5 Top Tips for Selling Products on Instagram
If you are looking for effective places to sell products online, you should give Instagram a go. As it has a conversion rate of 1.08% and the average order value is $65.
Sharing pictures and videos of your products will help you gain some sales. But if you are serious about selling hundreds of products, you should follow a proper strategy that works. So, here’s a detailed plan you can try implementing…
#1 Build a trusted community first:
If you want people to buy your products you need to get them to like and trust you. This is why before you begin selling any of your products, you should work towards engaging with your Instagram followers by posting entertaining and helpful content.
So, make it a habit to share a post every single day. Post one regular feed post and one story post.
When you post quality content on a regular basis it can also boost your edgerank. The edgerank is a part of the Instagram algorithm which ensures that more people who engaged with your content in the past will see them again. Therefore, if you increase your engagement first by publishing non-promotional content and then publish promotional content, you should be able to generate more sales as more people will see your promotional posts.
“Seek out the people you want to be a part of your community by searching popular hashtags in your industry. Comment on the photos and engage with these people.” – David Campbell, Marketing Strategist at Right Inbox.
#2 Follow the principle of conversion scent:
One of the reasons why many people struggle to generate sales from the traffic they send via Instagram is that they have no clue about conversion scent or how to use it. Conversion scent can be defined as the establishment of a visual connection between the social media update and the landing page. It helps provide a sense of familiarity to the visitor. This makes the visitor feel more comfortable and likely to buy.
Implementing conversion scent might seem like a complicated step, but it is pretty easy. You can easily provide a strong scent by using the same profile picture you use on your landing page in your Instagram posts. You can also implement it by using the same logo you use on your landing page on your Instagram account profile picture and your photo. Creating or modifying landing pages is easy with landing page creators and it is time-saving too. Adding a slogan can help as well. You can add this slogan both to the photo and the caption. And of course the landing page.
You can use a slogan generator to come up with a slogan that suits your brand.
When you add this bit of text to caption, you should also accompany with other elements such as hashtags and emoji’s as they can increase engagement. Try to keep emojis relevant to the topic of the post or use very general emojis such as the smiling emoji and thumbs up emoji.
#3 Use the shoppable posts feature:
One hindrance that has prevented many businesses from generating enough sales on Instagram is the inability to share any live links in their posts. When you share a link in your Instagram caption, it isn’t live and people need to copy and paste the URL in order to visit your website.
This can seem like an easy step, but many people use Instagram on their mobile devices. Hence, many users will not want to copy and paste it.
So, an alternative method businesses use is asking people to click on the link in the bio (after they change it). This can work, but it can still deter people as they need to leave the photo, go to your profile, click on the link and then buy.
Instead, there is another even better alternative. This is to use shoppable posts. With the shoppable posts feature you can tag products in your Instagram photos and people can click on the tagged products, visit your website and buy.
This can seriously boost traffic and sales as it is very straight forward. It’s also very easy to set up as ecommerce store building platforms such as Shopify offer this feature.
#4 Make use of ads:
Ads are also another great way to promote products on Instagram. Instagram ads can be set to target people based on interests and activity. Hence, you should be able to get some sales quickly with them. The best way to get started with Instagram ads is by using retargeting. This is where you serve ads to people who recently visited your website. As the audience is already warmed up, they will be more likely to take action from your ads.
If you want to see retargeting in action, just visit some of your favorite online stores and go on Instagram. You will start seeing these businesses using retargeting ads to reach you. You can use them as inspiration to create your own.
For best results use a combination of both feed ads and stories. If unsure, consider consulting eCommerce Marketing Specialists who can guide and advise you the best campaign for your brand on Instagram.
#5 Team up with influencers:
Another tactic you can use to generate sales quickly is influencer marketing. Influencers have already done the hard work of building a relationship with their followers. So teaming up with a good influencer will not only get you sales, but will also raise your brand value and following.
But make sure you only team up with the right influencers. The right influencers should be relevant to the product you are selling and they should be driving optimum engagement levels.
If you’re a brand with a large marketing budget, you can team up with influencers who have a lot of followers. With this approach, you should make sure to use an influencer marketing platform like Shoutcart and put a lot of thought into planning your project with your team. But if you have a small budget and more time you can work with micro-influencers who have a few thousand followers. Micro-influencers will either charge you less or will promote your product for free in exchange for samples.
Another way to work with influencers is through affiliate marketing. This is where you provide them with a special link for the product. And when people buy the product after visiting through the influencers’ link, you give them a cut of the sale. As they are working on commission the risk will be low for you and they will be likely to work harder as the amount they make will depend on the number of sales they generate.
So, have a good think about what influencer marketing method works best for you and then invest in it.
If you are just starting out it will be best to use a method such as an affiliate program. Once you have some money, you can begin reaching out to larger influencers who ask for an upfront payment.
Conclusion:
These are my top 5 tips for selling products on Instagram. Begin using them to increase engagement and to drive a lot of sales. Start with building up your engagement levels. Once that’s done, you can invest in ads and influencer marketing to drive quick sales. And supplement those sales with organic methods.