14 Instagram Marketing Tips For A Successful Ecommerce Business

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.”
                                                                                                                                                          -Seth Godin

Every brand has a purpose. And behind every purpose, there is a story. As an eCommerce business, you need to tell your story. And, Instagram is the perfect platform for you! 

Instagram has come a long way from being only a photo-sharing app. It has transformed itself into a leading social media marketing platform for consumer brands. It provides a perfect backdrop for experiential marketing. Giving marketers the ability to create engagement, gather fans and followers.

With an Instagram Business account, marketing on Instagram has become easy for eCommerce businesses. With Instagram Insights, Instagram shopping, and many similar features, brands are able to showcase their products and drive traffic to their eCommerce website.

Here are 14 Instagram Marketing tips you should leverage for your eCommerce business. 

Make a killer first impression:

First impression is the last impression. When marketing on Instagram, it is more than true! An average user spends less than 20 seconds to browse through your Instagram profile before moving on to the next one. And, here are four tips for your Instagram marketing you need to do to keep them engaged on your Instagram profile for those 20 seconds. 

• Set your logo or your mascot as your profile picture on Instagram. This will help build brand recognition and recollection leading to brand affinity and engagement. 
• Write a bio that resonates with your brand and appeals to your customers and personas you are targeting. Etsy’s bio not only creates an entrepreneurial appeal to its vendors but also strikes an emotional chord of its customers. A community that supports local businesses (target market) and designers (personas). 

Source: Etsy

• Don’t forget to include your store link. Instagram restricts you to share a link in posts.
  Many eCommerce stores include their store link in the Instagram bio. And, they often update the link to drive traffic to their latest pages or recent promotional pages.
• Keep an eye on the color palette you choose for your Instagram posts. Most eCommerce stores stick to a color palette that compliments their brand guidelines.
  P.S. Your brand colors and guidelines should be appealing to the target audience.

Create an Instagram Marketing Strategy that Aligns to your Business Goals

Honestly, there is no one perfect strategy when marketing your eCommerce business through Instagram. Every business is unique and what works for others, may not work for you.  

Like every other marketing channel, crafting an effective Instagram marketing strategy that aligns with your goals will help you drive traffic to your eCommerce store and boost sales.

So here are 6 Instagram Marketing tips to keep in mind while you create your strategy for your eCommerce store. 

• Plan Ahead:

Most brands share an average of two posts every day. Well, that’s around 60+ posts in a month. So rather racking your brains at the last minute, plan your posts ahead of time. We recommend you have a running inventory of at least 2 weeks of post, calendar for 3 months, and make sure you are prepared for last-minute announcements and pushes.  

Create a strategy that includes your promotional offers, new product launches, etc. Use tools like Hootsuite to create an Instagram marketing strategy calendar and increase your efficiency. 

Download Your Instagram monthly planner for free

• Think Before You Create:

Before you create an Instagram marketing post, think about the purpose of the post. Ask questions like 

1. 1. What is the post about?
   2. Who is the target audience?
   3. Does the post convey the expected message?

You can create posts on tools like Canva, Venngage, etc. It could be a video, meme, gif, or a story about your employee. 

Tip: Posting videos on Instagram gets 21.2% more engagement than a single photo. 

• Use Instagram Shopping Feature:

Instagram made lives easier for businesses with this amazing feature – the shopping feature.  

Source: Fenty Beauty by Rihanna

This may sound unbelievable but major brands saw an astounding 1416% increase traffic to their eCommerce store. 

• Engage with a winning caption:

Your Instagram marketing is incomplete without a winning caption for your posts. Your caption gives your post a background. Either you can pose a question, drive your customer to visit your eCommerce store or engage your visitors or followers in a conversation. 

Source: Nike

And don’t forget this! Keep your caption concise and within 150 characters for better engagement.

• Include Hashtags:

Hashtags play a major role in attracting visitors to your eCommerce store. It simply classifies your content and makes it easier for visitors to browse through posts that have the same hashtag.

It simply classifies your content and makes it easier for visitors to browse through posts that have the same hashtag.

For example, in the recent pandemic situation, #contactlessdelivery is trending on Instagram. Most eCommerce stores are using this hashtag to promote that their business is following a safe delivery protocol and to create a positive mindset. 

Tip: You can only include 30 hashtags per Instagram post. So, ensure you only include ones that are relevant. 

While social media automation tools are great at scheduling your posts, the only drawback is that you need to post Instagram stories manually. 

Plann is also a great Instagram scheduling app that allows you to conduct A/B testing on your photos. It is able to analyze if the colors of the posts would work for you or not. 

Leverage Instagram Insights:

So, now you have got the engine running, you need to know which posts worked and which ones did not.

Use Instagram Insights to track and measure the performance of your marketing efforts.

It also gives you detailed information about the demographics of your visitors. You can gain actionable insights to optimize your Instagram marketing strategy. 

Get Your Influencers:  

Nike is famous for promoting their brand through athletes and is a great example of influencer marketing on social media channels including Instagram. They don’t spend much time focusing on their shoes. Rather, they focus on athletes who push their boundaries in their fields. They simply just do it. This, in turn, creates a powerful brand image in the minds of its customers.

Well, not all eCommerce stores can get celebrities to endorse their brand. That’s where you have got your influencers to do your job. Influencer marketing has become an effective marketing tactic to get people talking about your brand.

Old Navy, a fashion eCommerce store, leverages top fashion bloggers to promote their brand.

Source: Old Navy

Partnering with the right influencers who resonate with your brand and your target audience will boost your traffic to your website.

Experiment with User-Generated Content:

What’s better than your customers talking about your brand on social media?
It is a virtual form of word of mouth. According to studies, consumers trust user-generated content more than other sources. 

Starbucks is an excellent example of a brand that leverages user-generated content on Instagram. 

Source: Starbucks

They consistently share posts tagged by their customers. This builds customer loyalty and increases brand awareness at the same time.

Run Promotions and Giveaways:

Source: Google

Remember Oprah Winfrey’s exhilarating episode where she gave away cars to the entire audience. Her audience was ecstatic! 

Giveaways and Contests are a major brand engagement tactic in Instagram Marketing. Giveaways increase brand awareness and build a strong and loyal customer base. 

Similarly, contests also have a similar effect on your target audience. You can conduct contests like promotional contests, share photos or mention in comments or stories, etc. 

Conclusion

Instagram marketing will help you scale your business if planned and executed effectively. 

To create a stellar Instagram post, here’s a checklist our social media marketing experts at Growth Natives have curated for you.

• Use colors that complement your brand guidelines
• Include videos to increase customer engagement 
• Write a 150-character caption to get better engagement
• Include trending hashtags (up to 30) that are relevant to your brand
• Analyze Instagram Insights consistently 

To get more Instagram Marketing Tips and design your e-commerce Instagram Marketing Strategy, connect with our experts at Growth Natives.