How to Sell On Instagram: Features for Driving Sales

How many times have you seen an ad or product placement on your Instagram? No one is a stranger to Instagram ads and shopping. But did you know that it’s just as easy for a small business to use Instagram to advertise and sell their product as it is for a major brand? In a recent report, 75 percent of Instagram users directly respond to ads on their Instagram, such as visiting the website or purchasing the product. Now is the time to optimize your Instagram to boost sales! Below are six ways you can use Instagram marketing to maximize your social media presence and produce a quantifiable ROI. 

Become a Business Profile 

This is the first and easiest step to start selling on Instagram. Switching to the ‘business profile’ setting on Instagram gives you access to insights. Instagram’s insights for business profiles give a brand the ability to see the age, location, gender, and all the basic demographics of their following. After posting a story, Instagram insights report the performance of each story- including profile and website visits. 

If you switch and become a business profile on Instagram, it is crucial to have a perfectly crafted profile. The profile photo is the first part, choose a photo that is on-brand, like a logo, and makes your company stand out from the clutter. Your profile’s bio is the most important and needs to have a clear description of your company and its mission statement. Finally, use your bio as a link to shop. The URL section of your bio is the only clickable link available on your page. Don’t miss out on this opportunity- it’s the easiest way to drive traffic directly to your website. 

Create Instagram Stories with Product Links 

Instagram stories allow businesses to engage with their followers on a more personal and frequent basis. Instagram gives users who have 10,000 or more followers the ability to link products directly from their stories. This feature gives a brand the ability to capture their product in action, promote new products, and advertise current sales. Linking a product or page to an Instagram story will appear at the bottom of the story as a swipe up that says see more. When a brand uses the ‘see more’ option on their story, it encourages more interaction with their followers and takes advantage of the Instagram algorithm by promoting high engagement. Story links are one of the easiest ways for your followers to engage with your brand and stay relevant. 

Run Ads Through Instagram 

Running ads on Instagram may be the most obvious way to use Instagram to promote your product, but companies have to use specific and targeted ads for their marketing efforts to be effective. The easiest way to run ads on Instagram is by promoting already shared posts from your feed. Select the post you want to share and hit the “promote” button. After choosing this option each business is free to choose their target audience by selecting the interests, age range, or genders of the Instagram users they wish to target or they can choose the ‘similar audience’ option. The range and size of the audience will affect the budget of the ad. After a few days of promoting a certain post, each company can track how the ad is performing by clicking the ‘view results’ feature at the bottom of the post.

The best Instagram ads have a clear statement of the product and how to make a purchase. Instagram also has a story option for businesses to run their ads using Instagram stories. These ads pop-up in between stories of accounts they follow and allow for users to easily swipe-up to the company’s website directly from the story. 

Create a Shoppable Instagram Feed 

Instagram’s partnership with Shopify gives businesses the option to tag products for sale and users can purchase them directly in the app. Shopping posts look identical to normal posts on your feed but when users click ‘tap to view products’ product names and prices are revealed. Businesses can also create a custom gallery to showcase the posts that feature all the shoppable products and add the galleria link to their Instagram bio. Creating a Linkin.bio landing page is another great tool for Instagram shopping. Linkin.bio resembles your Instagram feed and displays posts as clickable images to directly link users to the specific product. Adding product details and a Linkin.bio page to your business’s Instagram account will boost followers, engagement, and sales. 

Go Hashtag Crazy (but not too crazy) 

Using hashtags allows for your brand to reach an entirely new audience and gain traction on Instagram. Using hashtags will feature your post on a different side of Instagram and generate more traffic to your page. When using hashtags at the end of a post, it is important to remember two things: use the right hashtag wording and don’t use too many. Using too many hashtags at the end of a post can make your post look like spam and minimal effort was put into the caption. Opt-in for one to three well-worded hashtags at the end of your caption to drive home the message and reach a new audience. The other thing that’s important to remember when using hashtags is to choose the right hashtag with the perfect mix of high and low-volume posting. If you are a skincare brand and use #beauty at the end of a post, there is a high possibility of your post getting lost among the other 440 million posts with the same hashtag. Instead, opt for a hashtag similar to #eyecream or #facewash which have around 1 million posts. Mastering the art of the hashtag will completely change the way your brand is exposed to new Instagram users. 

Partner with Instagram Influencers 

Let’s talk influencers. As much as we love them, hate them, and want to be them- they are a great source for advertising on Instagram. Instagram users are more likely to trust their favorite influencer more than traditional advertising, and putting your product in the right hands will make a world of difference. When choosing who to partner with, make sure the brand-fit is just right, or the partnership could come off as disingenuous and a money grab. Influencer marketing gives a brand the opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience, who fully trust the opinion of said influencers. Influencer marketing can also cover every budget, from partnering with influencers who have millions of followers to micro-influencers with a couple of thousand followers, brands will be able to reach a much more loyal audience at every price. 

Takeaway

Every company is different, and figuring out how to best market your company on Instagram will take some time and practice. And it can get a lot easier with a social media manager at your side! After changing your company’s profile and learning how to best engage with your followers, learning how to sell on Instagram will reinvent your company’s strategy.