Instagram is the best network to promote your dropshipping store. There are over a billion users on the network and a lot of them use it to look for products. Instagram knows this. This is why it has features such as shoppable posts and the shop feed and it is regularly releasing features such as Instagram checkout to make it easy for people to buy products.
If you want your dropshipping store to generate more sales, you need to get on Instagram marketing bandwagon and follow the best practices I have shared below…
Create mobile-friendly funnels:
You can’t use Instagram fully on the desktop. They are slowly introducing more features such as direct messaging to the desktop, but you still can’t post updates and do many other things on the desktop. This is why more people use the mobile app over the desktop version.
So, if your ecommerce marketing funnel is only desktop-friendly, you won’t generate sufficient sales. To get the best results, your entire funnel should be mobile friendly. Everything from the updates you publish to the landing pages, the thank you pages, checkout pages, and emails should be optimized for mobile too.
Most ecommerce platforms now let you quickly and easily set up mobile-friendly versions of your site so this should be easy. You can use mobile optimized free photo overlays to beautify your instagram images.
If you have the time and budget I recommend that you create a separate funnel for mobile users and a separate funnel for desktop users. This will help you achieve even higher conversion rates.
For some ideas on how to create a mobile-optimized funnel, check Argos’s Instagram account and the rest of the components of the funnel.
Team up with influencers:
Influencer marketing is here to stay. We constantly see articles about the death of influencer marketing. But it’s going to be there for a long time.
Influencer marketing existed before Instagram or any other social network started. People will always look out for recommendations from people who know better. If you aren’t taking advantage of shoutouts on Instagram, you are missing out on a ton of revenue as it is the best network for influencer marketing as found by this study.
But the quality of the influencers you team up with also matters as there are a lot of influencers out there with fake followers. So, don’t use followers as the metric while looking for influencers, instead work with influencers who drive high levels of engagement.
Also, make sure that the influencers are relevant as this matters too. It’s better to work with influencers who are relevant to your brand than with those who have bigger followings and engagement.
A great example of a team-up can be seen in this post.
Here Quaker Oats teamed up with Donal Skehan to create a sponsored video recipe promoting a new product.
If you find it time consuming to vet influencers, you can outsource that task to an influencer marketing agency.
Use shoppable posts:
The biggest problem with Instagram in-feed posts is that you can’t share links. You can share links in stories, but you need to have 10,000+ followers for this. You can use the ‘Link in bio’ call to action to circumvent this, but it will still cost you sales as it takes some extra steps and not everyone will want to follow through.
One way to reduce the number of steps and make it easy for people to find products is with Instagram’s shopping features. This allows ecommerce stores to tag products in the photo or video. People can then directly find the products. This will help drive a lot more sales.
Here’s an example of a shoppable post video. When you click on the shopping bag icon, all the products tagged in the video will appear as a popup.
These can look hard to set up, but it’s actually very easy if you use a good platform. Make sure you go with a powerful enterprise ecommerce platform like the Shopify app as you can always scale.
Create a shoppable bio URL:
If you don’t have to constantly change the bio URL depending on what you are posting you can set up a shoppable URL where all your posts with products tagged in them will appear and people can find the products tagged in them quickly. You can see an example of this on L.L. Bean’s Instagram page.
I can click on the posts and quickly find products. There’s also a sign up form that can help you generate leads in case people don’t want to buy immediately.
L.L. Bean set this up with Like 2 Buy which is quite expensive. But you can use a tool like Sked Social as an alternative. It’s not as good as Like 2 Buy, but it will get the job done.
Use ads:
Ads are another way to promote your dropshipping store on Instagram. To get the best results from ads, create short video ads. Something moving on the Instagram feed will attract more attention and clicks than something that isn’t.
You can also include a lot more information in video ads than you can in a still image. But make sure you limit the videos to 6 seconds or less as this is recommended by Facebook, Instagram’s parent company.
People lose interest when they have to watch a really long video. There are just too many distractions on the network.
Feature Instagram posts on landing pages:
Have you ever noticed Instagram posts from customers on ecommerce landing pages? Like on this page on Puravida.
These are a great way to drive up social proof and convince people to buy the product. They have the same effect as testimonials, ratings, and reviews. They show people that there are other people out there using the products.
This drives more people to buy the product. There are several apps that make it easy to do this, so take advantage of it and encourage people to post photos with your products. Everybody wants their 15 seconds of fame. The incentive can also generate buzz for your product on Instagram.
Create highlights:
Another way to promote your products is by creating highlights that promote products. There’s only so much information you can include in your bio. This is why a few highlights with more information about your company and products can give people that extra bit of information. If you have more than 10,000 followers you can also include links in your stories and send people directly to the landing page.
Also, make sure you add an attractive cover image to your highlights to get more people to click on them.
For some ideas check out Tompan’s account. They create really good highlights.
Run sales with stories:
You can add the countdown sticker to stories. This makes them the perfect option to drive some revenue through 24-hour sales. They don’t have to be 24-hour sales, even a sale that is just 30 minutes long can work if you have the right product and strategy.
You can also use stories to learn more about your audience with poll and question stickers. The answers will not only help you create better posts but also find better products to promote on your dropshipping store and find out who is your user persona.
There are so many other wonderful stickers on stories that can help you get creative. Check out stories from your competitors and play around with them on your own account to find ideas.
Take advantage of Instagram’s latest features:
Instagram is always evolving and they are constantly releasing features like checkout and reels. So, always be ready to embrace these features.
Others might see it as a hindrance and avoid them. But when Instagram releases new features it wants you to try them out so it will increase the reach of these posts. If you take advantage of them you will generate more engagement, followers, and sales.
So, be on the lookout for these new features and try them out. If possible, try to build a strong relationship with people who work at Instagram (Facebook). This will help you test out features even before they launch to the public. This will help you build a headstart.
You can find these people through LinkedIn.
Run live video:
Do you attend webinars? We love attending webinars as they are a one-time event. This makes them special. Live videos are the same way. People want to watch them as they happen only once like webinars.
They are a great place to promote your products. You can run them just like webinars where you educate people, have a Q & A session, and promote your products with an offer at the end. Make sure you plan the contents of the webinar, instead of just winging it.
Pay attention to the description:
People come to Instagram mainly for the visuals. But some of the users like to read too. This is why if you want to get the most out of your posts you should pay attention to the description as well. You need to write persuasive and witty descriptions that will help you drive sales. You also need to include other things like hashtags and tag other users as they can help drive engagement and increase your post’s reach.
Conclusion:
These are the various tactics you can use to promote your dropshipping store on Instagram. Begin implementing them today to quickly increase your revenue.