Being in the social media space for over a decade, Instagram remains one of the most favorable channels for businesses to reach their goals. With 2.35 billion monthly active users, this channel offers unlimited and great opportunities for different types and sized brands and creators to connect with their target audience.
Instagram is a crucial medium for eCommerce businesses as well as to market their products successfully. In the article, we will convert effective tactics to help eCommerce store owners build winning Instagram marketing campaigns.
Benefits of Instagram for your eCommerce store
But first, in case you need more proof, we will speak about the advantages of Instagram for eCommerce stores. Instagram is one of the preferred social channels both for millennials and Gen Zs, and for that reason, Instagram can eCommerce stores to:
✔ Promote your products
Instagram is a completely visual-centric medium, which opens an excellent opportunity for eCommerce businesses to showcase products with engaging photos and videos.
✔ Increase brand awareness
As we mentioned, Instagram has a massive number of monthly users; therefore, it's an excellent platform for finding target customers and growing your audience.
✔ Enhance relationships with your customer
Not only will Instagram help to reach a wider audience, but it will also give the opportunity to communicate directly with customers. This way, it's possible to build strong positive relationships with eCommerce buyers and turn them into loyal customers.
✔ Boost sales
The ultimate goal of any type of business is to grow sales, and eCommerce stores can increase their revenue thanks to the wide opportunities that Instagram suggests.
How to skyrocket your eCommerce stores with nine Instagram strategies
There is no doubt Instagram can be extremely advantageous for your eCommerce store if only you implement effective and well-thought-out strategies. In the next part, we are going to offer some strategies that help online stores get more exposure on that channel.
Set clear goals
One of the essential measures you should take is clear and concise goal-setting. Without having them, it will be hard to figure out whether Instagram's efforts are working or not. Measurable goals will guide you to success in this social media platform regardless if you have launched your store recently or already have a huge following.
First of all, goals for Instagram should be concise, such as growing your revenue by 10%. Those goals should have clear dates, as you should try to have a clear understanding of the clear date of increasing your revenue over the next six years. Also, those goals should be achievable. Lastly, during your goal-setting, you should include certain actions that will help you achieve them.
Based on your company's general goals, Instagram's objectives can also vary. It can be to increase engagement or get more followers. And depending on the goals, different tactics can be helpful to reach them.
Set up a business account
In the next step, it will suggest turning your eCommerce store profile into a business account to maintain a professional presence on the platform. There are several actions that you can take to ensure you set up an Instagram business profile and gain the benefits it suggests:
✔ Tell your target audience about the business category and share what the page is about
✔ Getting access to more opportunities and resources like adding links to Instagram's stories.
✔ It gives credibility to your online store
✔ Gives a chance to discover analytics and get data on how your account performs.
The list can be even longer; therefore, don't hesitate to set up a business account.
Set up an Instagram shop
In the next stage, you should set up an Instagram shop to promote products and product catalogs and deliver engaging shopping experiences to eCommerce buyers. Just confirm that your Instagram profile is a business account, and then get the opportunity to sell directly to your customers.
Also, you can tag products in your feed posts, Instagram Stories, and Reels. By clicking on a product, customers can see more pictures of the product and find pricing information. Basically, Instagram makes it easier for customers to make a purchase; thus, don't miss this step to increase your sales.
Consider promoting your Instagram shop account to your other social media channels. Build unique promotional strategies encouraging people to visit your store. Don't forget about email and advertising your store for email leads as well. In this stage, use the SPF record checker and take other email security steps in case to ensure that email deliverability is high.
Put effort into optimizing your profile
In this phase, consider taking the necessary steps to optimize your Instagram profile to create a perfect presence on the platform. First of all, you should pay attention to your bio and ensure it is compelling and successfully showcases your brand. It should tell potential customers about your brand and its products.
Also, don't forget to include a branded hashtag to reach and engage your target audience. Moreover, the bio can contain links that will direct to your eCommerce website from where customers can make a purchase.
In the next step, put effort into creating a unique and high-quality profile picture. Don't forget to include your logo and other branding elements to increase brand awareness.
Grow both with organic posts and ads
Instagram is one of the greatest marketing toolkits as it allows you to grow your presence organically and in paid advertising. Organic content will successfully engage your Instagram and eventually create trustful relationships with them. Meanwhile, paid ads are helpful for increasing conversions. Both these two strategies should be part of your efforts to get more exposure on Instagram.
Different types of content can help to boost awareness and showcase brand personality. When creating content, it will be beneficial to tag products in posts and stories. And including links to product pages in Instagram posts, businesses can direct customers to their websites.
Another tactic to grow organically is to create giveaways and to improve brand recognition, as your followers will tag and invite their friends to participate in giveaways. Moreover, sharing customer testimonials from existing customers who are satisfied with products can help to grow an audience.
To grow organically, you need to prepare an effective Instagram content strategy and carefully plan and schedule it. Also, you can collect data and have insights into what type es content your eCommerce buyers prefer and how you can effectively target them,
Speaking about Instagram ad campaigns, remember that you should be strategic about creating them. And as well as the goal is to target different target audience groups with ads and analyze how they perform, not money. A/B testing different copy or advertising formats can help to find effective advertising strategies.
Remember that your ad should emphasize a crucial message meanwhile showcasing your branding. Also, as a large number of people use their smartphones to check their Instagram feed, then you should try to make your ads mobile-optimized.
Share user-generated content
Sharing user-generated content (UGC) is the greatest method to level up your Instagram marketing. The power of UGC can't be underestimated because it can significantly boost trust between an online store and potential customers. And the reason is obvious as people tend to trust other people's recommendations more than that branded advertisements.
Thus, don't hesitate to encourage your customers to share their experiences with other Instagram users. It can be in the form of photos and videos that users have created. Not only this type of content is authentic, but it also can support content marketing efforts.
But the question is how to inspire your users to share their content. To achieve that you need to offer different kinds of rewards to achieve that goal. And lastly, do not forget to tag users' names in your Instagram stories and appreciate them. Lastly, ensure user-generated content harmonizes with your eCommerce store's aesthetic.
Collaborate with influencers
Instagram is one the biggest platforms not only for brands but creators as well then, and an eCommerce store may consider working with them to successfully promote products in exchange for branded freebies or payment.
Instagram influencers have a huge number of followers who trust their recommendations, and they can influence their buying decisions. If eCommerce businesses manage to build, effective collaboration with influencers can help them to increase their sales. Moreover, you can suggest influencers to promote your customer referral program and encourage their followers to join that program, and recommend your eCommerce brand to others.
In the process of choosing an influencer to collaborate with, keep in mind your target audience and ensure that their audience aligns with your target audience. Another important tactic is checking whether the influencer's values harmonize with your business's values.
In the next stage, define the terms of the collaboration and give necessary guidelines to influencers with whom you decide to collaborate.
When trying to encourage influencers to collaborate regularly, you need to maintain open and positive communication. Thus, it will be beneficial to find effective strategies on how to create an email that will stand out in the influencers' inboxes.
But the general rule here is finding the right influencers whose audiences match your audience and who can successfully promote your products. These influencers should share your brand values and genuinely believe in them. Only that way they can create authentic influencer-generated content that recommends your brand.
Create authentic and high-quality content
The quality of your content plays a huge role in succeeding in Instagram marketing. Therefore it's crucial to ensure that all your content has excellent quality. This way can increase greater engagement levels. Also, dedicate effort to creating a strong digital marketing plan for your eCommerce store to build a great online presence on Instagram.
✔ Use stories and highlights
Instagram stories remain a great way to develop and establish relationships with your audience. Stories highlights also are a unique tactic to connect with Instagram buyers, as they remain to live permanently instead of Stores that viewers can watch for only 24 hours. By adding links to your Instagram Stories, you can deliver additional information about products of your eCommerce stores.
✔ Create reels
Short videos are ruling in the market. Therefore, eCommerce businesses shouldn’t miss the chance to increase engagement rate and go viral thanks to Reels. They can highlight the value of your products in a more dynamic and engaging way. This way, eCommerce businesses not only can improve brand recognition but also increase sales as well.
✔ Carousels
Carousels are an interactive type of content that contains a combination of images and videos. They present a great opportunity to share information and meanwhile capture your followers' attention with entertaining content.
✔ Add product photos
Product photos can showcase eCommerce products and tell a story about them, and highlight their values. You can present your products from different angles and, therefore, encourage Instagram users to make a purchase. Thus, it's important to show your products in action and hint at what customers can expect after buying your product.
When creating any type of content, we discussed how you should go to your brand voice and make your Instagram feed unique and authentic.
Deliver a positive customer experience
Last but not least, in case your goal is maintaining a strong presence on Instagram and growing your revenue, be ready to provide customer support. Supposing your content hooks Instagram users' attention, and they get interested in your products.
In this stage, they have different questions and expect quick answers to their concerns. In this stage, you may consider using Walkme alternatives to make the onboarding stage for eCommerce buyers smooth and, in this way, increase customer retention.
Customer support representatives should help your eCommerce store to build strong, effective communication with them. But you can also implement Instagram chatbots which will give answers to customers' concerns without them leaving the platform.
To sum up
The eCommerce market is extremely highly competitive, and businesses that try to stand out should use the power of Instagram, which is the greatest platform to meet the target audience and promote the products.
In this article, we shared several effective Instagram tactics for your eCommerce store. Follow them to boost sales and prosper your eCommerce business.