Instagram is a home to over 500 million users globally. If used judiciously the social media platform can double your revenue. You can build a loyal customer base for your brand through this visual marketing channel. Instagram provides you with an opportunity to not only attract customers with your offerings but also engage with them for better retention. In this article we will give you 10 tips on how you can make Instagram a boon for your Shopify store:
1. Include Reels in Your Content
Reels have become synonymous with Instagram. In case you are living under the rock, reels are short videos created for entertainment and educational purposes. These fun videos have effects and audio which can be used creatively. Every alternate day, a new trend pops up and all you need to do is to hop on to the trend to gain more traction.
As quoted by a Shopify, Kristie Dash, Instagram’s beauty partnerships manager said, “Reels should be a huge priority for you right now. It’s prime real estate for your brand to be discovered by new followers”. Though there is no hard and fast rule for success with Reels, she gave few tips to attract new followers.
- Unique And Trendy Content: Keep yourself updated with new trends on Instagram and use them with your own twist. This increases the possibility of your Reel going viral, thus putting your brand before new people.
- Simple And Relatable Content: High quality production doesn’t matter when it comes to Reels. Even lower quality videos can do well and go viral
- Balance: Brands need to find a balance between entertainment and education while creating a Reel.
Trilce Jirón Garro, owner of social media marketing agency TBS Marketing, opines. “Don’t sell your products through Reels content. Share facts. Provide tips about the industry you’re in. Entertain viewers.” “Reels give anyone the opportunity to reach new target audiences. There’s no learning curve because Reels content is lo-fi. And creators can produce community-driven content that builds trust, gains followers, and makes sales over time. Reels have become an integrated part of any Instagram marketing strategy. Analytics tools for Reels have made it easy to track metrics and analyze data to see if your Reels are working. Now, you can understand exactly what your audience likes and dislikes, when to post Reels, and what calls to action resonate with viewers,” states Garro. Through Reels Insights, brands can keep a tab on patterns and understand spikes in engagement that affects visibility on Instagram.
2. Cross-promote Content
Cross-promoting means sharing similar content on all social media platforms. This not only saves time and energy but also resources. As you know that mobile users are spending most of the time watching video content, whether long tutorial or short videos, you can make use of this to improve the reach of your content.
For example, Canadian singer Justin Bieber shared his holiday dance challenge in 2020 on both TikTok and Instagram. While on TikTok, the video garnered 9.8 million likes, on Instagram it received 4.8 million likes. While some of the users might be using both the platforms, there are chances that some might be using only one. Thus, Bieber was able to reach more audience by sharing the same content on both the platforms.
For the unversed, TikTok cross-pollinates to Instagram and YouTube. In an interview with Modern Retail, Nadya Okamoto, founder of lifestyle period brand August, said, “As we’ve grown on TikTok from August, we’ve also grown to 175,000 followers on Instagram.” Posting on multiple platforms has “affected our overall cost of acquisitions to be super effective,” helping the brand to stay away from paid media. Similarly, you can use your Instagram Reels as YouTube Shorts and Pinterest Stories. However, Instagram doesn’t allow Reels with TikTok watermark.
3. Curate Profile Grid
Instagram users won’t click that follow button for what you have posted in the past but for what you promise to post in future. They want to know what they can expect if they become your follower. Hence, it is important to maintain a feed with a particular theme and consistent posting schedule. These two factors can create an impact similar to the other two strategies mentioned above. Your Instagram profile should be able to communicate with the users at a first glance.
Instagram bio and last nine posts can be regarded as the first impression on the platform. Now ask yourself whether they show some consistency through colours, layout, personality of filters. Does the clickable link make users land to the same homepage every week or there are some exciting additions too?
Brands which follow this approach are able to get high results with minimum effort. They focus on converting visitors into followers, producing content with faster turnaround and also streamlining their entire Instagram production. There are several tools which can be used to plan and schedule posts on your Instagram, thus enabling you to create the desired look and layout of your feed.
4. Collaborate With Brand Ambassadors
At present, influencers play a big role in marketing on whom you need to spend big bucks. However, if you are looking for an alternative, you can opt for brand ambassadors. So, who are ambassadors? Ambassadors are those who genuinely support and like your brand. They don’t have lakh of followers, instead their Instagram followers range between a couple of hundred to thousand. With the help of ambassadors, your product can get marketed solely on word-of-mouth publicity.
As per Shopify, luxury shoe retailer Sarah Flint reports saw success with such program. With over 500 women as members of the ambassador program, the brand gives them a free pair of Sarah Flint shoes after five new customers use their unique discount code. This assists brand in grow its Instagram following and Shopify store simultaneously.
5. Grow Your Personal Instagram Account
You can even choose to grow your personal Instagram account to market your product. Basically, become an influencer yourself. Using both your personal account as well as brand account not only boosts follower counts but also sales and brand recognition.
According to Shopify, this method did wonders for fashion label ANINE BING. The founder uses her Instagram profile to aware and engage audience thus driving sales. Her personal Instagram page has over a million followers. Anine invites her followers to her studio to see the design process and even asks for feedback. The founder even keeps sharing her personal life and milestones, giving her followers a sneak-peek into the other side of her life. This allows better engagement and helps followers connect at a more personal level.
6. Right Time
With the rising e-commerce business, competition is also intensifying. It is essential for a business owner to post at the right time to get maximum views. The right timing not just boosts the chances of visibility and engagement, but also increases the likelihood of being viewed by a larger percentage of your followers.
Some factors that influence the best time to post on Instagram include the time zone of your followers, their daily activity patterns and the type of product or service you offer. After looking into analytics, one must evaluate what timing works best for the business.
Social media marketing platforms like IconoSquare help you understand Instagram analytics better. Under its optimization section, one can see a detailed analysis of Instagram posts’ history and engagement. With tools like IconoSquare, you can figure out the right time and day to share your posts.
If you don’t want to use third-party tools like IconoSquare, you can get great insight for free using Instagram analytics given under the Followers section. Once you figure out the right time for sharing your posts, you can also use social media scheduling platforms to automate the sharing process.
7. Followers of Competitors
While some may find it unethical, there is nothing legally wrong with stealing followers from your competitors. However, it is easier said than done. First, try to identify and target similar audiences as your competitors, and try to attract those users to your page.
Make sure you choose the competitor that is doing better than you on Instagram. With inspiration from the right competitors’ posts, you can attract the same audience. You can also engage with each follower of your competitor by following their profile, liking their posts and commenting on tagged pictures.
While trying to engage with your competitor’s followers, use emojis and add a personalised touch to your text. Apart from responding to their comments, you can also announce giveaways and content to engage with your target followers.
Other tricks that help you engage with potential followers include mentioning them in Instagram stories, posting consistently and at the right time, partnering with influencers or brands, asking for feedback and using Instagram live.
The key to engagement is to be authentic and genuine in your interactions with your followers. Building a strong community around your brand is more important than just getting likes and comments.
8. Paid Promotion And Reviews
Sometimes a little spending on ads results in incredible traction. However, you must know when to pay for sponsored posts and who to approach for your product reviews. Paid promotion not only helps to increase the visibility and reach of your posts but also leads to more engagement and ultimately, more followers.
It helps you reach a larger audience based on specific demographics, interests and behaviors. Sponsored posts also increase brand awareness by putting your content in front of a larger and more diverse audience. Ultimately, the investment helps you drive website traffic as you can embed a link to your website in your sponsored post or story.
The paid promotion also helps you increase engagement as you get more likes and comments on your posts. For the right promotion, analyze your competitors’ posts and understand their strategies. It will help you to refine your own content and targeting strategy. Paid promotion is only one part of a larger strategy for growing your presence on Instagram. It’s important to have a well-rounded approach that includes creating high-quality content, engaging with your audience, and using a mix of organic and paid promotion tactics.
For product reviews, one must connect with influencers to highlight products. In August last year, Shopify launched Shopify Collabs to directly connect its merchant partners with content creators. It not only helps creators easily discover brands but also allows merchants to reach new consumers.
With the help of “Shopify Collabs”, creators can establish partnerships with merchants to build curated shops and share products as per their interests. Facilitating their path to entrepreneurship, Collabs will save creators from the cumbersome process of brand hunting. Hence, they can focus more on making content. As per TechCrunch, Collabs’ pay structure can differ with each merchant and creators will receive their remuneration directly via PayPal.
9. Use Geotags
While e-commerce has connected the world by offering anything anywhere, one must use geotags on Instagram to boost local discovery. With the right set of keywords, a user can also tag the location of the target audience. Businesses with local relevance get the maximum traction on Instagram.
Geotags help you appear in feeds of prospective customers based in that city. You can reach a local audience and engage with them to create a sense of community around your brand. Geotags also help you improve local search engine optimization (SEO). Just use location-specific keywords in your post and make it easier for users to find your content when searching for a specific location.
10. Highlight Your Stories
Instagram stories remain to live for 24 hours..However, you can keep them relevant for longer by simply adding your stories to highlights. Highlights help you gain followers as it appears on the top of your business profile. However, the most important trick here is that you must organize your Instagram stories the right way to express what you believe in.
Story highlights give potential followers a trailer of what you do. One way to organise your highlights is to divide them into themes based on locations and interests. Highlights also allow you to present your products with the most attractive pictures and videos.
You can showcase your brand with story highlights, using behind-the-scenes footage, product demos and customer testimonials. It also helps you highlight special events like product launches, conferences and company events. One can also post tutorials and how-to guides in story highlights to engage with potential followers.
Story highlights can also feature members of your team so that customers know about the people behind your brand. Story highlights also share your company’s values and mission, which can help to build a strong connection with your followers.
