How does an Instagram sales funnel work? How can you create a successful Instagram sales funnel for your business to increase revenue?
The process to generate sales is never a straight line. Regardless of whether it’s a B2B or B2C model of operation.
With technology and social media having changed the landscape of how consumers do business, it’s no surprise that increasing numbers of businesses are investing more and more resources in social media marketing. And why wouldn’t they? After all, there are an estimated 3.96 billion people active on social media. And that number expected to reach around 4.41 billion by 2025.
On Instagram alone, there are more than 120 million active users, making it the top photo-sharing app in the United States.
In this article, we’ll share four simple yet effective ways to help you create a successful Instagram sales funnel for your business to increase sales and customer retention.
Offer an enticing lead magnet
As with every sales funnel, you’ll need to provide consumers with captivating visuals and captions if you want to increase engagement.
Unlike other social media platforms like Facebook and Linkedin, generating leads on Instagram can be difficult. Especially when you only have the ‘click the link on our bio’ catchphrase to drag potential customers from the app and into your landing page.
When you create a sales funnel, it comprises four stages: awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention.
Offering something of value to your audience (discounts, webinars, free trials, ebooks, etc.) in exchange for their contact information, preferably email, is the first step to getting their attention. Because ultimately, who can say no to receiving a free item or getting the biggest bang for their buck?
However, when you craft your lead magnet, make sure you’re actually offering something of value and can help solve a problem your customers have.
Even if you offer a 70% discount on an item that nobody needs, compared to, say, a 5% discount that can easily solve their problems, chances are they’ll be more inclined to choose the 5%.
Optimize your bio
Often overlooked by most businesses, an Instagram bio is a short, 150 character summary of your business. At first glance, it may seem like a daunting task to cram all of your business’ relevant information into that limited space. But it can be done if you put enough thought into it.
When optimizing your bio, remember the following tips:
- Treat your bio as if you were making a homepage for your website.
- Highlight essential information about your business (niche, other social media channels, contact information…).
- Feature any of your future events such as giveaways, live videos, or auctions.
- Make your profile visually appealing by using story highlights and using a profile picture that is consistent with your other social media channels.
- Insert your Instagram brand hashtag (if available)
- Include a call-to-action.
Provide relevant information about your niche through organic posts
Yes, organic reach still matters on social media! When you target social media ads to a cold audience, it’s only normal for them to do their research before they dive further down your sales funnel. How can they trust your business if all they see on your profile are one or two posts or promotional content?
The secret to running a great marketing campaign is not only through providing discounts or freebies but adding compelling content relevant to your niche.
You may not see results overnight. But by providing useful information over promotional posts, consumers are more likely to see you as an expert in your niche and become long-term customers of your brand. This can be through sharing an attractive infographic, creating a dynamic how-to video tutorial, or linking to an informative blog post, among other actions.
Collaborate with influencers in your niche
Useful for both startups and established businesses, partnering with an influencer related to your niche can help your business immediately draw customers into your sales funnel without having to run multiple social media ads.
Especially for startups, when you decide to partner with influencers on a giveaway, contest, or video ad, don’t go for broke and invest in A-list celebrities right away. Try reaching out to micro-influencers first and build from there. Chances are, micro-influencers can have a more engaged following and are more likely to respond to your promotions.
In working with influencers, you’re able to bring awareness to your brand in a more natural way. The message is being relayed by someone people trust. However, don’t be fooled by an influencer’s number of followers or likes on a certain post. Some influencers pay to gain followers and likes on their posts.
To ensure your business can maximize influencer marketing, be sure to do background checks on your potential influencers.
Final thoughts
Social media marketing is taking the world by storm. When you market your brand on Instagram, a sales funnel is customary if you want to achieve a positive ROI. By having a solid sales funnel in place, you instantly increase your chances to engage, build and nurture relationships with your customers. And that will eventually lead to sales.
About the author
Derick Quinanola is a dedicated digital marketer and regular writer for New York-based coworking and events company The Farm SoHo. He is based in the Philippines but has a global mindset and continues to find innovative methods to help businesses thrive in an increasingly digitized economy.
