With more than 800 million users per month, Instagram certainly fits in the holy pantheon of social media platforms as the ultimate app for photo and video sharing. But Instagram is emerging as far more than just a social media platform and extending into a viable sales option.
Stats are predicting Instagram to generate more than $6.5 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2018 – an increase from $1.8 billion generated in 2016. It currently generates billions of dollars in sales for brands, with three times more engagement than Facebook. Using the right strategy, Instagram can elevate your business to effectively funnel customers, generate sales and create brand loyalty. It leads to a lasting and interactive and convenient relationship with your followers and turn them into paying customers. Here are all the tips to Using Instagram As A Sales Funnel.
Integrate With e-Commerce
Sell your products right from the page by integrating with your e-commerce account. This can mean featuring your Instagram photos in your e-commerce account or linking your ecommerce site with a call to action such as “Click Here To Shop” and website link in your bio. This turns any Instagram post into a revenue generating one. While still in early stages, more and more e-commerce stores will come onboard and integrate directly with Instagram. Soon, users won’t have to leave the app to go to an external website.
Plus, if you’re using Shopify you can take it to the next level and use Shop by Instagram to create a shoppable feed on your page.
Collaborate
Working with the right influencers to promote your brand, get impressions and boost engagement is also a great sales avenue. Utilising influencers’ followers is an effective and subtle sales pitch, since it’s a recommendation rather than an outright ad. With the Instagram influencer-marketing industry worth more than $1 billion dollars, it’s definitely a revenue-making path to consider.
Branding Through Your Followers
Though clever strategy and campaigns, you can also encourage and use your followers to promote your brand and interact with your audience. Create a shared hashtag to encourage customers to share photos of your product so you can repost and tag the customer.
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Use Instagram Ads
The most obvious way of capturing customers is through Instagram ads.
Since only 30% of businesses currently use Instagram Ads, it’s worth testing. At the very least, you’ll certainly stand out. Having connected your Instagram page to your business Facebook page, your customised Facebook Ads Manager operates exactly the same; targeting the right buyer and managing your ads with all of the ad-targeting options.
Sponsored Feed Ads
Using photos, video, carousel and slideshows, the standard Instagram Feed Ads can funnel your followers directly to your product, blog post, landing page or website.
Sponsored Single-Image & Single Video Stories Ads
Depending upon the number of followers, you can add links to your stories and add call to actions, interacting with followers to Read More or Swipe Up to check out your product, blog post, landing page or website.
Include Lead Generation Forms
Forms can be used to build email and subscription lists, generate sales leads and ask customized questions. You can download directly from Facebook >here< or directly integrate with your CRM.
