Building a brand presence on social media can be challenging. As a company, it’s difficult to manage marketing strategies across a wide variety of different channels. While each platform presents a unique way to engage with potential customers, they also require an in-depth knowledge of how to best take advantage of their service.
For the most part, people sign up for Instagram to connect with friends and enjoy content while simultaneously growing their followers and improving engagements.
However, as a business owner, your focus should be on turning these followers into clients — people who pay for your products and services.
If only a handful of your Instagram followers have ever patronised your business, or you do not even know how to start advertising on the platform, here are a few ways to convert your followers into paying, repeat customers.
- Have a clear idea of your target audience
Often, it’s so easy to think that your products/services are solutions to all problems. But that’s not true. As a business owner, you’re not for everybody.
Your product/service has a specific problem it’s proffering solutions to. Find out what problems your followers have that can be solved with your product/service.
- Post persistently, but more importantly strategically
If nobody knows what you’re selling, you won’t get buyers. Be loud about what you do! Own your brand and promote it relentlessly and strategically.
Create content around your product/service offering and share consistently. Pick specific days in the week that you post, and let the content always emphasise what you’re offering and what makes it unique.
It’s okay to take a break, but communicate with your followers beforehand.
- Reward followers with promo codes
Getting your customers to make that first purchase may be one of the biggest hurdles you’ll face. A carefully placed discount offer can be the perfect tool for getting your followers to open their wallets. It adds to the value you provide your followers on an exclusive basis.
Combined with the right hashtag, this kind of Instagram activity is likely to drive conversions and earn high share counts — aided no doubt by Instagram’s integrated sharing features for Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare. This tactic pays off handsomely, because when people know they can regularly grab a discount or two from your Instagram feed, they’re all the more likely to stick around. And if you use channel-specific coupon codes, you’ll always know that it’s Instagram that drove those sales.
- Invest in paid advertisement
Paid advertisement prices on Instagram depend on what package you and for how long you want the ads to run.
But even when you do this, you still have to engage with your customers to keep them. Reply DMs; it shows trust. Research shows that the longest a customer on social media is willing to wait for a reply is 4 hours. After this, they might no longer trust you.
- Tell a great (visual) story
Storytelling: You know how valuable it is, but when you don’t have words at your disposal, how can you capture a great story? Start by remembering the old cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Instagram storytelling can be done with a single still, if it’s done well. What’s more, using Instagram videos gives you more time to get your message across, especially if your customers have autoplay enabled. You can also test your creativity, with the new Instagram Stories feature to create series of annotated posts.
The new feature lets you post a story that disappears in 24 hours, so it’s a great way to share promo codes or discounts. Just make sure your imagery is as exciting as the product or service you’re selling.
