How to Make Instagram Your Best Selling Tool This Holiday Season
Instagram shopping has seen a huge increase over the past couple of years, and is expected to shatter sales records with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic this holiday season. If you own a business and aren’t currently using Instagram Shopping, now is the perfect time to invest. Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered!
Instagram has 1 billion monthly users, 200 million of which visit at least one business profile daily. Furthermore, “more than one in ten users are using the platform specifically to shop or find new products.” With the holidays right around the corner, here’s what you need to know about selling products on Instagram.
Confirm Eligibility
Before you can begin to sell products on Instagram, you need to ensure that your business meets the requirements. There are four aspects that determine eligibility:
Your business is in a supported market
You are selling an acceptable product (for example, the sale of alcohol via Instagram Shopping is strictly prohibited)
Your business complies with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies
You have a website domain from which you sell
Switch to a Professional Account
The first step is making sure you have access to the tools needed to make your Instagram a success. A Business Account is free and available to anyone on the platform. To switch from a personal to a professional account follow these steps: Settings > Account > Switch to Professional Account.
Now that you have a Professional Account, you have the following tools at your disposal:
Insights - Find useful analytics, such as profile visits, impressions, website clicks, daily activity levels and more.
Profile CTA - Make it easy for visitors to head over to your website in a single click.
Story links - Links aren’t clickable on organic feed posts, but if your business meets the 10k follower requirement, you’ll be able to use the “Swipe Up” feature in Stories.
Facebook connection - You can connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts to develop ads in Facebook’s Ads Manager. This will allow you to synthesize your social efforts!
Add Products to Instagram Shopping
Now that you have a Professional Account, you’re ready to publish your products to your page. To get started, go to Settings > Business > Set Up Instagram Shopping. From here, there are a handful of guided steps you’ll need to complete:
Connect your Facebook Page
Upload a product catalog
You have two choices for your products: manage via Facebook’s Catalogue Manager or a verified ecommerce platform partner. If you’re using the Catalogue Manager, this is when you’ll upload imagery and details about your products. For best results, check out these tips for great ecommerce imagery. If you’re using a platform partner, like Shopify, your products will automatically integrate.Complete account review
Once your products are uploaded, you’re ready to get approved. This process typically only takes a few days and may require you to complete a domain verification.Turn on Shopping
When your product catalogue has been reviewed, it’s time to make them shoppable. To do so, go to Settings > Business > Shopping > Product Catalog to connect your Instagram to your products.
Make content actionable
This is the fun part! Once your products are connected to your account, create posts that feature those products that can be tagged—and even purchased—directly from Instagram.
To learn more about this process, check out Instagram’s step-by-step guide.
Run Complementary Ads
Running ads is the most effective way to get your content in front of people for Instagram Shopping, especially if you don’t have a lot of followers. Advertising on Instagram also doesn’t require a huge ad spend, but it’s important that you calculate ROI before investing. We love this free, interactive tool from HubSpot that helps you determine if it’s worth running ads.
Read more about running Instagram and Facebook ads.
Work With Influencers
In addition to running ads, influencer marketing is huge, especially in the ecommerce space. Because of its visual nature, Instagram lends itself well to influencer campaigns, and has even reported that “87% of people say influencers have inspired them to make a purchase.”
Influencer marketing is probably more affordable than you may think. With the average cost between $5 - $10 per 1,000 followers (per post), you can get your products in front of up to 20,000 people in a single post, many of which are new to your brand. This allows you to expand your audience and leverage an influencer’s authority in their niche.
As the holidays approach, experts are predicting a huge growth in online sales: “e-commerce holiday retail sales [are expected] to grow between 25% to 35% from November through January, reaching $182 billion to $196 billion in total.” Additionally, in-store shopping is expected to drop dramatically. Don’t let the opportunity to sell your products on Instagram pass you by this holiday season!