Social media is a common piece of most brands’ marketing toolbox by now. It’s no secret that Instagram is one of the more popular social platforms, especially if your product is something visual. After all, the image- and video-based feed tends to favor attractive imagery. When working on your Instagram, you’re likely focusing much of your efforts on growing your following, and that’s great. However, the magic of social media happens when you convert your Instagram followers into customers.
Followers are great, but that number on Instagram alone won’t pay the bills. Your Instagram account should be a way to attract and nurture potential customers so they visit your site and make a purchase. It can take time to really communicate your message to your audience in a way that resonates with them and compels them to take action. Today we’re going to talk about six ways you can use your Instagram to help move your followers down the path to become customers.
6 Steps To Convert Your Followers To Buyers
As we get into this, it’s important to note that you don’t necessarily have to do all six of these, nor do you have to do them in the order we have here (well, except for the first one - you should think about that first).
However, they can work together to compound and make a bigger impact on converting your Instagram followers into customers.
1. Use A Growth Service To Target The Right People
The very first thing you should do is think about your following and make sure your followers are actually the right people. If you somehow have attracted a lot of 40-year-old women, but your product is designed for 25-year-old men, you probably won’t have much luck converting them to customers. Similarly, if you’ve somehow gotten a lot of ghost followers, you definitely won’t be able to convince the robots to actually purchase your products or services.
By using a growth service (not just buying followers), you can specifically target people who would be interested in your content and your e-commerce store. If you start by attracting people who would likely consider buying from you, you’re already on your way to converting them to customers. One growth service to consider is Kicksta, an AI-powered automated growth platform.
With Kicksta, you choose a few different accounts whose followers are similar to yours. Then, Kicksta’s AI will go to the followers of those accounts and like a couple of posts. It won’t do enough to be annoying; instead it’s just enough to let the user know that your account exists. Then it’s up to them to visit your profile and decide whether or not to follow you. As time goes on, the AI will pay attention to which accounts are providing more followers and it will try to find better target accounts for you.
When you have the right followers in place it’s easier to show them content that will convert them to followers. You can also target hashtags to find the right potential followers. If they’re following or engaging with a particular hashtag that’s associated with your industry, they might be interested in you.
This can actually help you both ways: it can help you get more followers, and it can help you convert followers to customers. If you create and sponsor a giveaway that’s only available on Instagram, you can promote it on your website and other social media platforms to encourage people to follow you on Instagram. Then, when you’re actually running the giveaway, make sure the prize is something people can only get from you. This will encourage people who want to try your product or service to enter.
It’s also a great idea to offer a discount code to everyone who enters, whether they win or not. This gives them a reason to go and make a purchase from your e-commerce store right now, without waiting for something new to appear. Your Instagram promotion can even be focused on something like a giveaway code or free shipping. You don’t even have to run an actual giveaway. Turn it into a game, where every Tuesday there’s a new discount code or small freebie available to your Instagram followers.
By making these promotions Instagram-only, your followers will likely appreciate the exclusivity of your promotion. They’ll want to take advantage of it, since it’s only offered to those on this particular social media platform. People want to feel special, and giving them a unique code for free shipping or a bonus freebie in their order will often encourage them to make a purchase.
Create Valuable Content
This probably goes without saying, but the content you create and post needs to be worthwhile for your audience. If you’re posting just for the sake of posting, you’re likely not doing your brand any favors. Create content that’s actually valuable to your followers. Teach them something related to your industry. Help them through issues. Share tutorials or business hacks using your products. When you create this quality content, your Instagram followers will become more loyal to your brand. This also creates trustworthiness and an emotional connection that will make them more likely to become customers.
Creating relevant, quality content will also help you attract the right Instagram followers in the first place. If you sell sweatshirts for young adults but you’re posting things that appeal to people in their 50s, you’re likely going to have a harder time converting your followers. Posting content related to your brand will also prepare your potential new followers that you’re here to market your business and they won’t be surprised when you do so.
Engage With Your Followers
Believe it or not, engaging with your followers is one of the best ways to convert them to becoming your customers, and it can help you attract more followers, too. If people leave comments on your posts, or if they answer the questions you ask in your content, please respond to them. There’s very little worse for a potential customer than to engage with a brand and not get a response back.
Chances are they’ll assume that your account is run by a third party or by automation and that there’s no one actually on the other end. Or, they’ll assume that you don’t really care about your potential customers. We can’t say whether the first one is true or not, but hopefully the second is not. Your followers are potential customers, and you want to interact with them as much as possible.
It’s even better if you’re able to have a direct message conversation with your followers. If someone messages you, take that opportunity to get to know them. Ask them questions, compliment their messages to you, and become their friend. You can also create Instagram Stories that encourage people to message you.
If people aren’t messaging you, then you can take the initiative. Post a Story where people vote between two options. Then, send a message to everyone who votes and acknowledge their response. Then, ask them a question or otherwise carry on the conversation like normal. The more people get to hear from you personally and interact with you, the more likely they are to convert to being a customer.
Use UGC
User-generated content, or UGC, is a great way to provide social proof about your brand to your Instagram followers. It’s easy for a company to say that their brand and their products are great. After all, you make money from it. Because of this, your messaging about how great your products or services are likely won’t be too impactful when it comes to convincing followers to become customers.
This is where UGC can come into play. If you can share posts that real customers have made about your products, you can greatly increase your trust among your followers. When a real person who a potential customer can identify with posts about something being good, they’re more likely to trust that person. Yes, this works even if they don’t personally know the person, although endorsements by your friends always have the most weight.
When you share UGC you’re sharing social proof that there are other, real people who exist who are using your product or service and getting great results from it. They love it, and they want other people to know about it, too. You can post this in your Stories or in your feed. If you wanted to go even further, you could even try inviting someone to join you on a Live to share their story with your business and why they like it.
But what if you don’t have any UGC at your disposal? Well, first of all you should check to make sure that there’s nothing there. You never know if your followers may have posted something without your knowledge. Make sure you check your mentions to see if anyone’s tagged you in any posts. If there’s nothing there, don’t worry. You can always ask your followers to post about you.
Yes, you read that correctly: ask them. We’ll talk about this a little more deeply in a moment, but you could run a contest where people have to create a post about your brand in order to enter. Or, you can just ask them to share with the promise that you’ll be reposting the best submissions. Sometimes the best reward is simply to be featured on a brand’s page.
Host Contests & Giveaways
Finally, the last step to convert your Instagram followers to customers is to host contests and giveaways. We mentioned this briefly a couple of times earlier, but we’ll dig into it more right now. People are often drawn to giveaways. Let’s be honest, most humans want to win something, especially if it’s something they’re considering purchasing anyway. Most Instagram blogs will suggest finding an influencer or running a giveaway to increase your followers or your engagement. But, if you’re going to use your contest as a way to convert followers to customers, there are a couple of special things you can consider.
If you’re launching a new product, program or service, consider giving away one or two for free as part of your initial launch. However, some people might decide not to buy it on the off chance that they might win. To solve that problem, you can do one of two things. First, you can make purchasing the product the entry requirement. In this case, you’ll want to say that you’ll refund the winner for their purchase, as they need to purchase in order to be considered.
The next option is to guarantee that if the winner has already purchased, you’ll refund them or offer them some sort of related prize. It might be another item from your shop or something that will help them use the product or service they’ve purchased from you. For example, if you’re launching an online course and the winner has already purchased the course, you could give them a tablet and stylus that they can use to take the course. This is a great option if you want to be able to say “no purchase necessary.”
Most importantly, though, whatever you giveaway should be something from your e-commerce store. Giveaways like this remind your followers that you have a store and are selling things to make their lives easier. Sometimes people just need to be reminded of things available for purchase, especially in the midst of our busy world.
Let’s Convert Your Followers
These six tactics can be used individually or together to help your Instagram followers move down the customer journey to actually make a purchase from your e-commerce store. As we said at the beginning, you don’t have to implement all of these at once, and they aren’t in any particular order (except for making sure your followers are actually potential customers - that’s an important place to start).
Just to recap, you want to begin by using a growth service to attract real, potential customers to your Instagram. If your followers are bots or part of the wrong demographic, you won’t have much luck. It’s a great idea to create Instagram-only promotions, like a special discount code, and you want to ensure you’re creating good-quality content. When your followers engage with you, engage back with them to build trust. Finally, share user-generated content when you have it, and run giveaways that can encourage your followers to purchase. Are you ready to get started?
