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How to generate sales on instagram


9 Actionable Tips for 2022

Article by Matt Smith

Learning how to sell on Instagram offers businesses of all sizes incredible opportunities to reach their target audiences and drive sales.

Last year, eMarketer reported that Instagram is estimated to have 1.074 billion users worldwide in 2021, 73.5 million more than what it had in 2020. 

From major brands to local mom-and-pop shops, businesses around the world are driving results with Instagram. According to one report,, 80% of Instagram users make a purchase decision based on something they saw while browsing the app, Instagram

If you haven’t already started selling on Instagram, you may be missing out on a huge opportunity.

Interested in learning more? Here are nine proven tips to help you learn how to sell on Instagram.

1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile and Bio for Instagram Selling

How to sell on Instagram for free? It’s simple, optimize your Instagram business profile.  

The Instagram business profile is becoming the new homepage as more and more consumers are turning to Instagram instead of Google to search for brands. 

This means you should be spending as much time and effort curating a beautifully designed Instagram profile as you would creating your website.

Your Instagram business profile should include a:

  • Profile photo: Choose a photo that is on-brand (like a logo) and makes your company easy to identify.
  • Well-crafted bio: Your Instagram bio is incredibly important. It should include a clear description of your business that speaks to your audience. Let them know exactly what you have to offer.
  • Link to your shop: The URL section of your bio is the only clickable link you can add to your Instagram page, so make sure you’re using it! This is a great place to drive traffic from your individual posts and stories. Creating a unique URL for this section will also give you the opportunity to track visits to your website from Instagram.

Love Crochet is a great example of a well-crafted business profile:

Their profile includes a beautifully designed and consistent aesthetic as well as an eye-catching bio and branded profile photo.

Your Instagram business profile is often the first point of contact a customer will have with your brand, so it’s important to make a great impression and entice people to follow your business. By creating a consistent brand story and aesthetic, you can turn new customers into devoted followers, which means they’ll only be a few steps away from investing in your products.  

2. Use Instagram Ads to Reach Your Target Audience

With continued changes to the Instagram algorithm and heightened competition on the platform, it’s important to use what works. Namely, this means that Instagram ads are critical to Instagram marketing strategies for businesses.

Once you’ve set up a business profile on Instagram, you can decide how much you want to spend, where you’d like your ads to be seen, and how long you want them to run. Instagram provides a variety of targeting options, so you can choose the ones that best suit your business’ needs.

Running your own Instagram ad campaign isn’t that difficult, but it can be intimidating to many small business owners and influencers who haven’t done it before. Fortunately, it’s not as hard as you think!

The easiest way to run ads is by promoting posts you’ve shared on Instagram. Just select the post you want to boost and hit the “promote” button.

Instagram will automatically pull in a “similar audience” that you can share the post to, but you can easily create your own audience in the app by choosing an interest, age range, and gender(s).

Once you’ve set up your audience and budget, make sure to give your ad one last look-over before hitting “Confirm.”

You can start with a small budget and run your ad for a few days to test things out. To track how your ad is performing, click “View Results” in the bottom left corner of your ad. Remember, Instagram ads can take practice, so make sure you continue to tweak your boosted posts and audiences until you get the results you want.

The best ads to drive Instagram sales for your business are ones  that clearly explain how to make a purchase.

Consider @thebouqsco. In the example below, they use the call to action “Shop now and save” in the caption followed by a short description of the offer. They also use “Shop Now” as a call to action for the button text to encourage users to make a purchase.

 

Basically, The Bouqs Co. simplifies the buying process. The ad makes it super clear what they are offering without any distractions. It’s important you keep your messaging simple, so you don’t distract users from the ultimate goal of your post.

3. Selling Through Instagram Story Ads

In March 2017, Instagram released advertising in Stories, offering brands yet another paid opportunity to reach more people. These immersive, full-screen ads let your business use targeting that makes your ads personally relevant to the people you want to reach.

While photo ads will likely retain their top spot well into 2021, Instagram Story ads should see the most growth based on the rise in Instagram Stories usage. These ads pop up in between Instagram Stories of accounts you follow and can make a large impact on potential customers.

You’ll notice a small “Sponsored” tag in the top right corner and a call to action (“Learn More”) at the bottom of these ads. Again, adding an additional call to action at the bottom of your ad can also be helpful for those interested in learning more.

You have a choice in Instagram ads to create either a video or a photo. Whichever you choose, make sure your initial clip is attention-grabbing. You’ll need to catch the eyes of those who quickly swipe through stories.

Instagram Stories have become a great way for businesses to make deeper connections with their followers and show off their brand’s personality. They offer you the chance to connect with your followers on a daily basis (and without cluttering up their feed). Make sure you’re not missing out on this great opportunity to connect with future customers.

Instagram Stories continue to explode in popularity, and the feature has more than 500 million daily active users – that’sdouble what Snapchat has! So, it’s no surprise businesses are continuing to find new and creative ways they can sell using this feature.

Instagram Stories provide the perfect opportunity for businesses to engage with audiences on a more frequent and personal basis. Many brands use Instagram Stories to capture their products in action, promote special offers, or showcase new items.

In 2017, Instagram graced users who had 10,000 followers or more with the ability to add links to Instagram Stories, which was great news for retail brands and publishers. This is a huge Instagram trend right now and can help you grow your email list, sell products, drive traffic, and more.

When adding a link to Instagram Stories, you’ll notice a small arrow and “See More” text appear at the bottom of your image. Since this small text may go unnoticed, you can add text directing users to “Swipe Up” (or something similar) for added visibility.

The Instagram algorithm now takes into account all the interactions you receive on your Instagram Stories as well, such as replies and shares. The more that a user interacts with your Instagram Stories, the more likely your posts will conquer the Instagram algorithm and show up in their feed.

A great Instagram hack to get around the algorithm is to take advantage of Instagram Stories engagement opportunities, including the polling feature or “Swipe Up” option (that is, if you have over 10,000 followers).

We’ve also been seeing a lot of micro-influencers telling their followers to DM (direct message) them for a direct link to the product. This is a great way to drive people to your inbox, build relationships with your followers, and ultimately increase the chance of your posts showing up on their feeds.

These are all great tactics to drive your customers to check out your product and to make sure you stay relevant with your audience.

5. Build a Shoppable Instagram Feed to Start Selling

Shopify’s shopping feature integration is also a huge win for businesses on Instagram. According to Shopify and TechCrunch, “Instagram is already a ‘significant’ driver of Shopify merchant store traffic, so being able to convert said traffic right on the platform instead of round-tripping could result in a big boost of additional sales.”

Instagram’s shopping feature allows businesses to tag products that are available for sale and lets users purchase them directly within the app.

Shopify plugins like Shoppable Instagram Galleries makes it easier than ever for your business to make sales. The Instant Purchases feature lets visitors add items to a cart and buy the products directly from images on your feed. Businesses can create a custom gallery to showcase their products and add the gallery’s link to their Instagram bio.

Creating a shoppable Instagram feed with a "link in bio" tool, such as Shopify’s Linkpop, is a popular strategy for businesses looking to drive sales through Instagram.

Here you can see the custom URL in @MeUndies’ bio, where they can direct users through post captions and Instagram Stories:

Linkin.bio is a landing page that resembles your Instagram feed and displays your posts as clickable images that you can link directly to a product page. This makes it easy to build a clickable, shoppable feed that links your audience straight to your content. You can also link to multiple websites and pages without changing the link in your bio:

When one of your followers clicks on the link in your bio, they’ll be taken to a mobile-optimized landing page that resembles your Instagram feed and displays your Instagram posts as clickable images. When your followers visit your Linkin.bio page, they can click on any of your Instagram posts to visit the product page that corresponds with the photo.

Shoppers love a good sale or promotion. Instagram is the perfect place to promote a sale, new product launch, or discount code exclusively to your followers. You can either add your promo information in a caption or in Instagram Stories, encouraging users to click the link in your bio to take advantage of the offer.

If you’re running an Instagram-exclusive promotion, you also can create a teaser on your other social networks to drive traffic to your Instagram business profile. Promoting exclusive Instagram-only promotions (for example, a special discount code for your followers) among your other social networks will encourage audiences to follow your Instagram account to make sure they don’t miss out on future offers.

7. Establish Partnerships with Instagram Influencers

Instagram influencers continue to be popular given that collaborations and sponsorships have nearly replaced digital ads and are a huge part of social media marketing strategies today. 

Consumers today don’t trust traditional advertising – they trust people. Research from Nielsen shows that consumers trust personal recommendations above brand advertisements.

The easier it is for a customer to picture themselves using your product, the easier it will be to sell to them.

Influencer marketing gives brands a unique opportunity to reach an engaged audience. Although it may initially seem like a risk to invest large amounts of money into influencer marketing, it’s important to consider exactly what you are paying for.

Consider advertisers that spend upwards of $5 million (excluding production costs) for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial to reach more than 100 million viewers who may or may not be the brand’s target audience. A series of Instagram posts by a fashion blogger with 500,000 followers and a cult-following could sell out an entire product line within 24 hours. 

If you don’t have the budget to partner with a big influencer, consider finding a micro-influencer. These influencers have a significant, but not massive following, usually ranging anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 followers.  

Micro-influencers are typically much more willing to do an “in-kind” agreement, trading products for promotion. If you’re a small business, investing in micro-influencers could be a great way to help drive potential customers to your page.

It’s important you spend more time thinking about your strategy and campaign goals before getting started on your influencer marketing campaign. Setting up crystal clear goals will drive initial planning decisions and help you determine the best fit for your partnership.

While working with an influencer, it’s important to make the paid partnership feel as natural as possible. Sitting an influencer in a chair to talk about how great your product is will likely come off as an advertisement and will quickly lose your viewer’s attention.

For example, lifestyle blogger Jacey Durprie’s partnership with Biossance aligns perfectly with her brand, as she frequently shows off her morning routine, productivity, and favorite products. She keeps it conversational, asking her followers their favorite “beauty hacks” and shares one of her.

The partnership feels very natural without looking like a typical advertisement.

Whichever route you chose, influencer marketing is here to stay. It’s a great way for you to tap into a niche, build brand awareness, and, of course, drive sales.

8. Use the Right Hashtags

If you really want your brand to gain traction on Instagram and reach entirely new audiences, then you have to master the art of the hashtag.

Hashtags can be great for putting your brand in front of potentially millions of people. However, it’s important to not use too many hashtags in your posts. Doing so can make your posts look spammy and low-effort.

It’s much better to focus on a couple handfuls of highly trafficked hashtags. This will increase the chances of the right people seeing your posts. After all, you’re not targeting just anyone – you’re targeting your specific audience. By carefully choosing your hashtags, you’ll ensure that the people finding your posts are in your target demographic.

One simple trick to find great hashtags is to see which ones are being used by influencers in your niche. Keep in mind that many of these hashtags may have millions of posts, so if you choose these hashtags, there’s a good chance your post will end up getting buried. Try to find hashtags that are used by influencers and receive a lot of attention, but watch out for hashtags that might be used too much.

For example, the hashtag #travel currently has more than 406 million posts:

So, if travel is your niche, this might not be the best hashtag to use since it’s so oversaturated.

It’s better to get a little more specific. Take #backpacking. With 12 million posts and counting, it’s  still a popular hashtag, but it’s much more targeted than #travel and attracts a certain type of audience.

When choosing your hashtags, think about your specific niche, and build your hashtag selection around that. This is a much better approach than simply using any old popular hashtag.

9. How to Sell on Instagram: Nail the Caption

The caption is another integral element to any Instagram post. A caption can make or break a post. If you havea compelling image but a weak caption, your post may not do too well, so this is an area you definitely need to pay attention to.

Your caption can actually do a lot. First and foremost, it can relate to the viewer. Apartment Therapy excels in this area with captions that relate to a specific emotion without trying too hard.

Second, captions can serve as calls to action. That doesn’t mean that you need to be pitching a product in every post, though. You can encourage people to interact with your brand in other ways, like visiting your site or checking out a video.

For example, travel brand Away encourages people to interact with their posts using fun, unique prompts:

If you’re having trouble thinking of great captions, check out our list of more than 200 Instagram caption ideas.

Conclusion

Figuring out how to sell on Instagram will take some practice in order to determine what methods work best for your business. Following these nine tips will make the process a whole lot easier by eliminating a lot of the guesswork for you. 

While learning how to sell on Instagram can be a little intimidating at first, it’s a lot easier than it seems. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be off to the races, drawing in tons of new people who just might turn out to be your next customers.

Summary: How to Sell on Instagram in 2021
  1. Optimize your profile and Instagram bio for sales
  2. Use Instagram ads to reach your target audience
  3. Start selling through Instagram Stories Ads
  4. Create Instagram Stories with product links
  5. Build a shoppable Instagram feed to encourage purchases
  6. Run exclusive Instagram-only promotions

Start selling online now with Shopify

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Want to Learn More?

  • How to Do Instagram Influencer Marketing
  • A Beginner’s Guide to Instagram Shopping
  • How to Make Money on Instagram
  • How to Get Followers on Instagram: From 0 to 10k Followers

11 Tips to Increase Sales on Instagram

New to Instagram marketing?

Or struggling with gaining followers and making sales?

Then this article is for you.

Read on for 11 tips.

Why Sell on Instagram?

There’s no doubting it.

Instagram is huge.

In fact, it has over 1 billion active users worldwide.

But did you know that the hip photo-sharing platform isn’t only for artists, photographers, and everyone who loves digital art?

Instagram is an excellent marketing platform for businesses.

And no wonder!

  • 90% of Instagram users follow at least one brand.
  • 83% of Instagram users find new brands or products on the platform.
  • 80% of users say Instagram helps them when deciding to buy a product or service.

It’s not all unicorns and butterflies, though.

In 2016, Instagram changed its algorithms to make posts appear in feeds based on popularity instead of in chronological order.

This means posts with high engagement rise to the top, and posts with low engagement never get seen.

So if your brand is new and you don’t have a ton of followers, how can you increase sales on Instagram?

Here are 11 tips to increase your visibility and sales on Instagram.

1. Craft Stunning Images

Imagine your average Instagram user scrolling through her feed.

She whizzes by post after post of yawn-inducing mediocrity.

Until one jumps out and grabs her attention such as this Instagram post by National Geographic.

You don’t have to travel to Greece and capture a photo of the full moon rising behind Poseidon’s temple.

All you need to stop Instagram scrollers in their tracks is a beautiful, unique, high-quality image.

Here are three tips to increase engagement with your images.

Post Images that Speak to Your Audience

For example, if you know your audience is interested in different cultures around the world, an image like this will spark their attention.

Stick to the Rules of Great Photography

The great news is you don’t need a DSLR camera and expensive professional gear to take stunning photos.

Simply follow these rules with your smartphone, and you’re good to go.

  • Use natural light whenever you can.
  • Avoid overexposure (to do this, tap the brightest part of your frame before taking the photo).
  • Shoot at sunrise, sunset, or on a cloudy day.
  • Take photos from different vantage points. (That’s right! Crouch, crawl, lie down, even scale a wall if you’re feeling ambitious.)
  • Use unique frames. A hedge, two skyscrapers, or just some extra space are stunning examples.

Enhance Your Images with the Right Tools

Here are the top three image editing apps that further enhance your photos.

  • VSCO – This app is ranked by photographers as the best image-editing app for Instagram.
  • Canva – Canva has a ton of tools that allow you to customize your images.
  • A Color Story – This app helps you stick to your theme color by offering customizable filter packs.

2. Run Contests

Running Instagram contests helps you spark engagement, plus win a ton of new followers.

Here are three great Instagram contest ideas you can use.

  • Like, comment, and follow. Users like your post and follow you to enter your contest.
  • Tag a friend. Users get one entry for every friend they tag in your post.
  • User-generated content (UGC). Your audience creates their own unique posts and tags your business or uses a hashtag you created.

So far, the best type of contest is the UGC contest.

Here’s an excellent example of a winning UGC contest from Upwork.

View this post on Instagram

Have you found success as a freelancer? We want to hear about it! 📣 1️⃣ Share your success story on Twitter, Instagram, or the Upwork Facebook page with hashtag #UpworkSuccess. 🙌 2️⃣ Feel free to include a photo or photos, a blog post, video, or other media in your post to bring your story to life. 📸 3️⃣ Be entered for a chance to win $1,000! 💵 LINK IN BIO for more details and Official Rules. . . . . . #bestversionofme #businesssuccess #freelance #freelancelife #freelancing #freelancer #ambitions #entrepreneurship #selfemployed #remotework #remotelife #workfromanywhere #lovewhatyoudo #dowhatyoulove #futureofwork #wfh #workfromhome #contest

A post shared by Upwork (@upworkinc) on

And check out one of the top entries.

View this post on Instagram

It’s freelance Friday 😱🤗😱⁣ ⁣ People often ask where I get my clients from, and it has changed a lot since I moved from being a freelancer to a business-owner, but some things remain the same. ⁣ ⁣ Referrals, word-of-mouth, email outreach (leads find me online and email me), IG DMs, and Upwork invitations are my tip ways for getting new clients. ⁣ ⁣ I don’t actively apply for Upwork jobs anymore, but because I have a Top Rated account I still get invitations for projects that I often accept!⁣ ⁣ Top Rated ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ status gives you exclusive perks including increased exposure. ⁣ ⁣ 𝐒𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐔𝐩𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤? ⁣ ⁣ 1. A current Job Success Score of 90% or higher⁣ 2. First hire on Upwork was more than 90 days ago⁣ 3. Maintained Rising Talent status or a Job Success Score of at least 90% for at least 13 of the last 16 weeks⁣ 4. A 100% complete profile⁣ 5. 12-month earnings of at least $1,000⁣ 6. Up-to-date availability ⁣ 7. An account in good standing with no recent account holds⁣ 8. Activity on the platform in the past 90 days⁣ ⁣ It sounds like a lot of work, but when you follow these guidelines, it makes the process 10x easier. ⁣ ⁣ ❓What’s your #1 way of getting new clients❓

A post shared by ONLINE COURSE CREATOR | Avary (@thehiveconsultingco) on

Why?

It’s because people love to share their stories, tap into their creativity, and impress their own followers. (Not to mention win cool prizes!)

3. Leverage Video

Did you know that Instagram videos receive 2x the engagement of other posts?

That’s right!

If you want your followers’ attention, it’s time to leverage those videos.

Here’s a quick guide to Instagram videos:

  • Keep your videos short and grab your viewers’ attention with movement in the first few seconds of your clip.
  • Add captions (Instagram videos are mute by default).
  • Plan your videos with a specific goal in mind (e.g. drive traffic to your blog, spark engagement, gain new followers, or educate your audience).
  • Add behind-the-scenes footage of your brand for a human touch.
  • Capture your products in action (a video of customers using your products is great).
  • Follow the rules of great photography when shooting your videos.

Check out this cool example from Ben and Jerry’s.

4. Give Exclusive Content with Stories

Use Instagram stories to show behind-the-scenes action and truly pull those viewers into what your brand does.

A super example is Boxycharm and their absorbing story clips.

As you know, Boxycharm offers customized makeup boxes with all your favorite brands in one box.

To engage watchers, they post stories of real people using their boxes to “glow up.”

Take a look at this video and this video from BoxyCharm’s Instagram.

5. Respond to Comments

Instagram users are swamped with content.

So when they take the time to comment on your post?

Yup! You’ve achieved something awesome! 👍

But don’t stop there. Make commenters feel special by responding to them. Like their comments, thank them, and answer their questions.

Like what Starbucks did here.

Don’t worry.

If you get thousands of comments (kudos to you!) and don’t have time to reply to them all, you can always hire a social media manager to do the work for you.

6. Join Instagram Pods

New to Instagram marketing and don’t have a ton of followers?

Get on quality Instagram Pods to ramp up your engagements.

In their blog, Hootsuite called Pods Instagram’s latest engagement hack.

Here’s how it works:

  • Find a small Instagram Pod. Pods are groups of Instagram users who band together to increase each other’s followers and engagements.
  • Follow the Pod’s engagement guidelines. You usually have to like, comment, and share other Pod members’ posts.
  • In return, your own posts will receive likes, comments, and shares from other members.

Remember:

  • Go for small pods with 15-20 users.
  • Avoid giant spammy Pods with thousands of users.
  • Keep your end of the bargain! Failure to like, share, and comment on posts can get you kicked out of the Pod.
  • Pods are only great for getting started. As your brand presence matures, you’ll want to gain your own likes, comments and shares instead of Pod-generated ones.

7. Use More Hashtags

Using hashtags is an excellent way to expand your Instagram audience. This is because they make your posts appear in the pages of hashtags you use.

Since Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per post, you can go all out with them!

First, make sure to use the most popular hashtags on Instagram. These will get you in front of millions of users.

Then, create your own customized hashtags. This is a great step for when you’ve established your brand presence and already have a large following.

Remember, mix things up! Avoid appearing spammy by not stuffing your posts with the same hashtags over and over again.

8. Use Your Links Wisely

Unlike other social media platforms, Instagram doesn’t allow links in posts.

But don’t worry. Here are two ways you can drive users to your store with links.

Use Your Link in Bio Option

Instagram allows you to use a single link in your bio. Use it wisely to connect users to your most prominent website page.

Like what Nike did.

This link takes you to Nike’s membership page.

Add Links to Your Instagram Stories

When you reach 10,000 followers, Instagram gives you a “swipe up” option on stories where viewers can see links or other information about you.

Follow HubSpot’s simple guide for adding links to stories.

9. Connect with Up & Coming Influencers

Here’s a stunning fact.

80% of marketers say influencer marketing is effective.

That means connecting with real influencers can turn into a big win for you.

But remember, it’s important to pick influencers carefully. You want to go for people who:

  • Have real influence in their area
  • Do something relevant to your product
  • Have followers who will benefit from what you’re selling

Check out this post before launching your own influencer marketing campaign: 5 Key Considerations When Launching Influencer Marketing Campaigns.

10. Use Emojis: The New Language of the Internet

Lavishly sprinkle your Instagram posts with hearts, rainbows, and smiles.

They’ll make viewers feel good, plus they’re super popular.

In fact, 50% of all Instagram posts contain emojis!

Like this one.

Remember, emojis aren’t only for fun, trendy brands. When used wisely, they go well with a serious, professional presence too.

Like in this post from ABC News.

11. Run Compelling Instagram Ads

69% of marketers in the U.S. spend their influencer budgets on Instagram ads.

Plus, Instagram ads have the potential to reach 849.3 million users.

So if you haven’t started an Instagram ad campaign yet, it’s a great idea to get cracking on it today.

Follow these pro tips when creating your Instagram ads.

  • Know what your audience wants to see.
  • Keep your message short. Your text will be cut off after two rows, so motivate with a CTA as soon as you can.
  • Engage with users. Treat your paid ads just like your organic posts to connect with your audience.

How to Engage with Instagram Users & Gain More Sales

With over a billion users, there’s a ton of noise on Instagram.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t use it to spark connections with your audience and drive sales.

Quite the opposite!

When you learn how to create the kind of noise your audience wants, you’ll be amazed at how Instagram can grow your brand.

More Resources:

  • How to Dominate Social Media Marketing: A Complete Strategy Guide
  • Perfecting Your Visual Strategy on Social Media: 19 Tips to Follow
  • How to Create Your Instagram Content Plan

Image Credits

All screenshots taken by author, August 2020

Category Instagram

How to increase your reach on Instagram: 30 ways

The answer to the question of how to increase your reach on Instagram is of interest to everyone who blogs or sells products through this social network. In this article, we will tell you what affects reach and why they fall. Let's take a look at 30 ways to increase your reach through publications, live streams, and dedicated apps.

  • What are Impressions and Reach on Instagram?
  • Why Track Instagram Reach?
  • How to find out the reach of your profile on Instagram
  • What should be the reach on Instagram
  • What influences reach on Instagram
  • Why Instagram reach is dropping
  • Tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram
  • Conclusion

What are impressions and reach on Instagram

Reach refers to the number of unique Instagram users who saw the post. If one person viewed the content several times, this is not reflected in the reach, but is taken into account in another metric - impressions.

Impressions is the total amount of views on your social media post.

Instagram statistics show coverage not only for individual publications, but also covered accounts - these are users who saw any of your content at least once during the specified period.

Why track Instagram reach

It is important for bloggers, various professionals and store owners who maintain pages on Instagram to constantly monitor audience reach. If they are growing, most likely you have chosen the right promotion strategy and create quality content. If coverage is falling, there is some problem that needs to be identified and addressed.

Analyzing the reach of different publications will help you determine which format and type of content algorithms are more likely to offer to your audience - and thus understand their preferences.

If you sell ads in your account or promote products with the help of bloggers, reach is one of the main metrics to focus on. Of course, it is also important to look at the activity of subscribers and check the account for cheating.

We recommend that you read: "Effective work with bloggers: how not to run into a fake and not drain the budget."

How to find out the reach of an Instagram profile

The Instagram statistics that are available to business accounts have indicators of reached and engaged accounts. Engaged - those who interacted with the content on your page in some way.

Account statistics

You can also see the reach for each photo, video, Reels video, story and live broadcast.

Recording statistics

To clarify statistics on reach and impressions, you can use special services, for example, Iconosquare, Minter. io, Pur.Ninja and others.

What should be the coverage on Instagram

There is no exact figure, but the coverage of 30-60% of all profile subscribers is considered optimal. At the same time, it is important to take into account their involvement - it should be at least 9-10% coverage.

As already mentioned, the number of engaged followers can be seen in Instagram statistics. Engagement for all publications can be calculated using the formula:

Engagement Rate formula

To calculate engagement for a single post, you need to divide the number of reactions to this post by the number of subscribers and multiply by 100%.

If the reach is high and the engagement is low, you need to work on the content, try new ideas and formats, ask your subscribers what they would like to see in their profile.

What influences reach on Instagram

Let's list the factors that affect reach.

Audience activity

The more likes, comments, saves and shares a post has, the higher the coverage will be — Instagram algorithms regard such content as interesting and offer it to other users more often. Activity in stories is also important - reactions, participation in surveys, answers and messages are taken into account.

The first hour after publication is considered to be especially important. If the post gets a lot of likes and comments during this period, then the reach will be good.

Content view time

The more time users spend on a post, the higher Instagram algorithms rate it. If subscribers open the text in full, scroll through the gallery, watch the video and do not scroll through the story, all this adds points to your publications.

Intrigue followers

Content attractiveness and variety

If people save your posts, like, comment, share with friends, these publications are more likely to be shown in the feed of your subscribers and other users who may like your content.

It is important to take into account the preferences of different users and use all the features of Instagram. When you create a variety of content in various formats - stories, posts with photos and videos, Reels videos, live broadcasts - this has a positive effect on reach.

Activity outside of your account

Reach rates are believed to be influenced by activities in other profiles. If you pay attention to other people's content, write comments, put likes, the algorithms understand that the account belongs to a living person, and are more likely to show your posts in user feeds.

Search engine optimization settings

Clear nickname and description, clear images, alternative photo captions, hashtags and geotags - all this helps Instagram successfully read information about you and your content, and then offer it to users who should be interested in it.

Use hashtags to help your audience find you

Posting time

New posts are shown first in the feed, so you should choose the right time to post when your audience is most active. Analyze your account statistics to determine the days and hours of ups and downs in activity.

According to Hootsuite research, the best time to post in general is 11am on Wednesday. Analysts say that at this time, users are more willing to like and write comments. Weekend activity is the lowest.

The best time to post on Instagram. Source

The authors of the study advise spreading Reels at 9 am or 12 noon from Monday to Thursday.

You need to understand that this is not a universal solution - if a lot of posts are published at the “ideal” time, due to their abundance, the user may simply not see yours. Rely primarily on the statistics of your account.

Why Instagram reach is falling

Let's look at a few reasons why this happens.

Poor quality and activity of the audience

If subscribers, as well as likes and comments are cheated, the account may be shadowbanned.

If you are fond of mass following, then response subscriptions can spoil the statistics. Usually these users are not interested in your content, they do not follow your account and do not leave reactions. Because of this, reach rates are not just low, but fall even more, because Instagram algorithms give less impressions to low-engagement profiles.

Monotonous, unattractive content

Try different content formats and don't get stuck on one topic. Follow trends, test innovations, create interesting and high-quality publications that take into account the preferences of the audience.

Try different formats and creative ideas

Ignoring search engine optimization

Hashtags, alt text for photos and everything else that was discussed in the section above - if you do not bother with such questions, it will negatively affect your reach.

Violations of the rules of Instagram

There are certain requirements in the social network, as well as some unspoken rules that should also be taken into account. If you bring up unwanted topics, organize giveaways, get subscribers or mass like, this can cause problems.

Giveway is a bad idea

Instagram updates

According to some observations, before updates on the social network, coverage of many profiles drops. This is a temporary phenomenon that you just need to wait out.

Tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram

In this section, we provide recommendations on how to increase your reach in various ways.

How to increase your Instagram reach with posts

A few tips for working with posts.

Test formats

Try to use all the features of the social network and create content in different formats. If you can spot a high-reach trend for a particular format, focus on it, but don't shy away from the rest.

Create Reels

Instagram launched the Reels video format due to competition from TikTok and promotes user videos from the very beginning, regardless of the number of subscribers. Reels provides an excellent opportunity to expand your reach and gain an audience for free.

How to increase reach on Instagram: create Reels
Place photos and videos in the carousel

If a user comes across a gallery post in the feed and ignores it, Instagram will show the post again, but from the second slide. This increases the likelihood that the subscriber will still pay attention to your content and react, and this will affect the reach.

Use gamification

Game mechanics help to engage users: this way they spend more time on posts, write comments more actively and share with friends. Gamification can be used both in posts and in stories: games for attentiveness, reaction, erudition, or simply with an element of luck, as well as combined with pranks.

How to increase your reach on Instagram using gamification
Ask questions and call for activity

Feel free to ask your followers to support you with a like if the content has gone. Ask for an opinion on the issues that you analyze in the post. People are especially willing to give advice: from choosing a movie for the evening to raising children.

Make helpful how-tos and lists

Create content you'll want to bookmark: useful checklists and guides, lists of movies, worthy places in the city, quality SPFs, and more. Share life hacks and invite subscribers to save the post for the future so as not to lose it.

Create useful content
Break the topic into parts

You can tell an interesting story in several posts. If you manage to hook readers, each publication will be expected, and you will get a lot of feedback.

Optional to use storytelling. You can prepare a selection of life hacks or stylish images and promise the second part if the post gets a certain number of reactions.

Use hashtags and geotags

Don't forget hashtags and geotags - this is a working way to increase your reach. But don't go overboard with the quantity and don't get carried away with high-frequency hashtags.

Show Before/After

Posts in Before/After format usually garner a lot of reactions. People actively comment and share with friends, which has a positive effect on reach, and also helps to get new customers.

How to Increase Instagram Reach: Show Before/After Comparisons
Have a Liketime

It's good to have a Liketime from time to time. Invite subscribers to like this and several previous posts and write a comment so that you leave likes in return on their profiles. Also, commentators can give each other hearts - this way everyone will be happy, and you will increase the activity in your account.

Provocative content

Provocative posts, such as substantiating an unpopular point of view, usually get a lot of reactions. True, they are far from always positive, be prepared for this.

Contests and sweepstakes

There must be some activity in the conditions of participation: likes, saves, reposts in stories, comments, marks of friends. Contests help boost your reach significantly, but to avoid attracting random fortune hunters, promise your products or something your audience likes as a reward. For example, on a yoga blog, the prize might be a class suit or a yoga tour, not a supply of Nutella or a smartphone.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: run giveaways

We advise you to read:

  • "How to make an Instagram contest that will increase awareness and sales. "

How to increase reach with stories and live broadcasts

Interesting stories and meaningful streams help increase account reach.

More interactive

Interact with your audience more often: arrange polls and quizzes, invent games, add emoji sliders, ask for reactions to stories if the topic is interesting.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: arrange quizzes
Show the workflow

Videos showing the process of achieving a great result help to keep the audience's attention. Artists show how they draw pictures from scratch, repairmen show how they stretch ceilings, lay parquet or glue wallpaper, make-up artists show how to apply makeup, and so on.

Show footage at high speed or upload individual clips so as not to create dozens of stories that will quickly bore people.

Answer questions

Enter the section "Question-Answer" - such stories are usually watched to the end. If subscribers asked few questions, you can come up with your own.

How to increase your reach on Instagram: answer questions from followers
Share personal

Sometimes you can tell your audience about your personal experiences, but don't overdo it. In a metered amount, such content is interesting, but an excess of personal dramas makes you want to unsubscribe.

Review and unbox

This content gets good reach if it's relevant to the account.

Show the unboxing with nice music
Post a link to an interesting post

If a post gets undeservedly little attention, it's possible that subscribers simply didn't see it. To fix this, place a link to the publication in your stories.

Conduct live broadcasts

Live broadcasts are an opportunity to communicate with subscribers closer, increase their loyalty and get a lot of feedback. Joint streams with other bloggers will help expand your audience and reach. A big plus is that subscribers receive a notification about the start of the broadcast.

Show animals

Whatever the subject of the account, photos and videos with cute and funny animals are always great.

Content with pets engages the audience well

Engaging the audience and keeping their attention is an art. Check out our article with story ideas to create interesting content.

A few more tips on how to increase your reach on Instagram

Clean out the bots

Bots ruin your statistics and reduce your reach, so you need to get rid of them. This can be done manually, but the process will take a lot of time, so it's easier to use special applications, such as Followers - Unfollowers.

Make a content plan

In order for the reach not to fall, you need to post content regularly and avoid long pauses. Therefore, be sure to prepare a content plan and create materials for publications in advance so that in case of unforeseen situations you do not fall out of Instagram.

Offer lead magnets and use a chatbot

Motivate your audience to be active in your account with lead magnets provided by a chatbot. SendPulse has chatbots for various messengers, including Instagram.

Recommended reading:

  • How to create an Instagram chatbot for business.
Convert Followers into Loyal Customers

Automate your customer interactions and improve your Instagram Direct sales!

Set up targeted ads

Promote posts with targeted ads - if the settings are done well, this is a reliable way to increase your reach on Instagram.

Recommended: "Effective Targeted Facebook Ads - Tips".

Drive traffic from other platforms

If you have a Telegram channel, YouTube and TikTok accounts, do not miss the opportunity to advertise your Instagram profile there. Share links to interesting posts and do not duplicate all content everywhere so that subscribers have an incentive to follow you in all channels.

Buy ads from bloggers

Use influencers to increase your reach and get new followers. Don't forget to check bloggers for cheats, for example, using the Epicdetect and trendHERO services.

Test updates

If Instagram introduces a new format or makes changes to existing ones, test updates - most likely, the content will receive a lot of impressions.

Do not cheat subscribers and likes

We have repeatedly talked about this, but we will repeat it again - so that the coverage does not fall, do not engage in cheating.

Recommended: "Instagram ideas to spice up your business account."

Try activity chats

There are free and paid activity chats in Telegram and Instagram, whose members like each other, write comments and perform other actions. These are real people, so the risks of getting a shadowban are minimal, and coverage is growing. The method is not without drawbacks, but you can try.

Activity chats can be found by keyword search in Telegram and Instagram.

Try to increase your reach using activity chats
Reply to messages and comments

Do not ignore your subscribers - write answers to comments under publications and direct messages, repost stories on which you were noted.

Ask for feedback

Ask your followers directly what they want to see in your account. So you can please the audience and get more reactions.

Conclusion

We figured out how to increase the reach on Instagram using posts and stories, live broadcasts and special applications.

If you are running an online business, try SendPulse tools: chatbots for messengers, email, SMS and Viber messaging services, website and multilink builder, web push notifications, online course creation platform, CRM with task manager.

Achieve social success on Etsy

This is a guest post by Adrienne Dancer from .

You might be wondering why there is an Etsy shop when we already have our own main e-commerce site. The reason is that Etsy has become a great way for us to reach customers around the world in a very cost effective way. Etsy is gaining popularity and becoming eBay's main competitor - and I prefer the design and product focus that Etsy offers over eBay. (I see eBay as a big sale whereas Etsy is more like a boutique store.) Also, Etsy's fee structure and features are much more business-friendly compared to eBay if you're selling fixed price items and aren't interested in auction-style pricing.

However, having an Etsy shop is not enough. You have to creatively sell your Etsy store through various social media to really make a difference.

Using Instagram

To be honest, I think Instagram is the most effective social networking site compared to the others (Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook). Etsy doesn't have a direct connection to Instagram at the moment, but you definitely need to set up an Instagram account for your business.

Posting to Instagram only takes a few seconds if you use a smartphone or tablet. By using hashtags related to your items, you can connect with many Instagram users. Tweets on Twitter can be helpful too, but quick and interesting visuals are often more effective and instantly engaging than having to read text.

When using hashtags on Instagram, don't limit yourself to literally descriptive words about an item. Be creative to get more Instagram viewers. Example: If you are selling vintage dinnerware set 1960s, obvious descriptive words for a hashtag are "vintage", "1960s", "dishes set", "dishes", color, manufacturer, etc. In addition, you can also use other related words such like "Mad Men", "Dinner Party" and any other imagery or adjective you can think of. It could be a movie, a book, an actor, a song, or even a city that comes to mind when viewing an object. By doubling the number of hashtag keywords you use, you will also double the chances that other Instagram users will eventually view your post and then visit your site.

In addition to using hashtags creatively to post new items for sale, be sure to use Instagram creatively with what you post. Don't just use it to post images of new products for sale. Use it to post images of items sold so that Instagram users can understand which items you have sold are popular - to help create a sense of need as well as scarcity. In addition to posting new items, I always post images of sold items with hashtags about the items sold, and refer to the city or country as a hashtag where the item is shipped.

Also use Instagram to post when you are on vacation. Whether or not you choose to move your Etsy store to temporarily closed vacation status, you can use Instagram to post a "going on vacation" notice to your followers so they can plan accordingly. And when you're on vacation, use Instagram to post vacation photos from time to time. I think it would be nice to take a more personalized shot of you at dividouble - and it also allows you to use hashtags that you normally can't use when listing items in a store. Many people like photos of delicious food, serene beach scenes at sunset, fun active photos - there are many possibilities. Post some cool vacation snaps and you can come back from vacation with new Instagram followers and new Etsy sales.

. Twitter

Etsy offers the ability to link your newly listed items to Twitter, which can be effective and you should use it from time to time. Using hashtags is definitely important. I still think Instgram is much more efficient because as the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words" whereas Twitter only allows 140 letters/characters.

Using Pinterest

Like Instagram, the power of Pinterest lies in the appeal of simple, quick visuals. Instagram has more users and all posts are in one simple feed for followers to view or hashtag up. For these reasons, I think it's more efficient than Pinterest, but Pinterest can still be useful. Etsy offers direct links to your Pinterest account (if you have one set up). You can use hashtags on Pinterest, but they aren't as effective or used as often as they are on Instagram or Twitter.

When you have a Pinterest account set up, you create boards and then "pin" (post) your images on various boards. Definitely install more than one board. Maybe a 'new items' board, 'items sold', 'holiday items', etc. Depending on what you're selling, you might have different board categories, but also: don't limit your Pinterest boards to just the goods you are selling. Just like using hashtags creatively, using boards creatively will also help you reach other users. Feel free to re-attach images posted by others, even if they are not directly related to the items you are selling. My business is based in Los Angeles so I have a board of directors with my favorite local restaurants. People love travel and food photos, so if other Pinterest users stumble across my photos of local restaurants, they might want to check out my other boards - and hopefully my Etsy store too.

Using Facebook

Setting up a Facebook page for your Etsy business is also a good idea. Etsy offers a direct link to the product listing on Facebook. Hashtags can be useful on Facebook too. Use Facebook to promote sales, post vacation closing dates, any cross promotions you might have with a brick and mortar store (if you can sell your items in stores as well as your own Etsy page) - many people use Facebook. so being there can definitely help. As for paid ads to promote your store's Facebook page, I would say don't worry about it. I've always had more success simply attracting business with free and targeted posts than spending money on my own Facebook advertising service. There are already so many ads on Facebook that many people often ignore them, so spending money on them can be a waste. Free interesting posts that attract a large audience are effective in their own right.

Etsy features

In addition to using the above social networks, Etsy has its own features that will help you attract buyers.

One such feature is Google Product Ads, which Etsy offers to shop owners for free. They don't list every item you have in your Etsy shop - just a few here and there - but it still means you should make sure the first sentence or two of your item descriptions are interesting and attention-grabbing to draw in the casual. Google search engines to your Etsy items.

On Etsy they offer adverts where you can list items of your choice, especially important when Etsy shoppers are looking for items. You can set up a budget starting as low as $1 per day and you get billed when shoppers click on your product listings. Advanced listings on Etsy really work better than Facebook ads, so I recommend using them to increase your sales.

Another Etsy feature to use well and often: their very important formative store dashboard feature. (Their dashboard is a huge advantage that I think Etsy has over eBay.) With a quick view, you can see how many viewers have visited your store and the product listings where they came from (Etsy internal searches, searches Google, Twitter, another website, etc.) and see what keywords they use to access your products. You can also view the map to see which countries your properties are viewed in. These pieces of data - especially keyword searches - can be helpful to you when deciding what to put up for sale, as well as when writing product listings.

Cross promotion with other vendors

If you find other sellers on Etsy that sell related products, reach out to them and see if they'd like to join the promotion on the Etsy store.

Learn more