How to Gain Instagram Followers and Turn Them Into Customers

Building an online presence on Instagram can feel like a challenge, one that can often feel a little overwhelming when you first begin! With multiple social media platforms available to connect with potential customers, each one with its own unique way of engaging, it’s important to remember that how you use one platform may differ from how you use another. 

Accumulating a user base that follows you is just the first step in generating revenue online. In order to convert follows to sales, people need to know who you are and why they need your product. It’s all about trust. Whether your business has 100 or 100,000 followers is irrelevant if those followers aren’t willing to engage with your message and eventually turn into paying customers down the road.

So, how can we best take advantage of Instagram and the features that it offers? Whether you have a small following or a larger one, the strategy will help you to keep growing! 

Have conversations with your followers, often

Your followers need to know you, like you (even love you….), and trust you before they even consider buying. The only way to build a trusted brand online, and to stand out from your competitors, is to consistently engage with your following. Showing the ‘human’ behind the business. If a person feels seen, heard, and listened to, they will instantly switch from a cold lead to a warm lead. This makes your selling process easier!

Oftentimes, brands focus the bulk of their time and energy on visual in-feed content rather than talking to their community directly. Whilst content is a vital part of your brand, it is not the key to generating sales. Think of your content as the supporting act. Rather than posting a picture of your product, post a video of you using it, ask questions to your followers, interact with them and show off your product in real-time. 

Pro Tip: Pop up a poll on your Instagram stories about your product, then direct message every follower who interacts with it and strike up a fun conversation. Remember to talk to them in a friendly and conversational manner, and avoid hard sales! Only sell to someone who is already warmed up and interested. Cold sales are dead!

Highlight your followers to build community and connection

A great way to increase both sales and follower engagement is to offer incentives. For example, people who buy your product and leave a public and shareable review get a percentage off their next purchase or get featured on your page. 

Pro Tip: Run competitions on your page that ask followers to submit images of them using your product or experiencing your service, at the end select a few followers and repost to your page. Potential customers will have an incentive to buy if they want to get featured. This is a great strategy for those with bigger followings.

Be consistently active online

Interact with everyone who interacts with you. Every like, follow, share, and comment is an opportunity to connect with a potential customer. Avoid mass messaging, make sure you reach out with a personalized message, and engage with people as though you were in the room with them.  Your followers represent living, breathing people who ideally want to hear what you have to say.

Pro Tip: Sending voice messages as direct messages is a great way to connect with people! This is a great way to boost connection if you are a service-based brand. Mention something about the user’s account or even comment on one of their posts.

Tell your story, get vulnerable!

Whether you are a product-based brand or service-based, telling the story of how you came to be is a great way to build the trust factor with your audience. This also helps people to identify with you and relatability is important in today's world. 

Offer your unique view of your brand, what was the moment that made you begin? Post about how the brand started, and create videos sharing why you are so passionate about what you do. Sharing your ‘why’ consistently will entice your audience and create emotional connections for those who relate to your story. Emotional connections equal a greater chance of buying!

Learn more about brand storytelling and why i’s so important to grow your business!

Be original

The online space is crowded, in the first quarter of 2021, 303,000 new businesses were formed in the United States alone, and you can guarantee a high percentage of them have online profiles. However, with more business arising, more people are flooding to social media in search of the latest and greatest thing.

One way to make yourself known? Create original content. Allow yourself to be inspired by your competitors but never copy. People can sniff out inauthentic content from a mile away. Brands that consistently post the same content will fail to keep their following engaged, remember that people's attention spans are small. You need to grab their attention quickly.

Pro Tip: Create a video series that followers can look forward to or even hire content creators to create unique content if this is not your area of genius. Delegate anything that you don’t want to do. Attracting the attention of a potential customer is often the hardest step in the conversion process, so being original is extremely important.

What we can learn from this is that it’s more important than ever that brands treat their audience with a human touch. Therefore, your marketing on Instagram should be about building long-term relationships through smart content, and personalized engagement, versus trying to make a quick buck. 

If you want help growing your business, we’re here to help! Click here to schedule a Complimentary Brand Consultation. We can’t wait to hear about your offer and your mission and grow it into something even bigger! 

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