In just five years, Instagram’s popularity has skyrocketed. After releasing it as a free mobile app in 2010, Facebook paid $1 billion to acquire it barely two years later.
Eighty percent of internet users already use smartphones, and mobile commerce generates over $100 billion annually in the United States alone.
Instagram’s user base grew past Twitter’s 400 million in September of last year. However, despite its potential as a marketing strategy, it is largely disregarded by online retailers.
Usually, stores think, “It’s just pictures, how can I get sales to my site from that?”
This is reasonable, but if you want to make the most of Instagram, you should follow the advice below.
Hashtags
You need to be using hashtags efficiently for Instagram to classify your photo and for potential customers to find your photos.
Hashtagify is a free online tool that can help you brainstorm more hashtags. In order to attract customers who are interested in purchasing protein shakes, for instance, you could use the space below to include relevant keywords.
Inspired Promotional User-Generated Content
Keep in mind that posting images of your products on social media all the time is not a good strategy. If your audience enjoys reading your posts, they won’t mind if you occasionally promote anything.
Shopify’s example below is a perfect illustration of how to share something interesting that also conveys a message subtly. This article proposes that the ecommerce solution offered by Shopify may be useful to you.
You should try to provoke your devotees. Let’s use the protein shake analogy once more to illustrate how many people never set foot in the gym despite paying for a membership. This will offer them confidence and a chance to show their doubters how incorrect they may be.
Canva is an excellent free Instagram graphic design tool. You can utilise standard graphics and typefaces without needing any prior knowledge of graphic design.
Contests
Having a contest on your website can help you gain new subscribers and customers.
When hosting a competition, remember to keep it smple. Protein World’s entry form, for instance, only requires a regram to be completed.
Gain Supporters
It seems to reason that the greater your number of supporters, the greater your potential for conversion. You may increase your following and verify their quality with Crowdfire.
Enter the name of a rival or the name of a relevant account that belongs to your target audience. If someone doesn’t follow you back, you can mass-follow them and unfollow them afterwards.
Analyze
It’s not a useful strategy to randomly upload photos whenever you feel like it. With Skippr, you can see when your audience is most active, keep tabs on the competition, analyse trending hashtags, and more.
Although marketing on social media can be a time-consuming endeavour in general, Skippr streamlines this process for Instagram. Schedule tweets and make use of caption templates to post more frequently.
Content Created By The Users
Instagram’s UGC feature is another excellent approach to boost sales.
Black Milk Clothing excels at this by assigning unique hashtags to each of their items. When this is utilised on Instagram, the user is taken directly to the corresponding product page.
This is a fantastic method of demonstrating the usefulness and widespread use of your product. This can be done with a plugin like Instagration.
Instagram is a great place to showcase your items in action while also connecting with your target audience.
Marketing with Influencers
Having someone else promote your business on Instagram may be the most effective strategy.
Consumers are growing increasingly sophisticated and resistant to being sold directly to; therefore, finding someone they would listen to is of great value.
See above for an illustration of how Lyfe Tea promoted Kylie Jenner. Even if you can’t afford a famous person, there are always methods to make your event stand out.
Webstagram is a useful tool for finding relevant Instagram profiles to promote your business.
Entering a hashtag into the search bar will provide a list of relevant accounts.
From here, you may search through Instagram profiles’ bios for an email address. You can also follow the accounts and, if they follow you back, communicate with them via private chat.
To have another account feature your product and link back to your Instagram, you need to ask permission. Don’t lose hope if some promote for free while others ask for money or choose not to promote at all.
Time to take action/Now is your chance to get involved on Instagram/etc.
Customers are being directed to your website in large part through social media, with Instagram sitting idly by. You can stay ahead of the competition with user-generated content, influencer marketing, contests, and a steadily expanding fan network.