Now is a great time to get started selling on Instagram. The image-centric social media network is a gold mine for digital marketers. Its highly visual nature makes it great for telling stories, showing off branding, and hyping your products and services.
Statistics support the platform’s potential, as Meta reported 2 billion monthly active users on the platform in its 3rd quarter earnings report in 2022. Beyond this, 70% of heavy shoppers turn to the app for product discovery, giving marketers very convenient access to potential customers.
This fact isn’t lost on Meta, as the social media giant has invested heavily in allowing entrepreneurs and businesses to sell directly on Instagram.
It pays to know what you’re doing when you sell on Instagram, whether directly on the platform or as a signal booster to your ecommerce storefronts elsewhere.
This article will cover some of the basics of selling on Instagram and offer a range of tips and tricks to get you started and give you an edge over competitors who are already there.
Main Takeaways From This Article:
- With 2 billion monthly users and 70% of heavy shoppers using the platform for product discovery, Instagram offers a significant opportunity for marketers.
- To sell on Instagram, businesses must comply with the platform’s policies, accurately represent their business, be located in a supported country, demonstrate trustworthiness, and provide accurate information. Familiarity with Instagram’s best practices can further enhance sales.
- Successful selling on Instagram involves setting up a business account, understanding the Instagram algorithm, creating engaging content tailored to the target audience, and utilizing Instagram Shopping features.
- To further boost sales, businesses should create shoppable Instagram posts, use Instagram Checkout for a seamless shopping experience, and create targeted Instagram Ads.
- Monitoring key metrics such as accounts reached, engagement and conversion rates are essential to understanding and improving selling strategies on Instagram.
- Using tools like TinyURL for link shortening and tracking can provide valuable insights into post-level performance, helping businesses refine their approach to content and marketing on the platform.
Qualifications for Selling on Instagram
If you’re looking to venture into Instagram selling, there are some key requirements that you need to tick off. Your Facebook account and associated page, or your Instagram Professional account, should consistently meet the following guidelines:
- Compliance With Policies: Adhering to Instagram’s existing policies is essential.
- A Clear Representation of Your Business: Your account needs to depict your business and your domain unmistakably.
- Location: Your business needs to be based in a country that Instagram commerce supports.
- Trustworthiness: Make sure your business online presence illustrates trust and reliability.
- Accurate Information: Ensure all the details about your business, products, and services provided are correct and credible.
- Best Practices: You should be well-versed with Instagram’s strategic tips to harness its sales potential.
How to Get Started with Selling on Instagram
Ready to turn your Instagram into a lucrative sales channel? Follow this step-by-step guide to start selling effectively.
1. Get an Instagram Business Account
An Instagram Business profile gives you a host of extra features beyond what’s available on a personal Instagram account.
Business accounts can create and manage a storefront on Instagram and access more features such as ads, sponsored posts, and scheduled posts. They can also view Instagram’s insights tools for quick analytics of their social media performance on the service.
Switching from a personal to a Business Instagram profile is free and simple. Simply access the hamburger menu button at the top right of your profile on the app, go to Settings > Account > Switch to Professional Account, and the app will walk you through the steps to set up your business profile.
Connecting your Instagram profile to your Facebook page can be beneficial, as it unifies the shopping experience for your customers and lets you gather insights from both platforms. This can improve your performance data, broaden your ad reach, and give you detailed analytics to understand better and engage your customers.
2. Understand the Instagram Algorithm
Wrapping your head around the Instagram algorithm is key to selling effectively on the platform. This algorithm decides how many of your followers see your posts in their feeds. It makes decisions based on relevance, relationships, and how recent a post is.
By understanding what content your followers connect with, you can tailor your posts to fit the algorithm’s preferences. It is a must to keep up-to-date with algorithm changes and adjust your strategy accordingly. Interact with your followers by replying to comments, posting often, using relevant hashtags, and using Instagram’s numerous features.
The algorithm prefers genuine interactions over simple likes, so build a community, not just a follower base. This will bring about meaningful engagement that the algorithm prefers, ultimately boosting your Instagram sales.
3. Create Engaging Content for Your Target Audience
Creating content that attracts and holds your audience’s interest is key to selling on Instagram. Make your posts interesting, relevant, and easy to share.
By sharing stories about your products, you can evoke emotions that increase engagement. Try to show your products in real-life applications or highlight their advantages. Remember, discussing your product’s plus points can spark curiosity, encourage audience interaction, and boost sales.
In addition, try producing content that encourages your audience to engage. Ask questions, create polls, or invite comments. These methods not only boost engagement but also offer insights into what your audience likes and dislikes. Spending time to understand your audience will be beneficial in the long run. It’ll allow you to tailor future content to match their interests, thus maximizing engagement and potential sales.
4. Set up an Instagram Shop
Setting up an Instagram shop gives you a ton of useful marketing features, most importantly, a shareable, taggable storefront that Instagram users can shop from, which is linked right from your profile. Users can discover more about you and your products and view product detail pages with key information as well as tagged photos of your product or profile from across Instagram.
To set up Instagram shopping, you’ll need your own domain and website where your products are on sale and an Instagram Business profile. You’ll also need to check that you’re in a supported market and otherwise meet all the other Instagram Commerce Eligibility Requirements.
If everything checks out, then you can begin setting up your online store and importing your product catalog through the Commerce Manager tool or import your data from any of a number of other platforms you might use that have Instagram integration, like Shopify.
You will need to submit your store to Instagram for review, which can take a few business days, but assuming nothing is egregiously out of whack, you should be good to go!
5. Optimize Product Pages for Conversion
Ensuring your product pages appeal to your customers is vital for converting interest into sales. To do this, use high-quality images and detailed product information alongside clear calls to action. Your product pages might be your last chance to persuade potential customers to buy, so they need to be persuasive.
Use TinyURL to create short, branded links. This helps keep your posts tidy and gives you insights into their performance. Plus, a branded TinyURL can give your customers confidence that their payment will be safe, boosting your e-commerce operation’s reliability.
6. Maximize Engagement With Instagram Live Shopping
Instagram Live Shopping is an opportunity to boost engagement and create a personalized shopping experience. This feature lets you demonstrate products live and answer customer questions immediately, cultivating an engaging space for your audience to shop.
Keep your live sessions interactive. Encourage comments, ask spectators to share the live stream, and answer queries on the spot. Also, practice your product showcase beforehand for a seamless and professional presentation. Ultimately, the more captivating your live streams are, the more engaged your audience will become and the higher your chances of making sales.
7. Leverage Instagram Stories and Reels
One of the significant ways to sell on Instagram is by leveraging Instagram’s popular features – Instagram Stories and Reels.
With a lifespan of only 24 hours, Instagram Stories allow brands to share timely content, making them perfect for flash sales, limited-time offers, or showcasing new products.
On the other hand, Instagram Reels, the latest addition to Instagram’s content options, provide a new way to reach potential customers through short, engaging, and entertaining videos.
Instagram Reels allow you to showcase your products creatively, while Instagram Stories can comprise product tags, making it easy for followers to purchase directly from the story.
Keep in mind that both of these features offer the chance for your content to appear on the Instagram Explore page, further expanding your reach.
8. Create Shoppable Instagram Posts
The biggest advantage of having an in-app store on Instagram is setting up shoppable posts: Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories that tag products. These product tags display price and product info and allow users to add to their cart or go to your website to buy. It’s almost a call to action embedded right into the image itself.
You should also take advantage of Instagram’s Checkout feature if you’re in a supported market so that consumers can shop seamlessly within the Instagram app without having to go to your external store website.
That said, it’s still good practice to have a stirring call to action in the captions of each image or story, though Instagram makes a traditional CTA difficult because captions don’t support hyperlinks, such as a link to your external store.
Still, there are workarounds, such as using an easily memorable shortened link that a customer can easily copy or remember and tap in on their browser.
9. Use Instagram Checkout
Instagram Checkout is a handy feature that makes shopping straightforward. It lets users buy items without leaving the platform, speeding up the purchase process and increasing the chances of a sale.
This feature is crucial for a successful selling strategy. It keeps the entire shopping journey within Instagram, reducing the chance of customers leaving their carts due to extra steps or complications. Plus, Instagram Checkout accepts various payment methods, appealing to a broader range of users.
10. Create Instagram Shopping Ads
To gain a competitive edge in this increasingly competitive market, tailor your shopping ads to meet the needs of your target audience. Use high-quality images and appealing descriptions, and strategically place your ads where they’re most likely to catch the attention of potential customers.
Every detail counts when it comes to ad creation. Some must-dos include using user-generated content, leveraging a CTA, optimizing your captions, and testing different images or videos for your ads. Remember, successful Shopping Ads are both visually appealing and evocative of a sense of curiosity and urgency among your potential customers.
11. Continue Running Regular Posts
If every image you post is about shilling your brand and products, you’ll quickly lose credibility and authenticity, which can be the death knell for a brand’s social media presence. You need to break up your promotions and product showcases with creative and engaging content tied to your greater niche, industry, or lifestyle vibe your brand projects.
A good rule of thumb is the 80/20 rule: 20% of your posts should be selling your product, and 80% “regular” posts. Don’t just post for the sake of posting, though—build value. Post content that is engaging, creative, and that you think your followers and potential customers will want to share.
Take advantage of the “social” in social media to build word of mouth, buzz, and credibility with your other posts, whether by asking thought-provoking questions, talking about your industry or niche, or giving a behind-the-scenes look at your business or products.
12. Build a Loyal Community
Building a dedicated Instagram community is about more than just gathering likes. It’s about sparking real engagement and creating a sense of connection among your followers.
Regularly interacting with your followers, responding to their comments and direct messages, and showing gratitude for their support are crucial. This shows your followers that their interaction matters and encourages them to stay involved and support your brand.
You also need to make your followers feel a part of your brand’s journey. This can be done by sharing their stories, considering their product suggestions, or hosting contests where they can participate. This approach not only makes your followers feel valued but also strengthens their loyalty to your brand.
13. Encourage User-Generated Content
Turning your customers into supporters can be a solid way to sell on Instagram. One successful approach is to use user-generated content (UGC). UGC includes anything your customers create, like posts, videos, or reviews. UGC boosts engagement and makes your brand look more reliable.
You can support UGC by running a contest, offering discounts for posts about your product, or sharing user content on your profile. Just make sure you credit the original creator when sharing their content. This approach can improve trust and engagement with your brand.
Knowing Your Customers on Instagram
Figuring out your ideal customer and target market is critical for any form of marketing, and it is doubly so for social media networks like Instagram, given their trend—and algorithm-based focus.
Knowing what your customers need enables you to design Instagram content that the algorithm will judge is relevant for your target market, helping put your photos, stories, and posts onto their feed.
Step 1: Map out Your Ideal Customers
Work backward by mapping out your ideal customers. What need or inconvenience do your products and services solve for them? What traits make people the perfect candidates and customers for your solutions?
While this is basic marketing groundwork, it bears repeating given the algorithm-driven nature of social media. Having a good sense of your ideal follower and customer is a prerequisite to making content that will have people following your profile and, eventually, buying your stuff.
Step 2: Audit Your Current Audience
Audit your followers list. Do they fit the profile of your ideal customers? If so, then you’re already on the right track, and all you need to do is to keep the relevant content flowing.
If they don’t, that’s not the end of the world: while high engagement and follower numbers add to your social proof, starting from a low base just means you have to put in a little more work to reach more of your target market.
Step 3: Find out What Your Ideal Customers Want
Take what you know about your customers and your other marketing streams to identify what kinds of content they enjoy online, what influencers they follow, and other habits that allow you to build content around their interests.
As a bonus step, you should examine how your competitors navigate the platform. See what content works for them and piece together how they drive users to comment and engage. Then, take their strategies and improve on them.
Step 4: Start Posting
Once all the recon is out of the way, it’s time for the real work. Build content, run ads, and deploy hashtags that resonate with what you know about your ideal customers. Draw them in with marketing material designed to make followers out of them (i.e., don’t sell too hard on social).
Planning Your Content
There are a few unwritten rules for succeeding on Instagram. This section will cover some important principles to keep in mind as you plan out how to sell on Instagram.
1. Pick a Design Direction Early
Your options for curating a feed are limitless. Decide on a design direction early and coordinate it with the rest of your branding right off the bat to quickly establish your visual style and presence.
Consistency is the key here, as the last thing you want to do is make a mess out of your feed or leave viewers wondering if they accidentally followed some unfamiliar brand or a fake business.
- Decide if your posts will use a lot of photos or lean more on custom graphics. Either way, lean hard into Instagram’s bias for visual style over other social networks.
- Choose a font and typography that matches your brand
- Pick colors that stand out in a user’s feed
- Consider how you’d use people in your content (because images of real people can help drive conversions)
2. Work with Templates
Templates are major time-savers, especially considering you need to keep up with a weekly quota of three to seven posts to maintain a regular and relevant Instagram presence. Quality and consistency are key, and templates can be a lifesaver.
Build text and visual templates for the major types of content you plan to post, such as product features, discounts, and event announcements, and stick to them! This will keep your branding and design consistent while also reducing your regular workload.
Templates also help specific posts stand out: users who want to scroll through your feed for discount announcements would have an easier time spotting posts that share your template, and unusual or important announcements can also be made to stand out by carefully stepping out of the mold of the templates you create.
3. Use Instagram-Friendly Calls to Action
Instagram presents a few challenges to traditional online calls to action, given that the platform doesn’t support clickable links in captions for your posts, which is the usual online CTA.
You can get around Instagram’s limitation by adding short and memorable links to your captions — so branding them with a URL shortener is essential.
A short, snappy link is easier for a viewer to remember and type out on a browser when you invite them to learn more about your products or visit your main business website. As a plus, branded links on TinyURL also give you a chance to track your click-through conversion rates from Instagram posts, giving you an analytics edge.
You could opt for the link-in-bio route, but why not give them a CTA that sticks while they’re already reading?
4. Stay Organized
If you’re posting once or twice daily to keep up with competitors and maximize your visibility, you’ll need to track your content carefully. Be mindful of ideal posting times for your target geographic markets, and pay attention to the performance of your previous posts to see what sticks and what doesn’t.
Use a content calendar! Whether you’re a one-person act or coordinating with a team of designers, writers, and social media managers, scheduling is important, and it helps make sure that plans are set, wrinkles are ironed out, and everything’s ready for ideal posting times.
Finally, keep track of your analytics. With the right tools and data, you can see how well your marketing campaigns are performing and determine what needs changing.
Tracking Your Performance on Instagram
As with all forms of marketing, analytics are critical when selling on Instagram as they clue you into what works for your business and what doesn’t. Paying close attention to the analytics of your Instagram marketing, as with all promotions, leads to smarter, more cost-effective, and more successful marketing campaigns.
Let’s examine a few key metrics to gauge the success of your Instagram marketing.
1. Accounts Reached
At the basic level, accounts reached is how many people have seen your ads and posts. The “social” part of social media can make this particularly powerful, as getting your followers talking about and sharing your posts and products can get your content onto the feed of other users you might not necessarily reach with regular promotional methods.
2. Accounts Engaged
A step up from accounts reached is accounts engaged, or how many people have actually engaged with your content, whether by interacting with and commenting on your posts or sharing it out to their wider networks.
While accounts reached is a useful indicator, accounts engaged is more important because it tells you just how engaging and viral your content is and how many people have found it interesting enough to interact with or share, an indicator of the number of people you might be able to push to the next level from engagement to conversion, or loyal customers willing to evangelize your brand.
3. Conversion or Click-through Rates
Finally, of course, there’s conversion: how many people have seen your posts and then used that as a stepping stone to get into one of your sales funnels to buy your products or sign up for services? As usual, it’s the holy grail of marketing and crucial to your analytics.
Conversion or click-through rates are particularly challenging to track on Instagram because you don’t get this data directly. Outside of shoppable posts, it’s hard to tell, at a glance, which forms of content send users to your storefront, your order forms, or other important web pages so that you can judge conversion rates. Still, it’s critical for perfecting your approach to content in your Instagram marketing posts.
Instagram provides a built-in Insights feature (available only within the mobile app) that gives you a bird’s-eye view of your posts’ performance, but it’s not ideal. It’s great for quick insights on the go, but it’s not optimized for businesses and marketers who want to track how well each of their Instagram posts leads to sales.
If you’re trying to amplify your products and services on Instagram but selling elsewhere (such as through Amazon, Etsy, or your own website), then it can be challenging by design to figure out which posts drive performance to your other storefronts (as Instagram would rather you stay in the Meta ecosystem).
Examples in Action
As an example, Instagram doesn’t support hyperlinks in image captions, which can make it more difficult to bridge the gap between promotional images on your Instagram feed and your main storefront on other platforms such as Amazon or Etsy.
One quick tip to solve this is to use TinyURL. You can create Instagram-friendly links (and fully brand them if you subscribe to our Pro plan) that are unique to each post, linking to your external storefront.
This gives interested consumers an easy link to tap into while also giving you important analytics data from the shortened links, effectively giving you a way to calculate conversion rates.
It’s a clever workaround to get post-level conversion data you wouldn’t be able to see without resorting to absurdly long UTM tags (which won’t do since Instagram doesn’t support hyperlinks in captions).
Elevate Your Instagram Selling Strategy with TinyURL
Marketing on Instagram may seem daunting, but savvy marketers can reap rich rewards on the image-centric social media platform. Your path to success starts with the right plan, a killer storefront design, and smart approaches to content that sell without selling too hard. It’s a lot of work, but the tips and principles we’ve shared above should help you overcome any challenges.
TinyURL’s link-shortening tools can be a valuable addition to the digital arsenal of Instagram marketers, with tools to create customized and branded links that are easy to remember and share and provide valuable marketing analytics that can be hard to access with Instagram insights.
Check out how our branded link tools, link and campaign management options, and sleek analytics dashboard can help your online marketing. Sign up for a free TinyURL plan to get started!
