The year 2014 may go down as the year of Instagram. The social networking site enters the new year red-hot. It saw the greatest percentage growth in users last year among the major social media sites, with 17 percent of online adults now using the site. That's just one percentage point behind Twitter.
Of course, for businesses the question remains the same as it's been for every hot social media site over the past few years: how to use Instagram to push sales? Here are proven strategies for employing the picture-sharing site to increase your leads and your sales, whether your business sells homemade earrings or commercial playground equipment.
Seek Out High-Quality Photography
First things first: to gain any cred on Instagram, much less build a following capable of converting sales leads, you'll need to post good pictures, and that means finding the best camera app. While selfies taken with the Instagram app may work for celebrities whose only interest is gaining more fame, to sell product you have to have photos of the highest quality that really show off what you're selling. Use either your native smartphone camera or a superlative app such as Camera+ to take the photos of your merchandise. Save the Instagram app for quickie uploads when you're at an event or hobnobbing with customers.
Link to Your Product Pages
Seems obvious, but don't forget to actually include links to the products you're selling when you showcase them on Instagram. It's way too easy to post a product photo without a link, only to frustrate your customers when they go searching for it on your site. They will give up if they don't find it quickly, which means a blown sale. Every time you post a photo, link back to your product pages and you'll see an immediate increase in sales.
Contests are a touchstone of any good social media campaign, and Instagram is no different. Offer a gift certificate to your store as a prize. Say you own a frozen yogurt shop. You might launch a contest asking people to nominate new flavors of toppings, having them send in photos of their favorite sauces or candies with a designated hashtag. The hashtag is very important, because it signals who's entering the contest.
Choose a hashtag that's unique to your company so that you're not sorting through too many entries. Create a gallery on Instagram where you can display all the submissions. This will drive interest in your business and generate goodwill - both keys to driving sales.
Use Customers' Photos on Your Web Site
Encourage people to post their own photos of your merchandise or interactions with your employees. Feature these photos regularly on your own site, perhaps with a photo of the week. You'll not only drive traffic to your site, but you can also offer discounts or coupons to the people whose photos you use, pumping up the chance of a sale.
If you sell clothes or toys, you might also feature customers' Instagram photos on your product pages, to show real-life use of your wares. A side benefit of this is that people enjoy seeing their work on display, and they may just share a link to your site on their own social media accounts, which is essentially free advertising for your company.
Bring People Behind the Scenes
Everyone loves to be in the know. By posting photos of your business from behind the scenes, you can grow customer engagement. People will feel more attached to your company if they feel they know you and your employees personally.
Put up shots of employees unloading product, arranging it on the sales floor, or being silly in a company-wide meeting. Invite your followers to caption the photos to further engage them. Don't worry about getting the perfect shot or the ideal setting. Instagram is all about authenticity, not perfection.
No Instagram account will make an impact if it's only updated once or twice a week. Perhaps more than any other social media site, Instagram is about volume. Don't be afraid to put up a dozen photos a day. It shows that you're active and involved, and it gives you a better chance of showing up on those crowded Instagram feeds.
Your Instagram account is a key part of your branding effort. Sales will increase naturally when you push your brand, and you can do this by defining it with hashtags that tell the story of your company.
Don't forget that Instagram, like Facebook and Twitter, is first and foremost a form of social interaction. When people ask you questions about a product or a service via Instagram, respond as soon as possible and try to accommodate whatever is being requested. Chances are you can convert a sale with minimal effort.
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