.Instagram continues to go from strength to strength. While it may not match Facebook in terms of reach, over a billion people use the platform every month, enamored by its focus on visuals and strong opportunities for growth. Instagram’s influence can be felt across so many aspects of pop culture, from fashion to language to how we act before a meal. There is a unique engagement factor to Instagram, particularly with younger users, that it’s essential businesses harness.
There’s no reason your WordPress business shouldn’t be embracing Instagram sales channels. In 2019 130 million users clicked on a shoppable Instagram post, highlighting the reach potential. The platform has heavily embraced shopping channels and features in recent years, with everyone from independent businesses to global brands realizing strong sales growth through these services.
What is an Instagram sales channel?
An Instagram sales channel connects your WordPress website to your business Instagram account. This allows you to make your posts, including paid ads, shoppable with the addition of shopping tags and links. These posts are noted by a white shopping bag logo in the corner of the post or a sash running along the bottom of the image.
Integrating an Instagram shopping channel is common sense for WordPress businesses such as ecommerce stores, but what are some of the main reasons why?
It’s essential for succeeding in ecommerce
A multi-channel strategy is essential to the success of a modern ecommerce store. Today’s online market is highly competitive with numerous ways to sell. It is harmful for the growth of your business to restrict your sales to simply coming through your own WordPress website.
Instagram has a huge prospective customer base who are part of a generation accustomed to shopping in new ways. This audience is more familiar with the product coming to them through their preferred platforms, rather than visiting a store on their own accord. This new method of shopping is all about streamlining the process, so embrace shopping channels to make sure your ecommerce store thrives.
Access to a huge and engaged user base
Instagram’s base is very loyal to the platform and makes visiting it part of their day. Using an Instagram sales channel is important because it helps you grab an audience who are not browsing in a conventional manner. As the majority of Instagram users browse the platform through the phone app the journey to another website is not as obvious. If you aren’t using Instagram as a sales channel there is almost no potential for a customer journey to your WordPress website from the platform.
This is why embracing shoppable posts is essential. They push the most direct link to your website in front of the user’s eyes while they’re in a more casual, browsing state of mind. This type of user is happy to be distracted and embrace visiting new websites that their favorite app is suggesting for them.
When you first set up a business Instagram account amassing a strong following seems almost impossible. There are a number of ways you can achieve this though, and you should never pay for followers to appear more popular. There are apps aplenty designed solely for building follower numbers on Instagram by helping you filter your target audience and create content that appeals directly to them.
Perfect for visual businesses
Visuals come first on Instagram. If you’ve invested in smart brand development you should already have the basic elements down, such as logo, font and brand colors. While this is an essential part of web design, these visuals will be put to better use on Instagram and play an important part in making a sales channel successful.
Businesses with a strong visual identity and products, such as fashion brands, can’t afford to miss out on an Instagram sales channel. These types of purchases are decided so heavily on the quality of their visuals, with images having much more impact on an eventual sale than descriptions or price. Using these visuals on a platform that puts so much emphasis on photography is just common sense. It’s a natural and creative way to make use of one of the best assets of your business.
Integrating is simple
Integration with Instagram as a sales channel is incredibly simple for WordPress websites, and that’s reason enough alone why you should look into using it. The process can be automated through a number of popular apps and plugins created just for this function. This saves you time and allows you to operate the process all from one place. Find a simple way that offers features vital to your business.
Help build brand and customer relationships
Without some level of presence on Instagram, a business can feel somewhat dated and out of touch. A brand is essential for the modern shopper, who is more interested in associating themselves with specific brands than finding the most affordable or practical option. Instagram is one of the best ways to build yourself as a brand, and shoppable posts are a great way to do this.
Through using Instagram as a sales channel you can shape the perception of your brand and what you mean to your customer base. To build your customer base you need to be able to build relationships. Instagram has a cool factor, it’s casual and relatable. Even by posting obviously sales-oriented content you can develop this relationship and strengthen your brand.
How to make the most of your Instagram sales channel
So exactly what steps do you need to take to get the most out of Instagram as a sales channel?
Set realistic goals
What do you want to achieve through using Instagram in this way? You should ask yourself this question before any campaign. Think about what is realistic based on the size of your audience, the current perception of your brand and the sellability of your products. If you aren’t necessarily a perfect fit for the platform you may not see instant success, and should first invest in building up an audience.
Set engagement and sales goals before you launch your campaign to help determine it’s additional factors.
Paid or free?
Both paid and free campaigns can be shoppable and have their own unique benefits. A paid campaign may be more useful if you’re new to Instagram and are looking to build up an audience, while free posts with a shoppable tag are ideal for launching new projects to already engaged fans.
Create great content
There’s nothing Instagram loves more than great content. It’s how all those influencers built their fan bases and it’s still true of the platform today, no matter how many things and changed and developed over time. What exactly great Instagram content looks like is up for debate. And changes from the audience to the audience, so you need to find out what suits your audience and is likely to make them want to shop.
Shoppable content isn’t all that different from regular Instagram posts. The same rules apply; images should be well shot, visually appealing and clear about what they want you to focus on. Keep things simple with shoppable posts and stay consistent with your brand and you’ll find lots of users clicking through.
Instagram sales channels tips
Let’s take a look at some common ways sales channels are leveraged on Instagram. And how they further make a case for why you should be integrating it with your WordPress business.
Blending into the feed
Many of the best shoppable Instagram ads don’t feel like ads at all. Blending into the feed and feeling natural within it is one of the best things a sales post can do. Your WordPress business will find success by using Instagram sales channels as a regular user would.
This doesn’t mean hiding the fact you’re a business, but rather creating content that feels natural. Rather than plain product imagery, images that look like snapshots of the real world are generally much more successful ads. This is because they allow the user to imagine the product in their own life. They also capture the attention on their own merits, not getting passed over as simply promotional content.
Ease of shopping
Shoppable posts thrive on the ease of service they offer. One of the reasons businesses see such sales success on Instagram is because it’s a matter of one click and you’re purchasing. Attention spans are getting shorter. And people will become frustrated if they have to jump through too many hoops to view something.
A post that makes it clear just how easy it is to shop and then offers a direct link to the product it’s offering is always going to be more successful at converting. Simplicity is key in so many things, and Instagram sales channels are no different.
Instagram shows no sign of slowing down. Their newest features have all been smash hits and made things easier than ever for businesses on the platform. Not only is it one of the best ways to build a brand. But it’s sales channels functions are so streamlined and easy to use that you’re almost guaranteed to see improved sales and engagement with your WordPress website.
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