Our last post highlighted the trends that you should consider when planning the marketing strategy for your e-commerce site in 2021. One of the trends that we covered was visual commerce. Visual commerce is the use of imagery throughout your entire store to entice users to engage with your products and turn those engagements to conversions, and one of the best platforms you can use when turning engagements into conversions is Instagram.
Though created to be a photo and video sharing social networking service in 2010, Instagram was made for e-commerce, here’s why:
- It displays high-quality and creative images of products that look better and more engaging than generic photos
- It provides consumers easy, mobile access to online shopping for your products
- It expands your reach, helps improve brand positioning, and enhances engagement
- All the points above collectively assist users in their buying decisions, resulting in massive revenue for your business
Instagram has over a billion users with a 1.4 billion engagement rate on Instagram ads, which is five times more than Facebook. Here are a few more facts about Instagram you should know.
- 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day
- 58% of users say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in an Instagram Story
- 50% of users have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product or services in Instagram Stories
- 81% of people use Instagram to research products and services
- 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts every month
- Instagram users an average of 95 million videos and photos in a single day
- 90% of Instagram users follow a business
- Instagram business account see an average monthly growth of 1.46% followers
Now…let’s take your Instagram e-commerce account to the next level.
Six tips to boost your online business through Instagram e-commerce.
Tip 1: Optimize your bio and account information. In the description section make sure to include a link to your website, main keywords and marketing hashtags used by your brand, and call to action. Do you have a product or service that solves a particular pain point? Include that information in this section.
Tip 2: Create an aesthetic for your brand and use compelling and diverse content. Remember to be consistent. Pick your color scheme, keep lighting focus consistent and be authentic and diverse with user generated content. A few ways you can keep the content in your stories diverse is by using:
- Lifestyle product photos
- Behind-the-scenes photos showing how your products are made
- Gifs and memes
- Video posts
- Shared customer content
Tip 3: Make your stories and all your posts shoppable with product tags. Tag the products in your image posts or stories. You can then also turn select tagged posts with good engagement into Instagram ads to boost product sales.
Tip 4: Create eye-candy. The visuals in your ads and stories should always be compelling, tell a story and most importantly entice your customers to want to make a purchase. Don’t just sell the product, sell the brand.
Tip 5: Collaborate with Influencers and ask them to review your product or service. When you collaborate with an influencer, their followers can become your followers. Especially when that influencer loves your product or service. An endorsement from an influencer with a national or global presence will help your brand be taken more seriously. After all, influencers are in the know, and everyone wants to know what they know. When considering collaborating with an influencer use these tips:
- Give influencers the ability to decide on what content to post as they know exactly what their audience will respond to. Create a mood board that they will follow to work on the campaign.
- Select relevant influencers with a huge fan following.
- Cross market by using your influencers’ content on your page. Users viewing products on your site will get to know these influencers.
Tip 6: Make sure your ads, posts and stories are optimized. We started with optimization and we are ending with it. Here are a few keys to remember to ensure you are maximizing the potential of your Instagram posts, ads and stories,
- Remember to have a friendly, authentic feel.
- Create personalized messages to gain more clicks. More clicks equal more conversion opportunities.
- Test all your ads first, tweaking artwork, headlines, call to actions and format, until you achieve a successful campaign with more conversions.
What are you waiting for? There are over a billion fish in the Instagram sea!
Instagram helps you to sell to customers where they’re already spending a lot of their time. By incorporating Instagram into your advertising strategy and e-commerce site, you can create impactful messaging, gain more site traffic, broaden your reach, and increase your sales. Now go and capture some online sales!
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