6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram

 

If you look into Instagram statistics, you’ll be surprised, to say the least. Here are 6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram that might interest business owners:

• 72% of Instagram users say they’ve bought beauty-, fashion-, or style-related products after seeing someone brag about them on Instagram.
• Social media users say that Instagram is the platform that has the greatest influence over their purchasing decisions.

Keep in mind that those stats are from the summer 2017 season. Now, with links put directly in stories and with the Instagram Live feature becoming more popular by the day, we can safely assume that this platform is even more important for informing people about products and services and leading them towards purchasing decisions.

Do you need more data? As it turns out, 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business on the platform. Instagram users are 60% more likely to buy a product if they get a chance to buy it on the social network itself. Instagram leads to much higher engagement than all other platforms, including Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

So how do you do it? How do you use Instagram to guide people towards buying your products or services?

We’ll list 6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram:

1. Polish Out Your Business Profile

You should start seeing your Instagram profile as the new homepage for your business. Since an increased number of people turn to Instagram when they want to search for brands, the logical thing for you to do would be to polish out the profile. This is what the perfect business profile on Instagram should look like:

• It should provide relevant information about the type of business, as well as the link to the main website.
• The motto! Instagram gives you a chance to write a brief “bio” and that’s exactly what people first see at the top of the page. Use that space to write the company’s motto. If you check the profile of MAC Cosmetics, that’s exactly what you’ll see. A brief description of the business, followed by their motto and a link to the website.

The perfect business profile needs a good profile photo, which represents the brand. Your logo is the simplest way to go, and it works. It conveys your brand’s identity, and it’s recognizable enough when people see your posts in their feeds.

• Don’t forget to include a clickable link in the bio section! It should lead your customers to the main website, where they can buy your products or services.
• The visual content is what matters the most. You need a strategy for this! If you check out the profiles of the most successful brands, you’ll see they maintain a specific vibe throughout their photos. Such a strategy makes the brand recognizable.

2. Don’t Sell Products; Sell Solutions

Instagram is not a webstore. It’s mostly a platform where people come to see beautiful visual content. That’s their main interest. If they are interested in a product, they will buy it not because you’re directly selling it to them, but because your content convinced them it was exactly what they needed.

Olivia Clifford, part of the marketing team at UKBestEssays, explains: “When you use Instagram to influence people’s purchasing decisions, you must focus on the experience; not the product. It’s the story that matters. Visual content gives you tons of opportunities to tell a story, and that’s exactly what you should do.”

Let’s take another successful Instagram page as an example: Yakima Racks. They show real users of their products through the photos they post. It’s not just about the product and all its awesome features. It’s about the experience the product provides. The fact that the brand often collaborates with influencers to tell the stories is a huge bonus. They take over the account and bring the followers along with their adventure.

 

• Lifestyle photography is exceptionally effective. It makes people want that experience, so their instinct tells them they need the product, too.
• Storytelling works well on Instagram. People actually read the captions there, so make them great!

3. Share Content by Actual Users

The example with Yakima Racks brings us to another important point: business pages on Instagram should post user-generated content. That inspires more users to tag your brand in their posts, so they will get shared on your profile. When you create such a community around your product, more people are attracted towards it.

Just check out the profile of Vitamix and you’ll see what we mean. They feature user-generated content from food bloggers, but from regular users as well. You’ll still notice that all photos are carefully selected, so the brand can maintain the unique vibe of their profile.

We’re not talking about influencers here. We’ll get to that point a bit later. We’re talking about normal users of your products. They don’t have to have many followers on their profiles. If their content is good and it presents your brand in the best light, feature it on your profile.

• Whenever you notice that an Instagram user tagged your brand, check out the post and react on it. Like and comment; we all love that! You’ll show your appreciation and you’ll boost the chances of turning this person into a returning customer.
• If the content is good, ask for their permission to feature it on your profile.
• When you do feature user-generated content, don’t forget to tag the Instagram user who created it.
• To get more user-generated content, run contests! Invite your followers to share moments when they use your products. The rules should involve tagging your brand and using a specific hashtag. The best participants will get an attractive prize, which you’ll clearly provide. If your target audience is international, then make the contest international, too.

4. Use Instagram Ads to Reach a Greater Target Audience

A huge percentage of businesses already use Instagram for promotional purposes. What does this mean for you? You’re entering a very competitive environment. Due to that fact, you might have to invest in advertising.

No matter how great your social media marketing budget is, you can reach people on Instagram with it. You’ll limit the budget on the ads, so you won’t spend more than planned. At the same time, you’ll reach a targeted audience of people interested in buying your products or services. Instagram lets you monitor the results of the campaign, so you can keep working on it to make it more effective.

• Keep the content fun and the message straightforward. If it’s a video, Instagram users won’t give it a chance if it doesn’t capture their attention from the very first second. If it’s a photo with a caption, they won’t read it unless something indicates it’s important for them.
• Don’t forget the call to action! The ad should tell people to follow your page, visit your website, or directly shop for your products.
• Speaking of Instagram ads, don’t forget the influencers. They already have a large base of followers. When you collaborate with them, you get great exposure. As it turns out 78% of influencers prefer Instagram for brand collaboration. So reach out to the most prominent influencers from your niche and make an offer they can’t refuse.

5. Use the Potential of Instagram Stories

Stories are yet another opportunity for brands to reach a greater audience. When you turn your stories into full-screen ads with clickable calls to action, you can naturally expect greater engagement from your followers. Just check how Kino MacGregor uses that opportunity:

 

Instagram story ads are great because people see them even if they use ad blockers on their browsers. Plus, you can pay for story ads that will show up to Instagram users who don’t even follow you. They will see the ad between the stories of the people they follow.

You can engage users through your usual stories, too. Just use the “Swipe Up” feature, and they will directly come to your website.

6. Create the Sense of Urgency

If you check out Kino MacGregor’s story above, you’ll notice her offer lasts for a limited period of time. When you’re after the greater engagement, it’s important to create that sense of urgency.

If you actively sell on Instagram, your followers will clearly expect promotional offers. Of course, you’ll give such opportunities to them, but you’ll make them time-sensitive. An offer with a deadline pushes them towards a quick decision and instant action.

That’s a nice way to get immediate benefits from your Instagram advertising campaign.

 

Instagram Has Great Sales Potential; So Start Benefiting From It!

The Instagram community is pretty welcoming towards brands. The marketing approach, however, mustn’t be too aggressive. Remember: it’s all about the stories; not the products. It takes a lot of planning and strategizing to develop the perfect Instagram marketing campaign, but you can do it. If you follow the tips we provided above, you can start making the first steps today! Get cheap Instagram followers from BuySellShoutouts and save money which you can invest in other things for your business.

Short bio:

Warren’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and scrolls through social media. You can meet him on Twitter – twitter.com/_warrenfowler/ and Facebook – facebook.com/warren.fowler.5015.

Originally posted 2018-07-31 10:47:05.

The post 6 Ways to Change the Buying Decision Process on Instagram appeared first on BuySellShoutouts.

source https://www.buysellshoutouts.com/blog/6-ways-to-change-the-buying-decision-process-on-instagram