How to Turn Your Instagram Followers into Customers

Converting your fans into customers is no easy task but is doable. It is possible to increase your customer loyalty and have decent sales traffic on Instagram.

If you are on Instagram for business, you have sales conversions as one of your critical goals for using this platform. Instagram is a great platform to advertise your brand and directly sell your ware. However, billions of other businesses are also trying to do the same. The competition to build yourself up as a brand and find a loyal, active customer base on the platform is very high. In many instances, brands often find themselves being able to build a reasonably impressive online presence with a significant number of followers. Still, they struggle to find enough buyers among them. If you plan to grow with new followers on Instagram, you are on the right track. However, you have to be sure of what you are doing simultaneously to ensure that you have the trust and attention of this new fan circle. Furthermore, you must be able to purchase them to make an investment in your goods and to remain to return clients of your business.

To make this path more accessible, we have rounded up some of the most effective things you can do to grow a customer base on Instagram.

Tips to Turn Your Followers into Customers on Instagram 

1. Have a Shoppable Account

Having a solid follower base will not amount to much if you cannot see results reflected in your sales. Several brands have a tremendous active fan following on Instagram but significantly fewer sales compared. You can bridge this gap by allowing your fans to shop from you on the platform itself directly. All you have to do is edit your settings and fill in some required details that will enable you to use Instagram to sell your merchandise and services legally. Once you have done this, you can set up a shopping catalog accessible via both Facebook and Instagram. You can add Shoppable tags to your content now. A shopping tag gives the viewer basic details like price when they hover over it. If they click it, they will be directed to the product in your catalog. They can choose to browse around your shoot or add the item to their cart and check out in a seamless online shopping experience.

2. Use CTA effectively

Although there aren’t many spaces to insert clickable links, you can always call to action. Some areas you should use clickable CTA include:

• The URL space in your bio. 

Keep updating this to ensure your social proof is strengthened, and customers are engaged. Apart from using the link to your e-sites, use this space to showcase reviews received or articles written about your business periodically.

• CTA buttons on your Profile page. 

If your country allows it, complete your profile information using CTA buttons that would enable interested parties to make a booking or reservation with you using an approved third-party platform.

• IG Story. 

You can also provide a swipeable link with a CTA on your IG Stories to get audience engagement that has the potential to convert into sales.

3. Be an Active IG Community Member

We mean that you need to add organic engagement to other accounts by genuinely interacting with them. How to do this as a business professional?

• Find and connect with members of your industry.
• Interact with experts in your field to build professional relationships that bring social proof to your business.
• Like and comment on the posts of your target audience. Invite them to watch your videos or participate in live broadcasts.
• Know the influencers who can help build your brand name and maintain good relationships with them.

4. Create Content that Attracts the Right Clients

If your goal is sales and customer loyalty, then your content must focus on ensuring your brand is selling. It means getting engagement from an audience pool willing to try and buy your products. Do your research on what kind of posts usually bring in sales in your industry. Also, do your research on what type of posts your potential customers are looking for. You can also create surveys and polls to help you find more information about what customers prefer to ensure you populate your feed with the right kind of content.

When you are strategically getting your content set up, remember to:

• Keep your brand voice unique and humane;
• Be original in your presentation;
• Use visual markers that can become your brand voice- this could be a font, a background theme, music, color palette, or story arc;
• Craft content that opens conversations. It is the best way to build organic engagement, get noticed, and find buyers for your business.

5. Use Instagram Ads to Push Up Your Potential to Sell

Among the several handy inbuilt platform features is the ability to create ads. You can create a complete ad from scratch or promote an existing post as an advertisement. It is a paid service, but you get the final say on the budget you are willing to spend. You also specify the target audience you intend to reach and the page you want all traffic directed to from the ad. When you use an advertisement, the platform’s algorithms give it preferential visibility and go, so you are sure to reach the feeds of new audiences who have never interacted with you before. Your ad also gets displayed higher up in search results. It means that Instagram advertisements are an excellent means to boost your potential to attract sales. You can cross-publish the same ad on Facebook to reach an even wider audience belt.

6. Provide Great Customer Service

Use your Instagram space as an additional means of providing assistance and answers to potential customers. Regardless of whether a user is dropping a query out of curiosity or genuine interest in your brand, practice the following mantra:

• Respond in the least time possible. Whether it’s a DM or a comment, respond to any message left on your page.
• If you are away from the platform for long stretches, consider using an auto-generated response that thanks the person for reaching out and that you will get back to them shortly.
• Always be courteous regardless of who is messaging you or commenting on your content.
• Provide any troubleshooting assistance required or direct queries to a page where the enquirer can find the desired answers.

Apart from managing your response time and language, also ensure that:

• Your profile information has the latest address, business email, and any other contact information required for potential customers to get in touch with you.
• You have CTA buttons enabled on your profile that make booking and reservation easy for potential customers.

7. Provide Rewards and Incentives

A great way to ensure customers return to you is to provide specific benefits for being your loyal client. After all, who does not like freebies, price drops, or surprise gifts? Consider if your budget and finances allow you to run special costs for returning clients and, if so, how frequently you can give them out. Depending on where you stand as a business, you could offer:

• Reward or loyalty points for exclusive benefits;
• Special discounts for bulk purchases;
• Festive or seasonal rebates;
• Discounted pricing for referrals;
• Warranties and free exchanges;
• Shipping cost waivers;
• Free trials.

You could also partner up with local businesses and give out something sure to draw the audience’s attention and drive up sales. For instance, you could give out tickets to a local concert or theme park and sponsor vacations or trips. Give customer incentives a severe thought when you plan out your SM Marketing strategies. It all depends on your budget and who your target customers are.

8. Host Contests that Soft-Sell Your Merchandise

Contests and Giveaways bring in great engagement on Instagram and are a prevalent means of getting attention from new audiences. Consider adding your twist to these competitions by making your brand a requirement for participating. For instance, you could ask contestants to leave reviews or post photos of themselves in your merchandise. Think out of the box, and you will indeed find more IG users turning into your fans and customers. To ensure your content has enough people knowing about it, post a series of teasers, posters, notifications, and cliffhangers to build audience awareness and anticipation for the upcoming contest. You can entice more members to engage and participate (thus driving up more sales) by posting details of prizes.

Once the contest is over, create posts showcasing the prize recipient and public opinion regarding the competition. Such posts will continue to build your brand value and work towards audience retention for your business.

9. Let your Existing Customers be your Brand Ambassadors

Nothing creates social proof better than word of mouth by current clients and customers. Ask your buyers to leave their thoughts about your product or post pictures of themselves using your goods. Also, ask them to tag or mention your brand when they do so, and it will generate traffic and sales for you among their circle of connections. Reinforce your reach and visibility by sharing such posts on your account too. Do not forget to tag and thank your customer for leaving their review when you do so.

Likewise, ask customers to leave feedback and ratings for you. If you find articles and posts on other social media about your content, think of ways of posting them on Instagram to bring more notice to your business. You could:

• Snapshot the relevant sections and post them with a CTA to the link of the original piece.
• Update the clickable link in your bio with such a URL.
• Provide the URL to the full article as a swipeable link in your IG Stories segments.

10. Give Yourself More Exposure by Investing in Influencers

The social media space is saturated with influencers in various fields. There is someone for every budget, from mega-influencer celebrities to micro-influencers. Do your research to eliminate frauds and those whose work ethics do not align with your business’s. Once you have zeroed down on influencers who fit your needs, consider using their services periodically to up your social reach. Because influencers are considered experts in their niche, they have a dedicated following. Their word also enables their audience to trust your brand and your products. In other words, when they recommend you, your business gains social proof. Use influencers to collaborate on posts and to go live with you. If you use multiple influencers, ensure that they do not clash in their values and business ethics. Above all, research your statistics to determine how much help using influencers has been to your brand-building exercise. Have realistic expectations of ROI and set mini-goals. It is a strategic way of increasing the customer conversions that can save you from making too significant an investment in the wrong influencer marketing strategy. A suitable investment here can bring you good exposure and reach with long-term benefits.

The Bottom Line

Converting your fans into customers is no easy task but is doable. It is possible to increase your customer loyalty and have decent sales traffic on Instagram. Be adventurous and do not hesitate to explore new ways of marketing and present your brand. Innovate and update your marketing strategy to keep up with the changing times and be authentic so you can strengthen your clients’ trust in you. Remember to keep the quality of your products and your posts intact. No matter how good you are, keep in mind there is always a scope for betterment. Follow the outlined tips above, and you will see your sales rate increasing on Instagram very soon!