Instagram became a number-one among social media platforms for all the visuals out there in the world. Its features and concentrations on the photo and pictures are the main reason it is so great for every e-commerce.

What is the first thing people are looking for on the website when choosing something to buy? The pictures of the product. Customers want to know what they are paying for, see every detail, and make sure they won’t be scammed.

So, how exactly an Instagram account can be beneficial for your online store? How to use it correctly? Keep reading, and you will get all the valuable tips and tricks.

Why Instagram Became so Popular All Over the World?

Even those with a lack of user experience must have noticed how popular Instagram became recently. It is used more often than Facebook, Twitter, and any other social networks. If you do not have an Instagram profile, people consider you weird.

Its easy interface, ability to share photos in various ways (posts with captions or story to catch the moment), and get followers from the whole world attracted the attention of millions of Internet users. The opportunity to communicate with interesting people from different countries – sounds terrific, isn’t it?

Moreover, it is also a fantastic business channel. Every marketing strategy now includes Instagram as one of the essential components of successful brand development. Keeping in touch with the audience, advertising, updating followers – all those features are advantageous and effective.

No wonder the popularity of Instagram doesn’t go down, even though it will be its eleventh anniversary soon. But how exactly is it possible to make an Instagram account beneficial to e-commerce?

How to Promote your Instagram to Boost the E-Commerce?

As you probably understand, to promote your online store on Instagram, you need to concentrate on your target audience. What do they like, what content are they interested in, would followers be interested in giveaways contest?

Our team tried to collect all the important information that every brand has to keep in mind and see its response.

Engaging Content Is a Key

Before deciding what to publish on your account, the format of the profile should be selected. What information do you want to share? It may include videos, photos of the team, jokes, etc. Most followers would like to see a real-life picture behind the scenes cuts, the working process. Give them more than just an online shop.

High-Quality Photos Are Essential

As Instagram is a social media for visuals, a high-quality image is a must. Every product photo should be thought through, a profile picture correlates with the brand, as well as posts and stories have to catch the followers’ eye while they are scrolling the feed.

Get Creative with the Captions

An outstanding photo will be more effective in combination with an interesting photo description. While writing Instagram posts, use the AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action). Share some details of the product. But do not make your descriptions too long, most followers do not have time for that.

By the way, a relevant hashtag or two will also be helpful. It will make it easier for you to reach those interested in your niche (in other words, potential customers).

Work on Posts and Make Them More Shoppable

Probably the biggest flaw of Instagram is the inability to add URLs in the post. That is why lots of brands improve it and make their posts more shoppable. How does it work? With such tools as Shopify or BigCommerce, it is possible to add tags with prices on the pictures. Everything your followers need to do is to click on the image, and voila! – every detail is here.

Use the Influensers’ Help

It is better for this type of promotion to choose middle bloggers with an audience not bigger than 100 000 – 150 000 followers. Usually, they tell people about you via their Instagram stories. In this way, there are bigger chances to increase your following and get more new customers because user-generated content has a higher trust-level.

Create an Instagram Business Profile

An Instagram business account enables you to get advanced Instagram features. For example, you can indicate the phone number, email, and location to your bio, so your audience would be able to get in touch with you quickly and comfortably. Moreover, it is possible to share posts from the Instagram app to Facebook (in order not to do the same task twice). It is also possible to learn such info as who your audiences are, how the ad you’ve launched or post you’ve published is performing, and how they are interacting with your content.

Add a Call-to-Action and URL in your Instagram Bio

Bio is what the audience sees when they are first visiting the account. And what can be more important than the first impression? A lot of businesses underestimate its power.

Short yet interesting call-to-action will have a significant influence on your performance, as well as brand recognition. Besides, as we have already mentioned, it is impossible to share any link in the Instagram post. That is why the link that leads to your website’s landing page will make the overall shopping experience more comfortable, thus positive and beneficial to the reputation.

How to Use Instagram Ads?

Among all the promotion methods, business owners highlight Instagram ads as the most effective one. They considerably increase the ROI, promoting your Instagram to new audiences, making the follower count go up, and bringing more potential customers to your page and website. However, there are few major things you should pay attention to while creating an Instagram ad:

When developing an ad campaign, you should understand what goals do you want to reach. Three main types of the goal are brand awareness (increase reputation among Instagram communities), enlarge the number of followers (thus, those who can engage with posts and stories in your Instagram account), and conversion (increase sales by sending followers and those interested in the brand to the online store). When you define your goals, it will be easier to determine the next step to promote your Instagram.

After that, you should choose the type of your ads. You can use them in the following ways:

  • Photo ads (to show one or more products in the feed);
  • Ads with videos (it should be up to 60 seconds, exciting, and able to catch followers’ attention);
  • Carousel ads (show the product from several angles or a few products in a carousel post);
  • Stories ads (this way of promotion can not only include photos and videos but also interact with different users in this app).

Remember, the content you use to promote your Instagram account must be relevant to your e-commerce. In this way, you won’t be lost in the crowd.

And the last, but no mean least, target the correct audience. Thanks to the algorithm used in the ads tools, it is more comfortable to reach the right people in their feed. Possible options include: location (show your Instagram posts to the specific city, region, etc.); interests (make it clearer: choose shared account they should follow, or brands they are interested in); demographics (narrow the audience based on the sex, age, nationality); behaviors (promote your Instagram to those who regularly do specific activities you can define).

By the way, don’t forget about the custom audiences and lookalike audiences that can be generated free of charge.

Final Word

To sum up, the key to the success of every campaign is constant work and experiments – various types of content, story, posts, and more. But if you’ll be patient and stubborn, you’ll understand how the algorithm works and what steps are needed specifically for your brands to boost traffic and sales. The question is – are you ready for this success?