Here are 5 key tips to boost sales on Instagram.
Whether you’re a product-based business, a service provider or even an influencer,
this video will teach you how to sell on Instagram effectively.
Ready?
Let’s do this!
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I help you create
better content and grow on social media!
Today, we’re all about increasing our sales and really honing in on those tactics to make
people want to buy from you.
I have a lot to say here so grab a cup of coffee, get ready to make some notes and let’s
dive right in.
1.
Be Clear on Your Offer
The most important thing when selling on Instagram is to be clear on what you offer.
If people don’t know exactly what you sell and how they can benefit from it, they are
not going to buy from you.
One thing that I always repeat is that a confused mind says no, and it’s so true when it comes
to sales.
Every single aspect of your Instagram presence should clearly showcase your offer.
This means your bio, your stories, your highlights, your static posts, your Reels, your captions,
every single place that you can imagine needs to be in line with what you sell.
This doesn’t mean every one of those places should blatantly sell every single time, but
it needs to be cohesive and consistently show what you do and who you do it for.
This starts with the bio, where you need to actually demonstrate what it is that you sell.
Whether you offer coaching, sell products, work with brands, render services, have an
app, whatever it is, you need to clearly show it in the bio.
Let’s take a look at Maria’s profile here @mariamalik.us.
It’s the perfect example of clarity in your bio.
The display name shows who Maria is which is a speaking coach.
Then, you see who she serves (so corporate introverts) which is very specific and I’m
sure a lot of people can resonate with.
Then, you have social proof demonstrating that she helped over 100 professionals with
her offer and reinforcing it even more with 120k followers on LinkedIn.
And she finishes off strong with a call to action and a link which I’ll talk about
more in a moment so stay tuned for that.
That’s a well-executed bio that’s showcasing Maria’s offer very clearly.
Below the bio, you can be very strategic with your Highlights and really optimize this space
for sales.
Some of the core Highlights that you could create for this purpose are About Me or Start
Here, Work With Me if you’re a service provider or something like Bestsellers or Offer for
product-based businesses, Testimonials or Reviews for all those raving reviews you’re
getting, maybe something like Client Love to show the amazing things other people share
about your brand and so much more.
I have a whole video with different ideas for your Highlights.
It’s been created some time ago, but most of the stuff I share there is still very much
relevant so you can watch it after you’re done with this video.
Within your content itself, you have to be clear on exactly who it is that you serve
through your business and help alleviate some of their pain points.
After all, this is how you bring value to the table and showcase your expertise.
Your content should nurture your audience and create trust that’s so needed for any
purchase.
I’m sharing more about the type of content you should create in point 4, but for now,
remember this: What you post should work in harmony with what you offer.
Even if you’re an influencer and don’t sell your own product or service, showing
content that matches the types of brands you want to work with is key to creating a brand
presence that’s going to attract those brands.
Think about it, if you’re a fashion influencer and show a specific vibe, a very specific
style in your content, similar clothing brands will be more likely to work with you.
If there’s a clash there, you’re unlikely to attract the right brand deals.
Remember, if your content is attracting the wrong audience for your offering, then you’re
not going to convert them to clients.
So make sure your content is always crafted with your ideal client in mind and serves
them best.
Identify your content pillars (so the subjects you talk about) that not only support who
you are and what you offer but are also very relevant to the people you want to attract
to your business.
There’s also one point I want to make here and it’s to make sure you have clarity on
the feed.
When someone visits your profile, they can read your bio and look at your highlights,
but inevitably, they’re going to scroll through your profile grid to see what type
of content you create.
If there’s a disconnect between what you sell and what you show on your feed, you’re
not very likely to secure a purchase.
I’ve talked about this in my feed video here, but basically, if you’re a jewelry
store and there are not enough quality images of rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings,
etc., visitors may be confused as to how they benefit from the content and what they can
actually buy.
So before you start applying any tactics to increase sales, take a look at your Instagram
account with fresh eyes and run a mini-audit as if you were your own ideal customer.
Is every single aspect of your presence clearly showcasing your offer?
If not, then fix those as quickly as possible.
If yes, kudos to you, let’s move on to point number 2…
2.
Calls to Action
If you want to sell on Instagram, you have to ask for the sale.
How do you ask for it?
With a strong call to action of course.
Luckily on Instagram, we have a few places where we can prompt the followers to make
that crucial decision and buy from you.
First of all, let’s get back to the bio.
If you’re selling anything, be it a product or a service, it needs to be a part of your
link tree or a sole link if that works for what you offer.
But simply having a link there is not enough to encourage the sale to happen, so you need
to verbally direct the visitors of your profile to actually click on it.
By the way, this is a mistake that I see very often within bios on Instagram.
People may have a link included in there, but nothing points to it, there’s no prompt,
no invitation, no promise of what that link can get people.
Take a look at these two examples of nail salons here.
With both of these bios, we know exactly what they both offer and it’s a variety of beauty
services with a focus on nails.
However, this profile doesn’t clearly show us how to book.
Sure, we can drop them a DM but what if we don’t want that?
What if we want to find out more, see the prices or just book through a simple booking
form?
See how this can contribute to not actually making a sale?
On the other hand, with this profile, we have the contact and action buttons set up through
the profile which is fantastic, because we can message them on IG, we can contact them
via email or can click the action button.
In this case, it’s the Book now button which is very fitting for the type of business it
is and it takes us straight to the booking site.
But that’s not all, this profile also has a clear call to action in the bio description
saying “Book here” with a finger emoji pointing down right at the link.
Not only does it actually tell the visitor to take that action this business wants them
to take but it also draws attention to the link visually.
In the case of this bio, we have all the bases covered and there’s a clear prompt to get
people to book.
With the first example, the act of booking itself is not made easy for us.
And this is the clue here.
Making the sale easy for the buyer!
That’s why clear calls to action in the bio either through including the text above
the link only or through adding the action buttons as well is so crucial.
If you’re hoping to increase sales on Instagram, this is what you should start with before
you do anything else.
Next, we have calls to action within the content itself.
If you just stick to the bio and don’t ask people to buy from you in your actual content,
then you’re missing out big time.
Let’s start with the fact that people go to profiles less often than they actually
see the content in their feed.
Think about it from your own experience.
How often do you check the profile pages of your favorite creators on Instagram?
That’s why you have to include promotional content in your strategy as well as those
crucial calls to action in other types of posts.
This is how you convert your followers to clients.
Let’s start with CTAs within your video content.
This is often overlooked but calls to action like this can have a powerful impact on your
conversions.
Videos are more stimulating and engaging in any case so why not direct that energy to
produce a sale?
Of course, we all know the classic “follow me for more tips” in Reels which is a way
to convert too, because conversions are not always about a monetary gain, but can be about
converting a viewer to a follower.
But if you want to gain a client, then you should consider creating promotional content
in video format with a strong call to action included within that video.
It’s not just about the trending sounds or the educational Reels.
It’s so important to create videos that showcase your offer and how people can benefit
from it.
Just look at Nina Walder @ninawalder here, she’s doing this absolutely perfectly.
First, she speaks to her audience emotionally by highlighting a pain point, then creatively
shows a transformation that they will achieve after joining her program, finishing off with
a strong call to action to sign up.
A beautifully executed promotional Reel with real value to her audience.
In the same way, you can include a call to action on the last slide of your carousel
or within your graphic content if it works for the type of post you’re creating at
that moment.
Now, let’s move on to captions.
Every single caption should have at least one or two calls to action.
Take a look at this example right here from one of my recent posts.
First, I like to include a CTA for engagement which is still an important part of nurturing
your audience and building a community over time because this in the long run can contribute
to making them your clients too.
It worked for me in this case because I got quite a few comments expressing excitement
which is great.
But for all those people that may be ready to buy from you right now, include a call
to action to point them in the direction of the sale as well.
Now, in my case, I wanted people to sign up on the waitlist for my upcoming Canva course,
so this is what I included here, but it would work the exact same if this was about a purchase
straight away.
By the way, shameless plug here, because I practice what I preach, if you want to master
Canva and create better content for your business and social media then head on over to the
description box and sign up on the waitlist today through the link there!
I hope it’s clear to you how important calls to action are and to recap, make sure you
include them in your bio, in your captions and in the actual content itself.
3.
Optimize for DMs
DMs are the perfect way to nurture your followers and seal the deal on those sales.
If you often get questions or get asked for help in your DMs, this is the perfect opportunity
to move people into your sales funnel.
As an example, you can point them in the direction of your resource or a lead magnet which helps
with the particular problem and then moves them to a newsletter where you can really
nurture the relationship and convert to a sale.
Or, you can simply talk about the product or the service that’s perfect for them right
then and there.
This is why it’s crucial to optimize for DMs.
Adding to my previous point, this can actually be done by, again, asking for it through a
call to action.
As you can see from the previous example, my CTA was for people to DM me to get the
link and it worked very well.
Not only did I get a good bunch of sign-ups from this particular post but it also improved
my chances of being shown by the algorithm.
This happens because when people DM me, it’s a clear sign to the algorithm that people
interact and engage with my profile and this leads to a better ranking of my posts overall.
Ref: [https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/shedding-more-light-on-how-instagram-works](https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/shedding-more-light-on-how-instagram-works)
Another way to get more DMs is to use the question sticker in Stories.
Whenever someone answers a question like this, you not only get it in the story insights,
in the responses tab, but you can actually reply to it which means you’re actively
messaging that person back in your DMs.
It’s a great way to start conversations especially when you’re strategic with your
questions.
By the way, if you’d like me to record a video on some smart question ideas you can
use in your story sticker, let me know down in the comment below!
Of course, one of the ways to get more DMs is to actually DM people yourself.
And I don’t mean coming in hot with a super cold sales pitch but engaging with people
in a meaningful way.
I have a whole video about a short engagement routine you can follow yourself to build an
engaged community around your profile so make sure you watch it next.
All that being said, I understand that DMs can be tough to handle if you’re receiving
a lot of them.
I have two tips for you to save you some time and make replying to them effortless.
First of all, set up your inbox with Saved Replies and Frequently Asked Questions to
have those crucial answers ready at hand whenever you get an inquiry.
When you go to your messages, tap the three dots in the top right corner next to the new
message icon and choose tools.
From here, you’ll be able to set up both of them.
For Frequently Asked Questions, you can choose 4 that are going to show up whenever someone
tries to message you.
This way, they can just choose the question from the list and have it answered immediately,
removing a ton of friction both for them and for you.
From the message tools, you can also choose Saved reply which is so useful because it
lets you set up a keyboard shortcut and a full reply to use with that keyword.
After you set it up, you’ll simply have to type this short keyword to be able to pull
up your full message.
Trust me, this saves a ton of time in the long run!
If you have a lot of traffic in the DMs, the second tip would be to use direct message
automation tools like ManyChat or Chatfuel.
Both of these are partners of Meta which means your profiles are safe.
The way they work, among other things, is that they allow you to create flows that trigger
a flow of messages after someone messages with a specific keyword.
I don’t use it personally because I don’t need it yet, but I know I will in the future.
What this would look like with my example would be that if someone messaged me saying
“Canva”, they would get a message that I would have set up saying something like
oh, I’m so happy you’re interested in the course, here’s the link, you can sign
up here, let me know if you have any questions, you get the drill.
It’s a very cool addition to your sales funnel because again, it reduces the friction
for both you and the client and saves a ton of time.
4.
Create Content that Supports Sales
If your goal for content marketing is to increase sales, then every piece of content you create
needs to reflect that.
Of course, our customers can be at different stages of their journey so not every post
is going to have conversion as the main objective.
After all, there will be people who have just found out about your brand, people who are
ready to buy from you for the first time or your actual clients who are looking to be
served again in a different way.
Different stages of our customers’ journey call for different types of content and it
can be a really exciting way to approach content creation in general.
Let’s look at those stages.
We’re starting off with **awareness** which is the point when people are looking for solutions
and researching options.
I’ll give you an example of an Instagram account for a yoga teacher.
At the awareness stage, you can have someone browsing Instagram to find a yoga school nearby,
look for ways to improve their asanas, things of that nature.
When your profile and content are of much value and optimized for search (by the way,
check out this video to improve your Instagram SEO), they’re likely to bump into your post
or account and stick around for more.
After consuming your content for some time, they may think, hey, I get a lot from this
person, wouldn’t it be fun to learn from them directly?
This is is the **consideration** stage when the potential customer is actually contemplating
making a purchase from you.
Once they do more research, find out what the benefits of the offer are, and consume
even more valuable content from this yoga teacher’s account, then they’re finally
ready to buy.
This is the **conversion** stage.
When they’re happy with the purchase, maybe they become a more active part of your community
on IG, and engage with your content regularly, they may be coming back for more and buying
more classes or more e-books, or yoga courses, then it’s the **loyalty** stage when the
one-time buyer becomes a returning customer loyal to the brand.
Finally, with extended experience and many touchpoints with the brand, this person may
be inclined to actively recommend the brand to others, both privately to friends and family
and publicly through their social media posts.
This is the **advocacy** stage a.k.a.
the dreamland for any business owner.
For each of these stages, you can create unique content that’s going to accelerate this
journey for potential customers and keep them moving from one stage to the next.
With the awareness stage, you can create SEO-optimized posts educating your audience, solving their
problems and providing them with quick wins.
Staying with the yoga teacher example, this could mean an educational Reel showing 5 tips
for downward facing dog or a carousel that you collaborate on with another creator from
the same or similar niche, which means they’re both tapping into their respective audiences.
And by the way, the Collabs feature which is what I’ve just described, Instagram Lives
and Reels are fantastic to bring you more traction and increase brand awareness.
I highly recommend you use those features to get more eyes on your content, profile
and offer.
For the consideration stage, the yoga teacher could post a Reel with a cute moment from
a class or a post sharing an inspiring story from their journey, making this person relatable
and building relationships with the audience.
This stage is all about connecting deeper and nurturing your audience and it’s so
crucial to the next step, conversion.
Here, it could be something like a Reel showing an impressive client transformation over the
span of one year of practicing, sharing testimonials through Stories and showcasing the benefits
of a particular type of yoga class, or explaining the offering in a carousel.
Remember Nina’s amazing promotional Reel I mentioned in point 2?
That’s the perfect example of a piece of content that converts followers into clients.
For those returning customers, your loyal fanbase or the most engaged advocates, it’s
all about appreciating them, being openly grateful and encouraging them to buy again
or spread a good word about you to their community.
All of that can be expressed or achieved through content.
The yoga teacher could post about new ideas for how to use a specific product like a yoga
circle which can serve the existing clients with more post-purchase education.
There could be a Reel showing advanced pose tips while promoting an advanced class.
They could also go the extra mile and offer a discount for posting a review to customers
who bought from them previously and then use that review on Instagram for social proof.
The circle closes.
You’re constantly bringing awareness to your brand, nurturing, educating, building
relationships and promoting your offer in many different ways.
Each piece of content you share becomes a crucial puzzle in your strategy, bringing
people closer to making a purchase.
Notice how not all of the examples I’ve shown before are purely promotional?
Yes, there is a time and place for those kinds of promotional posts.
Heck, I’d even go ahead and say most people don’t sell enough through their content
in this direct way!
But the key here is to target all the different needs of your ideal audience at the different
stages of their journey within your business.
And one thing that I want to emphasize here is that selling your unique offer that solves
your tribe’s problems is actually a high level of serving.
By the way, if you want me to create a video on the customer journey in the context of
content marketing in more depth, let me know in the comment below!
There’s honestly a lot more than I can talk about here so I’d be curious to know if
a video like this would be helpful to you.
5.
Create Shoppable Posts
If you want to increase Instagram sales, you have to make it easy for people to buy from
you.
That’s why you have to set up an Instagram shop if you’re selling products.
What this does is that it allows you to tag specific products in your posts and people
can simply tap on them and be redirected to your website where they can buy this product
right this very moment.
The great news is that products can be tagged in Instagram Stories, Reels, Guides, and even
Lives which gives you a great variety of options for shoppable content.
To set up an Instagram Shop, you need a professional account (not a personal one) on Instagram
that’s connected to your Facebook page and a Business Manager account through Meta so
that you can get the shop going within the Commerce Manager.
With these shoppable tags, your promotional posts can be super engaging.
Be creative with this type of content because you want to stop the scroll and focus attention
on the product.
This is super important with Reels because if done correctly, they not only reach outside
of your following but also engage people uniquely to drive more sales.
Imagine how many possibilities you have with shoppable Reels.
You could create a fun stop-motion animation for an eye-catching promo and to bring your
products to life, you can use fun transitions using your products, show transformations
before and after.
You know, things like short footage of a boring office set up with a great transition to that
same room beautifully lit by really funky, decorative candles that set the mood instantly
and make you want to buy them to spice up your own home.
What ultimately sells is powerful storytelling speaking directly to your customers’ needs
and if you make it easy to then just tap and buy within Instagram itself, you’re increasing
the chances for you to actually make that sale.
Tell me, is your Instagram profile ready to get more sales?
Which point made you think the most?
Let me know in the comments down below!
Now, optimizing your IG for sales is one thing, but without a strong content strategy that
attracts the ideal client, you’ll be blind!
I’m confident this video right here is going to help you build your own strategy step by
step and really understand who your client is and how best to serve them.
Hit that subscribe button for more juicy content like this, give me a thumbs up if you’ve
enjoyed this video, thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you… next time!