In the current digital era we live in, Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms with more than 1 billion active monthly users and more than 400,000 people using Instagram stories daily.

It goes without saying Instagram is a revolutionary platform for marketers to reach new customers and boost conversions. However, it is still important posts aren’t too ‘sales-focussed’ to ensure brands stand out from their competition. Better yet, due to competition being relatively low in the advertising space on Instagram the return on investment is high compared to other platforms such as Google or Facebook.

Instagram allow brands to interact and engage with customers who maybe don’t realise they even have a need to purchase a particular product. Instagram changes all this.

We have narrowed down how brands can be at the top of their selling game but first let’s get the boring necessities out the way.

  1. You must be located in either; United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, or Australia
  2. Your Instagram needs to be a business account
  3. You must have the latest version of the Instagram app
  4. You need to connect your profile to a Facebook catalog.

Once you have completed all these steps and Instagram has reviewed your account, you will then be able to access their shoppable post features.

Now, you can use the shopping feature as you like but it is vital you remember these do’s and dont’s.

DONT’S:

  • Don’t oversell, your audience doesn’t want to feel like they are being sold too
  • Don’t use links in your captions, people aren’t going to highlight a url to copy and paste it
  • Don’t forget to interact with your audience’s engagement

DO’S:

  • Apply shoppable tags to photos that suit your profile in terms of colour scheme and branding
  • Use high-quality user-generated content in your ads
  • Treat your profile as if it were your homepage, remember this will be people’s first impression of your brand (Think about this, there are currently about 3.2 billion internet users in the world.

1.1 billion of those people use Instagram. Meaning that more than one-third of the earth’s population of internet users are on Instagram searching, exploring, and connecting with brands and influencers)