Instagram is well-known for its picturesque scenery, inspiring phrases, and breathtaking sunsets. E-commerce businesses have been hesitant to devote significant resources to the platform since, let’s be honest, the funny GIF you shared last week is not likely to generate a significant increase in website traffic or sales.
However, Instagram has continued to innovate, making its platform more user-friendly and interactive in the process. The platform’s latest blog post praising its enhanced shopping functionality is a prime example of how this has resulted in the application’s value proposition for businesses becoming crystal evident.
Instagram introduced a revolutionary new feature for online retailers in March: shoppable posts. Instagram is currently undergoing a transition into a fully functional ecommerce platform, but it will always remain a place where you can go to get your daily dose of inspiration or encouragement.
And the companies that get on board with this first may be able to transform their Instagram page from mundane to stunning and innovative source of money.
It’s not as easy as making your account shoppable to attract new visitors and gain consumers in today’s world, where so much stuff competes for our attention. Before you start tagging and selling things on Instagram, you need to make sure you have the proper infrastructure set up. Here are my top five suggestions for achieving your goals.
Make sure all of your material is top-notch
It’s not easy to get people to notice your Instagram posts, and in 2018 you can’t get away with lousy content. To ensure your photographs always reflect your brand’s standards and seem polished, it’s necessary to work with a part-time photographer/editor. Instagram should replace your website’s “Shop Now” button.
You have great taste in captions.
Instagram captions are typically an afterthought. Make sure the text that goes along with your images is genuine, interesting, and on-brand whether you’re going for humour, honesty, or education. You may increase the likelihood that your intended audience will engage with your content (by clicking the tag, for example) by using language that is more likely to resonate with them. Check out how Liza Koshy combines a clever caption with shoppable Instagram images.
You’re using the most popular and effective hashtags, which is a big plus
The time spent investigating the hashtags used on a regular basis by your ideal customer will pay off well. You need to use the hashtags that your target audience is interested in finding on the Instagram explore page. This also improves your postings’ chances of being seen by the correct people. Try out different combinations of 20–30 hashtags every post to discover what gets the most eyes on your content. Top Tags and Leetags are just two of many fantastic apps available that will recommend appropriate hashtags for your posts.
You’ve added a shoppable option to your posts
It’s time to add tags to your products and turn your feed into a shopping cart. By adding tags to your product images and descriptions, you may make it easier for your customers to add items to their shopping carts. To learn more about how to accomplish this, please click here.
But don’t go overboard; it’s not a smart idea to focus solely on selling products in all of your Instagram photos. Our research suggests that only roughly 40% to 50% of postings are actually shoppable. Look to the brands that are succeeding with shoppable posts, like Byta and Nordstrom, and model your strategy after theirs.
You’ve started commenting on posts using those tags
It’s time to start engaging with your audience by liking images under the hashtags that your core customers use on a daily basis after you’ve put in the time and effort to make your feed look clean, crisp, and cohesive; written some amazing, on-brand captions; used the best hashtags; and made all posts that have a product, shoppable.
If you’re trying to sell sneakers, for instance, you should follow four or five community hashtags that sneaker fans use, like #sneakerhead, #solecollector, #instashoes, #newkicks, and #igsneakercommuity, and then like and comment on 100 to 200 images daily using these hashtags. In order to transform your brand-new Instagram feed into a lead- and revenue-generating engine, this is what you need to do to attract organic visitors to your account.
The aforementioned strategies are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to maximising your Instagram’s potential and generating sales. Instagram is constantly adding new features, so there are plenty of opportunities to grow your business and generate revenue. However, if you follow the aforementioned five guidelines, you will have a great head start.