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Have you ever considered Instagram as anything more than a brand building platform? Here is how you can use it to generate leads and drive more sales.

Instagram is not just for posting beautiful sunset and creative lunch photos. It’s a great lead generation platform with over 1 billion active users every single month. 90% of them follow a business on Instagram.

Facebook conducted a survey of Instagram users. They found that people use this visual platform to research products and services, discover what’s trending, and make buying decisions.

Once people see product information on Instagram, 87% of them take action. They either follow a brand, visit a retail shop, or make a purchase online.

Image source: Facebook

Instagram guides shoppers through the buying journey. You can use this platform to connect with potential buyers and compel them to take action. It’s a great platform to generate leads for your small ecommerce business and drive more sales.

Instagram Lead Generation Tactics for Your Ecommerce Business

Before you get into lead generation, there are a few things that you need to take care of including:

• Confirm that Instagram is the right platform for your brand promotions. It is important to ensure your target audience actively uses this platform.
• Describe your ideal buyers. Creating accurate buyer personas can help you ensure that your marketing efforts will attract the right audience.
• Define SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-based) lead generation goals.

How many leads do you want to generate in a month or quarter? Do you plan to reach, attract, and engage prospects? Which key performance indicators (KPIs) will you track and measure?

Once you have all this information laid out, you can start using the Instagram lead generation tactics mentioned below.

1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile

Optimize your brand’s Instagram profile for conversions. Everything from your bio to post captions and images should get people to follow your brand, engage with your content, or act on your calls-to-action (CTAs).

You can use Instagram Insights to analyze what type of content drives higher engagement and more follows for your brand.

When people like your content, they may take the time to check out your Instagram profile. And the first thing they see is your bio.

You should use your Instagram bio as a 30-second pitch to tell users who you are, what you do, and what value they’ll get by following you. Use this space to add a CTA that drives visitors to your website or landing page.

Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase your voice and personality. You can include emojis, humor elements, or slang to give users a glimpse of who you really are. Check out these examples to get ideas for your Instagram bio.

Here’s another one for you. Johnny Cupcakes provides social proof by showcasing recognition by the Boston Globe and uses emojis to add fun to his bio.

Image source: Instagram

You can also include a trackable URL in your bio to direct viewers to a dedicated landing page. Additionally, you can add action buttons like Text, Call, Directions, and Email buttons to allow people to take action directly from your profile.

2. Use Instagram Stories to Generate Leads

More than 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories daily. In fact, Instagram Stories are leading Snapchat in terms of daily active users.

Image source: Statista

This shows that Instagram Stories have the potential to help you reach your target audience with the right messaging.

But how should you leverage the power of Instagram Stories?

The answer lies in telling your brand’s story. It can help viewers connect with your brand easily. They’ll likely remember your brand better, start trusting your products or services, and may become loyal customers too.

If told the right way, branded stories can attract and engage people more than traditional ads. They can help consumers develop an emotional connection with your brand.

Here is how you can effectively use Instagram Stories:

• Promote your latest blog posts, products, or services using catchy headlines and compelling CTAs. This can help you redirect viewers to your blog, product pages, or specific landing pages.
• Share informative content that your followers want to see using live videos or snippets of your video content. You can ask your followers to swipe up to view the whole video.

At the end of the video, you can place strategic calls-to-action such as “Sign Up for Online Course” for lead generation.

• Use Instagram Stories to share behind-the-scenes content. This may include pictures and videos about what makes your company unique or how your employees go about their daily tasks.

Sharing personal stories can help you build trust and eventually get people to purchase from you.

• Use Instagram Stories to drive user engagement by enabling them to ask questions about your products. By answering their questions, you can help them decide which products they should purchase.
• Have an influencer take over your Instagram Stories and post content related to your brand or niche. This is an easy way to get instant access to their followers.
• Host a competition or giveaway on Instagram Stories. Ask your followers to tag their friends and share your content so that you can increase your reach and encourage other people to join the competition.

3. Use User-Generated Content

Content from friends and family members influences the buying decisions of 60% of consumers as they consider it authentic. This is the content that your brand can tap into.

When a customer shares their positive experiences, you should leverage their authentic reviews for your lead generation campaigns.

You should encourage your customers to use a branded hashtag and share their real-life stories of using your products on Instagram. A branded hashtag can help you increase your visibility and track user-generated content.

You can use tools to discover popular hashtags that are relevant to your niche and then create one that’s unique to your brand.

Williams Sonoma, a brand that sells kitchenware and home furnishings, encourages people to share how they’re cooking with their products. In their Instagram bio, they give a link to UGC images and videos.

When you click on those images, they allow you to shop or get recipes. Users can also opt-in to receive exclusive offers and recipes through emails. They use this opportunity to build an email list and, ultimately, nurture leads to drive sales.

Image source: Instagram

4. Run Instagram Lead Ads

You can run lead ads on Instagram to collect valuable consumer information such as their full names, email addresses, genders, and phone numbers. All you need is an Instagram Business profile and a Facebook Page.

It is easy to follow the ad creation process on Facebook with step-by-step instructions. You will have to start by choosing a marketing objective in Facebook’s Ads Manager.

Image source: Facebook

You should choose “lead generation” as your objective and then:

• Name the campaign.
• Define your audience.
• Select “automatic placements” to show your ads to more people.
• Set a campaign budget and schedule your ads. How much would you like to spend? When would you like your ads to appear?
• Pick a format for your ad.
• Choose the image or video you want to use, and set up the text and links for your ad.
• Create a lead generation form to use in your ad.

5. Track the Performance of Your Instagram Lead Generation Tactics

Use Instagram Insights and/or other third-party tools to track the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts. You need to ensure that every penny you invest is worth it and is helping you generate qualified leads for your business.

You can calculate the return on investment (ROI) of your Instagram campaigns by measuring:

• Number of visits to your landing pages
• Conversion rates of your landing pages
• Customers’ lifetime value
• Customer acquisition cost

How to Use Instagram to Generate Leads – Conclusion

If you haven’t started using Instagram for lead generation, now is the time. Use the tactics we’ve discussed in this post to drive prospects to your Instagram profile and landing pages.

You can start by defining your lead generation goals and associating them with metrics to measure. You can then create an effective marketing strategy, and optimize it by testing your strategies until they help you get a good ROI.

This may look like a lot of work, but the results you’ll get are worth it.

How are you leveraging the power of Instagram for lead generation? Please share your top-performing strategies with us in the comments below.

Image: Depositphotos.com

This article, “How to Use Instagram to Generate Leads for Your Small Ecommerce Brand” was first published on Small Business Trends