The power of Instagram for E-Commerce Brands
The e-commerce industry is growing rapidly. According to a study by eMarketer, retail e-commerce sales will shoot up to $4.058 trillion in 2020.
- Instagram has more than 800 million global active users on its platform and the number is growing with the time. It is a huge opportunity for your e-commerce business.
- 70% of the world’s brands have their presence on Instagram, and this number is also rising with the time. It means if you have missed the opportunity to have your business presence on Instagram, your competitor is surely there.
- Reports also claim that people have been seen engaged with their favorite brands on Instagram at least 10 times more as compared to their engagement with the same brands on Facebook. This figure increases to 54 times as compared to Pinterest and 84 times for Twitter.
If you want to leverage the power of Instagram using Instagram for your e-commerce site is a learning process. These tips will help you get started.
Create an Instagram Strategy
Instagram boasts 250 million people using Stories every day.
Like with any other business campaign, you have to create a roadmap to get you to the desired objectives. There are many objectives of taking your brand to Instagram, and it is advisable to first assess what you want to achieve before even opening your account. For example, do you want to increase your e-commerce website’s visibility on social media or do you want to drive sales?
Are you more after brand awareness or do you want more mentions of your products? Whatever the idea you have, make sure you set it down as this will guide the rest of the campaign. You should also consider the type of content you will be posting, schedule of posting, and the person tasked with posting content among other factors.
Optimize Your Bio
The cardinal rule when creating a profile for your e-commerce website is to use a public account and use the new business tools to give your profile a professional touch. While at it, make sure you have optimized the landing page to make it easier for shoppers to compare the products available and make a purchase in a few steps.
Integrate Instagram Photos into your E-commerce store
The easiest way to use Instagram for conversion is by integrating IG photos into your e-commerce website design. You can use a feed or a widget on your landing page with your IG posts to showcase your products. For instance, if you are selling eyewear, why not share posts from your IG account by customers who are wearing the same? This instantly creates a sense of authenticity in your products and you will witness better sales conversions. There are many 3rd party Instagram tools which you can now use to embed Instagram photos onto your website
Show Your Best Products
The power of visuals drives Instagram and this is also the reason why it has become one of the most powerful marketing tools over the last few years. It is now possible to showcase your best products in the best way possible. With IG photos, you have an opportunity to call attention to your products.
The platform has the amazing photo and video editing features to give your images an edge. These amazing photos will attract visitors to your store and from there it gets easier to close a purchase.
Use the power of Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories is the secondary feed, in addition to your main feed of posts. Instagram boasts 250 million people using Stories every day.
Sharing Instagram Story isn’t much different from creating another promotional post. But several rules apply:
- Photos and videos you share via the “Story” feature disappear from both your profile and feed after 24 hours
- Unlike a regular post, Stories are displayed without any comments or caption.
- Add stickers, location tags, post mentions and hashtags, write your CTA – or your Story will look “bare”. This is a common practice Instagrammers are used to, so benefit from it unless being different is a part of your Instagram marketing strategy. stories disappear within 24 hours, so use a sense of urgency, say, posting a coupon for a hot deal that will be live for the next 24 hours only.
Use carousel to show your product from all sides and angles
If interested, your followers will be able to swipe left and right on the photos or videos or a mixture of both. “If interested” is not an introductory word, it matters: the very first image in the carousel must be chosen with special attention. There can be up to 10 pics/videos in total, but they go with a shared set of hashtags and caption. All the likes and comments apply to the whole post too.
In other words, if there’s at least one photo or video in the carousel that impresses the reader enough to tap ❤️ the entire post will receive these beams of love.
Contests Galore
If you want to engage users on social platforms, start with a contest. The same applies on Instagram and it is easy to get started; you just need to choose a prize, pick a contest-specific hashtag, create a contest “theme” and finally aggregate and display the photos online.
Re-post customer’s pictures with your product in action
Its all about the share!!! In addition to creating your own instagram content, sharing the photos of your customers that show your products is a great way to drive social proof. A user-generated content is one of the most genuine ways to make a sale on Instagram. Social proof can be a huge contributing factor when your account viewers are considering a purchase with you.
The product may feel more authentic when submitted by a customer, It shows that the product has been successfully ordered and received by another happy buyer, hence you’re a person they can also trust to.
Use the Full Power of Hashtags
Now that there are no links, you have to leverage hashtags which allow connection of your Instagram followers with the larger marketing strategy. Start by getting a small number of real Instagram followers using popular hashtags. To get the best out of your hashtags, use a mixture of broad and specific terms. Avoid overusing hashtags or using irrelevant ones.
Instagram users are more online purchasers as compareds to the users on the other social media platforms. It means Instagram users are 70% more likely to purchase online than users on other platforms. If you are still not thinking on your business presence on Instagram, let me say that you are missing out on a lot.
So conclusively, it can be said that Instagram is a better platform as compare to other available social media platforms in terms of potential audience and their engagement with the businesses.
