How to Sell On Instagram (10 Tips That Work!)
Instagram provides a great opportunity for businesses and creators to sell their products and services online. One of the most common mistakes businesses make is that they are spending time posting on Instagram, but they are not creating strategic content to monetize and make a sale. We understand figuring out how to sell on Instagram is one of the keys to finding success on the platform and making sure all the time and money you are spending on Instagram will pay off in the long run. Here at Sidewalker Daily we work with businesses and companies on their social media and influencer marketing strategy and also support influencers and creators on helping them build a sustainable business.
Our clients always ask us so many questions about how to make money on Instagram and the first step is learning how to sell. No matter what business you are in, you should be posting content with a strategy in mind. Selling on Instagram is more of an art than a science and you have to figure out what works best for you, your business and audience. In this article, we’re going over ten tips that you can use to help you sell on Instagram.
10 Tips On How To Sell On Instagram
Whether you’re a business or a personal brand, you can utilize Instagram to sell your product or service. Here are tips on how to sell on Instagram:
1) Communicate What You Sell
Whether you sell a product or a service, you need to be very clear about what you sell. If no one knows about what you have to offer then how can they know what they can they buy from you? You need to talk about or mention your services, products or business in your bio, static posts, Instagram Reels, and even Instagram highlights. If you’re an influencer or if you have a personal brand, show your audience what you do. You can talk about what kind of content you create and even post video testimonials from some of your past brand partners or clients. This will let potential brand partners know you offer these types of services and also see examples of your work or the amazing things past partners had to say about working with you.
If Instagram is part of your business and you use it to make money, then your mindset needs to reflect that. Instagram is not just a place for pretty photos and short videos, it’s a place for you to advertise what you have to offer. Of course, you don’t want to sound too sales-y and insincere because Instagram is a place to connect with your audience and clients, but we need to keep selling on instagram top of mind. Try to keep an equal balance by providing value in your Instagram content as well.
We offer Instagram audits here at Sidewalker Daily and an Instagram expert on our team can do a review of your Instagram account to help you optimize your profile, bio and content to be more clear on your Instagram sales strategy. We can help you optimize your account to communicate what you sell, what services or products you offer, and how someone can purchase or buy those from you. Doing an Instagram audit is a great first place to start making money on Instagram to ensure you’ve optimized your account to set yourself up for success.
2) Gain Trust
Instagram is more than just an advertising billboard for your company. It’s a place to connect with your customer or client. If you’re a business, a great way to connect with your customers and sell on Instagram is to have you, the founder or a team member become forward facing on your company’s Instagram account. Even if you don’t want to talk a lot about yourself in your posts, Instagram stories are a great way to let people know more about you.
This will help build connections because instead of following a business, they end up following the people behind the business too. Once you start to build trust, you will see that your followers will tend to be more willing to purchase from you or even feel the need to support the business because they are in turn supporting the people behind the business that they have come to know and love. When people interact with you on social media, they will feel connected to you and in turn, more connected to your business.
If you need help with creating content to inspire your audience to interact with your posts on Instagram, or need tips to increase your engagement, we have our Instagram Engagement Accelerator course that walks you through everything you need to know about building connection with your followers, customers and clients on social media so that they look forward to your posts and want to engage with your business both on and offline.
3) Go Live
It’s much easier to sell to a live audience than it is to sell to people from behind a post. You don’t even have to necessary sell on Instagram Live, you can use any type of video platform such as Zoom or Facebook Live and just use your Instagram account to advertise the live session. Selling live is more effective because people can interact with you, feel your energy, and it’s easier to gain trust from your customers who will feel connected to you. If you don’t want to speak directly with your customers, you can find a brand ambassador or someone from your company to be the face of the product or service. If you’re a personal brand or influencer, people will be more receptive to you and it will increase your chances of making the sale when you speak to them directly.
4) Sell On Instagram Direct Messages
One very effective way to sell is in direct messages. If people are direct messaging you, that is a good sign that they are already very interested in your product or service. From there, you can send them a link to complete the sale, or you can send a link to get them on your email list. Make it easy for your customer to work with you by having a website set up with your product that you can send to them, or ask for their email address and follow up with them directly.
People often ask us how to sell on Instagram without a website and while it is possible, you just have to have certain assets set up to be able to do so. If you are looking to create a website for your business, we offer website design services to help you get set up and create a strategic website to attract more customers and close more sales.
Another thing to consider with the direct message strategy on how to sell on Instagram is you can do outreach and send a direct message to other businesses or individuals to let them know about your offer directly, instead of waiting for them to reach out to you. We always suggest trying to make your DM short, sweet and personalized to open the conversation with the potential customer or client. It’s very rare that someone will take action from just a cold Instagram message they receive. You can include a link for them to learn more or offer to answer any questions they have depending on what your product or service entails.
5) Create Shoppable Instagram Posts
If you can get approval for shoppable posts, then creating shoppable posts is a way to let your customers buy directly from the Instagram app. Remove the extra step of directing your buyers to another site by uploading shoppable products to your posts, Reels, IGTV videos, and Instagram stories. Using shoppable posts increases your chances of a higher conversion rate. You can also use shoppable posts with influencers or creators so more customers can discover your products.
6) Show Behind the Scenes
People are more inclined to trust your product or service when they see how it’s made or what the process looks like. Oftentimes people want to feel like they’re being let into the process to understand how your product or service works. If you sell a product, you can show how it’s made and where it comes from. If you sell a type of service, you can show how you prepare that service or what it looks like from your perspective. More than just using posts and stories, the behind the scenes work can be saved as an Instagram highlight, posted on IGTV, shown in Instagram Reels, and you can even show them on Instagram Live.
7) Share Reviews and Testimonials
One of the best ways to sell on Instagram is to share customer testimonials and reviews. Let your customers help you sell on Instagram! To get good reviews and testimonials, you have to provide great service and give your buyers a great product or experience. Once you build a client base that loves your products or services, they may be willing to provide you with a written or video testimonial. These are a great thing to include in your Instagram Highlights so when a new person finds you on Instagram, they can easily find out what other people have to say about your products and services. It’s also a great way to sell without having to sound overly sales-y because oftentimes there is a mistrust about the company or brand’s representation of the product or services and people want to know what actual customers think and hear their feedback and recommendations.
8) Use Questions in Stories
Some people may want to express their concerns or ask questions before they buy. They may not have even thought to ask them, but they may decide to ask if you give them a prompt. As you answer questions and are transparent about your business, products or service, this will also build trust and help people overcome the barriers they are having to work with you or purchase from you. If you post your answers on social media, you’ll also be helping other people who weren’t brave enough to ask or maybe didn’t think about those questions, but hearing your answer really helped them understand the value and in turn they will purchase from you. Since people always want to feel confident about their purchase and that they are making the right choice, any way you can answer the questions people have will increase your chances of closing the sale.
9) Show Tutorials
Even if you are completely transparent about your product or service, some people may still not completely understand what you have to offer them and why they should even buy it. Showing tutorials is a great way to explain how your product can be used in multiple ways, and how it can benefit them. If you offer a service, you can explain what is included in the service and how it all comes together to be valuable and in turn will help them with whatever your service is designed to do. If you’re a business, you can enlist creators and influencers to show tutorials of your product so that your potential customers on Instagram can hear it from other perspectives and see what the people they respect and trust think about your product too.
10) Tease Your Product or Service Before It’s Available
Build some excitement about your product or service before it’s available. Tease your product by doing a pre-launch strategy. Maybe show little bits and pieces of behind the scenes or sneak peaks of the product so that your followers are excited to buy the product when it’s available. You could do this in so many ways, including using Instagram Reels to reach more people, but the goal is to build anticipation and get them excited for the day when the product is available for them to purchase.
Want To Sell On Instagram? Making Money On Instagram Takes A Solid Strategy
We understand your goal is to make money on Instagram. Using Instagram to sell to your followers is a great way to utilize the platform, but like everything in a successful business, figuring out how to sell on Instagram for free takes a solid strategy to see results. If you need help figuring out your Instagram Strategy or how to sell on Instagram, we offer private coaching sessions where we can work together to come up with a tailored gameplan to help you see results!
So to summarize what we’ve gone over in this article is if you’re trying to figure out how to sell on Instagram you need to:
- Remember that you have to actually sell and let people know about what you have to offer and how to buy that from you.
- Come up with a custom strategy that works for you and your business to sell on Instagram.
- Humanize your business by posting more relatable content about the founder or team behind the brand to build connections with your audience to help them trust you more.
- Try different ways to use posts, stories, lives, reels and all of the tools and assets Instagram provides to make the shopping or purchasing experience as easy as possible.
And last but not least, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional social media expert for help if you’re struggling in your business, feel stuck or have questions and you want clear and straightforward answers. We offer Instagram Audits and can help you come up with a custom strategy to sell on Instagram that works. To work with us on your business, all you have to do is click here.
If you found this article helpful, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
