Many people have a real hard time when it comes to make their Instagram page a proper funnel for sales. In this post, I’d like to provide my insight on how to drive more sales through your page:
Knowing how to communicate within the platform
I mention this aspect in many other of my posts.
Knowing how to communicate within the platform is, on a fundamental level, knowing how to use the platform in a way that’s productive.
And, in order for you to be productive, you need a strategy, a plan that assembles your goals.
And that plan shall aim towards an effective content curation.
This, because content is the way through which you communicate within the platform.
It is what creates and, fundamentally, constitutes your page’s identity.
What will determine your competence towards achieving your goals on Instagram is, largely, the way you share your content and how much it will resonate with your audience, or how it will make your audience feel.
Let’s say that you run a page in the fashion niche.
Let’s also say that you’re trying to sell handbags through your page.
The very first thing to avoid at all costs, which simultaneously is the most common mistake that I see people making on Instagram, when it comes to pages of this kind, is the following:
Posting pictures of handbags (or whatever product you’re trying to sell – this applies to any niche, so don’t take the handbag example as exclusive, it’s just that – an example), and accompanying these static, generic pictures, with a full-on salesy caption that doesn’t add any info, other than its price and where you can purchase it.
I’ve seen thousands of pages which strategy relies on this outrageously ineffective and equally as outrageously unattractive method.
Here’s why:
Because most people don’t know how to communicate on Instagram.
And it’s not because of digital illiteracy.
It’s because they’re not thinking about their audience, they’re just thinking about selling handbags.
But guess what – Instagram isn’t built as a marketplace. The platform’s nature is the opposite of that – it’s where people go to see faces, stay connected and have a good time.
It’s also where people showcase highlights about their apparently perfect life and feed their ego with dopamine enticing stimulus, such as likes.
Do you think that there’s room for pictures of products that no one knows, from a brand that no one knows, that has a page that no one knows as its “face”?
The answer is quite clear.
And it is even clearer when you see the average engagement levels of pages like these.
Usually, they’re inexistent.
Why? Again, because Instagram isn’t built for marketplaces, for show windows of inventory.
So, don’t run your page as one.
Tips: How To Get More Followers On Instagram: 35 Tricks You Need To Know!
Building an engaged and participative audience
What I just pointed out in the previous point fits this aspect like a glove.
To have a better understanding of what opposites a static, underwhelming marketplace-type page, it’s useful to think about what kind of content makes a page interesting and engaging towards a wide audience.
And the answer to that relies in what has been mentioned in the previous point – faces, feelings and ego.
Your content output strategy should be aiming at making people see faces and feel certain emotions – which is what actually sells.
That being said, it’s much more recommendable to create content that has those features and that allows those feelings to take place.
Here’s how you can do it:
– Share content that features people, not just items. Instead of sharing a picture of a handbag, share a picture of a model wearing the handbag.
What sells has to do with the emotions behind the post, being that the handbag represents something to the viewer.
It may represent style, love, luxury, nostalgia, comfort, rebellion, and god knows what else.
A handbag is just a handbag.
A Hermes handbag is not just a handbag. Nor is a Louis Vuitton handbag, or an Yves Saint Laurent handbag.
If those were just handbags, people wouldn’t pay hundreds or thousands for them.
They sell so well (and for such a high price) because of what their brand means, on a social and emotional standpoint.
That’s why people cherish and attribute emotional and social value to materialistic things, no matter how good or bad that may be. It is what it is – it’s business and it’s how most societies perceive materialistic goods.
Take a minute to briefly check out the Instagram pages of the brands that I’ve mentioned above (@ysl; @louisvuitton; @hermes) and observe the type of content that they’re sharing.
That’s what you should aim at – branding and producing content that has the characteristics of what conveys such emotions.
That’s how you will raise your brand awareness and stand out from the crowd, as most people are doing it very wrong.
Now, you may claim that you’re just running a small business and that you’re no Yves Saint Laurent – and maybe you don’t even intend to try to be.
That’s ok, I get it. I’m not Gary V either, but I have my fair share of success and reputation in my area too.
And so, you can have it too, regardless of your niche and of your current resources.
Jab, jab, jab, right hook
Speaking of Gary V, his book titled jab, jab, jab, right hook provides adequate context regarding the way you should run your Instagram page, towards driving more sales through it.
What his book’s title implies is that, before you jump right into pitching your services or attempting to sell your products, it’s important to create and establish a connection, a relationship with your audience.
And there’s no better way to do it than to provide value. That can be entertaining, inspirational or informational value.
It creates familiarity, reputation and awareness, and those elements are critical when it comes to converting an audience into buyers.
Think about it – why would people buy a product from a page that they don’t know?
Or from a page that doesn’t have any social proof, any form or reputation and name to it?
People need a reason to follow your page – let alone purchasing from it – that constitutes a significantly higher commitment and risk than simply clicking on the follow button.
That being said, make sure that before you rush into selling, you create a feasible, realistic, yet high aiming strategy that allows you to produce high quality content that features models wearing your products, or some cinematic aesthetics that are impactful and outstanding.
Also, make sure that your products are of high quality and of a competitive price, being that, once again, if people want to buy a similar product, they can just order it online from a brand that they are already familiar with, or they can purchase it in their nearest mall.
Your strategy shouldn’t be confined to your content output, but also to the relationship you create with your audience through interacting with it, for instance, by using Instagram stories as a way of presenting yourself as the face behind the brand.
You can also use these to showcase client testimonials, people wearing the products (or the results that they got from your service, in case you’re not selling a physical product), you can also ask questions regarding the type of product your audience is looking for, how they found your page in the first place, what has made them stick around, what kind of content they like the most from your page, etc.
Last but not least, through your captions, make sure to be creative and not just salesy all the way.
And, as a final note, be sure to insert a link to your online store or any other channel through which people can easily purchase your products / services.
Hope this was helpful!