How to Use Instagram to Grow your eCommerce Sales
Instagram has grown to over 600 million followers in recent times & more than 70% of these people actively use Instagram on a daily basis. The engagement rate on Instagram is also 8 times greater than that of Facebook. Moreover, brand engagement is also higher on Instagram, than on any other platform. So, having an Instagram account would help your business reach a larger audience. Instagram also allows you to build a community of followers with whom you can share your merchandise.
However, like any other social media platform, there are no guarantees. It can take a long time to become a big player on Instagram. It is also difficult to determine how good Instagram is at boosting your eCommerce sales.
So, what are the best Instagram strategies? If you want to grow your online sales through Instagram.
1. Target the right audience
You have to understand that everyone will not be interested in buying your product. There is a target audience for you to find, and then you will see your sales improve at an exponential rate. You can use hashtags and more importantly the boost feature for this. But to target people through these methods, you have to use the right metrics.
For example, you wouldn’t want your post to reach men, if the only thing you sell are tampons. You budget would be wasted on men for this product, since men do not use tampons.
2. Use Hashtags
This is one of the most effective things you can do to improve your reach, it will not promise you sales. But will certainly aid in providing you sales. What hashtags do is that they suggest your posts to people who interact with the hashtags that you have used in your posts. Hence it is a good way to promote your product, page and brand. Hashtags most of all helps you come up in searches and on Instagram explore.
You can do some hashtag research to see which ones are the most commonly used on Instagram, as well as which ones are most important to your online business. Be sure to include a few of these hashtags in each of your posts to gain more views and followers over time.
3. Avail the use of Instagram Stories
Instagram stories is a function that allows you to post a picture or video for 24 hours before it disappears. Keeping your stories up to date is an excellent way to keep your fans informed, and you can post several stories every day without bothering your target audience. Instagram stories will help you increase your exposure and interaction levels.
It’s also a great way to advertise activities, goods, and services, and it’s a great way to supplement your social media material. Furthermore, Instagram allows you to choose story highlights and share them on your company profile. These highlights will not vanish after 24 hours and can be accessed at any time by your audience. This is an excellent place to showcase your offerings and other noteworthy features.
4. Use Boost & Refine your Audience
The best and most proven way for improving sales on any platform is through paid advertising. Instagram boosts are relatively cheap, you can get a lot of reach for little amount of money. However, here is the difficult bit, you have to set the right audience for your product. Otherwise you will waste money on advertising with little or no effect on sales. You can understand your target audience by being attentive to details, research and through your own experience.
See the type of people who are interested in your product or service. Target people similar to those people. For example, if you have baby products, try to target parents, don’t target any teenagers. Or target people based on what they have been searching. Instagram has a vast targeting tool and you can even create multiple audiences to experiment with, to see which one is better.
5. Set a Budget for Boosts
Your business doesn’t only have to generate sales, it also needs to generate revenue. For that to happen, you need to calculate your Return on investment, which is known as ROI. To do that, you must calculate your sales profit and minus it with your boost budget. If the value you get is positive, than you are making a profit despite spending money on boosts. But if your value is negative, than you are losing more money than you are making. If so, make changes right away, or your eCommerce business is dead.
6. Don’t take your Bio for Granted
Yes, I know that your pages bio is only a 150 characters long, but these 150 characters are what will define you, to your audience. Your bio explains what your business is all about and what people can expect from your ecommerce store. Moreover, Instagram allows you to add one URl to your bio. So you can also redirect people to your website through your bio as well.
So now you might be wondering, how do I write a good bio? Well there is not much to it, just remember to be to the point, friendly and don’t write like a robot will. Just make it human and friendly.
7. Use Memes and Trending Topic Posts
There are memes, challenges and trends gaining virality every day. If you want to stay current, increase discoverability, and increase interaction, consider aligning some of your posts with such topics whenever the opportunity presents itself. By actively engaging in these types of posts, you can get a greater reach. Business isn’t all about making sales. It’s about being a voice as well.
8. Post at the Right Time
Depending on the day and even the time you post, the amount of interaction your posts can generate can vary dramatically. If you don’t publish your content at the right time, less of your current and future followers are likely to see it. Engagement is higher during the middle of the day and in the middle of the week, weekdays are the safest and most effective days to post on social media, while the best times to post are in the evenings or early mornings.
These are just generic times, since most people are active during these times. There might be a possibility that your product may appeal to night owls and it might be better to post late at night. For this you will have to be observant and might have to experiment a little bit.
9. Use Attractive Images
Instagram is a visual social media site where users can follow people and brands that post visually appealing images. So, if you can stick to high-quality imagery with similar and consistent themes, you’ll increase the likelihood that people will like what they see and that your brand’s following will improve. It’s important to remember that photos have the ability to entertain, attract, and educate your target audience.
The right pictures will help you inspire and push your marketing campaign’s agenda, as well as increase your number of followers and customers. Your ecommerce Instagram profile should ideally be filled with photos that have a clear and distinct visual style that will cater to your target audience and help your customers recognize your brand.
Note: If you do not have an ecommerce store, you can hire shopify developers for ecommerce store development!
