How To Use Instagram To Drive Ecommerce Success

The image-dominated Instagram has grown into one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years, with unique developments to its long list of features bringing in over a billion monthly users.

You don’t need to delve into the data to see how integral Instagram has been to the success of many businesses, from innovative startups to household names. In fact, many small business owners are now opting to use their Instagram page as their main homepage, rather than a traditional website.

If you can build an engaged audience on the platform, you can use Instagram to drive eCommerce success, whether you’re selling second-hand clothes, tech or beauty products. Let’s take a look into how.

Optimize your profile for success

Your first step should be to update your Instagram profile to a business account.

This allows your business to better promote and sell products on the platform while providing invaluable insight into your reach through analytics.

Instagram is a little different from other platforms. The quality of your profile matters more than on Twitter, where audiences usually interact across their personal timeline. Your profile should have a clear bio, consistent imagery and calls to action that encourage clicking the link in your bio or actively searching for the site.

While ads are a good way to get noticed on Instagram, the Shop function has actively transformed the platform into one more focused on eCommerce integration. Opening your shop on Instagram is relatively quick and easy, and offers a direct alternative way of buying for consumers who want to stay on the platform.

Of course, Instagram integration should come on both sides of the coin. While it’s important to set your account up to sell through Instagram, integrating your profile into your online store is equally important. Most leading store builders, such as Squarespace, feature comprehensive Instagram integration options, from icons that link to your page to an automatically updating live feed.

Collaborate with influencers

Love them or hate them, influencers integral part of any Instagram marketing campaign, piloting brand after brand to superstardom by association.

While you shouldn’t pump everything into a celebrity endorsement, the smart use of Instagram influencers can lead to a successful boost in your sales and engagement.

Both big names with thousands of followers and micro-influencers with less clout but a loyal, trusting fan base have their benefits. While a huge name promoting your products on their page can lead to an immediate sales boost, endorsements through creative content on a smaller influencer’s profile can improve your brand awareness in communities. For example, association with a particular influencer can make your brand more prominent in the eco-friendly/sustainability community, opening it up to a lucrative customer base.

It’s important to find the right influencer with the right crossover appeal and brand values. Don’t go against your ethos and sell out to an influencer that doesn’t align with your practices. This can be a PR disaster for your brand and be a negative association that sticks to you forever.

Find unique ways to work with influencers. Rather than simply posing with your product have them record informative videos which stealthily feature them. Create comparison content or interview them about an issue close to their heart, giving the collaboration more value to the average user.

Things to look out for in an influencer include:

• At least 10,000 followers (so they can use the swipe up function)
• Consistent activity
• A strong personal brand identity
• A relationship with their followers (do they interact?)

Make use of the story function

While initially seen as a cheap imitation of Snapchat’s similar function, Instagram Stories have emerged as one of the most powerful features in all of social media, becoming an integral part of many brand’s strategies.

Stories are temporary posts that disappear from your follower’s feed after 24 hours. However, they can be saved as Highlights and posted to your profile. You can use Stories to promote new posts, tag other users, highlight music you’re listening to and (perhaps most importantly) link off of Instagram.

Yes, after years of complaints about not being able to link directly into posts, Instagram answered the prayers of social marketers and made it so you can link directly to a website by swiping up on a story.

Stories are a unique way of telling, well, stories with your brand! They allow you to slowly drip feed information about upcoming products, showcase brand collaborations with video clips and give a snapshot of live events you might be hosting or attending.

Other features your brand should look to make use of include:

• Reels
• IGTV
• Guides

Highlight user-generated content

User-generated content is a brilliant way to celebrate your audience and give them a reason to engage with your brand across social media.

User-generated content can take many forms, such as:

• Images and videos
• Blog content
• Reviews and feedback
• Q&A questions

Seeing examples of other consumers using products or enjoying services reinforces their quality and encourages them to visit your website then and there. Fashion and beauty brands such as Lush do this particularly well, both celebrating their audience and giving users a glimpse into the products in action.

Healthy use of user-generated content makes your Instagram output feel less sales-driven, while also offering a natural link to your website. For example, you could publish a blog written by an avid customer on your site, and use your story to first draw people in with a quote and a picture, before naturally leading them onto your website with a link to the blog.

Use Instagram as a research tool

Using Instagram to drive eCommerce success isn’t just about what you post there and who you collaboration with. Instagram is just as effective as a research tool, offering invaluable insight into your customer base and competition.

Searching popular and relevant hashtags will give you an idea of what people are talking about and how you might use them and the explore page to reach new consumers. You can gather ideas for new content there and notice what is and isn’t working for competing brands.

Using Instagram as a research tool also allows you to get ahead of the curve on the language of social media, relevant influencers and new ways of storytelling that are emerging on the platform.

You might not think emojis and dances are important, but trends come and go very quickly on social media. If you want to position yourself as a reactive brand with your finger on the pulse of online pop culture, it’s important to be aware of these trends right as they’re hitting their peak. In this fast-moving online world, that can rise and fall in the space of a few hours.

If there's any social media platform every eCommerce store should be on, it’s Instagram.

You might think it’s too youth-oriented for your brand or not see the value in partnering with Kardashian-wannabe influencers, but Instagram has made significant strides to accommodate selling on its platform in recent years, along with being one of the very best for audience engagement and storytelling.