How popular is Instagram? Well, there are approximately one million monthly Instagram users. That’s almost an eighth of the world’s entire population! While the app is certainly growing, so is the amount of money businesses are spending to promote their products and services on Instagram. Instagram was projected to earn $18.16 billion in ad revenue in 2020. That’s a huge increase over the previous years. Selling on Instagram is becoming increasingly competitive. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for you to sell on Instagram, too. We’ll give you five tips for how to sell on Instagram – successfully.
Tips for Selling on Instagram
If you want to learn how to make money on Instagram, or simply how to sell products on Instagram, we’ll tell you five tips to sell more on Instagram.
Tip 1: Switch to a Business Profile
The first step is to switch to a business profile on Instagram. This sounds obvious, but many businesses skip this very necessary step. When you convert your standard Instagram profile to a business profile, you get access to several selling and reporting options.
How to Switch to an Instagram Business Profile
- First, log into your account. Then tap the cheeseburger button at the top right of your dashboard.
- Tap “Settings” at the bottom right.
- Scroll down until you find “Switch to Business Profile.”
That’s it! If you need to switch back for some reason, which is highly unlikely, simply go back to settings and tap “Switch Back to Personal Account.”
Benefits of Switching to an Instagram Business Profile
There are several benefits to utilizing an Instagram business profile, including:
- Instagram Insights: Instagram Insights gives you tons of useful data you can view right on the app on your phone. Check under the “Activity” tab to see your profile visits, website clicks, reach, and impressions. Under the “Content” tab you can see the performance of every post or story. And under the “Audience” tab, you can see the demographics of your followers, including when they’re most active.
- Call to Action Button: The call to action button appears at the top of your profile right under your Instagram bio. You can give people the opportunity to call, email, or get directions to your business. Just make sure you write an excellent CTA!
- Story Links: Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t allow regular users to link in posts. However, with a business account you can add links in your Instagram stories. This gives you a huge opportunity to send your audience straight to your products and landing pages on your site.
- Connect to Facebook: You can also link your Facebook page to your Instagram and start running Instagram ads through the Business Manager/Ads Manager.
Tip 2: Conduct Instagram Hashtag Research
Many people make the mistake of scoffing at hashtags. However, it is important to use hashtags to your benefit in order to sell on Instagram. Hashtags are a great way to connect with your audience – but you have to choose the right ones. This is where hashtag research comes in. When you switch to a business profile, you will see how many of your impressions come via hashtags. You can also see how many of the accounts you reached weren’t following you when they saw your post. When you utilize the right hashtags, these stats will increase.
So, how do you conduct hashtag research? Start by going to Instagram and Discover > Search > Tags, and search for words related to your niche. You can see how many posts have used that hashtag. When you use that hashtag in your own post, it will be added to the Discover queue.
The key is to use a combination of hashtags: some that have high posting volume and some that have low posting volume. The hashtags you use that have a lower posting volume actually have a higher chance of being seen by your target audience.
Tip 3: Start Running Instagram Ads
Many businesses worry about the cost of Instagram ads. However, if you run a successful Instagram advertising campaign, you will get a solid return on your investment. Plus, consider the fact that Instagram is already a free platform! However, don’t just hit “Promote” in the Instagram app. Simply promoting your ads doesn’t let you target your audience very specifically.
Rather, take the time to set up an ad campaign in Ads Manager. If you want, you can run your ads in concert with Facebook Ads. This allows you access to Facebook’s suite of targeting options. Targeting helps you get your ads in front of a large audience for not a large amount of money. You can also use the data provided to create remarketing lists in Ads Manager, and run conversion campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
Ads not only help you sell more products, but they also help build brand awareness for your company by pushing Instagram posts to your audience’s Instagram feed.
Tip 4: Use Instagram Shopping for Physical Products
If you are selling services, go ahead and skip this tip. But if you are selling physical products, you need to use Instagram Shopping. Shopping posts look just like organic posts, except when a user taps the image to view the products, the name and prices of the product are revealed. It looks like a regular Instagram account post, except you tag products. Then, when the user clicks on the tags, they are taken to a product page with all the details they need to know about the product and a call to action. Then, they can click through to a landing page.
To use Instagram Shopping, make sure you have a product catalogue in Facebook and enable product tagging. When you run shopping posts as ads, you get the opportunity to reach a broad audience. Your shopping posts might even show up in the new Shopping channel in Instagram Explore.
Tip 5: Partner with Influencers
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool at your disposal, especially on Instagram. When you get an influencer to market your product or service, you get an endorsement in front of your target audience. Many influencers grew up with social media and know how to leverage it to gain a large and loyal following. Many advertisers are again deterred by the price, but launching an influencer marketing campaign is likely more affordable than you think. Sometimes, spending your budget on an influencer campaign is more effective than paying for ads. It depends on your audience and picking the right influencer. Also, it helps create user generated content for your own Instagram page.
Sell on Instagram with SEO Design Chicago
If you need help selling more on Instagram, contact SEO Design Chicago today. Our digital advertising experts can create an Instagram advertising campaign for you or simply implement some tactics to help drive sales on your Instagram. We can also help you get more followers on Instagram in 2021!
FAQs:
- How do I sell more on Instagram?
- How do I switch to a business profile on Instagram?
- What is Instagram Shopping?
- What are the benefits of an Instagram business profile?
- Is working with Instagram influencers a good idea?
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