People love Instagram. So do business owners and entrepreneurs.
The social media channel boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users and more than 500 million daily active users.
With around 80% of accounts following a business on Instagram, the platform has become a lucrative marketing tool for businesses, especially new ecommerce brands.
From small stores to large conglomerates, every business owner can use Instagram to promote their product or service with the highest possible returns.
With new features like tagging products, IGTV, Hashtag plus Profile Links in Bio, shopping stories, and @shop, ecommerce brands have more ways to convert followers into lifelong customers than ever before.
But, you need to have a strategy to make sales using Instagram.
Here are a few tips that’ll help new ecommerce stores make the most of their Instagram marketing.
1. Find the Instagram Feature That Works Best for You
Most people are under the impression that Instagram only means publishing photos.
However, the platform offers various features and tools that can help you market your product or service efficiently.
You can try different features and choose the one that works best for your product or service.
For example, Instagram Stories is a great place to promote your products or services.
You can upload a photo or video. You can also take different types of videos such as boomerang, superzoom, and rewind, among others. All these features enable you to produce creative content.
However, Instagram Stories have a lifespan of only 24 hours. So, it’s a great way to pique the interest of your target audience if you have a new product, an upcoming event, or a limited period offer and build a sense of exclusivity or urgency.
You will need to post stories when your users are most active to generate instant engagement.
Lowe’s has been using various features of Instagram Stories to their advantage for some time now.
Through a series of videos that perfectly fit Instagram’s video screen, the brand showcases a wide range of its DIY products designed for home improvement. One of the videos shows how to turn a neglected space in a house into a kid’s playroom.
2. Get Creative with Photos & Videos
Instagram floods with thousands of videos and images every day. Your content is most likely to get lost in this crowd if it lacks creativity or isn’t unique.
Fortunately, Instagram offers plenty of features that will help you create snappy, funny, and eloquent content.
In other words, you need to add a bit of soul to your Instagram posts.
Ben & Jerry’s is known for making flavorful and unique ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. The brand is also admired for its playful, witty, and creative marketing approach on Instagram.
Be it a spinning wheel made of different ice cream toppings or showcasing their products in a mathematical equation, Ben & Jerry’s never lets you down when it comes to creative content.
The best part is, being funny, users often feel like sharing the content with their friends and peers. This simple strategy generates authentic and free publicity for the brand across multiple social media channels.
Remember, the more creative your content is, the more likely are your customers to engage with your brand on Instagram.
3. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC) lends authenticity to your Instagram marketing, increasing user engagement, and sales conversions further. It also makes your brand look more humane and people-friendly.
Almost 80% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. Consumers are also 2.4X more likely to say user-generated content is authentic compared to brand-created content.
You can take advantage of user-generated content in many ways. You can run online contests or ask users to share product reviews or rope in your customers (with significant followers) as your brand ambassadors.
Aerie, a lingerie lifestyle retailer and intimate apparel brand, ran a campaign called #AerieREAL, which leveraged the power of user-generated content. They asked women to post their photographs wearing Aerie’s swimwear.
The campaign was open for women of all ages, ethnicities, shapes, and sizes who were willing to share real photos without any filters. This thought-provoking campaign has earned much publicity for the brand not only on Instagram but also on other social media platforms.
On the other hand, The Everygirl, an online publication offering real-life tips and guidance for women from all walks of life, uses a slightly different UGC marketing strategy. They promise to feature user-generated content with the hashtag #sharetheeverygirl on their site and social media feed.
As they don’t have any products, allowing targeted users to publish any images or videos of their own is the best way to grow their overall social media presence.
4. Find Suitable Hashtags
Without the right hashtags, it is simply impossible to promote your brand on Instagram. Hashtags are the keywords that your target audience will use to find the information they want.
For example, a cycling enthusiast will probably start going through the content with the following hashtags.
- #cyclinglife
- #cyclingphotos
- #cyclingpics
- #cyclinglove
- #cyclingadventures
- #cyclinggirl
- #cyclingfans
- #cyclingphotooftheday
- #cyclinglifestyle
- #cyclingaddict
You can use up to 30 hashtags in each post. But, you need to find relevant hashtags to ensure your content reaches your target audience.
You can start your hashtag research by finding out the hashtags your competitors, industry influencers, and followers frequently use.
You should also have a hashtag with your business name. This hashtag will help distinguish your brand on Instagram.
However, make sure your hashtag is easy to remember and will capture the attention of people. Make sure to use it in every post.
You can use the Instagram search engine to find the relevant hashtags. However, you can also use online tools like Tailwind’s Hashtag finder, Hashtagify, All Hashtag, and #HashMe to find the relevant hashtags.
Make a list of the most trending and relevant hashtags. As trending hashtags may change quickly, you will need to keep your list updated.
If you use hashtags wisely, you don’t need to use all 30 of them for every post.
Recreational Equipment Inc or REI, an outdoor recreation product maker and service provider, makes sure to tag the location of a photo using the relevant hashtag in each post.
In the following post, they have used #California along with their brand hashtag #OptOutside.
Parting Words
A visually rich and stunning platform, Instagram is perhaps the best way to promote your new ecommerce store.
It is much easier to make an emotional connection with your target audience on Instagram through high-quality images, videos, and other visuals.
Hopefully, these tips will help you set up your Instagram marketing for success from the beginning.
What Instagram marketing tips have you used to promote your business? Tell us about your experience in the comments.
More Resources:
- How to Dominate Social Media: A Complete Strategy Guide
- Instagram Analytics Guide: 10 of the Best Tools to Get Insights
- 4 Strategies to Find Instagram Influencers Best Suited for Your Business
Image Credits
Featured Image: Created by author, August 2019
