I know.
You're a product-based business and it just feels like you're not getting the
love here when it comes to Instagram how-tos for your business model.
If you're a product-based brand and you're feeling out of sorts here on
Instagram,
and you just need to know the basics of getting started to actually grow your
business here on Instagram, you're in the right place.
Because in this video I'm covering the four steps you need to take to get your
product brand on Instagram.
And I'm not just talking about creating your account.
You probably already have an account.
What I'm going to cover in this video is your profile, your content strategy,
your engagement strategy, and your sales strategy. Let's dive in.
As a product business, the very first step you need to look at is your profile.
Your profile is your first impression to a potential follower and
customer. So for this step,
I recommend that you look at a few of my other videos in terms of a profile
makeover and how to write a bio for your business.
But to give you a little teaser, a little taste of what I cover in those videos,
what I'm going to do is actually pull open a profile on my phone.
It's a product-based business,
and I'm going to quickly review the profile and showcase areas that could use a
little improvement.
So here I have IQ power tools up on my phone and the brand
name is the username. So that's great. The name field says the same thing.
IQ power tools.
So instead of repeating your username or your brand name,
you can actually include keywords here that your target follower would
be searching for on Instagram. So power tools is probably a great keyword,
but maybe you want to include California, your location,
or maybe you want to include power tools rentals if that's what you do,
if you rent or lease or sell.
So there's some opportunity in the name field to get a little bit more specific
in terms of what people are searching for on Instagram,
your profile picture looks great. It's not too busy of a logo.
Oftentimes product-based businesses will put a really busy logo there,
but because you just have the IQ, it's easy to see.
And if ever you're in doubt about whether your logo is too busy to be a profile
picture, go with a lifestyle image.
So go with the best image that really summarizes what your product does for
people, the lifestyle benefits, it brings, whatever it is.
If you're a pizza shop, make it the best pizza picture you have on file.
You can always go with a lifestyle image if you're not sure about your logo,
then with your bio. I like to say in the first line who you help and how.
So here it reads,
"helping contractors turn the mess and wasted time into money and safer job
sites." I think that's fairly clear.
Second line is what makes you unique and different?
So this bio reads 20,000+ contractors have gone dustless.
Okay.
So dustless - meaning that must be a benefit of the products that you
offer. I'm not in your target market.
So I'm just making an assumption based off this first impression,
but you want to be really clear about why your customers choose you over someone
else. Who's a competitor in your industry.
And then the last line is a call to action as to what's in it for them to take
action. So you have DM today to find a dealer near you.
I think that's fairly compelling.
If you ever have a discount or some sort of promotion running,
you can also change that last line in your bio to feature that. Okay.
So that was just a really quick profile review.
And I have worked with that profile before, so they had made updates,
but if you're starting from scratch again,
go ahead and check out these videos for more on this topic.
Let's move on to your content strategy for your product brand.
My number one tip when it comes to content on Instagram, whether it's your feed,
content story, content,
video content produce the type of content that Instagram is currently
pushing. And today, as of filming,
Instagram is still pushing Reels. Reels are short-form,
up to 30-second, videos that take up the full screen on your phone.
And to this day, they are just getting the most reach,
the most views of any feature I've seen from Instagram in recent years.
So that's my number one tip. If you're feeling stretched for time,
dump all the other forms of content and just create the type of content that
Instagram is pushing. In this case today it's Reels. And of course,
I've covered this topic already on my channel.
Go ahead and check out my videos on Reels marketing. My second tip,
when it comes to your content strategy is you need to go beyond the message of
buy my product. Boring.
You need to answer the question of what's in it for your customer.
How does your product benefit your customer?
I've gone ahead and come up with a ton of content ideas that you as a
product-based business can create to really show the benefit of your product.
Let me share some of them with you. The first is customer results.
Go ahead and feature your customers and show your product in use with
them just like this Dyson hair care tutorial.
As much as you can create this type of content, do it. Because it's powerful.
Whether you as a company create it or you incentivize your customers to create
it themselves and post it on your behalf.
The second content idea is reviews and testimonials.
Now this could be beautiful video footage like this clip here,
when it comes to Reels,
or it can be a screenshot of an email or a message you got sent in your
DMs about how happy this customer was with your product.
However you get this sort of feedback from your customers,
definitely turn it into content for your feed.
The next idea is how your product works.
This could be a simple product demo or a before and after of your product.
If that's applicable,
don't underestimate the fact that people need to see every single step along the
way.
And these steps are all content ideas that you can turn into Reels or videos
or posts for your feed.
The next content idea is for you to highlight lesser known features of your
product.
Go ahead and share the small details that some customers might not have picked
up on, or the things that really surprise and delight people.
Go ahead and turn these parts of your products into content.
The next content idea is tried and true on Instagram,
and it's a lifestyle photos or lifestyle imagery show your product in
use in your customer's hands or hire models if you need to.
The point is you want to create content that makes your product feel real and
tangible as much as possible through social media.
Another tried and true content idea is user generated content.
How can you incentivize your customers to document their experience as your
customer, and then share that content either in their feed or share it with you
privately so you can repost it?
You want to get creative here because user generated content is powerful.
It's like your customers are recommending your product to their followers,
to their group of people, their friends, and that,
that is where a lot of sales come from.
The next content idea is to showcase the process of how your product is made.
I know it sounds like maybe this would be boring,
but this type of content does really well on Instagram.
People love to see the creation process and the behind the scenes that go
into creating that product that they're hopefully holding in their hands at that
moment. So go ahead and showcase this process.
The next content idea is to show someone whether it's you or a team member
packing an order. Again, this might sound like it would look boring,
but it's a proven type of content from YouTube and from Instagram
people like seeing the packaging and the boxing process that goes
into sending products out around the world. So show it to them.
And on that note, a really popular type of content is unboxing content.
So that could be a great type of content to encourage your customers,
to create for you. The last content idea I have for you is to create memes.
Memes are doing so well on Instagram because people love a laugh.
So if you can find or create a meme and connect it back to your industry or
product - amazing. That post is probably going to do really well for you. Now,
my last tip,
when it comes to your content strategy is to include a call to action.
Where can they find that amazing product?
Hopefully you have the Shops tab set up on your profile and for more
information on how to do that, check out this video here.
But you want to make it really clear of how they can shop that product
and buy it. So make it clear in your call to action. Next,
let's talk about an engagement strategy for your product business.
My first tip here is to keep the conversation going. Don't let things die.
What do I mean by that?
I'm talking about replying to comments that you get on your posts.
I'm also talking about looking at the stories of targeted followers or
potential customers, replying to those stories, and then generating a DM thread,
a private conversation thread.
That's where a lot of relationships and sales happen.
I also want you to reshare content that your customers have created about
you, about your product, reshare it to your feed. Maybe it's a tagged story.
Maybe they feature your product in a post.
Don't be too precious about your feed or your aesthetic.
Go ahead and share those customers. Shout them out,
share their content with your audience and keep that conversation going.
My second engagement tip is to engage directly with your customer,
right at the point of sale. What do I mean by this?
It's safe to assume that not all of your customers are following you on
Instagram. So when you are shipping out product,
when you are getting it into their hands,
include a call to action for them to find you on Instagram.
And give your customers incentives to share about you on social media,
maybe a certain type of share gets them a discount,
or you can think about incentivizing them to follow you. If they follow you.
Maybe that qualifies them for a discount or a freebie.
My last engagement strategy is to collaborate.
Think about influencers in your niche, in your space, who you can work with,
whether that's sending them free product in exchange for a shoutout or paying
them for shouting out your business.
If that sounds like too much work or too complicated for where you're at right
now, you can also look at cross-promoting with another business.
So think of a business who attracts a similar audience as yours,
but they of course don't offer the same thing,
because that would make you competitors.
Think about someone who attracts a similar audience,
and maybe you can both cross promote or shout each other out for a day.
And another way that you can collaborate with others and boost your engagement
is to host a giveaway. It could be a simple product giveaway.
Typically giveaways generate a lot of engagement in a short period of time.
If you are interested in hosting a giveaway,
I do recommend that you Google the gaming rules and laws for your state
or province because they do vary. And speaking from experience.
It's really good to have that information before you go ahead and launch a
giveaway last but not least. Let's talk about your sales strategy.
My first tip here is to decide on one product to feature at any
given time. What? Elise, I have hundreds of products.
I know it feels counter-intuitive, but when you focus on one product at a time,
it's kind of like a mini launch and it really makes it memorable for people.
I don't want to see a Cheesecake Factory of hundreds or thousands of products.
Because if there are too many options,
I'm likely not going to choose any one of them. So make it simple for me.
Tell me what it is that I want to buy by featuring one product at a time.
My second sales strategy tip is to set up shoppable tags. If you haven't yet,
this is a powerful built in feature within Instagram.
It's like a gift that Instagram has given product-based businesses.
So go ahead and set up your Shop.
Check out this video right here for all the how-tos.
My third sales tip is to utilize the direct messages.
If you've seen any of my videos before you know that I talk about this a lot and
that's because the relationships are in the DMs and that's where your customers
are.
So for my full strategy on how to use direct messages to sell,
then check out this video right here. Last but not least,
I want you to use the swipe up feature - even without 10,000 followers.
"What?" Yes, it's possible.
Now you can get the swipe up feature without 10,000 followers in two ways.
The first is when you have an Instagram Shop set up and you're actually able to
connect to products that are in your catalog. And when doing this,
you'll see the swipe up feature in your stories. The second way involves IGTV.
And for that strategy, if you're into IGTV,
which is long-form video content, go ahead and check out this video right here.
If you've made it this far into the video, take action. Don't delay.
Don't let this overwhelm you. It literally is one step at a time.
You figure it out, you see results and you keep going. I mean,
take a look at some of my students and their results.
They own product-based businesses, just like you.
And they are getting some mega results back to their business. Lonnie,
for example, who is an artist,
had about a thousand dollars in revenue in one month.
Just by using some of my strategies,
the next month Lonnie had $15,000 in sales.
So it's possible take the momentum you're getting from this video and take
action. Now,
one area of your content strategy that we didn't cover was your caption
strategy. That is a whole topic, in and of itself,
but I've actually put something together for you that gives you 300
done-for-you caption templates.
This is all inside of my product called Caption Vault.
Inside of Caption Vault,
you get 300 caption templates covering three business models - coaching,
services, and yes, products.
If you would like to have a hundred done-for-you captions written specifically
for a product-based business,
then go ahead and head to captionvault.co to check it out.
To ease and revenue. I'll see you in the next video.
Thanks for watching today's video on how to get started on Instagram as a
product-based business. If you liked it,
go ahead and hit the subscribe button and the bell so that you don't miss any
future trainings. Just like this one.