Five Hacks To Making Big Sales As A Small Business On Instagram
Making big sales is the desire of every business. When most businesses had to close shops or offices in march due to the lockdown, some businesses experienced a boom with more businesses shifting to Zoom and Instagram.
In today’s world, one of the best platforms for small businesses to reach clients is through social media. Many entrepreneurs and businesses have added Instagram into their tool kit. In this piece, we dive into how businesses can use Instagram to get ahead today.
Hashtags
Hashtags are the latest trend on Instagram. If you want to hit the explore page where millions get to see your product and services. Then you need to be in the right hashtags.
There are different formulas for generating relevant hashtag for your businesses.
- Community Hashtag: Community hashtags are hashtags used by businesses in certain industries, for example – #Naijabrandchick #triciabiz. These are well-known communities in the SME industry.
- Audience Hashtags: Audience hashtags are for those who you are targeting specifically – for example, if you are in the coaching business of digital marketing, then your hashtags may include #contentcreators #content, etc.
- Location-Based Hashtags: This is very relevant to SMEs if you are targeting country-specific audiences e.g. #Naijatribe #Naijasales
Various tools can be used like smart hashtag to help you bring out working hashtags, and Instagram allows you to have up to 30 hashtags on your content. Also, ensure that you don’t use over populated hashtags or use banned hashtags unless your reach reduces.
Partner with Micro-Influencers
You don’t need to break the bank for this, and most micro-influencers are usually niched down and can drive retail sales but ensure you choose the right one. If you are in the SME market, then you want to focus on personalities like TriciaBiz, recently Visa partnered with her to train SME’s. She has a good community of business owners around her.
Micro-influencers can be offered gift packs or sample branded products from your organisation or special discount codes using their name. On social media, people buy from people they trust and if they are getting product information from an influencer, then they would likely buy. There are many of them on Instagram including fan favourites like Naijabrandchick.
Use Instagram stories
Many businesses and entrepreneurs even make more sales stories than the actual post. They would rather engage your stories than post.
For this to work, consider about a day or two of stories then drop your content. Use this opportunity to ask customers questions and create engaging sticks and click-through sales content.
Social media management tools
These are the tools that would make you work optimally. Some of them include investing in carousel (popular means of content creation of Instagram ) templates where you drop your ideas, save and post away.
If you are too busy, you can get social media tools like sprout social that will help you schedule your content ahead of the week.
Direct message strategies
Most people just jump into the inbox of clients, especially people that they have never had an interaction with and proposing several offers to them. There is a very high chance people would not respond.
There are helpful strategies you can use like discovery calls – find out what and if your customer likes products. Establish trust by sharing more content with them and following up adequately.
Furthermore, it is important to note that if you have not developed a sales and funnel strategy, sales will not magically happen. Some of the things you will need are.
- Optimized website – A website showcasing your product benefits and a Call to Action (CTA)
- A sales qualification process – Not every John Smith is your customer. You need a process to know who is sales-ready, so you don’t waste resources.
- Automate your emails – Every new customer who enters your list receives about two emails introducing you and what you do.
- Follow up strategy – Use bulk SMS strategies to send offering updates and regular calls where necessary.
- Always be online – When you are always available to get to answer customers at the speed of light.
Lastly, if you have this strategy – then you can make more money using Instagram even while you sleep.
Going social is not as difficult as they say, and this year alone, many businesses and individuals have generated more than $5000 in revenue, which is a fairly good number. You too can be among this number by taking note of these strategies and executing them. Execution is key.
