How To Get More Instagram Followers & Make Sales on Instagram

In our previous lesson, we had talked about how to switch from a personal account to a business account and how to link your other social media accounts to your Instagram account. Now that you have switched to a business profile, gaining more and more followers on Instagram must be your primary goal. More followers mean more people become aware of your products and services. These followers can turn into potential buyers easily if you follow focus on them and follow certain tips.

In this chapter, we shall explain to you how to grow more followers and then how to convert your followers into your valuable and loyal customers.

Let’s get you started…

Here are some tips that you must follow to gain followers on your business profile:

Tip 1: Post content consistently

You should make a routine to post content daily or every other day. Make sure that you post relevant content so that your followers will thank you for sharing some valuable information that could come to their use.

Posting consistently makes a major difference in increasing your brand awareness. You just need to plan your content ahead of the month and then make posts as per your schedule.

When you post regularly according to your schedule, your followers will be curious to view your posts on a particular day and at a particular time. This will help you build brand value and trust which will certainly help you in the long run.

It is a fact well known that as compared to viewing photos people would rather watch the video. Even on Instagram, video content is viewed more than photos. Videos are gaining more traction. So when you upload a video on Instagram, chances are that it can get more engagement with more people as compared to photos.

The reason for the increasing popularity of videos over photos is that sharing videos give you the ability to depict a complicated idea that could require a deeper understanding of the subject. Generally, photos do not carry as much information as can be conveyed by videos. That is where videos come to our rescue.

Try sharing more and more videos as they might help you increase your engagement. Make short, engaging videos that appeal to the viewers. People’s attention span is short nowadays so you need to make sure that the first five seconds of your videos intrigue the viewer and he gets interested in watching your video.

Instagram stories were introduced for the first time in 2016. Going by the ease and ability to create fun videos, it’s not surprising to see that businesses and users use this feature so much.

Instagram stories are just another way to share your video content. Instagram stories can have videos that could last 1-15 seconds. You can either post a pre-recorded video as a story or you can also shoot it on Instagram and post it.

Hashtags are used to categorize the information on a particularly relevant subject or discussion. They were introduced in 2007 by a social media expert on Twitter and ever since then, it has dominated the other social media platforms as well.

When you search for a particular hashtag, you can view all the posts that have been made by using that hashtag.

For your business, you can create your own brand hashtags. You must create at least 2 branded hashtags and then use them in every post you make on Instagram. You must also encourage your followers to use these hashtags and tag your business with their posts.

This way when you search for your branded hashtags on Instagram, you will see all the posts related to it and you can learn about your reach.

Interact with your followers on Instagram. Like their posts, view their stories and leave a genuine message in the comments section about their post. When you do this your followers will notice your presence and your brand.

It will lead them to think that you care about your followers and not merely your sales. Trust will build-up among your followers and they would be more willing to buy your products or try your services.

It’s a general tendency among people that they like to participate in contests in order to win the prize. Organize lot of contests and offer your participants a good prize. This prize could be one of your products or a free trial of your products. This way, you can build potential customers who might be interested in buying your product after its free trial.

One sure way to make people take part in your contest, you must share/repost the image of the contest that you created, list the instructions such as sharing the image, tagging 5 of your friends, use relevant hashtags for your contests, etc. Using hashtags will make it easier for you to search posts of people who have joined the contest.

Doing this will not only increase your reach among more people but will also bring more engagement with your posts.

You must always try to interact with your customers when they comment on your posts or send you direct messages. Reply to their queries regarding your products. Take their feedback and suggestions seriously. Let them know that customer satisfaction is above all for you. You must convey to them how important they are to your business.

This gives the impression that you care about your customers more than anything else. When customers realize that they are your priority, they put in more trust in your products and services. They will even be willing to try your new products based on the foundation of trust you built.

Who doesn’t love discounts and offers? Every one does.

Offering discounts to your products/services can become a great tool in converting your followers into loyal customers and also customer acquisition. Sometimes even if a person doesn’t need a particular product, they may feel a strong urge to buy the same products if it’s at a discount. When you offer a 10-30 % slash on prices for a limited period of time, you may attract additional followers who could turn into your potential buyers.

Percentage based discounts might be the right way for you. Moreover, another advantage of offering a discount is that it can help you move your stock and meet sales goals as well.

Influencers have a huge number of followers on their profile. If they are in the right niche, you can target their followers to boost up your sales. When these influencers post a picture/video trying to use your product, you can expect their followers to try and use the same product for themselves.

Influencers help customers verify the authenticity of your brand and your products. People would be willing to use products that are endorsed by influencers. Therefore when you promote your products using these influencers, you have already built brand trust among the users. You just need to find the right influencer that is related to your business and then you can reach the exact audience you are targeting.

People love to get free stuff. Giveaways and contests are always a way to attract more followers on Instagram. These followers may eventually turn into customers of your products. When they get a picture of a preview of items that they would get after winning the giveaway/contest, they would be willing to follow any instructions in order to win. You can ask them to like your post or include your branded hashtag and tag/share the post in order to win the contest. This could be another way to let your followers try your products for free.

After receiving the prize, they will appreciate your products more since they have done hard work to win the prize in the first place. Further, they would not only give positive reviews but also recommend it to their friends leading to further boost up in the sales of your products.

Educate your followers/visitors on the benefits they may get if they use your products/services. Target the problem they face and describe to them how using your products/services will help them tackle the problem and save them time. This way they won’t be hesitant in investing in your products.

Try to understand the problem that your customers need to resolve and the type of products from your arsenal that could be helpful in solving it. When you explain to your customers how your products are able to meet their needs and provide a working solution, they might actually end up availing your services.

You can direct your followers to your website or to a landing page. Additionally, you can ask them for their email address if you have a mailing list. Let your followers know that they can receive special promotions if they are subscribed to your mailing list.

You can use this information to send them news about your services or the products that you recently launched. This way they will always be aware of your products. You can also send them information when your business organizes sale or is offering a discount for a limited amount of time. They will always be eager to look into your products to get a deal.

Add your website URL to your Instagram bio. Whenever someone visits a profile, they might be prompted to look into your services and products. On visiting your website they can view more products and even make a purchase directly from there.