Just like other social channels, Instagram has transformed itself over time, and its features have become a great asset for brands that are trying to make an impact on social media. Since this visually focused platform has passionate and highly engagement followers, it can be used as an effective tool for promoting your brand and selling your products online.
Therefore, knowing the best practices to sell your products on Instagram can offer plenty of opportunities to reach your target audience and drive more sales. The following are a few tips that can help you to get started with your Instagram game,
Develop partnerships
Consumers these days trust the opinions of other people on social media over other forms of traditional advertising. Since Instagram influencers are soon going to replace traditional ads, using them to your campaigns can add significant value to your Instagram marketingstrategy.
In general, marketing through influencers gives your brand a unique opportunity to reach a more targeted group of engaged audiences. This helps to sell your products easily by making the consumers picture themselves with your product.
With Instagram ads, you can target people based on their interests, gender and age group, making it easier to sell through this platform. Paid advertising on Instagram is an excellent option for brands that have trouble finding the right customers and increase sales.
Moreover, advertising through this platform helps in targeting people within your niche and retarget those who have previously shown interest with your products. This would allow you to position your product in front of potential customers without having to rely on organic methods which are time-consuming.
Therefore, creating an advertising campaign on Instagram is the best way to showcase your products to a large and more targeted group of audience. Most successful sponsored posts on Instagram have one thing in common – a clear cut description and an effective call-to-action (Shop Now).
Even if you are a smaller brand, you can try your hands on Instagram advertising, a valuable tool which is sure enough to drive sales for your business. Though creating an Instagram advertising campaign isn’t that difficult, it can be quite tricky for someone who hasn’t done it before – not as hard as you think!
Shoppable posts
Shopping feature allows you to tag products and let users buy directly from the images of your Instagram post (instant purchase option), making the process of buying a lot easier than ever before. Apart from providing the product and pricing details, you can also tag multiple items to a single Instagram post – 5 products per image and 20 products per carousel.
Creating a compelling image along with a clear cut product description is the best way to grab the attention of your target audience and get them interested in making a purchase. However, you should not compromise on the quality of photos at the expense of adding more product images to your feed.
Your brand’s Instagram profile is an extension of your brand’s website. Therefore, creating a lively feed can help to take your online sales to the next level and is easier than you think. Since your Instagram feed can be used as a product catalog, you should make sure that your shoppable posts look similar to other high performing posts on your profile.
So, show some diversity with the pictures and provide a unique visual appeal to keep your audiences interested and engaged. Shoppable posts provide an excellent opportunity to increase sales while also making it easy for people to find your products and make a purchase.
Instagram stories
Due to the rising popularity of Instagram stories, it’s no surprise that brands are finding new and creative ways to sell their products using this feature. So, if you are a brand looking for an alternative way to engage with your target audience and boost sales, an Instagram story is the best option.
Brands that own a business account with over 10k followers have a privilege to add clickable links to their Instagram stories – a huge social media marketing trend. Since Instagram stories can engage your audience on a more personal level, it can help drive traffic to your website and sell more products.
Suppose, if you are a brand that has less than 10,000 followers, you can try partnering with influencers in your niche and promote your product through their stories. You can direct your target audience to various products and landing pages on your website.
Instagram stories also help to create a buzz around a product launch and encourage potential customers to make a purchase. The content that you post to your Instagram stories doesn’t have to be perfect. Instead, it has to be creative to hold your audience attention.
Conclusions
Selling your products on Instagram is not as easy as you think and just posting pictures to your brand’s profile won’t necessarily convert your followers into potential customers. Therefore, it is essential to figure out the best ways to sell through this platform and keep an eye on current trends to achieve desired results.
Moreover, knowing the best tactics and experimenting with the right techniques can help in achieving your sales objectives within time. So, if you haven’t optimized your brand’s Instagram profile for sales, you might be missing out on a tremendous opportunity – give it a chance!
An Instagram Optimizaiton Checklist
How popular is Instagram as a venue for businesses? Currently, about 25 million businesses are already involved. And as Instagram continues to grow in terms of consumer use, that number will only increase.
If you have not yet dipped your toes into business use of Instagram, you need to do so now. Your competitors are probably already there, and you are missing out on a significant opportunity to spread your brand.
So, here’s your “to-do” checklist.
Get a Business Account
You may already have a personal account and are using that for your brand. If so, you can easily convert it to a business account, and your followers will be switched over automatically. But, if you don’t already have a personal account, you can open a business one easily.
You simply download the Instagram app and sign up for a personal account. (Note: if you already have a Facebook business account you can log in with that account and immediately have your own Instagram business account).
Once you have your personal account set up, you simply log in, go to your profile and click on the hamburger menu at the top. Under setting, you will be given the option to transfer the account to a business one. You will need to fill in your business information, but that is about it.
This is an easy step. Now you need to actually use that account to develop your brand presence and grow your following.
Who is Your Ideal customer?
Hopefully, you have already generated a customer profile, so you know the key demographics of that audience. If not, you must do so. You can develop this profile by some relatively easy research:
Who are your current customers? Create a profile from them
Who are the followers that your competitors have on Facebook and Instagram?
Once you have defined your target customer, craft a clear statement of what value your product or service brings to them. This should drive all that you ultimately post.
What kind of content does your ideal customer want to see?
Again, you can use your current customers as resources. Conduct surveys – ask them what type of content is most helpful or engaging? And check out your competitors’ Instagram accounts. Which types of content are most popular with their followings? Remember, Instagram is visual, and businesses communicate with their audiences with photos, videos, infograms, and such.
At the same time, the small amounts of text that are used are critical. Your bio tells your story – who you are and what value you want to bring to your audience. If you are going to establish relationships, your followers must know you on a personal level.
If you don’t feel skilled in crafting an engaging bio, get one professionally written.
When are Your Targets Online?
There’s plenty of research out there about which demographics are online at what times and on what social media platforms. While it is not foolproof, it is certainly based upon real data and will give you a general idea of when you should be posting. Best times also vary for the type of industry, and there is some research regarding that.
On the other hand, there are hugely successful businesses that have thrown all of that research to the wind and grown amazing followings in a short period. Nathan Chan, for example, launched his digital magazine, Foundr, using only Instagram. He posted several times a day for quite a while in the beginning – literally inundating his following – and he grew his following to 10,000 within three months.
However, you determine to post, do it on a regular schedule. Your followers will expect it. Don’t let them down, or they will bolt.
Content – Obviously, the Critical Key
Unless your posts engage and compel, you will not grow a following, and without a following, there will be no conversions and sales. Instagram is visual, so you know you must focus on photos, drawings, videos, etc. You can do many things with that content:
You can tell stories – You can post photos and videos of yourself and your staff at work. Anything you can do to humanize your brand develops connections with your audience.
If you support charitable causes, post photos or videos of your participation. Today’s Instagram consumer is generally 35 and under, and this demographic wants to do business with companies that demonstrate social responsibility
You can tell stories of your happy customers – post them using your product or service. ModCloth does a great job of this.
How-to videos are popular – WD-40 uses them to show the variety of uses (now up to about 2000) of this little product
Geico and Progressive have the gecko and Flo – they have Instagram accounts.
Get a theme. That’s what Nathan Chan of Foundr did. He posted inspirational quotes layered on amazing photos as backgrounds
Do whatever you can to encourage commenting and discussion. And ALWAYS respond personally.
Offer freebies or discounts if a viewer will share your post with five people
Run contests with deadlines and then post the winners.
Ask questions; take surveys; solicit photos and videos from followers and customers
Leverage Your Profile
Your business account allows profile features that personal account holders do not get. Be sure to leverage these:
This is the one place on Instagram where you can provide a link to your website
Use your profile to create your brand “voice” – is your business professional, casual, a bit cheeky? Consider the difference between Rolex watches and Red Bull. Every business has a “personality.” If you struggle with writing up this profile, get some professional help from a creative writer or journalist.
Include hashtags and perhaps emoji to further your “voice”
Consider using your logo as a profile picture
Be sure to include your contact information
You can also include a call-to-action button for contact, email subscription, etc.
Create the right Hashtags
These make your account easier to find for consumers who search on Instagram. You may want a branded hashtag, of course, but consider others as well. If you sell gardening tools, for example, you will want to create hashtags related to gardens, plants, etc. See what hashtags your competitors are using and use variations of those.
Use Instagram Ads
The beauty of Instagram Ads is that you can target your audience and you can include CTA buttons that will allow users to take action directly from your ad. This makes it a lot easier for your targets to get to your website, to a promotion, etc.
Measure the Success of Your Efforts
Instagram offers an entire array of metrics that you can track – it’s part of having a business account. Use these analytics tools to track the growth of following, the success of specific posts and/or ads. Start with the Instagram Insights tool and then, as you grow, there are other external analytics tools that you can use too.
Ready, Set, Go…
There you have it – a checklist of 10 tasks that will put your best foot forward on Instagram. There are others of course, and you will learn them as you go along. But these ten will be the first and most important.
Set up your Instagram Strategy
The most used and most popular Advertisement platform is Instagram. Every other brand is now hopping on to Instagram and creating a vivacious presence using its content, strategy, and action plan. Instagram can be integrated into a digital strategy to build a strong brand and generate demand for your products.
Set your goals for Instagram.
Before you begin posting on Instagram, ask yourself (or your team) one thing: Why are you on Instagram? As popular because the platform is, your answer should not be, “… because everyone else is.” To achieve success on Instagram within the long-run, you want to have a group purpose and goals so you’ll justify some time, energy, and monetary investment.
There’s no right answer here.
Maybe you want to use your Instagram feed to post and sell your products to customers. regardless of the reason, make certain to define your Instagram goals very first thing. And, guess what? Your Instagram can have multiple goals — you’ll post product images while also sharing user-generated content (UGC).
It’s less about the sort of posts you share and more about why you’re sharing them. If you recognize the why, you’ll skill to live your performance and use Instagram Analytics tools.
Determine your Instagram audience.
Determine the audience you would like to succeed in before you start marketing on Instagram. If you’ve got other marketing strategies in situ, draw from those to stay your efforts consistent. Don’t forget to think about factors like age, location, gender, income, interests, motivations, and pain points.
Don’t know where to start? Monitor popular event and interest hashtags associated with your business. See who’s using and interesting in these hashtags and inspect their profiles. you’ll also take a glance at your competitor’s followers. Instagram makes it easy to define your audience.
Conduct a competitive analysis
After you identify your Instagram audience, do a competitive analysis to ascertain what other marketers in your field are posting.
If you already know your top competitors, start by reviewing their Instagram profiles. If not, look for terms associated with your business and industry to seek out similar accounts.
Conduct a fast audit of related accounts to ascertain what posts are becoming the very best engagement, what popular hashtags they’re using, what their captions are, how often they post, and the way quickly they’re growing. This information can function as a benchmark as you begin growing your account.
While auditing your competitors’ content, a note of any opportunities they might’ve missed. Adding unique content into the combination will help your business to face out from the remainder.
Build a banger brand on Instagram.
Random or disjointed content confuses your audience and may cause you to lose followers. to stop this, maintain a uniform brand aesthetic on your Instagram account.
Determine what this seems like by brooding about your brand personality. What are your brand values? How would your customers and employees define your brand? Are you bold, playful, gritty, or adventurous?
Apartment Therapy’s brand personality is bright, clean, and arranged, and its account reflects all three of these traits. Ideally, brand aesthetic helps your brand become recognizable, meaning someone could see your picture in their feed and instantly know it’s yours … without seeing the name.
Grow your Instagram follower base.
Growing your following takes serious time and energy. you’ll be tempted to require the straightforward answer and buy followers … don’t do this! Purchasing followers won’t drive engagement, which is basically what you would like to make sure your posts are being seen. (Also, Instagram’s recent API changes will automatically delete those followers!)
Make sure your username is recognizable and searchable. If people can’t find you, they can’t follow you! Fill out your bio. It’s the last item someone sees before they create the choice to follow you so make certain to incorporate who you’re and what you are doing. Once your profile is optimized, start posting. It’s an honest idea to populate your feed with ten to fifteen high-quality posts before you start engaging people. If users visit your profile and find it empty, they probably won’t follow you.
Then, start following accounts that interest you and relate to your business. consider Instagram sort of a community and appearance for other businesses in your area or influencers who might enjoy your product or service. As you follow accounts, Instagram will suggest related ones that you simply can follow, too.
Instagram Ads can be created in a similar way how you created Facebook Ads, just select the placement for Instagram Ads. If your ad is for Feed you need to select that, and for Stories also you will be having an option. So you need to understand whether your audience is on Instagram or no and run ads that engage them with your content.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
