Why should you set up an Instagram shop?
If you have a product business, getting your products in front of new customers is the key to growing your business. Something that can help with this is to set up an Instagram shop.
An Instagram shop allows you to import your products from your website or Etsy account and will allow you to tag your products in your posts, reels and stories. This way your customers can browse and purchase your products directly from your Instagram posts and also it gives you a shop tab on your profile so your followers can view your full catalogue of products.
Latest Instagram update for product businesses
In April 2022 Instagram also announced that they were updating the product tagging feature so that anyone can tag your products in their posts too. This feature is only for accounts that have a shop, so setting up an Instagram shop is more important than ever to get your products in front of more people and encourage your customers to tag your products in their posts.
If you don’t have an Instagram shop set up I have created this handy free guide, the 5 steps to setting up an Instagram shop which you can sign up for a get set directly to your emails to get started today.
How to market your Instagram shop
Having an Instagram shop will not lead to more sales if you do not have the correct marketing strategy for your account.
On average only 5%-10% of your followers will see your organic posts (organic refers to any post you create for free on Instagram, not through advertising)
5 top tips for marketing your business on Instagram
- Consistency – Instagram is more likely to show your posts to your followers if you post consistently, this does NOT mean posting every day. Pick a number of posts a week that is manageable and realistic for you and stick with it, it’s much better to post once a week every week than 2-3 posts in one week and then nothing for the rest of the month
- Experiment – Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app, there are so many different ways of posting, photos, videos, reels, stories, and lives. Test different types of posts and see which ones you enjoy making and which your followers engage with the most. All of your businesses are unique and so are your followers so see which ones work for you and your business.
- Engagement – It’s called social media for a reason and if you engage with your followers and potential customers it will lead to new connections and grow your account which will then lead to more sales. Reply to comments on your posts, like and comment on other people’s posts, and share posts to your stories.
- Schedule – following on from my tip number 1, scheduling is the best way of keeping consistent on social media. When you run a product business you don’t want to spend all your time or have that much time to be on social media. Scheduling allows you to keep constantly posting and doesn’t have to cost anything either.
- Collaboration – Collaborating with other small businesses with products that have the same target customers who like your products is a great way of getting in front of more people with similar interests, for example, children’s clothes businesses could collaborate with children’s books, toys, activity businesses etc. This could be through sharing each other’s products in stories, creating a joint giveaway or even setting up a live show to showcase each other’s products, perfect for seasonal products.
An instagram shop is an important asset for any product business. Setting it up correctly from the beginning means your products are less likely to be rejected and your shop closed. Then marketing it effectively will lead to reaching the most potential customers which will lead to more sales.
I hope you have found this helpful and below are further ways I can help you and your business on Instagram.
I also offer Pinterest marketing services find out why Pinterest is such a great marketing tool for product business by reading my full blog post, Why your product businesses should be on Pinterest.
