Grow Your Sales By Promoting Your Shopify Store on Instagram
Instagram has long ceased to be just a platform for sharing pictures and videos. It now offers many features and opportunities that you can leverage to promote your Shopify products.
Since late 2020, Instagram has become a lot more business-friendly after upgrading its “Activity” tab for users and replacing it with the “Shop” tab. There is also the Instagram Shopping feature that allows you to link your Shopify account with your Instagram account.
These features and several others have provided brands, and business owners access to a large customer base, and have made it easier to tap into the commercial side of Instagram.
If you are yet to start promoting your Shopify products on Instagram, then you are missing out on a massive opportunity to reach a larger audience, get more customers, achieve better conversion, and ultimately grow your revenue.
You will learn all the tips and tricks for successfully promoting your Shopify store on Instagram in this post.
Why Your Shopify Store Should Be on Instagram
These days, hardly any business can overlook the need to leverage social media as a tool for marketing products and services.
With Instagram, you can easily showcase your Shopify products in a creative and engaging manner to a larger audience. Many customers now prefer learning about new products and brands through the Instagram Shopping feature and making purchases easily.
Let’s consider MVMT Watches, a Los Angeles-based watch company, as an example.
By implementing a marketing strategy with Instagram, they realized $100 million in revenue in less than five years. They created a business account on Instagram and integrated it with their Shopify store, allowing them to improve their product promotion easily. They have also gained over a million followers on Instagram and have close to two hundred thousand Instagram posts under the hashtag #mvmt.
If you want to replicate the success of MVMT on any scale, then your Shopify store should be on Instagram. If you are not convinced enough, here are a few other reasons why your Shopify Store should be on Instagram.
1. Wide Reach
As of December 2021, Instagram has 2 billion active users, and about 80% of the total number of active Instagram users follow at least a business account. This means that your can reach a large audience by leveraging Instagram. What’s more, you can tap into it at no cost.
Using several available features and supportive tools, you can easily tag your products in posts, open a storefront online and ensure a smooth buyer experience right from the point of discovery to the final point of checkout.
2. Instagram Makes Shopping Easy
Statistics show that 60% of Instagram users search for new products on the platform. A study by Facebook also showed that about 54% of them made a purchase immediately or shortly after discovering a product.
And Instagram makes it easy for shoppers to discover products. This is possible with the clickable shopping bag icon that showcases more information about the product and a “View Products” button that will lead them to your Shopify store (see picture below). This makes the shopping process a very smooth and seamless one for users.
3. Access to Enhanced Product Marketing
Instagram Shopping allows you to generate sales directly to your Shopify store. You get enhanced product marketing by using authentic images and videos.
You can also improve your customer relationships and loyalty with special offers and discounts.
Instagram is an excellent way to get more people to buy more of your products. But, you have to be strategic about it to see results.
How to Set Up Instagram Shopping for Your Shopify Store
To start promoting your Shopify products with Instagram Shopping, you’ll need to take the following steps:
Step 1: Set up Facebook Channel in Your Shopify Store
The first thing you have to do is set up a Facebook Channel so that you can add your Shopify products on there. This will make it possible to tag all the products you have uploaded on your Facebook channel on your Instagram feed and stories.
Step 2: Create an Instagram Business Profile
The next thing is to set up an Instagram Business profile. If you already have a personal account you want to convert to a business account, you can just switch to a business account from the settings menu. If you do not have an account at all, simply fill out the signup form and tap on the “Switch to Business Profile” in the Settings menu.
Note that you cannot use the Instagram Shopping feature if you do not have a business account. To qualify to use the Instagram Shopping feature, you must meet the following Instagram merchant policy requirements:
- Have an Instagram Business account
- This account has to be linked to a Facebook page containing a catalog of your products
- The Instagram Shopping feature has to be available in your region
- You must sell only products and not services
If your business meets all these requirements, you can apply for a review. To do this;
- Go to the Settings menu
- Then go to the Business tab
- Click on the “Sign Up for Instagram Shopping”
- Follow all the necessary instructions and click Submit
This review may take between 2 to 3 days before Instagram approves your request. Once you get approval, you will notice the Shopping option when checking the Settings menu.
Step 3:Turn on Instagram Shopify and Set Your Products on Sale
Immediately Instagram approves and activates your business profile; you have to turn on the Shopping feature to tag images you post to start receiving orders from customers. Here is how to do that:
- Click on Profile Settings
- Next, click Shopping in the drop-down menu
- Click Continue
- Then, link your Facebook Channel to your Instagram business profile, and you are set to start selling.
Step 4: Add Products to Your Instagram Posts
It is important to use high-quality images and high-resolution videos that will catch your audience’s attention. You also want to ensure that you upload your product images with creative and engaging captions that will trigger people to take action. The more attractive your product images are, the more attention you’ll get from your customers.
Remember to tag your products to their respective Shopify links. Keep in mind that you cannot tag more than 5 different products on each of your images or videos.
Ensure that the image name you use on Instagram is the exact one you used on your Facebook channel. Share your images, and you are set to take your orders.
Step 5: Create Instagram Stories
Another avenue you have to sell your product is through Instagram Stories. You can create Instagram stories for your Shopify products to showcase them and give some information about them.
Instagram stories are, however, only visible for 24 hours. You can choose to keep them as highlights to preserve them on your Instagram page indefinitely.
Instagram stories are an excellent way to capture the attention of potential customers, and you can always leverage them to promote your Shopify products.
These are all the steps you have to follow to sell your products on Instagram.
Instagram Features You Can Use To Promote Your Shopify Products
Before considering the strategies top Shopify stores use in marketing their products on Instagram, let us take a quick look at the major tools available to you for driving sales on Instagram:
1. Shoppable Posts
Shoppable posts let customers buy directly through them using product tags you have added. Product tags are similar to tagging other Instagram users in an image or video. The only difference is that you are tagging your Shopify products instead of tagging users.
When customers click on them, they can view your product catalog instead of being led to another user’s profile page. See how Tiffany’s did theirs below:
2. Product Stickers in Instagram Stories
You can use product stickers to tag particular Shopify products in your Instagram Stories. This is similar to how you tag your Shopify products in the regular posts you make to your feed.
3. Shop Tab
The shop tab is an icon on your profile page that people can click on to find all the products you have previously tagged in your Instagram posts. You can easily spot The “shop” tab where the “Activity” icon used to be.
4. Swipe-up Links in Stories
Swipe-up links in Instagram Stories help you drive more traffic to your product landing pages directly from your Stories. However, this feature is only available to Instagram business accounts that have at least 10,000 followers..
5. Instagram Checkout
By enabling Instagram checkout, you allow your customers to buy directly from your Instagram account without going outside the app. As a Shopify merchant, you can set up your Instagram checkout using Facebook channel integration. This provides your customers with an improved buyer experience as it makes it easier for your customers to complete the checkout process quickly.
Now that we have considered the major tools available to you for driving sales for your Shopify store, let us consider a few ways you can implement your Instagram marketing strategy.
How to Implement Your Instagram Marketing Strategy
Posts
This is one of the primary ways to promote your Shopify products on Instagram. Given the highly visual nature of Instagram, you can promote your products using images or videos. While this seems like a pretty easy thing to do, several brands find it difficult to create posts that are pleasing to look at.
To avoid this, pay attention to the following:
- Use high-quality product images: You should consider investing in taking better product images for your Shopify product page and your Instagram page. This makes your product images more appealing to potential customers.
- Display your products in context: To blend into the visual nature of Instagram, you should show your products in context. This means that your videos and images should show your products as part of a lifestyle.
By doing this, your customers will find it easier to relate to your products. For example, if you sell fitness apparel, you can have a model pull off a look wearing your fitness gear and sweating it out at a gym. This will work better than just putting up individual pictures of the items.
- Use appropriate hashtags: Hashtags help increase your brand awareness and show your content to relevant audiences. It makes it easier for customers interested in your niche to find you. By combining a shoppable post with hashtags, your posts will become more visible, and more Instagram users will find them.
- Leverage on collaborations: Several added Instagram features have made it easier for creators and business owners to collaborate. You can collaborate with influencers who have built a reputation to help market your products.
2. Stories
Keeping your customers engaged is one way to ensure that they do not forget about your brand even when they are not on Instagram. When customers are engaged, it builds a sense of belonging and community.
One way to achieve this is through your Instagram Stories. You can educate and entertain your audience with it. You can also post videos that showcase your products. Try out product stickers in stories and play around with them too.
You can even choose to go on a live stream to showcase your products and interact with customers and followers.
3. Ads
If your budget can cover it, you can choose to use Shoppable Instagram Ads to promote your products. This helps widen your target audiences and even reach out to more potential customers who have shown some interest in similar products.
4. Reels
You can get creative with the Instagram Reels feature. With reels, you can make short 30-second videos to showcase and promote your products.
Reels also have an increased chance of appearing on the Explore page, increasing their visibility. You can also tag your products in your reels so that your customers can shop directly.
Tips for Promoting Shopify Products on Instagram
Here are a few tips that will come in handy when promoting your Shopify products on Instagram:
1. Be Creative and Authentic
As tempting as it may, avoid copying the strategies implemented by your competition or other successful Shopify merchants. You have to be unique, creative, and authentic to stand a chance of succeeding at Instagram marketing. .
In doing this, ensure you maintain your brand voice as much as possible. This will help you come off as authentic and unique, hence, bettering your chances of standing out from your competitors.
2. Write Catchy Product Descriptions
Everything you do on your business account and how you do it contributes to the experience buyers get when visiting your page and viewing your products. This includes your product images, your product descriptions, and captions.
Within just a few seconds of seeing your posts, stories, videos, or even your account page, your customers can form assumptions about your brand. This is why you cannot leave things to chance. You have to pay attention to these factors.
3. Post Regularly and Optimize Your Account
To optimize your account, use a nice username, a good profile picture, and a functional bio on your profile page. You can choose to include some keywords from your niche on your profile page. This will make it easier for customers to easily find your business account.
Consider posting frequently too. There is no hard and fast rule to this, but posting during peak periods when most of your followers are online should do the job.
4. Appeal to Customers’ Visual Sense
There are several ways to promote your Shopify products using Instagram Shopping. However, one of the most effective ways to go about it is to appeal to the visual sense of your potential customers. You want to make it easy for them to picture what their lives will be when they use your products.
This means that instead of focusing on the features of your products in your content, you should focus more on the benefits your customers get to enjoy from using your product. You want them to be able to picture how your products make their lives better.
5. Pick a Theme
Choose your brand colors or a theme for your Instagram profile page. This will reflect in your highlights and feed and make your accounts more pleasing to look at. It is an effective way to make a brilliant first impression on people visiting your account. It also helps you communicate your brand’s identity.
6. Use Videos
Video marketing has gained a lot of popularity, and it is now a thing. Using videos strategically will largely influence the success of your Instagram content. There is a higher chance that potential customers will act on video content compared to textual content.
7. Use User-Generated Content
To make your content more relatable to your audience, you can post images or videos of customers who have already bought your product and are using it.
You can also choose to share feedback or reviews from your customers as part of your content. This helps your customers build an increased level of trust in your brand.
8. Offer Discounts and Use Promotional Codes
You can draw in new customers and even retain current customers by providing promotional codes and exclusive deals. People are more likely to make a purchase from stores where they get discount offers, and it even makes them more likely to spend more. That makes it an excellent way to attract more followers and eventually customers.
9. Prioritize Customer Service
Customer service is one of the most important aspects of any business, whether it’s a small eCommerce store or large company, or enterprise. Your approach to customer service can either ruin your business or make you stand out from the competition.
By prioritizing customer service, you can easily build credibility. Your customers will also consider you as being responsive and helpful, and this will go a long way to improving your customer retention.
Conclusion
Instagram is an excellent platform to promote your Shopify store. Promoting your products on Instagram offers tremendous benefits to your Shopify store and your brand.
All you have to do is to put on your thinking cap and follow all the steps and tips shared here. You should start to notice results shortly and even more results in the long term.
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