How to Use Instagram to Make Money: Social commerce has arrived now that shoppers are looking for information that adds value to help them decide what to buy. People aren’t just listening to what brands say anymore; they’re going to social platforms to get advice, suggestions, and shopping ideas. Because of this, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, all of which have more than a billion users, have become great places to set up online shops.
Social commerce is great for businesses that need to tell their stories and connect directly with customers, which e-commerce doesn’t do. Instagram is a platform that has made it easier for businesses to sell on social media over time. According to the Business Instagram site, almost 130 million Instagram users click on “shoppable” posts every month. More than 30% of the 500 million Instagram stories viewed daily are for branded content.
Also, Instagram shopping statistics show that 70% of online shoppers use Instagram as their favorite place to find brands and products that meet their needs. Because of this, Instagram is a good place to start a business and connect with customers. The deal even better is that you don’t need a website or a big online presence to sell products on Instagram! Instagram is a great place to start a business, whether you want to start a new one or move your successful offline business online.
Here’s how to list and sell products, take payments on Instagram, and keep a custom page for your business hosted by your brand.
How to Add Items to Instagram
You need to list all of your products on your Instagram business account so that potential and current customers can see them. To make a list of your goods:
Start by making sure your business is allowed to sell things on Instagram. Change your Instagram account to a “Business Account” if your business is in a supported market.
Post photos of your products to your Instagram feed with captions that describe the products.
Turn on the “Shopping” option in your account settings at the same time and wait for approval.
Once you’re done, you can add a product catalog or brochure to your Instagram shop and tag products in your feed posts and Ig stories in the catalog.
You can index up to 5 items from your catalog in each post. In the same way, you can use “product stickers” to list your products in a story post. The sticker tray gives you custom sticker icons for the products in your catalog that you can add to your story to show off your products.
How to Use Instagram to Make Money
Once your account is set up, and your products are listed, you can start getting people to buy from you. You should be able to accept payments on your Instagram account for this to happen. There are many ways to make that happen.
You can make an order form and link it in your account bio as “The Big Book Box,” a seller of book boxes that experts have picked out. After reading about your products and services in your posts, customers can click on the link in your bio to place an order and pay. You can take payments through a bank transfer, UPI, mobile wallets, or third-party payment platforms.
Personalized Approach
Instead of putting a payment link in your bio, you can share payment information in your direct messages (DMs) if you want to interact with every customer and offer them special deals, discounts, or the chance to negotiate the price (direct messages). This personalized approach may take more work, but it can help you build a strong customer base that stays with you.
You can also use the “Shop” feature to send your customers to pages with active products, prices, and links to pay. You can also send your customers to an e-commerce site where you may also be selling your products. This feature is fairly new, and it only works in a few markets.
You can make a form to get information from your customers, like their addresses, phone number, and more. With Razorpay Payment Pages, you can put the link to the payment page in your bio or send it to people through direct messages in less than five minutes. Custom URL, branded landing pages with pre-made templates, and many other customizations. You can do more with payment pages if you track who visits them.
Read Also: 7 Tips to Get Your First 1000 Followers on Instagram
How to Sell Things on Instagram: Key Tools
The business account gives you information about your account and lets you promote your posts and run ads. It also lets your customers shop right in the Instagram app. When you have to exceed 10k followers, you can also use up-swipe story posts to send people to active links that they can use to buy something. But until then, you can use some of the resources already out there to show off and sell products on Instagram.
Reels:
The Instagram Reels are meant to keep people coming back to the app. So, if you use Reels to show off your products, you can reach a larger audience that is more likely to be interested.
Highlights:
You can save your account’s “Highlights” as your product catalog or stories about new products. These are presumably to be seen more than regular feed posts and are usually checked out by people who just signed up for an account. The Food Darzee, a company that helps people with their diets, uses this resource on their Instagram accounts.
Story Articles:
Story posts are very interesting and can show how a product is used. At the same time, you can use DM prompts or product stickers in the story posts as calls to action (CTAs), increasing engagement and leading to sales. “The Financial Diet,” a personal finance advice brand, uses this strategy very well.
Live Posts:
Live posts only run for a short time, so they are a great way to make people feel like they need to buy now, run countdowns for flash sales, or introduce new products. This is what “ONN Bikes” has been doing to get customers more involved and offer new things.
Sponsored Posts:
You can also use sponsored posts or promoted content to reach more customers and get them to come back to your Instagram shop. You can publish a branded post and activate business partners in advanced settings. This lets them tag your business account and share your post in their feeds or stories.
The “Sleepy Owl” coffee brand reaches out to potential customers and sells its products through Instagram.
Instagram also gives you information about how people interact with your content, which helps you figure out what kinds of content bring in the most sales for your business. You can also use Instagram Business’s helpful guides and blogs to learn how to use the platform to sell your goods and services in the best way. With all the free and paid options, it’s easy to sell things on Instagram even if you don’t have a website.
Even if you don’t have a website, customers can pay you through the payment page. Make an online storefront in less than 5 minutes and start taking payments in 100 different currencies from customers worldwide.
Customers can easily share Payment Pages on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.
