Instagram has a global user base of over one billion people. On Instagram, 90% of them follow at least one business. This alone makes it worthwhile to set up an Instagram account for your company. But did you know you can take your business to the next level if you sell products on Instagram?
We've put together this extensive, step-by-step tutorial on how to sell products on Instagram. As you begin selling on Instagram, our goal is to address questions you may have, so sit back and read on.
How Popular is Instagram?
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Instagram started a year later, on October 6th, 2010, when its founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger changed its name from Burbn, and grabbed up 100,000 members in a week!
Instagram reached 1 million monthly users in 67 days, and by February 2011, the app had been valued at $25 million thanks to investor backing.
It took a year for Instagram to reach ten million monthly active users (MAUs). The social network was then acquired by Facebook after 24 months of its original launching date, with 30 million monthly active users, thanks to an iPhone app.
According to an eMarketer report, Instagram's growth in the United States is slower in older age groups, while users aged 25 to 34 are flocking to the network in droves.
- Instagram reached 100 million users (MAU) in February 2013, 500 million users (MAU) in June 2016, and 1 billion users (MAU) in June 2018. (MAU)
- MAUs - Instagram monthly active users: The Instagram app has 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.
- DAUs - Instagram daily active users: The Instagram app has 500 million daily active users worldwide.
- Instagram Stories has surpassed Snap Chat's 150 million daily active users (DAUs) in just eight months, reaching a daily audience of 500 million people.
- With 1.082 billion members, Instagram is the sixth most popular social media platform. Facebook has 2.7 billion users, with YouTube having 2.0 billion, WhatsApp has 2.0 billion, Messenger having 1.3 billion, and WeChat has 1.2 billion.
- Instagram is utilized by 23.92 percent of the 4.18 billion active mobile internet users worldwide, which is roughly the same number of people living in Europe and North America combined.
- According to Ghost Data research, 9.5 percent of Instagram users, or 95 million people, are fraudulent bots, costing marketers $1.3 billion in 2019.
- With 120 million users, Instagram is the most popular social media platform in the United States, followed by India (80 million), Brazil (77 million), Indonesia (63 million), and Russia (44 million).
- Instagram users spend an average of 28 minutes each day on the platform, with those under the age of 25 spendings 32 minutes and those over 25 spend 24 minutes.
- Compared to its parent firm, Facebook, which employs 45,000 people to serve its 2.6 billion users, Instagram presently has just 450 employees.
- Cristiano Ronaldo has the most followers on Instagram, accounting for 22 percent of all Instagram users.
Why Sell Products on Instagram?
Instagram Selling is increasingly becoming the preferred method for consumers to learn about new companies and items on Instagram and buy them in a few easy steps.
In fact, most of Instagram users follow a business account, making Instagram selling more useful than ever for shops wishing to tag products in their posts, open an online store, and streamline the entire buyer journey from discovery to checkout.
Businesses all around the world are using Instagram Selling to achieve proven results, from mom-and-pop shops to huge brands.
How to Sell Products on Instagram?
In a congested e-commerce landscape, many firms cannot develop a captivating aesthetic in their posts, making it tough to sell products on Instagram. Here are our top three tips for maximizing the impact of your Instagram selling posts.
1. Posts
Instagram Shopping's product tags are a perfect fit for many eCommerce retailers across several industries and verticals, thanks to Instagram's highly visual nature.
- Make High-quality Product Photos
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Today's brands can't afford to upload low-quality product photos on Instagram (or any other channels). If you're on a budget, don't worry: today's smartphone cameras are typically more than adequate for taking high-quality product shots.
- Incorporate Your Products Into a Lifestyle
If you want to take advantage of Instagram's visual nature, nothing beats showing your product in motion. This will assist customers in visualizing themselves by utilizing your product and moving on to the next step in the purchasing process.
Instead of using a call to action like "Shop" or "Buy" in its product photographs, to sell products on Instagram the firm simply publishes tales from actual people who adore its items, making its Instagram marketing method powerful. It even tags the people that are mentioned in the posts!
- Curate User-generated Content
If consumers like your product, they'll probably tell their friends about it on social media. User-generated content is a terrific method to get excellent material into your feed while still taking advantage of how to sell products on Instagram.
- Use the Proper Hashtags
Hashtags are a great method to increase brand exposure while also connecting your content to a certain topic or conversation. Hashtags help customers find your shoppable content on Instagram and help it reach more people. A shopping bag icon appears in the feed when you submit a shoppable post with a hashtag. This shows to browsers that an item in your post is for sale.
- Partner With Influencers
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Because of their authority in a certain field, influencers can impact purchasing behaviors. Smaller firms may now work with influencers at a fair price and achieve more sales on Instagram thanks to the rise of nano-influencers (accounts with less than 5,000 followers) and micro-influencers (accounts with 5,000 to 20,000 followers).
2. Stories
Instagram Stories has seen fast popularity and usage among consumers all around the world, with over 500 million accounts using it daily. Brand accounts make for one-third of the most-viewed Stories, believe it or not.
- Educate or Entertain Your Audience
Educating or entertaining your audience rather than just to sell products on Instagram will ensure that your content fits well inside the Stories narrative and gives your audience a compelling incentive to learn more about your product or service.
- Use Video to Promote Your Goods
The finest video content conveys stories that resonate with viewers on a deep level. Your viewers will be more likely to comprehend what your organization offers and what it can accomplish for them if you provide anecdotes about your brand or products. As a result, they'll be more inclined to make a purchase.
- Experiment With Product Stickers in Stories
E-commerce brands and businesses are no longer limited to attempting to persuade their followers to swipe up to shop using product stickers.
Users can tap product stickers to read more about the highlighted product, then tap again to go straight to the product website to buy it.
Food delivery and gift card stickers were two other great sticker features added by Instagram in 2020. You can now share gift cards, meal orders, or fundraiser stickers in Stories and on your profile to aid small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Go Live on Instagram
Start an Instagram Live Shopping stream once you've set up your Instagram Shop and product inventory. Brands and producers can sell products on Instagram during a live broadcast with Live Shopping. Consider it akin to a TV shopping network, but more interactive and available on your phone. Live Shopping can be used to market your items, engage with your fans, and collaborate with other brands and entrepreneurs.
You can tag a product from your catalog to appear at the bottom of the screen during a live broadcast. Buyers only need to click the Add to Bag button and then go to the checkout.
3. Ads
Instagram selling advertisements are like regular Instagram ads, but they include product tags. If someone is interested in learning more about your marketed product, they can navigate directly to a product detail page. You can also run advertisements using Instagram checkout if you’re a US company, allowing customers to buy right in the app.
Explore using a single image, carousel, or video formats from your product catalog to run these ads in feed or explore using a single image, carousel, or video formats from your product catalog to run these ads. They function similarly to standard Instagram advertisements in that you create them in Ads Manager and then show them to a custom or lookalike audience to find new consumers.
4. Reels
Reels allows your company to produce and share 30-second movies. To communicate your brand's narrative, get creative with easy-to-use text, AR filters, and audio. Reels can also display on the Explore page, where they can be seen by everyone on Instagram.
What's the best part? You can tag things in your Reels so that when someone looks at them, they can quickly find the products or collections that were referenced.
Introducing Strikingly
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Now that you've discovered plenty of Instagram ideas to explore, you can now curate an outstanding feed for your business account for selling through Instagram. Create a business website using Strikingly to ensure that you're making use of all of Instagram's features. If you're interested, head over to Strikingly and create an account to share your Instagram ideas.
Conclusion
Learning how to sell products on Instagram will require some effort to figure out which tactics are most effective for your business. Following these nine suggestions will make the process much easier for you by removing a lot of the guesswork.
While learning about how do you sell on Instagram may appear to be difficult at first, it is much easier than it appears. Once you've mastered it, you'll be off to the races, attracting a slew of fresh prospects who could become your next customers.
