How to Sell on Instagram and Build Engagement for Your Online Store
If you're looking to sell on Instagram and build engagement for your online store, there are a few key strategies that can help
First and foremost, you'll want to create a visually appealing and cohesive Instagram profile that showcases your products in an aesthetically pleasing way. This can include high-quality product photos, lifestyle shots, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of your brand.
Another important strategy is to use Instagram Stories and Instagram Live to connect with your audience on a more personal level. This can include showing off new products, hosting Q&A sessions, and offering exclusive promotions and discounts to your followers.
In addition, using Instagram hashtags can help increase your reach and visibility on the platform. Consider using popular hashtags related to your industry or niche, as well as creating your own branded hashtags to encourage user-generated content and build a sense of community around your brand.
Finally, it's important to engage with your followers on Instagram by responding to comments and direct messages in a timely and friendly manner. This can help build trust and loyalty among your customer base, which can ultimately lead to increased sales and brand awareness.
Engaging Content
Use a balance of organic and paid content on social media, and mix promotional with non-promotional content. Social media can generate significant revenue, with Instagram being one of the best platforms for social selling. Instagram offers tools for social commerce, including shoppable posts.
Autheticity
On social media, share relatable content to humanize your brand. Use memes, GIFs, jokes, and self-deprecating humor to appear more authentic. Engage with your community by responding to comments and DMs, and interacting with other pages. Authenticity is important to 90% of consumers when choosing which brands to support; share where you source your materials and why you chose your career.
Utilize Instagram stories
Instagram Stories display content for up to 24 hours and are popular among followers. Use product stickers for interactive elements and encourage engagement. Share sneak peeks, add links, and experiment with Live videos for product launches.
Build a “shoppable” Instagram feed
Instagram Shopping is available for business accounts. With this feature, you can easily set up a shop, create a product catalog, and feature items in posts and stories. An Instagram Shop is a storefront that customers can access from your business profile, posts, or Story. You can categorize and display products, complete with pricing and descriptions. Shoppable posts highlight products with tags that display pricing information and a link to the product’s landing page in your Instagram shop tab.
Nail the caption
Long-form captions on Instagram often perform better than short and snappy ones, according to engagement stats. To write a compelling Instagram caption, hook the viewer with the first sentence, frontload your most compelling ideas/offerings, add value by educating the user or telling a story, write as you speak, and end with a call to action.
Use hashtags
To make content discoverable on Instagram, use hashtags. A hashtag generator helps identify trending hashtags. Branded hashtags promote campaigns or products, and encourage engagement. Use up to 30 hashtags for posts, 10 for Stories. A study by Later.com shows that 20-30 hashtags generate the most engagement, but Instagram’s @creators recommends using no more than 3-5 hashtags. Increase engagement by sharing images taken by your customers.
Share images your customers are taking with your product
Encourage your followers to share photos or videos of themselves using your product with your branded hashtag or @mention. You can then repost them while giving credit to the original poster. Always ask for permission first.
UGC (user-generated content) is great for your website, especially if you sell physical products. In fact, consumers find UGC 9.8x times more impactful than influencer content when making a purchasing decision.
Create and Optimize Your Instagram Ad Strategy
Instagram Ads are ideal for brand awareness campaigns. You can turn any Instagram post into an ad, or you can post original photos, videos and image carousels. Instagram Ads appear in both the Newsfeed and Stories on Instagram.
Decide on an Instagram ad budget
Set your Instagram advertising budget by entering the amount you want to spend each day. For best results, spend at least £4 a day for over six days. Use high-quality images and videos that reflect your brand identity, and avoid stock images. Graphics can be great for promoting events and promotions. Instagram supports photo and video ads.
Use creative assets that are consistent with your brand
Use original, high-quality images and videos that reflect your brand aesthetic. Stay away from stock images as these erode your brand identity. Graphics are ideal for promoting events, limited-time offers and promotions because you can highlight numbers, prices and dates. Familiarize yourself with the types of ad formats Instagram supports (see below) before you design creative assets.
Photo ad: A single image with or without copy, such as a product photo or a graphic.
Video ads: Animated or live action videos. Remember, videos should convey the message even without sound because Instagram mutes videos by default.
Image carousels: A post that contains more than one image or video, or a mix of both. Carousels can be used to promote multiple products that cannot be featured in a single image (such as a clothing line). Each slide of an Instagram carousel ad can have its own headline and CTA.
Instagram Stories: Stories are seen by followers and disappear from view after 24 hours. This is good for engaging your existing follower base, not necessarily for attracting new followers. You can choose ‘single image or video’ or make a carousel. You can also use a feature called Stories Templates (only available for image ads), which transforms your image into an ad and adds simple animations to grab a viewer’s attention.
