Instagram is an essential component of a successful eCommerce marketing strategy. Visualization is an important part of the buying process, so knowing how to get the most out of the world’s best visual platform is imperative. It isn’t just posting pretty pictures either, here is how you can take your Instagram eCommerce marketing strategy to the next level.

With 1 billion members users and 500 million logging in daily, Instagram is now at the forefront of social media marketing. What matters even more however is that twice as many users follow and engage with brands on Instagram than they do on any other social media network. When used correctly Instagram can be great for your businesses ROI because its users are already in a buying mindset. So if you are looking to generate eCommerce sales from Instagram here are the ways you can do it.

Create, automate, repeat

Neil Patel’s 3 part instagram strategy is a great place to start when curating a content plan. Many businesses won’t have time to create content from scratch everyday, yet in order for your brand to succeed on the platform you need to appear authentic and engaged. To make your social media marketing more consistent and efficient you have two options: seek the help of a dedicated social media marketing agency like Strive Digital and/or employ batching. Batching your content requires that you curate all of your content (for the month or quarter) at once, schedule the content at regular intervals and allocate time daily or weekly to respond to comments and post stories. This strategy works well to ensure you have a consistent output, but it is still important to always have eyes on your account to ensure your content is positively received.

Know your audience 

It is great to have consistent content but quality content is just as important. Anything you post should aim to either engage, inspire or convert your audience. Your output should be relevant to your target audience with an even balance of soft and hard content. The latest algorithm update has made it so only the best performing content shows on your followers’ feeds, so it is more important than ever to put out high quality, interactive posts. Luckily, with Instagram Insights it’s now easier than ever to analyse which of your content is performing the best so you can tailor posts to your audience.

To learn more about our social media campaigns and what we can offer click here.

Instagram Shopping

Now that you are posting great value adding content and are getting attention from your target audience, it is time to sell to them. Making it effortless for your followers to buy from your business is vital to success. Pay attention to the user journey from your Instagram profile to the checkout process. Is it possible to reduce the number of steps to conversion? 

With the latest Instagram features your customers don’t even have to leave your profile to convert. Instagram Shopping gives your business an immersive storefront for people to explore your best products. With one click you can share featured products through your organic posts and stories, or have users discover your products in Search & Explore. Your followers simply tap a product tag on your post or a product sticker in your story and they’ll be taken to a page where they can purchase any of products you have posted. As great as this feature is, it’s important to not be too salesy with your posts, minimise the amount of direct product photos you put out by following a 1 to 3 ratio. For every 1 product post follow up with 3 value-led posts (on which you can still tag the mentioned products).

These are just some of the things you can do today to improve your Instagram eCommerce strategy. Ultimately the most successful social media plan will be one which prioritizes audience engagement and growth. If you need help turning your leads into conversions, our team of dedicated social media experts can deliver a targeted, creative social media campaign to help you achieve your goals. Get in touch today to learn more.