Breaking into the Instagram marketing game can be intimidating.
Growing your eCommerce business is tough when no one knows about your company. It’s almost impossible to outrank the eCommerce giants like Amazon or Google, so Instagram marketing is uniquely positioned to help you grow your customer base and keep loyal customers engaged.
In fact, 75% of Instagram users take action after seeing a business post. Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram encourages a sense of discovery. People like following new brands and engaging with their content. Plus, Instagram gives eCommerce business owners the chance to tag specific items and direct people to their site to buy.
Suggested Reading: The Definitive Guide To Retail Marketing
Instagram marketing tips: How to market your eCommerce shop on Instagram
The point of eCommerce shops is that they’re online. Your eCommerce platform displays your products, but you have to get the name out. There’s no better place for an eCommerce shop to market than on Instagram. Not only does Instagram give brands the opportunity to show off products and services, but it also allows brands to promote posts.
These six tips will help you create an effective Instagram business profile for your eCommerce store. Simply follow these steps, and you’ll drive more sales than ever before.
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Schedule creative content
There are two parts to this tip: scheduling and creativity.
First, brainstorm all of the content you want to post for the next quarter. Be sure that this content is true to the brand and shows off the benefits of your products or services.
In the example below, Bliss does a really good job of sticking with their brand look and feel. They even create a culturally relevant meme of Drake and relate it to skincare. Now that’s creativity.
Source: InstagramOnce you’ve brainstormed the best content for your brand, schedule out your posts so that you don’t have to worry about forgetting.
Social media management software plans the posts, responds to inquiries, and boosts traffic. Using social media management software will help you manage your time. If you’re a small business owner, odds are you don’t have time to run a successful Instagram account.
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Make it easy to buy
Put your website in your Instagram bio, and be sure to tell people in all content to check out your link in the bio. Then, every time you post a product, link to it so that people can buy right then and there. A major barrier for shoppers is the lack of accessibility to products. If you break down these barriers by tagging your product, shoppers will be more likely to buy and even build their cart with recommendations.
In the example below, you see how seamless the user experience is. Shoppers can see all they need to know with a click of the “view products” button.
Source: Instagram -
Use Instagram stories
Instagram stories are useful because they provide more detailed information about your product or service. They’re also a good way to tell their shoppers about a promotion. Instagram stories only stay up for 24 hours, but you can save them to different highlights to make them last a lifetime.
Instagram highlights are stories that you can feature on your profile permanently. You can create multiple highlight themes within your profile. Below you’ll see that Warby Parker shows off different sizes, collections, and has a highlight about FAQs.
Source: Instagram -
Run sweepstakes and contests
Sweepstakes and contests give e-commerce owners a chance to get user-generated content. When creating a contest, require people to follow your page, tag someone else in the post, and repost your contest on their story with a specific hashtag. After your potential customers do all of this, repost and engage with those who repost your contest and participate. This is a great way to gain followers for your account if you’re just getting started.
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Engage with followers
There are whole accounts based on gathering comments from celebrities. People love when brands engage with them. It makes them feel special and also humanizes your e-commerce shop.
Always stay true to your brand voice when interacting with current and potential customers. Either like or reply to all comments, even if people are addressing concerns or being negative. It’s also important that you reply to direct messages because in those cases people are taking the time to reach out directly. You don’t have to write a paragraph or go follow people who engage with you, just a simple like can go a long way.
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Leverage influencers
Instagram influencer marketing is a whole subset of marketing that leverages influential people and accounts on Instagram to raise awareness and drive sales. The e-commerce giant, Amazon, uses influencers often.
Below you’ll see an example of Amazon’s partnership with Blake Lively. Here, Amazon is advertising their baby registry, so they had Lively post her baby registry on Amazon for the public to see.
Source: Instagram
Like it, then buy it
It’s simple as that. Once you get the hang of Instagram marketing, you’ll wonder why you didn’t put your e-commerce shop on it earlier. You’ll even debate implementing a marketing automation tool to maximize the potential of the platform. By scheduling creative content, using all of the Instagram features, and engaging with followers you’ll be ahead of the game and the followers will start rolling in.
Author bio:
Deirdre O’Donoghue is a Senior Content Marketing Specialist at G2. She brings her passion for research and creativity to her writing. In her free time, you can find Deirdre fostering puppies or exploring the Chicago foodie scene.
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