influencers on Hey Influencers).

The Benefits of a Tag To Win Giveaway: 

Increase your Instagram following. Then you can go about converting your followers into your customers. 

• Each time somebody tags a friend on the post it’s an opportunity for another person to be introduced to your brand by a friend. 
• Increase your account’s organic reach and engagement.