So, you decided to build an online store from the ground up.

Understandably, your main goal is to create a brand your target audience won’t be able to forget. To get closer to achieving your goal, you built an e-commerce website, filled it with high-resolution, quality product images, created an About page content… you made a logo and did all the little steps you need to take to make a high-converting, responsive online shop.

You then started promoting your brand on social media, to give your target audience a chance to get to know your brand. After a while, you got over 1,000 or 2,000 followers across your social media channels and started noticing that you have a small but rather engaging fan base that loves seeing updates from your brand. Seeing how active your followers are, it made you decide to google “selling on social media” or “how to sell on Instagram” and you found out that a lot of well-known names in your industry use social media not only to promote but to sell their products. So, you thought to yourself 一 “Why shouldn’t I boost sales using social media channels?”

We say: go for it!

Did you know that 54% of social browsers use social media to research products? Knowing this, it is pretty clear that you need to put your efforts into creating a social media strategy that will help you increase sales.

To encourage you to start taking social media seriously, we decided to write about 5 hacks you can use to drive sales using your brand’s Instagram account. We decided to skip on the usual tips like “reach out to influencers” or “do a giveaway” and included the ones that are not so well-known but work like a charm. Here are the those “how to sell on Instagram” hacks:

Disclaimer: Themes Kingdom team is not affiliated with any of the mentioned tools in this post nor do we earn a commission if you end up using and/or purchasing any of the tools referral links in this blog post. We merely wanted to name some services that can help you drive sales using Instagram.

How to sell on Instagram 一 hack #1: Remind users they left something in the cart

If you have been going through our blog posts recently, you might bumped into an article covering 8 tips to reduce shopping cart abandonment. In that post, we mentioned that you could never be 100% sure why visitors decided to leave your site mid-purchasing. For example, in some cases, users get annoyed by poor payment options or high shipping costs and choose to close the tab. In others, they remembered your competitor’s product (which is similar to yours) and decided to check out the competitor’s site. There are so many reasons why users choose to abandon the shopping cart.

Whatever the reason may be, it’s up to you to encourage users to pick up where they left off. You can do so by using your brand’s Instagram account and with the help of Instagram ads.

All you need to do is create an ad which is targeted to the users that added products to their shopping carts and left your online store. This hack is known as retargeting (or remarketing) and is pretty effective 一 so much so that 91% of marketers have found that retargeting performs the same as or better than email, or other display ads.

How to create a retargeting ad

So, what do you need to do to retarget the users? Well, the first step you need to take is to define the audience of the ad, that is, the users that chose to close the tab on your site. To do so, you’ll need to add Facebook Pixel to the Facebook Ads Manager. Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that you put on your website to track the users that got to your site. The second step is designing the ad and the third defining its budget and duration.

When it comes to designing an ad, you need to remember that the design of the visuals you include in the ad is dependent on your brand’s colors and aesthetic. Also, be sure to remember that Instagram is all about attractive, stunning imagery. So, if you are selling hats, you will probably include some gorgeous photos of your products and check the Shop Now button in your ad. (If you need a bit of inspiration creating the ad, be sure AdEspresso’s article on 10 best Instagram ads in 2018.)

Ad budget and duration depend on how much you are willing to spend, so we’ll leave this step up to you to decide.

If you need help creating this type of ad, be sure to check out the article on Social Media Examiner.

How to sell on Instagram 一 hack #2: Use the correct hashtags

As you might know, Instagram allows you to add up to thirty hashtags per post. Use this information wisely and add relevant hashtags to all your posts to get exposure and connect with followers that could be interested in buying your products.

So, how can you find the perfect hashtags?

Let’s imagine that you are selling purses, handbags, and backpacks. To find the hashtags to promote your products, all you need to do is type in the search bar of your brand’s Instagram account the keyword, “handbags”, and click on the Tags option. When you do the search, you’ll see a list of popular hashtags, like #handbags, #handbagstyle, #handbagsonline, #handbagsale, etc. Once you’re done with the searching, write up to fifteen hashtags that go well with your products and include them in the posts. Just be sure to use the ones that are relevant for the post 一 the ones that make sense adding them to the post. Additionally, don’t overuse hashtags. Otherwise, the post copy will seem too clogged.

Bonus tip: One of the greatest “how to sell on Instagram” hacks is creating branded hashtags, to promote products, a new collection, or events. Branded hashtags are most commonly created when a brand is running a contest, a giveaway or is interested in getting user-generated content. To do so, you need to do is come up with a short and memorable hashtag that contains the name of your brand or one of your products.

How to sell on Instagram 一 hack #3: Create promotions only for IG users

Let’s say you want to organize a sale. Naturally, you would promote it on social media using some breathtaking visuals, mentioning the discount code and which products are on sale across social media channels. However, what if you organized an Instagram-exclusive promotion?

By organizing such a promotion, you will offer exclusive deals for your Instagram followers and show just how much you appreciate them. This move will make the followers feel “special”, and it will encourage users to closely follow your IG account since you are, obviously, pretty active on this channel.

Bonus tip: If you are going to offer Instagram-exclusive promotions, be sure to make that clear on other social media channels to get the users to migrate to Instagram.

How to sell on Instagram 一 hack #4: Keep an eye on the analytics

Instagram’s Insights are all you need to when you want to engage followers and sell more products.

So, what should you look for in the Insights section? Well, the first thing you should check out is the Audience tab, to get an insight into when the followers are on ‘gram. By doing so, you can plan the posts around the time most of your followers are online, so that you can remind them of your products. The second thing you should keep an eye on are the posts that have the most likes and comments, to find out what type of content your audience prefers.

How to sell on Instagram 一 hack #5: Create engaging posts (And nail the post copy)

From time to time, you should create posts that are not necessarily made to boost your sales. You should create posts that are meant to increase users’ engagement and here’s why.

Users rely on their emotions when they are in the process of making a purchase. According to a post on Psychology Today, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that, when doing a brand evaluation, customers rely on their feelings (and experiences) towards the brand rather than product features. This is the reason why you need to work on presenting your brand on social media and offering content that will allow followers to connect with you and get positive feelings.

Now, let’s give you an example of how you can create engaging posts that will get you closer to the followers.

Example

Imagine that you are selling children’s clothes and you want to promote a new baby collection. To increase your sales, you’ll post product images, offering discount codes, and doing all the previously mentioned tricks in this article. However, instead of relying on the product posts only, try thinking of visuals that would connect followers with your brand. You can do so by adding a cute photo of a baby who is waking up, with the caption “To whom you wake up? Good morning to all the moms in the world”, followed by some cute, baby-related emojis and relevant hashtags

By creating these types of posts, you are definitely going to differentiate from your competitors, which will result in more profile visits. Your followers won’t get the impression that you only want to sell products, and they will be able to connect with your brand.

Aaaand… that’s it!

These are all the “how to sell on Instagram” hacks we wanted to share.

We genuinely believe that, if you start applying these hacks, the Revenue section on your website is going to double.

Now, it’s up to you to share your story. Have you tried some of these hacks? Which one is your favorite? Share with us your thoughts in the comments, down below.

3 thoughts on “ 5 #DIY #hacks: How to sell on Instagram ”

  1. Awesome! thank you for the insightful guide on selling on IG 🙂 now I need to customize created promotions to suite IG users.

  2. Pingback: How to find Instagram influencers 101 - Themes Kingdom

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