December 18, 2023
Last update
12.18.2023
06 MIN.
In this guide, you'll discover valuable insights for selling on Instagram in 2024, optimizing your profile to drive sales, establishing your Instagram store, and collaborating with influencers to enhance brand awareness.
Alona Bontush
Launched as a photo and video-sharing social media application in 2010, Instagram has evolved into a significant social media platform by 2024, serving as a hub for personal branding, influencer engagement, and business promotion.
According to Ipsos Marketing research, Instagram is the #1 social media platform for people, particularly Gen Z, to connect with brands. Moreover, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business account. These statistics leave no doubt that having your brand on Instagram is crucial.
In this guide, you'll discover valuable insights for selling on Instagram, optimizing your profile to drive sales, establishing your Instagram store, and collaborating with influencers to enhance brand awareness.
The Instagram commerce statistics reveal that 130 million people engage with shoppable posts monthly. As a merchant, you can tag products in your posts, open an online storefront, and significantly shorten the buyer’s journey from discovery to checkout.
AI chatbots are a powerful tool that can help you to generate more sales on Instagram. Instagram chatbots can be used to answer customer questions, provide product recommendations, and even process orders. One of the biggest benefits of using chatbots is that they can provide 24/7 social media customer support. This is especially important on Instagram, where customers may have questions or want to place orders outside of your regular business hours.
However, managing a brand's Instagram shop can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive endeavor. But, by harnessing the capabilities of Iconosquare, a social media analytics, management, and scheduling platform designed specifically for brands and agencies, this process can become more manageable and efficient. This all-in-one solution can help you streamline your social media presence, gain deeper insights into your audience's behaviors, and make data-driven decisions.
Despite the ongoing comparison with TikTok, Instagram maintains its position as a social media platform with 2 billion monthly active users, providing opportunities for product sales. The 2023 year has ushered in new approaches and trends in how to sell on Instagram. Let’s explore the best practices for your Instagram business account, enabling you to craft an effective marketing strategy that aligns with the expectations and behaviors of consumers.
Also, keep in mind that if your brand is relatively new, your marketing strategy and go-to-market strategy might be one and the same if you’re bringing your first product to market.
In today's social media landscape, the focus is shifting away from only tallying up followers and likes. Your engagement rate can reveal far more about the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Encourage your audience to actively participate by leaving comments and reactions and sharing your content.
Concentrate on engagement to gain valuable insights into your audience's preferences, interests, and behaviors. This approach allows you to tailor your content strategy, create more personalized experiences, and ultimately establish a deeper and more enduring connection with your target audience.
Conduct research to identify influencers with a smaller audience, typically around 10k followers or fewer, for potential collaborations. Why choose micro-influencers? Unlike those with hundreds or thousands of followers, micro-creators often have a more loyal and engaged audience. Furthermore, the likelihood of receiving a response from them is higher, and working with them tends to be more cost-effective than with larger creators. This way, you can achieve a far better ROI (return on investment).
Advertising is one of the best ways to sell on Instagram. Your ad will be displayed in users' Feeds, Stories, and the Explore section, marked with a "sponsored" icon. Additionally, there will be a call-to-action button beneath the ad, allowing users to visit your brand's account and make purchases. In Meta Ads Manager, you can create and promote various content types, including images, videos, carousels, Instagram Stories, and Reels. If you find all of this overwhelming, try hiring a content manager with the help of AI recruiting software. He will be responsible for managing all aspects of the creative content creation.
By using these approaches and adapting to Instagram trends, you can effectively sell products on Instagram in 2024. Now it’s time to explore 6 ways to generate more sales this year.
Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce expert or just stepping into the world of online sales, having an optimized Instagram profile is essential to stay competitive.
The profile image on Instagram is a small yet essential element of your brand's presence on the platform. It helps your brand stand out in the vast sea of branded accounts. A high-quality, well-designed profile image (your company logo, a product image, or any other visual element associated with your brand) can enhance brand recognition and entice users to explore your content.
Your bio is the first thing users see when visiting your brand account. It even plays a role when people search for specific products by using keywords. Therefore, making it informative and engaging should be your priority.
First, create a username that is easily readable and understandable, allowing your audience to identify your brand. Include essential business information, such as a location tag, business category, and contact details. Use brand-related keywords in your profile name. It should serve as a concise 2-3 word description of what your brand is about. You can use a free hashtag generator to find the best relevant keywords.
Additionally, provide valuable supplementary information in the 'Bio' section. It can include details about working hours, the country where your brand is based, information about physical stores (if applicable), and delivery conditions. Remember to add links to your main website or other social media profiles.
A web design agency can help you create a website that is both visually appealing and user-friendly. A good website will help you attract new customers and keep existing ones coming back for more. It is important not only to have an attractive Instagram store but also a website that is easy to navigate and that looks professional. A web design agency can help you create a website that meets all of your needs, and that will help you achieve your business goals.
Highlights are content collections categorized by different topics to help potential customers quickly understand what your brand is about and find answers to their questions. They can include your products, behind-the-scenes videos, testimonials, media coverage, social initiatives your brand supports, events, FAQs, and more.
With Instagram Shopping, selling through Instagram becomes much easier. The platform offers a range of features to turn your brand's visual content into a functional online storefront. You can share your brand story, showcase your products and collections, provide product details, add product tags, and enable direct purchases on Instagram. (Note: The Checkout option is currently available to eligible US business and creator accounts.)
To sell products on Instagram, you should complete the shop setup process by following these steps:
1. Ensure your products meet Instagram's commerce eligibility requirements.
2. Confirm your Instagram business or creator account and connect it to your Facebook page.
3. Set up your Business Manager account.
4. Open your shop in the Commerce Manager by filling in shop details.
5. Review your shop and submit it to Instagram for review.
Boomed in 2020, Instagram Reels remain a popular and engaging content type on the platform. According to Gitnux statistics, Reels receive a 22.6% higher interaction rate compared to regular Instagram videos, and 30% of the top-viewed Reels are product-focused.
By using Reels, you can showcase your products, share your expert industry tips and trends, your social views, and more. Be creative, experiment with different styles, and consistently post Reels. This way, you’ll organically attract people to your brand page, including both new followers and new customers.
Turn your followers and customers into brand ambassadors. Whether you host a contest to let your brand enthusiasts unleash their creativity and win prizes, or they simply wish to share their feedback and mention your brand in their content, encourage them to do so. Then, you can repost the best posts and stories to enhance brand credibility and trust.
It’s a good practice for brands to connect their social media accounts and drive traffic from them. If you have a TikTok profile, you can easily redirect traffic to Instagram in several ways:
Collaborating with influencers on Instagram is essential for brands aiming to expand their reach and enhance their credibility. Influencers have dedicated, engaged audiences that trust their recommendations. You can use influencer marketing on Instagram to significantly boost your brand's visibility and, ultimately, drive sales.
Influencers can use your products and share honest feedback about them. It can take the form of a photo or video post in which an influencer highlights the benefits of your products and encourages viewers to visit your profile and try them for themselves.
Host engaging giveaways and contests to generate excitement, increase your brand awareness, and expand your welcome email list. Influencers can promote these interactive activities on their profiles by sharing the rules, selecting a random comment as a winner, and offering prizes to encourage their audience to participate actively.
Together, you can create branded products that showcase your expertise, values, and aesthetics. Offer something valuable and unique to your audiences. For instance, if you run a grocery shop specializing in organic products, you can collaborate with a nutritionist to create a seasonal shopping list or introduce a line of smoothies.
Collaboration between Adidas and Kanye West
Organize a special event for a select group of guests, such as a workshop, a panel discussion, or a product presentation. Alternatively, you can invite influencers to a tour, a dinner, a cooking class, or any other engaging experience. The idea is to provide influencers with a deeper understanding of your brand, team, and products. In return, they can create appealing content to share on their Instagram profiles.
Monitoring analytics and measuring the success of your Instagram store is important for refining your marketing strategy and achieving your business goals. By tracking key metrics such as engagement, website traffic, conversion rates, leads, and sales generated through Instagram, you can gain valuable insights into what's working and what needs improvement. You can also consult with conversion rate optimization experts. This data-driven approach allows you to adapt your content, optimize your product listings, and target the right audience effectively, then apply it to other marketing efforts, such as email marketing.
In the context of Instagram sales, building brand credibility and trust becomes a pivotal factor in driving success. Instagram users highly appreciate the authenticity of brands and their connections with the audience.
By offering quality products, delivering on your brand's promises based on your values, and engaging with your customers transparently and responsively, you can establish and reinforce trust. It leads to increased customer loyalty and encourages word-of-mouth recommendations and positive reviews, ultimately boosting your sales on Instagram.
As we conclude this journey through the world of selling products on Instagram, it's clear that 2024 presents vast potential. With the knowledge of how to sell things on Instagram and enhance brand credibility, you are well-prepared to make your Instagram sales strategy more effective.
It’s a fee that you should pay if you use the Checkout option in your Instagram shop. From July, 1st 2023, Meta charges a processing fee for sales made using available payment methods. For Shopify merchants, Meta does not charge a fee. If your shop is powered by Shopify, sales will be subject to the same transaction fees as your website. You can find more information here.
No, it isn't necessary for selling on Instagram, but you should follow Instagram’s Commerce Eligibility Requirements.
With an eligible business account, you can sell products through Instagram Direct. Simply tap the "Get paid in chat" option in your Instagram professional dashboard, and you'll be able to send a "Request Payment" to a customer via direct message.
Alona Bontush is an SEO outreach specialist at Growthmate, an SEO agency that helps small and mid-size brands grow in SERP and generate more revenue. She is passionate about helping businesses improve their organic search rankings and increase website traffic. When it comes to outreach, she has both strong communication and persuasive conversational skills.
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