Posted by Brand recognition, engagement, and relevance play a major role in business growth. Social media has transformed the marketing experience, and many businesses are always seeking ways to gain more engagement on their channels to build their brand.
Various social media platforms have a way to boost your business performance through engagement, conversations, and direct sales. For example, Instagram can help you make direct sales on the platform instead of customers, leaving the app opening various links on their devices. It simplifies the buying process for the customer, making it easier to check out.
Businesses need to make sales to grow while utilizing various features on Instagram to promote their products. Being a visual product app, it is easy to create stories around your products with descriptive video or HD images that customers can view before they buy. And that is one of the ways that Instagram stands out from the rest in the market.
As a marketer, you want to make the highest sales on Instagram. Follow these five best practices that will boost your sales on the platform.
1. Use High-Quality Photos
As I already mentioned, Instagram is a photo app. People use it to share pictures and videos of events and the products they are selling. Users also like high-resolution shots that can help them identify the products they need and the features.
Instead of calling or sending a message to inquire more about the products, customers prefer seeing the full details. If there are special components or features on your item, make sure they are clear. Multiple pictures are necessary, and a video is an added value when selling on Instagram.
The first thing you want to ensure is that you have a professional camera for taking pictures. You should not rely on a smartphone when you intend to have the best shots for your business. Avoid enhancing photos or making filters as they give a false feel and appearance of the products.
When taking pictures, use natural lighting as much as possible. Photos taken outdoors are of much higher quality that the pictures you snap with camera flash. Remember to also focus on the item and get rid of anything around it, and use a clear background for the shots.
2. Post Engaging Content
Nobody wants to look like a spammer when promoting products online. As a marketer, you want to catch your followers’ attention so that they can share your content across the various channels. More engagements will boost your visibility on Instagram, and your content will reach more prospects.
You, therefore, do not have to post about your brand all the time. Neither should every post be about sales. Pushing the products to buyers will make them afraid of doing business with you. Customers should locate you when they need something. While you can post a few products, sales, promotions, and brand information on your feeds, you should not make that your primary goal.
To engage your audience, you need to know what their interests are. Create generic content that is relevant, and remember to engage the audience. Ask questions, share other brand’s content, and some from your followers. Do not go off-topic. Competition is important in business. Follow some businesses in your industry and curate content on your timeline to improve engagement on your feed.
3. Remember to Include a CTA
A call to action is important in business. After describing your product on your landing pages, you would ask site visitors to click on a button to book an appointment or a trial. The call to action reminds the user to do something after understanding your product.
The same concept is vital for your Instagram feed. A CTA can be anything that encourages the audience to do something about the product you posted. You can ask your followers to share the post – which they will do if it adds value to their followers as well. Liking the post is also a good option. At least, a call to action encourages people to engage more with your post.
Instagram has one drawback for all sellers. You cannot include links in descriptions. Therefore, you can only use words to tell a follower what to do. Nevertheless,if you want more traffic to your eCommerce website, you should consider a white label link building agency to boost your reach.Â
4. Make Use of Appropriate Hashtags
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Social media platforms employ hashtags to boost their reach outside their networks. With hashtags, you can reach more people who might be interested in your business. You have to use relevant hashtags to reach the relevant audience and increase engagement on your posts and the sales.
However, misuse and overuse of tags can ruin your brand authority. You should not try to draw the attention of trending hashtag followers. That will look spammy, and you will get irrelevant views on your posts that will not boost performance. Using hashtags will determine how much you can reap or lose in your marketing efforts if you are using paid ads.
5. Stay Consistent and Post at Appropriate Times
Everybody wants to hear from the brands they are following. That means your brand should often post to engage the followers. If you reduce the number of posts you make, your followers will find what they need somewhere else, and you will lose your position on social media.
At the same time, you should see to it that you do not post too many times. Spamming is not going to build your brand reputation. It is like making noise instead of providing value. Ideally, you should create at least one post per day. However, you should refrain from posting more than three times.
Mastering how people stay active on Instagram is important to improve your visibility and sales. You can expect the highest engagement by posting at 5 am during the weekdays and between 11 am and 3 pm. On weekends, lunchtime is the right time to post your important content – after 11. Wednesday yields the highest engagement on Instagram, while Sunday the least.
Summary
Instagram is one of the most powerful tools to use to market your brand and grow sales. Advertising on the platform is not very cheap, but with adequate content sharing and best practices, you can get the best out of your efforts. When done well, marketing on Instagram can grow your business even with zero investment in ads.
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