Instagram has become one of the most used social networks in the world (just behind Facebook and YouTube ). Already surpassing 700 million users , it has become the perfect platform to sell to millennials , the generation that has been born with technology, mobile phones, apps and social networks under the arm, and a large market that spends several hours a day browsing among photos, stories and videos . But, do you really know how to show your products and services to be appealing to users ?
Instagram ensures that almost 75% of customers have more intention to buy by only seeing the photo of the product or service in the social network . Now, it is not enough to publish videos, photos or stories , you have to know how to do it correctly and have a well-planned strategy. Therefore, in this guide I’ll show you the best techniques to create a sales machine with your Instagram business.
How to increase the sales of your products and services on Instagram
1. Use “real” photos and videos in your publications and stories
Surely you have an exhibition of perfect photographs and videos presenting your products. That’s great, but to create engagement and participation in your publications , it’s best to teach your products naturally . If, for example, you are specialized in food it is best to teach freshly served dishes and if you sell sports accessories avoid the usual catalog and show them working in action. I leave you an example:
For example, Adidas, a leading brand in sports, opts for natural photos of athletes with their clothes in action. In this way the community of followers of the brand will be able to interact more easily and increase the passion for the brand . Sometimes they share photographs of users who use Adidas supplements so that other athletes empathize and increase the desire to purchase.
2. Use social psychology as a tool
With the appearance of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram we have become social beings . It has been discovered that the purchase intention is conditioned (most of the time) by the opinion of a third party , even more than the brand itself. This means that we like the recommendation and feedback from other customers who have already tried the product or service . In fact, it is the business model that Amazon represents perfectly.
Regardless of the volume of business you have, you can share photos and videos of clients that appear with your products or services . In case you do not have no worries, because you can always propose free sponsorships of your brand to profiles that have an acceptable number of followers. In addition, you can give your product in exchange for a mention and positive feedback , always in a natural way. Once you have these photos you can:
Share them from your Instagram account to increase visibility and engagement .
Add the photos on the product page of your website (you can use Instagram photo aggregator modules).
Note : To do so, perform a search with the hashtag of your product . Once you locate the photos of the clients use a tool like Repost for Instagram and share it. Sign up on platforms such as Coobis or Socialpubli to look for profiles of influencers that have more than 20k followers . Contact them directly and offer them a sponsorship .
3. Prepare a contest or free draw
If you realize, at all times I talk about interaction with the users that follow you . This is the key to exponentially increase the recruitment of more followers . The people who follow you are interested in what you offer, so the best thing you can do is create a contest to give away exactly what they are looking for. This method works great for its virality, engagement and online visibility . To do this simply follow these steps:
Choose a custom hashtag for your campaign.
Create the appropriate theme for the product or service you draw.
Publish the content with rules or rules of participation .
Create fun challenges to further increase the interaction.
Propose users to upload a photo with your hashtag .
If you look, everything revolves around creating an interaction . If you get it, your number of followers will start to grow proportionally to the reach of your account and hashtag. Following the example of the restaurant, you can give a romantic meal or dinner for the person who upload the most original photo of your business . In this case you get:
Create a call to action for new customers who will eat at your restaurant.
Interaction with other users and virality , so you get new users that may impact in the future.
How to sell on instagram products services contest
Here is a trick! Combine the contest with more social networks by syndicating the content to increase the reach of the publication . In Facebook, the raffle may be more popular and get more engagement, so indirectly the Instagram post will receive qualified visits that will also become followers .
Note : To make a draw using photos or videos you can use the Easypromos or Cooltabs web tools. Using these tools is very simple, since they have step-by-step tutorials where they guide you (without previous experience) in the creation of the draw.
4. Create expectation through a countdown
This technique is based on creating expectation and a sense of urgency in a specific promotion. They are used a lot in funnel or conversion funnels and work very well . To work on Instagram it is advisable to have a margin of no more than 1 week (although everything depends on the number of followers of your brand). The key is to remember the remaining time through publications for:
A special discount on an item or service.
A new line of products or services.
The winner of a contest.
The arrival of the end of the year or season .
Note : Design several publications where large consecutive numbers appear and the event you want to do and program the publications in a calendar through specialized tools such as Socialgest , Onlyput or Later .
5. Invest in advertising and create personalized ads
Instagram offers you the possibility to create personalized ads . The most important thing before announcing is to be clear that the ads in each social network are different. The best way to check the effectiveness of the ads is to test the variables proposed below. Here are some tips to make a more profitable ad :
Analyze the type of advertising publications that your competition does : You can see what kind of comments they make, common elements between ads, text layout, quality of the photo and hashtags, see what works for them and apply it to your profile.
Try different content formats : If you do not have enough with the tools of the social network, use filters for Instagram photos and create unique compositions (use good quality photos and videos).
Add a call to action in the description of your biography : As the only clickable link on Instagram, add a link to a CTA.
Do not give too many explanations : To get the largest number of followers to enter your sales funnel you do not need to explain all the details of the offer . Use copywriting to create curiosity and go straight to the link.
Take advantage of social psychology : Use photos of real people who consume your product or service, this will increase the confidence, credibility and proximity of the potential customer. As I have mentioned before, people like to empathize with other people to feel comfortable when buying.
Doing it is very easy! Just follow a few steps to start using Instagram Ads in your growth strategy. In fact, I leave a checklist of the most important to have account:
Connect your Instagram account with Facebook : Enter your fan page of ” Facebook> Settings> Ads on Instagram “.
Access the Power Editor : Explore the options and enter the option ” Manage ads “.
Define your campaign and your audience : Define the sex, age and location of the people you want to address.
Define a budget : Enter a minimum daily budget to spend on the campaign.
Choose the type of ad : You can choose between ads for 1 single image or carousel (5 photos), video or photos in automatic playback.
Enter hashtags : Analyze your competition and choose one or several related hashtags .
Analyze the results : You can track the announcement from the Power Editor itself.
Note : I recommend you use watermarks, logo and try several types of ads .
6. Add and highlight links within your publications
As you already know, Instagram does not allow links to be inserted anywhere except in the biography . It is very difficult for a follower to copy the text link of the caption of a publication and paste it into the browser to access your online store. To highlight this link and get the maximum number of users can do several things:
Use shortening URL : Use shorteners such as TinyURL , Bitly or Goo.gl , especially if your domain is quite long (also easy to remember will allow you to track visits).
Insert emoticons: We have become accustomed to emoticons and if they relate to your subject much better.
Suggest the link: You can put an indication in the description of the publication of an article type “to see all the colors uses the link of the bio”. The user will see the product, but if he wants to explore more models, sizes, colors or formats, he will need to access your website .
7. Detect your star product or service and create a landing
In all online stores there are products or services that generate more business volume . The idea of this technique to sell more on Instagram is to know the flagship product that comes from Instagram social traffic. For that you can:
Know the traffic and the behavior (with any shortener you can know the data).
Study which publications of products or services have greater interaction .
Once you have done this you can create a specific landing for that product or service and improve the conversion . In this way you will have segmented and defined traffic with a high purchase interest in that product or service . The idea is to try and optimize the landing page until obtaining the best performance .
Note : You can use specific online tools to create landings . The most used are Shortstack , HubSpot and Lander .
8. Include influencers in your strategy
Influencers are recognized profiles in the social network with legions of followers who feel comfortable interacting with their publications , have respect and trust. Today are one of the best tools to sell on Instagram , and brands have already realized. It is enough to close a deal for a promoted publication and you will begin to notice the results in your account in a few days. You will start to have more qualified followers who will become potential customers.
It is not necessary to close agreements with users who have millions of followers. Surely there are accounts in your sector that move from 40k to 100k followers . Also, depending on the service or product you have, you can close agreements with the exchange of goods , without the need to pay the influencer. This technique can be used punctually to obtain more credibility and trust from the people who follow your activity.
In this example the influencer @doyoutravel travels the world promoting hotels, travel agencies and related products . In the description of the photo mentions @anker_official , a brand of mobile batteries. Users enter the official profile and then the link, an article that is on Amazon. It also inserts a shortened link, but only as a text, although this time it is a contest, so the interaction of the people is interesting.
Note : In a manual way it would be to look for them in Instagram, surely you already know the leaders in your sector. Use specialized platforms that connect brands with Influencers such as Coobis , Blog on brands , Brantube , Socialpubli or Niche .
9. Increase interaction through Instagram Stories
This Instagram tool offers you a closer channel to connect with your followers . Occasionally, you can use Stories in real time in an ephemeral way to increase the interaction on your channel. You have to take into account the type of audience to create a direct, close and well connected message. The developers of the platform do not stop to update Instagram and add features to the Stories tool (I also recommend that you add effects with several applications to obtain a more fun format). You can use apps like Rewind , Hyperlapse or Boomerang .
Note : You can also combine Instagram stories with an influencer to increase the effect.
Doing it is very easy! Just take a few steps to start using Stories in your growth strategy. In fact, I leave a checklist of the most important to have account:
In the top left click on the “+” sign .
Take a photo or a video by pressing the button (maximum 10 seconds).
Choose between drawing in the photo, adding emoji or adding a filter .
Press the verification button and share your story .
Follow up on the people who have seen your story .
10. Grab what works for others and improve it
If something already works, why not replicate it ? This technique to sell on Instagram can be interesting if it is planned well, because as I said before, each social network is different . In the event that you have launched an Instagram marketing campaign with good results, you could move it to other social networks or even via email to your subscriber list. Just follow the same pattern you’ve used on Instagram and evaluate the results you get.
Note : In the same way, analyze what your competition does and, what you see that generates a lot of interaction and followers, replicate it.