3 Beginners Tips For E-commerce Marketing on Instagram
If you don’t wish to solely rely on traffic from search engines to sell your products you need to think about a branding initiative. In the past, large scale branding campaigns have been reserved for advertisers with deep pockets. Creating a brand around your product involved TV and billboard advertising. Now, a 5 inch LCD screen is the new billboard and is viewed much more people than any central city billboard.
With the vast majority of us constantly perusing our social media accounts on our phones, it’s no wonder that Instagram marketing is the “next big thing”. However, branding efforts on the platform require a more nuanced, soft-sell approach, the goal is to build a following around your brand and increase your reach.
1. Imagery is Key – Be Stylish & Consistent
With every popular Instagram users profile essentially looking like a part-time professional photographer’s portfolio, there is an expectation of quality on Instagram. Artistic, well shot images perform much better than a quick snap of your product on your phone. So take the time to think out your product shots, and make them a bit more interesting (using small props are a great way to create a look and feel)
An great example of quality, prop-filled product presentation from @mockanz
2. Write Creative Captions and Include #Hashtags
You’ve spent the time crafting the perfect image of your product – so don’t throw all that away with a dull, purely descriptive caption! The best captions evoke feeling or pose a question. So get creative with your captions and encourage users to engage with your posts.
One of the best ways for your product to be discovered through Instagram is through organic search. Much like Google uses keywords to determine its search results, Instagram uses hashtags to categorise content. While being mindful not to overdo it, include a few popular hashtags that are relevant to your product niche in your caption. For the sake of keeping your caption tidy, you can add further hashtags to the comment section of your post.
3. Engage with Your Audience
Word-of-mouth is still one of the most powerful tools for marketing your product – this is where Instagram is most powerful as a marketing tool. Encourage your followers to post photos of them using your product, perhaps even offering an incentive to do so.
A great way to start doing this is to create a competition around a unique hashtag (make sure this is unique to save yourself trawling through thousands of irrelevant posts!). Then ask your followers to post a picture of them using your product (with competition hashtag featured) to go in the draw to win a gift voucher, hamper, experience – whatever you please!
This allows your product to reach friends of your followers and by having your product showcased in a positive light will encourage more people to engage with your product. Many online consumers purchasing decision is based on brands social media accounts, so the more your brand is visible and portrayed positively on Instagram, the greater chance you have of making a sale.
