4 WAYS TO SMASH SALES FROM SOCIAL MEDIA WITH INSTAGRAM’S NEW SHOPPING FEATURES

If you didn’t have a good enough reason to be investing more in your social media, especially Instagram, you’ve got one now. The rise of Instagram stories doesn’t need much discussion, but the “swipe up” format has just hands down become a killer – and brands need to watch out.

Today, Instagram rolled out the game-changing ‘click-to-shop’ feature on Instagram stories, and without teaching you how to suck eggs, it’s very simple to use – literally “click and buy” just as it says on the tin. Simply click the link, enter your details natively in the app and BOOM, a purchase is made.

Personally, I’ve been super keen to see how Instagram’s link shopping plays out – there have even been some interesting startups arise over the last few years that have been focused on feed shopping, but as I predicted, Instagram have rolled it out first!

The products and features that take off and win big are those that remove friction, add convenience and save us time. This feature is ideal for marketers and even better for the end user.

We’ve seen the success of swipe ups, but what’s held most businesses back from driving significant conversions from the platform has been there own doing – poor conversion pages and sh**ty checkout experiences.

Now, with one simple click, we remove friction even further, and this is great for those investing in influencer marketing, as we can drive purchase at the point of attention – not to mention the impulse buy effect that these posts will have, converting attention into sales at an insane rate. Benchmarks here are going to be interesting, to say the least.

⚠️ WARNING : impulse buying is going to become a problem and there WILL be implications ⚠️

SO HOW CAN YOU MAXIMIZE INSTAGRAM SHOPPINGS GAME-CHANGING FEATURE?

MAKE YOUR CONTENT SHOPPABLE

Creating engaging content for your Instagram stories takes the time constraint of a mere 15 seconds and supercharges that attention with instant action. The psychological impact, the content and the instant gratification of purchase in one story, should drive customers crazy.

TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR INFLUENCER MARKETING

Are you working with influencers yet? Got ambassadors or sponsored posts? Adding one-click links to Instagram is going to drive real ROI from your partnerships (if done correctly of course). With the friction of longer purchase funnels removed, you can really see the impact on bottom line sales from your influencer activity.

LEVERAGE PRE-ORDERING

This format could work really well for pre-orders and the on-demand generation. Preorders on things like gig tickets, books, etc could be a great tool for both purchase indication, but also gaming chart systems for sales windows.

IMPACT EVENTS AND FLASH SALES

If you’re running a summer sale and seasonality events are a big part of your business, then this feature is for you. Couple this with time windows, purchase behaviors and the time constraints of the stories format, and you have a powerful mixture for impulse shopping, as well as direct response opportunities.

CONCLUSION

If Instagram hasn’t been a huge focus for your business it should be now. But don’t think that diving straight in and posting stories with links will be successful without a good strategy. Building attention on Instagram should be of paramount focus, telling the brand story in a visual and consistent way – quality content is where you will win. Mix that up with a solid paid social strategy to grow your audience, drive engagement, and build trust, and Instagram will be the driving factor to your success.