As one of the most popular social media platforms across the globe, Instagram made its mark as the go-to photo social media app and has even helped to birth influencer marketing as a whole new way of selling online.
It’s not surprisingly a pillar of most businesses marketing strategies, particularly if you’re selling products online. Over the years influencers have helped to not only build up new brands such as Gymshark and Aerie but have also created new trends and helped to influence what we now know as ‘Instagram worthy’ content.
So how can you as a business tap into all the great features that Instagram has to offer in order to grow your business? In this blog, we’ll be covering 5 of the main things you can do to help drive engagement and sales to your online shop.
1. Instagram Shopping
The first thing you need to do is check that your Instagram account is set as a business account. This allows you access to many of Instagram’s features including Instagram Shopping.
If you’re new to Instagram Shopping, you simply upload a catalogue in the Catalogue Manager and once it’s linked up to your account, you can begin adding product tags and stickers to your Instagram posts. Here’s a quick guide on how to get Instagram Shopping set up.
So every time you add a new post or a new story, you can choose to add in up to 5 product tags to encourage people to ‘shop the look’. Your customers will be able to see an image of the product from your post, a description of the product, it’s costs and a link that will take them directly to your website.
The good thing about this is that you’ll also have access to analytics for your Instagram Shopping, allowing you to see what product is being shopped the most and what type of content works best for you.
2. Swipe Up Feature
Now, this feature is something that you will only have access to when you have over 10,000 followers but if you can get there, this is an amazing feature that will help to engage your audience, get more visitors to your site and help to convert sales.
This feature is used in your Instagram Stories and can be used for both organic stories and sponsored stories and it also has many uses. From promoting a new product launch to sharing your latest blog or promoting any videos or live videos for your business. This feature will then take the person to a new window, which opens in the app via a URL of where you’d like to direct them to and will look exactly like a normal webpage. Make sure that your site is mobile-optimised to ensure that your customer has the best experience possible.
3. Stories
Instagram Stories is a well-known feature that many people use but can also be used for business not only to promote products but also to interact and engage with your audience.
In this example, they’re not only promoting an upcoming live video but are actively asking questions to their audience. Not only does this give you content to use during your video but it also encourages your audience to get involved with your story. Stories can also be another way of communicating with your audience from updates to exclusive behind the scenes stories and best of all, they can be kept as a highlight on your profile too!
4. Giveaways
Giveaways are another great way of not only driving engagement on your posts but reaching new audiences too. For example, post a picture of the item you’re giving away and in the description post the rules, which should include 3 main actions for your audience:
- Like the post
- Tag 2-3 friends in the comments
- Share the post on their story
Once they’ve done these actions they’ll be entered into the competition. This doesn’t just engage your audience with your content but it also encourages them to share with their friends and thus expand your reach further. You can not only gain more followers and increase your engagement but all these factors will help you establish your brand presence online and will also help to be a trust signal to your customers.
5. Engage Your Audience
The last tip we have is simply to engage with your audience. Reply to comments, reshare posts that you’re tagged in (that are relevant to your business), comment on other people’s posts and just generally share the love amongst your following.
Ask questions on your Instagram Story, post the answers, post a poll about what product they would like to buy, A or B. There are so many ways you can engage with your audience and if there’s a specific topic you’d like to cover, why not record a video for Instagram TV or go live right on your IG page.
Try out these tips and see how many more followers you can gain in a short period of time and let us know how you did!
The post 5 ways to use Instagram to grow your business appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.
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