Instagram has evolved a lot over time, introducing improvements and new features that have allowed companies to use this platform as a tool to increase visibilitybut also sales. One of these features has been the implementation of stores within the app, as well as various direct sales mechanisms.
81% of users say that the content they see on Instagram helps them make purchasing decisions. This is confirmed by an internal study by Facebook, which has served as a reason for the company to offer a series of tips to better sell the products in the application.
On Instagram, 81% of users are influenced by the content they see when buying new products
With Instagram Shopping it is easy to sell products and services directly from the photos and videos published on the profile, although the task is easier if you take into account a series of considerations such as these that Instagram points out to be more successful when it comes to selling:
-Post regularly. Create the habit of publishing content with your products and services with a certain frequency. For example, a specific day a week. This will help the managers of the corporate account to plan their work, but it will also generate a habit and expectation for the users.
-Shows how products are created. Allowing community members to know how products are created or how the services you offer are developed is something that will bring transparency. For example, Stories can be used for this.
-Shows different variations of the products. In the photographs, show your product in different colors, sizes, shapes, materials… displays the different options so that users have a choice.
-Create featured Stories for each product. Although the Stories disappear 24 hours after their publication, you can highlight the most interesting ones on your profile. In this article we explained how you can create featured Stories.
– Take care of the funds. Use photographs and videos in which the selected background enhances the qualities of the product. Sometimes a white background is best, but sometimes a bright colored background will grab the user’s attention.
-Don’t just photograph products. You can also make compositions of different products, arranged in a natural way, as if it were a still life.
-Create tutorials for your products. For example, you can use the videos or even the IGTV service to create these explanatory tutorials.
-Share user content. When someone posts a photo or video with your products, take advantage of it and post that content to your Stories or your feed as well. Ask for permission first to do so and always credit by mentioning and thanking them for their contribution.
-Encourages interaction. Ask users questions, use the “questions” tag in Stories, always seek the opinion of others to find out what they want you to offer them, what they expect from your products or services.
-Promotional codes: Although they are often forgotten, Instagram Direct Messages are a great communication and sales tool. Many countries are beginning to successfully test “c-commerce” or conversational commerce techniques, improving their sales through direct communication channels. In this sense, a good idea would be to send promotional codes or discounts through Instagram Direct Messages to your followers.
-Chatbots: Although not native to Instagram, there are plenty of chatbots out there today that easily integrate into the platform. A well-configured chatbot can become an excellent sales machine, thanks to “c-commerce”.
-Influencer marketing: Instagram is the social network of influencers par excellence. As a brand or as a store, it is important to find the most influential profiles in the sector and create a good relationship with them. In this way, you can take advantage of influencer marketing to show the product through these people who usually generate trust in users. Influencers can also help you promote certain discounts or invite people to enter a contest, which will greatly expand your audience and can ultimately lead to more sales.
-Show the products in operation: Continuing with the influencers, they can show the product in operation, putting its use into perspective on a day-to-day basis. In this case, it’s important to give the creators some freedom, as they could use the product in creative ways that appeal to their followers.
-Instagram Shopping: Selling on Instagram is somewhat more complicated than turning our account into Shopping. It is important to take care of all the details, from the content we publish, which must be attractive and add value, showing the products and their possibilities, to our profile. In this sense, you must create a product catalog with all the details, create labels in the publications that direct the user to the purchase and use the Shopping tools in all the publications, whether they are Reels or Stories.
-Advertising: Instagram has its own advertising tool that offers us a solution to promote our products. In this sense, we can configure several objectives for the ads, such as increasing views, improving the click-through rate, increasing engagement with followers or the reach of the publications.
