This is How you can Increase Sales on Your Instagram Shop

With over 3.4 billion social media users worldwide, Instagram is one of the most popular and influential platforms. With users from a wide demographic and a visual-first interface, the social media platform makes for a promising channel for businesses to promote their products and services – especially ecommerce. 

Rolling out features like Instagram Shop, Shoppable posts, click-to-message ads, and more, Instagram is also aware of this shift in consumer behaviour and purchase patterns. It is continually enabling businesses with more powerful capabilities. 

But simply being on the platform or setting up an Instagram Shop is no longer enough to drive sales. Similar to how you work towards driving a targeted audience to your website, your Instagram Shop requires promotions, too and in this article, we’re going to talk all about the tactics you can use to get your brand noticed amidst the increasing competition. 

Marketing and advertising strategies to increase sales on Instagram 

The use of Instagram commerce capabilities may look different for different businesses. But here take a look at some of the tactics that you can use to entice your audience to this new channel of selling. 

Organic marketing strategies to drive sales from instagram shop 

1. Post stunning and compelling photos

Imagine you are an average Instagram user, browsing through the feed and landing on a photograph that grabs your attention that compels you to click on it!

As we all know, Instagram shopping is a visual platform, hence increasing sales begins by capturing your potential customer’s attention. So, ideally, the images must be creative and eye-catching that suitably highlight your products. 

Ensure that the images you post relate to your branding and business strategy and give customers an authentic brand feeling. The best way to build a solid presence on Instagram and make more sales is when the customers recognize your brand immediately based on the images.

While posting original images should be the priority, stock images can also add some variety to your account. There are many royalty-free image websites where you can source amazing high-quality photos. Or you can use web tools like Canva to create custom-made images to promote discounts, contests, or giveaways.

So, get creative because a visual representation of your brand is the first experience your customers will have with you. 

2. Nail your captions

Use captions that suit your brand providing product details and directions to purchase. Encourage your followers to take action, and you can ask them to check out your online store from the link in the bio, tag a friend in the comments, or DM for more details.

Try implementing witty and relatable puns in your Instagram posts to improve people’s perception of your brand because, as they say, humour goes a long way in engaging an audience. You can also engage with your users by posting fan-submitted photos with witty captions. 

Humorous content doesn’t fit with your brand? Then aim for thought-provoking and aspirational posts that are relatable to regular people.

Use calls to action (CTAs) according to relevance to engage your followers and make them take an interest in your brand.

3. Client reviews and photos 

Have you come across a new brand and liked their product but didn’t have proof of how good the item would actually be? 

To gain the trust of your new audience, include testimonials and customer stories as part of your content. Several successful brands repost customers’ content to get more sales on Instagram. 

User-generated content (UGC) is another form of word-of-mouth advertising where your existing audience helps create content that showcases your product.

Some ways to promote UGC on your Instagram business page are sharing screenshots of positive customer messages and reviews of your online store in the form of– stories, reels, and videos.

If your customers are not keen to share images of your product readily, then encourage them by offering a reward or incentive, such as a chance to win something if they post photos featuring your product or to be featured on your official Instagram account.

4. Leverage Instagram Stories

Instagram has 500 million daily active Stories uploaded worldwide. Instagram stories allow the users to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Many businesses are utilising this feature lately to capitalise on the growing trend of short-form content. On average, a brand will publish 10 Instagram Stories per month.

• Capture your brand’s story or journey and share it with your followers as Instagram Stories.
• Share your customer’s experiences of using your products or services.
• Exhibit your product images by creating a video and sharing it in your stories.
• Capture some behind-the-scenes shots and videos of your product making and include them as Instagram stories. Highlight your most popular products in stories and let them know how to use them.
• Attract followers with great offers every once in a while and convert them into reliable customers. Post Instagram stories with a discount code in a limited-time offer, especially during festive seasons.
• Promote Instagram Shop by linking to the product page on your online store through your Instagram Stories. When the followers view your stories, they can tap on the product and get directed to your store, where they can purchase the product without leaving the app.
• You can use the last story as a CTA that leads back to your online store.

Use Instagram Stories to constantly show up on the platform, create awareness about your brand and keep your keen audience hooked for more content. 

5. Use hashtags relevant to your products

Attract your customers and increase sales on Instagram using hashtags relevant to your products. Using the right combination of hashtags makes it easy for your target audience to find you. 

However, developing an accurate combination of effective hashtags takes work and effort. It would help if you spent time and effort on extensive research to ensure you use a practical mix of standard and unique hashtags on your Instagram posts.

Experiment with different combinations of hashtags to see which works best for you. You can encourage your followers to use the branded hashtag to help you track the productivity of your efforts. 

Create an interactive branded hashtag to boost sales from Instagram shopping. So, your brand is exposed to more users whenever a user posts a photo using the tag. If your brand already has a popular slogan or phrase, consider making that your branded hashtag. 

6. Show your products with how-to-videos

Showcase the experience of actually using your products for your Instagram content to have a real impact. Though striking images of your products may capture users’ attention, they may need to be more compelling to drive sales.

Tutorial or how-to-video is one of the popular types of video content on Instagram nowadays. This format is idyllic for shopping posts as it offers product knowledge and shows your products in action to the viewers.

For example, if you want to sell a specific condiment, you can post images of dishes prepared using that spice. And you could also include the recipe in the caption while describing the perfect occasion to enjoy the dish.

7. Shopping Guides

Every month, 130 million people tap on an Instagram shopping post, proving that Instagram’s e-commerce features are progressing rapidly and changing the way we shop.

For businesses, Instagram shopping posts open up a world of opportunities to promote their products and are a great way to showcase their catalogues and drive sales. By following these simple tips, you’ll be creating a seamless shopping experience and converting your followers into customers in no time.

•  The first step for setting up successful Instagram Shopping is to manage your product catalog.
• Ensure that your catalog contains the required product information about the items you want to promote or sell on Instagram. 
• All the latest products, inventory counts, and pricing information should be updated regularly. 
• Description of the product, their photos and video clips, and their features are deciding factors for shoppers to decide whether to invest in your products or not. 
• Having at least 3-4 high-resolution images, a few features like color, size, or material, and accurate shipping information makes it easier for the shoppers to identify what they want. 
• Suitable product tags allow you to highlight items from your catalog straight into your videos and posts, so your users can immediately tap on a tag and learn more. 

9. Creating an Instagram live shopping stream

Instagram has further enhanced its customer engagement using its latest eCommerce feature: Instagram Live Shopping.

As consumers spend more time online, retailers should learn how to engage customers through one-sided platforms. Instagram Live streaming provides an authentic experience and humanises the online shopping journey, enabling customers to shop without visiting a physical store. 

Instagram Live Shopping enables users to market their brand, sell their products, and communicate with their customers through an Instagram Live broadcast. 

Instagram Live Shopping is an ideal channel for informing our audience about your products and services. You can share recommendations, perform product demos, and answer queries to build shopper confidence through live broadcasting.

10. Shoppable posts 

Shoppable content on Instagram is a social media post such as an image, video, or ad that your buyers can click through to purchase. For instance, Instagram Product Tags let you directly highlight items from your catalog in your images and videos, so buyers can easily tap and learn more.

Shoppable posts on Instagram are the core of social commerce, allowing users to make purchases without leaving the app. It shortens the sales funnel and converts customers immediately when they wish to purchase the product.

These posts offer a fantastic opportunity for businesses to capitalise on these emerging trends. However, ensure your shoppable content showcases your brand’s values and humanity. Creating posts that connect with your audience makes it easier to attract and convert users.

Paid marketing tactics to drive sales from the Instagram shop

1. Set up and promote Instagram shop ads

While 72% of Instagram users have purchased a product after seeing it on the app, it’s safe to say that Instagram ads can help you reach your target audience faster and get more sales.

Instagram ads are posts for which businesses need to pay to serve Instagram users. They appear throughout the app, including in users’ feeds, Explore, and Stories. They have more features than a standard post, such as links, CTA buttons, and product catalogs.

Now that you’ve got your digital shop set up and ready to go, it’s time for the most crucial step – getting your very first customer! Using the Instagram Product tags, you can boost a Shoppable post that you’ve created or you can build an ad from scratch in Ads Manager. Shoppable Instagram posts include a tiny shopping bag icon in the bottom left corner. 

2. Click to Instagram DM ad

Instagram ads that click to your DMs convert 5X to 10X higher (about 10%) than your average Instagram Ads (between 1% and 2%), depending on the type of Instagram ad.

According to Facebook, 65% of shoppers are likely to purchase a business where they can message directly.

Click-to Instagram DM ads are gaining popularity rapidly as they are interactive and have high conversion rates. You can start a chat conversation in your Instagram DMs when someone in your target audience clicks on your ad, where you can interact with the user to help them make a purchase and answer their queries. 

It creates a seamless experience for both sides since the user never has to leave the Instagram app. It is regular interaction where users are likely to willingly provide feedback and contact information with just a click of a button.

You can upsell and cross-sell your products with ease. Businesses can leverage Click to Instagram Direct ads to connect, engage, and convert their audience into your customers. Once you build relationships with your audience, you can ask them to share your ad for further reach.

3. Promote Instagram shop Stories

Promoting your Instagram commerce via stories is a great way to get users to visit your website or view your products. You can tag a product in your Instagram Story using the Stickers function.

Customised product stickers will intrigue the buyer to click on them, so make sure you upload or create your content for your story as usual, then find the suitable product sticker, and choose the applicable product from your catalog.

3. Set up retargeting ads

Social media marketing scenario these days involves putting out good content constantly in the form of engaging photos, witty captions, videos, or blogs. While you may have a strategy in place for the best day and time to post your ads, you still need to figure out if it is reaching your targeted audience or not. However, retargeting ads can enable digital marketers to maximize the influence of Instagram and other social media platforms.

Retargeting effectively turns online “window shoppers” into actual customers for your business by engaging and converting Instagram audiences who already know their products. You can retarget users who have clicked your previous ads, visited your website, or taken part in your email marketing database. 

Some of your goals for retargeting should include the following:

• Curate your target audience and understand their journey
• Promote your blog content and optimize for more traffic or cost per click
• Grow your email list 
• Promote your products and services
• Promote previous customer testimonials and reviews
• Leverage the use of dynamic creative ads
• Embrace the emotional element of advertising

Conclusion

Instagram is a versatile platform that can cater to audiences for various businesses and industries. With new features getting rolled out almost every month, Instagram is closing the gap between social media and ecommerce, enabling social commerce more seamlessly in addition to the existing capabilities of it. 

But organic and paid marketing tactics on Instagram are only as effective as your execution. Apart from having a strategy in place, it is also important for businesses to understand the importance of engagement that lies at the core of all the tactics listed above. 

In a noisy and competitive industry, it is important for businesses to be able to keep up with consumers and proactively engage their interest once captured. This is where automations come into play to keep responses timely and enable buying journeys with complete context and personalization. 

LimeChat is a leading conversational commerce platform that enables businesses to set up Instagram automations that can take interest and intent to the point of conversion through a series of custom workflows. 

Ready to 2x the results from your Instagram marketing and advertising strategy? 

Explore Instagram conversational commerce automations with Limechat. Book a demo today!