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How to Utilize Your Instagram Profile at Every Stage of Your Sales Funnel

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how to utilize your instagram profile at every stage of your sales funnel

Instagram has long been a popular marketing tool, with many brands around the world now using it to find and collaborate social media influencers and use their established voices to generate sales and build awareness.

Not as many businesses, however, use their own Instagram profile to build a complimentary marketing channel to create a more effective sales funnel.

Admittedly, building up your sales funnel takes time – it’s much faster to use someone else’s already existing authority than invest in building your own. However building your own assets is more effective in the long run, enabling you to bring in sales on auto-pilot, without further investment. 

So how can your Instagram channel help you build a more effective sales funnel?

First off, a quick explainer on how the funnel concept works – a sales funnel is a visual representation of how your customers are proceeding towards making a purchase. In its simplest form, an average sales funnel consists of three main stages:

  • Top of the funnel (i.e. the first introduction of your brand and your products to a customer)
  • Middle of the funnel (i.e. this is where a customer feels interested or curious enough to know more about you or your product)
  • Bottom of the funnel (i.e. this is where your customer adds your product to a shopping cart and completes the sale)
Sales funnel

Used well, Instagram can provide an extra boost in each of these segments.

1. Top of the funnel: Create Instagram stories that build relevant clicks

Instagram Stories have become an increasingly effective marketing channel since Instagram allowed clickable links to be used within Stories frame.

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“Swipe-up” links add an ability to generate direct referral traffic from Instagram – and if you do your job well, that traffic will be well-targeted and highly converting.

But not everyone can access Swipe Up links in Stories. in order to qualify for the option, your brand profile needs to:

  • Have to have at least 10,000 followers
  • Be a verified account

Both of these are relatively attainable, though it does take some work. But once you’ve established a presence, and gone through the verification process, adding Stories links can be a valuable consideration.

But you shouldn’t just start selling from your stories. That’s a good way to lose followers quickly. Instead, you should focus on these key elements to maximize your Stories performance.

  • Use creative ideas that are able to soft-sell without being too “salesy”
  • Build engaging stories that catch an eye and hold attention

Lightricks Boosted is a cool tool that can help on both fronts, with creative templates and video editing tools that will likely inspire new formats, angles and ideas.

Boosted

The cool thing about the tool is that you can create the same video in different dimensions to re-use it on more than one channel. So you can post your videos on YouTube, Facebook, and yes, as Instagram Stories.

Another tool that cuold inspire some creative Instagram content ideas is Text Optimizer. The tool analyzes your target niche and returns underlying concepts, entities and questions. All of those never cease to inspire engaging content ideas.

Text Optimizer

2. Middle of the funnel: Use Instagram to curate & display social proof

Middle-of-the-funnel content is the bridge between the first introduction and the initial engagement – a key piece of your marketing strategy. This is where your customer decides whether to leave, or stay and give your product a chance.

Social proof tends to help make that decision, especially if it’s easily verifiable, which can be facilitated via Instagram. Numerous retail brands curate Instagram in search of real people who’ve featured their products in creative and engaging ways.

Here’s an example of powerful social proof which is powered by Instagram:

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Social proof instagram

This type of curated content showcases your product in a real-life context, engaging your loyal customers and helping to build community. All of this applies to establishing the powerful middle of the sales funnel.

Obviously, don’t forget to ask Instagram users’ permissions before reusing their content on-site and/or on your own feed but this is also a good opportunity to engage your social-media-active customers:

UGC Instagram feed

3. Bottom of the funnel: Use Instagram retargeting

I’m sure you’ve noticed that you often see ads on both Facebook and Instagram coming from sites or brands you recently engaged with. This is retargeting in action – Facebook enables businesses to target Facebook and Instagram ads to those people who visited your site and performed some sort of action.

Specifically, you can re-target those customers who abandoned your shopping cart without completing the purchase. This is exactly how Instagram can boost your sales funnel performance and trigger more action at the very bottom of it.

Retargeting

Bonus: Use on-site retargeting for more impact

Not many marketers realize that retargeting can work on their own sites as well – that is you can serve custom calls-to-action and offers to people who already visited your site (i.e. your returning traffic) as well as serve custom content to those people who came from Instagram.

Finteza allows you to set-up retargeting campaigns and serve on-site promotional content based on the referral source as well as your site users’ past actions on the site. For example, you can set up a process to show custom discounts to people who came from Instagram, even if they left your site and came back. 

It will also help you analyze your Instagram sales funnel and the effectiveness of all your methods:

Finteza Instagram

Instagram can be a powerful marketing tool, especially when you use the platform to its fullest potential. Of course, it’s not the only tool you should be using to build an effective sales funnel but it can definitely be a great addition to your current marketing tool suite.

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Snapchat Explores New Messaging Retention Feature: A Game-Changer or Risky Move?

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Snapchat Explores New Messaging Retention Feature: A Game-Changer or Risky Move?

In a recent announcement, Snapchat revealed a groundbreaking update that challenges its traditional design ethos. The platform is experimenting with an option that allows users to defy the 24-hour auto-delete rule, a feature synonymous with Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging model.

The proposed change aims to introduce a “Never delete” option in messaging retention settings, aligning Snapchat more closely with conventional messaging apps. While this move may blur Snapchat’s distinctive selling point, Snap appears convinced of its necessity.

According to Snap, the decision stems from user feedback and a commitment to innovation based on user needs. The company aims to provide greater flexibility and control over conversations, catering to the preferences of its community.

Currently undergoing trials in select markets, the new feature empowers users to adjust retention settings on a conversation-by-conversation basis. Flexibility remains paramount, with participants able to modify settings within chats and receive in-chat notifications to ensure transparency.

Snapchat underscores that the default auto-delete feature will persist, reinforcing its design philosophy centered on ephemerality. However, with the app gaining traction as a primary messaging platform, the option offers users a means to preserve longer chat histories.

The update marks a pivotal moment for Snapchat, renowned for its disappearing message premise, especially popular among younger demographics. Retaining this focus has been pivotal to Snapchat’s identity, but the shift suggests a broader strategy aimed at diversifying its user base.

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This strategy may appeal particularly to older demographics, potentially extending Snapchat’s relevance as users age. By emulating features of conventional messaging platforms, Snapchat seeks to enhance its appeal and broaden its reach.

Yet, the introduction of message retention poses questions about Snapchat’s uniqueness. While addressing user demands, the risk of diluting Snapchat’s distinctiveness looms large.

As Snapchat ventures into uncharted territory, the outcome of this experiment remains uncertain. Will message retention propel Snapchat to new heights, or will it compromise the platform’s uniqueness?

Only time will tell.

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Catering to specific audience boosts your business, says accountant turned coach

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Catering to specific audience boosts your business, says accountant turned coach

While it is tempting to try to appeal to a broad audience, the founder of alcohol-free coaching service Just the Tonic, Sandra Parker, believes the best thing you can do for your business is focus on your niche. Here’s how she did just that.

When running a business, reaching out to as many clients as possible can be tempting. But it also risks making your marketing “too generic,” warns Sandra Parker, the founder of Just The Tonic Coaching.

“From the very start of my business, I knew exactly who I could help and who I couldn’t,” Parker told My Biggest Lessons.

Parker struggled with alcohol dependence as a young professional. Today, her business targets high-achieving individuals who face challenges similar to those she had early in her career.

“I understand their frustrations, I understand their fears, and I understand their coping mechanisms and the stories they’re telling themselves,” Parker said. “Because of that, I’m able to market very effectively, to speak in a language that they understand, and am able to reach them.” 

“I believe that it’s really important that you know exactly who your customer or your client is, and you target them, and you resist the temptation to make your marketing too generic to try and reach everyone,” she explained.

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“If you speak specifically to your target clients, you will reach them, and I believe that’s the way that you’re going to be more successful.

Watch the video for more of Sandra Parker’s biggest lessons.

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Instagram Tests Live-Stream Games to Enhance Engagement

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Instagram Tests Live-Stream Games to Enhance Engagement

Instagram’s testing out some new options to help spice up your live-streams in the app, with some live broadcasters now able to select a game that they can play with viewers in-stream.

As you can see in these example screens, posted by Ahmed Ghanem, some creators now have the option to play either “This or That”, a question and answer prompt that you can share with your viewers, or “Trivia”, to generate more engagement within your IG live-streams.

That could be a simple way to spark more conversation and interaction, which could then lead into further engagement opportunities from your live audience.

Meta’s been exploring more ways to make live-streaming a bigger consideration for IG creators, with a view to live-streams potentially catching on with more users.

That includes the gradual expansion of its “Stars” live-stream donation program, giving more creators in more regions a means to accept donations from live-stream viewers, while back in December, Instagram also added some new options to make it easier to go live using third-party tools via desktop PCs.

Live streaming has been a major shift in China, where shopping live-streams, in particular, have led to massive opportunities for streaming platforms. They haven’t caught on in the same way in Western regions, but as TikTok and YouTube look to push live-stream adoption, there is still a chance that they will become a much bigger element in future.

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Which is why IG is also trying to stay in touch, and add more ways for its creators to engage via streams. Live-stream games is another element within this, which could make this a better community-building, and potentially sales-driving option.

We’ve asked Instagram for more information on this test, and we’ll update this post if/when we hear back.

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