10 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales
With more than 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Millions of businesses have now recognized the power of Instagram. They are using it to connect with their audience, reach out to new people, build brand awareness, and, eventually, sell more products, and all of this from one place.
Since Instagram doesn’t seem to give up its space ads, understanding how to leverage the platform's power for your business should be one of your key marketing goals. However, for your Instagram efforts to result in more sales, you need to develop a solid marketing strategy based on the combination of tested methods and the latest trends.
To help you not get lost in the fascinating world of Instagram marketing, in this article, we’re taking a look at ten strategies you can implement to grow your business on this visual platform.
Why Should You Sell on Instagram?
The simple answer is, everyone is on Instagram. Being one of the top 5 social media platforms globally, Instagram sees millions of visitors and pieces of content every day. People and brands go there to see beautiful photos, watch videos, interact with brands, research products, or get their share of attention by posting something themselves. Here are a few numbers to back our claim:
10 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales - Instagram on Mobile Phone
The number of companies and brands using the platform has skyrocketed during the past several years, and currently, 71% of American businesses are using the platform. So it’s safe to say that your competition is on Instagram.
Around 59% of monthly active users log into the platform daily.
130 million users every month engage with shopping content on Instagram.
Using Instagram strategically allows thousands of brands daily to reach millions of people worldwide and forge meaningful relationships with them. The platform is also a goldmine for critical feedback and enables you to perform competitor analysis, while engaging your audience with creative visual content. It’s also crucial that you have a specific sales funnel for Instagram in place, in order to reach your goals.
Now that you are (hopefully) more confident about using Instagram as part of your marketing funnel and strategy, let's look at some essential steps you need to take.
10 step Instagram marketing strategy to boost your sales
Creativity, Creativity, Creativity
10 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales - Creativity (Cloud Ice-cream Cone)
The online world is oversaturated, with millions of brands trying to stand out and get their share of customers. So, regardless of the niche you are in, chances are, you won't be operating in a vacuum.
To stand out, the first and most important thing that you need is creativity. Because Instagram is a visual platform, this can be achieved, first and foremost, through your visual content (design style, color schemes, overall branding.) Luckily, this is now more accessible than ever: you can make a logo and create your entire branding online in minutes. However, it’s key to remember that the idea behind the design matters just as much, if not more.
Humor, motivation, educational content work well on Instagram. Define your main goal and understand what you want to achieve with a specific post, or even for months. Then based on that information, create something memorable that will stand out in the feed and make people stop scrolling.
2. Focus on Product-Related Posts
One of the most complex pieces of owning a business on Instagram is content. You may have even asked yourself a couple of times what you should post. One relatively simple answer to this question is the posts about your product.
Product-focused content is one of the most popular content types on Instagram. Your customers may follow you because of the valuable content you provide, but they are also interested in your brand's products and services. So, make an effort to present them in the best light, and do this frequently. However, avoid being too pushy or "salesy." Instead of speaking about how great your product is and what its latest features are, show prospects all the ways they can benefit from purchasing it and how it can solve their problems. Later on, you can use startup marketing automation techniques to make the processes faster and more productive.
The visuals also matter: instead of posting lifeless photos of shoes, think of something more fun, e.g., include bright colored props, a stop motion or 2D animation of the making of said shoes. No matter what it is, just make sure it centers the attention towards your product.
3. Use Hashtags
The benefits of hashtags are well known at this point: they help increase the visibility of your posts and stories and help categorize them.
Additionally, you can come up with branded Instagram hashtags and use them to label your posts and encourage your audience to use them while making posts about your product.
Research relevant hashtags for your business niche, narrow down the important ones and go with the trendy hashtags of the moment. Avoid using too generic ones, such as "makeup," "fashion," "lookbook," for example, and go with more specific ones. They may have less coverage but will help you reach those who are genuinely interested in your offer. Make a habit of researching and updating your hashtag list every week or at least twice a month. You can make this a part of your social media onboarding checklist so that everyone in your team is on the same page.
Moreover, you can add up to 30 different hashtags to Instagram posts and up to 10 hashtags to stories; however, try not to spam your audience with too many hashtags. In addition, don't think of hashtags as an alternative to Instagram captions
- hashtags are not the be-all and end-all of your content.
4. Leverage The Power Of User-Generated-Content
User-Generated-Content (or UGC) is the most extensive testimonial your brand can have on Instagram (and other platforms, for that matter)! The truth is, although all your marketing efforts count and add up to establishing your brand, as a whole, customer feedback and testimonials make one of the most effective tactics because people trust other people more than they trust brands.
Photos and videos your customers create about your brand and product are pure gold from a marketing perspective. While discovering these videos and images may be time-consuming (unless they tag you, of course), the result is worth the effort. Looking through hashtags is one way to do it. So, every month, take time to fill in your content marketing calendar with UGC for a chance to grow your audience and increase their trust in your brand.
Additionally, you can encourage the creation of UGC through giveaways and contests or encourage the users to share a photo of your product for a chance to be featured. The only limit here is your creativity. Another benefit is that the more high-quality user-generated pieces of content you have, the fewer resources you'll have to spend on creating content yourself.
5. Use Stories To Sell
10 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales - Instagram Stories
An Instagram story is a piece of content that lives on your profile only for 24 hours. Because of this, they are more informal than posts and don't always require a lot of planning. For example, if you have a funny backstage situation during your latest shoot, or someone brings their pet to the office - just take a quick photo and share it!
Stories do not appear in the feed, and the audience can only see them by tapping on your profile picture. However, because the stories appear at the top of the feed, they are more attention-grabbing and noticeable than feed posts. In addition, stories come with advanced analytical tools to analyze the content performance and optimize your stories accordingly. If you then want to keep your stories longer than one day, create a story highlight that will appear in your profile.
With 500 million daily users, stories are one of the staple features of Instagram. Because of the more extensive visibility, they improve brand awareness, engage the audience, give them a chance to come in direct contact with you, and help improve sales pipeline stages. Stories also make your brand more humane and give it a personality, so make sure to sprinkle a bit of spontaneity there.
6. Don’t Neglect Videos
Videos are indeed becoming one of the most popular types of visual content, and it's no surprise. They are engaging, attention-grabbing, fun, and give lots of information to the viewer. However, again, we have numbers to back this up: Instagram videos get around 21% more interactions than static posts.
As the popularity of video content grows, Instagram offers more and more video content options you can, and should, use to get noticed on the platform. From backstage video stories to trendy Reels or even live Q&As with the founders, Instagram allows you to craft and share various video content for different purposes. So, don’t miss this opportunity; create video clips around your brand or niche, and share them with your audience.
Try to play around with the video options on Instagram to understand what works for your brand best and which type of video content you have resources. Then, try to incorporate them into your content calendar regularly.
7. In-app Shopping
Instagram has launched the Instagram Store after several years of experimenting with “shoppable” stories and posts to streamline how users discover products on the platform.
10 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales - In-app Shopping
Here's how the shop works - you add it to your profile, enlisting a catalog of products with detailed information and pricing. People no longer need to go to your website for all this information but can access it right on the app. To make this process more simple, you can incorporate in-app chat for clients and buyers. They can also go through the checkout process on Instagram by paying for the product and choosing shipping options without leaving the app. Thus, the shopping section simplifies the interaction between brands and potential buyers. It also makes the purchasing process more straightforward. This is because people stumbling upon a product they like don't have to head to your website and find it there to purchase; they can easily do it in the app.
The shop is discoverable from your profile, feeds, or via the explore page, like other types of Instagram content. It can also be discovered in the shopping section, where people can search products by keywords. Of course you can leverage your store through your website as well. In this case, you’d need to use some WordPress hosting to ensure website security and develop great UX/UI designs via various web designing platforms .
One downside of the Instagram shop is, however, that it only allows for selling physical products. So it can be great if you have a drop-shipping business, but it’s not the best option for your digital product.
8. When in Doubt, Go With Paid Ads
On Instagram, there are many ways to grow your engagement and following organically. However, it's not the only way to position your brand on the platform. Paid ads are also a powerful addition to your Instagram marketing toolbox. Some of the critical benefits of paid ads are:
Better targeting
Wider audience reach
Increased following
Important insights
Powerful marketing analytics tools
Whether you are trying to announce a sale or promote your latest product, Instagram has a targeting tool just for you. Additionally, you don’t need to spend fortunes on paid ads: invest as much of your budget as you can.
9. Collaborate With Influencers
10 Step Instagram Marketing Strategy to Drive More Sales - Influencer Marketing
Influencers and brand ambassadors are people with a large social following in a particular niche who collaborate with brands by promoting their products. During the last several years, Instagram has seen a rise of influencers working on the platform, and this trend doesn't seem to stop. The underlying reason for this is the same as in the case of UGC: people trust other consumers more than they trust brands.
Instagram influencers spend months and years gathering audiences in a niche field who would be interested in their following and with whom they forge trusting and friendly relations.
Many brands make the mistake of looking at the “following”. The size of the audience, of course, matters, but engagement matters more. Another thing that also matters is the niche: if you are selling online courses, a lifestyle and fashion influencer wouldn’t be the right choice. To succeed, research and find the right influencers in your niche, and contact them for potential collaboration. This is an excellent way to see results in a short period.
One of the most common ways of working with Instagram influencers is getting a good review from them. Then, they can do an unboxing of your product, a tutorial on how to use it, or share their experience, to name a few potential ideas.
Choosing the right influencer and coming up with the right campaign for influencers marketing on Instagram may seem like a lot of effort initially, but the results are worth it.
10. Incorporate Email Marketing
This one may come as a surprise, but Instagram and email marketing do have a way of working together to boost your business ’ results! Think of it as a combination of established and modern. Instagram is the new kid on the block, while email has been around for some time without losing any relevance. Effectively mixing these two strategies will open many opportunities for your company.
Here we have some examples of how you can mix them:
Encourage your followers to subscribe to your mailing list.
Include contact information with a link to your Instagram account in the emails while also showcasing your feed.
Organize a contest on Instagram and notify your mailing list.
Use Instagram UGC in your emails.
Build your email list by organizing contests and giveaways.
If your email provider allows, include the live feed of your Instagram as well.
There are more ways in which you can mix these two strategies. However, before starting, have a solid plan at hand to achieve the desired outcome. Collaborate with your email marketing consultant to develop an effective plan that will benefit both of your strategies. Have your SPF records to check that your emails are delivered, and follow other measures to ensure safety.
Conclusion
Instagram is currently one of the most preferred marketing channels worldwide, and its effectiveness has a role to play in it. By understanding the platform's landscape, what works, and what doesn't, you'll find selling on the platform a lot easier.
Consider the strategies we've discussed above and incorporate them into your Instagram marketing strategy for tremendous success. Good luck!
