Are you an entrepreneur working with eCommerce? Is it interesting for you to boost your Instagram? This article will provide you with detailed information on how to use this social network for the benefit of your business and boost your Instagram engagement, in principle.

What’s the reason to boost your Instagram engagement?

To date, the most visited websites worldwide are social networks. Tons of people use them everyday for chatting, sharing photos, and so on. Moreover, they are extremely popular not only among teenagers, but among the users of all ages. What does it mean for you as an eCommerce business owner? In fact, it gives you an opportunity to use social networks to promote your business.

Why are we going to talk about Instagram today? Actually, there is little wonder. Nowadays Instagram, owned by Facebook, is a platform for sharing photos with the highest number of users.

How many people log in each month? According to Statista, there are more than a billion active users.

So, is it really wise of you to lose a tempting opportunity of boosting your sales by means of this social network? Of course, it isn’t.

How you boost your Instagram and use it for the benefit of your business?

We have prepared 10 most useful tips for you on how to boost your Instagram and make it work for your business. Here they are!

#1 Create a brand

A strong brand is extremely important for any type of business. And, especially, if you deal with eCommerce.

Building a memorable brand image, you enjoy a whole range of long-term benefits. For example, you get the opportunity to establish an emotional connection with your followers. After gaining a loyal audience, you will find it much easier to introduce and promote new product offerings and raise awareness about your business through word of mouth. What is more, having created a strong brand once, you’re highly unlikely to lose all of your customers in case of unexpected business faults or advertising experiments gone wrong.

#2 Optimize your Instagram bio

An Instagram bio that is written in a proper way is a vital element of your Instagram monetizing strategy. For you, as the account owner, it means the chance to tell your potential clients all about your business while keeping it short and to the point. You have only 150 words to do this. That’s why we are eager to give you several tips on how to optimize your Instagram bio!

First of all, specify the niche where you conduct your eCommerce activities. It will help the Instagram users find your account faster and easier.

Also, we recommend you to use emojis because they enhance the readability of your bio.

Of course, don’t forget to spice up the bio with a couple of relevant hashtags.

For more experience-based AliDropship tips on writing a great Instagram bio, please go to this article.

#3 Think of how to boost your Instagram followers

The number of followers of your Instagram business account is also extremely important. Take one step at a time and start small: first of all, try to get 1,000 subscribers.

Achieving this milestone, you’ll be able to proudly write that you’re a micro influencer in your Instagram bio 🙂

There are multiple ways of how to boost your Instagram likes and the number of followers. For example, you can launch a giveaway, pay more attention to your posts’ content, and even use awesome semi-automated software to enhance your Instagram activity.

Your ultimate goal is to reach the audience that is going to be really interested in your business offers. In this case, it will be much easier for you to convert these people into customers and long-term clients.

#4 Use social proof and user-generated content

Social proof plays a huge role in your brand image creation and support. The posts containing authentic reviews from your clients can also contribute greatly to your Instagram monetizing strategy. In fact, they can improve your conversions significantly and influence the number of both immediate and long-term purchases.

You surely know that most people prefer to surf the Internet and look for the information on the desired product before buying it. Social proof helps them make their purchasing decisions quicker and influences their loyalty to your brand. So, think about asking your buyers to leave their reviews and send their photos showing your products in use. It’s a good idea to reward them with a coupon or any other special offer!

#5 Use hashtags to boost your Instagram likes

The right hashtags let Instagram users find your posts more quickly. The reason is simple: hashtags contain a clickable link that makes it extremely easy for people to navigate through billions of posts.

When running an account on Instagram, you should know that it’s allowed to use up to 30 hashtags in one post. Of course, it doesn’t mean that all your posts should include 30 hashtags! In fact, it can harm you post appearance and make it look spammy.

By the way, if you want to interest as many potential clients as possible, you should use more broad hashtags. For example, if you sell smartphones, it’s perfectly fine to write a specific hashtag like #honor10i under your post, and also put something more generic like #smartphone next to it.

Remember that Instagram doesn’t like when you collect several hashtags and use the same combination of them in all of your posts. Variety is your key to success!

#6 Make entertaining posts

One of the main purposes of your business Instagram account is to inform its visitors and followers about your products and services. Still, it’s a great idea to mix these product-oriented posts with educational, entertaining, and fun entries to keep your audience interested, engaged, and curious to follow you.

It’s not a secret that most business accounts include entertaining posts. And do you know what? They are very popular! In most cases, such posts have even more likes and shares than any single-purpose posts. Why?

We believe it’s all because Instagram’s primary idea is to share photos. It means that when people check their Instagram feed, they just want to have fun and see something interesting and catchy. So, give them what they want, and they will be more likely to subscribe! You need to understand that people are very tired of persuasive advertising. They want to a break of it. And that’s exactly what entertaining posts do.

#7 Post videos

If you’re wondering how to boost your Instagram with ease, think about shooting different types of videos! Demonstrating your products in use, educating your followers and sharing something valuable with your audience, you interest your potential clients and give them the unique content they’re here for. Using this marketing strategy, you have an opportunity to increase the level of loyalty to your company. By the way, did you know you can create exciting product videos even if you have nothing but this item pictures at hand? Read this article to find out more!

#8 Work with influencers to extend your reach

Influncer marketing is a paid relationship with another Instagram account with a larger, engaged follower base. Ideally, the audience of the influencer who you are cooperating with should be similar to yours or allows you to tap into a new base of people who you’re trying to reach.

This kind of relationship does cost money, but finding the right influencer can be a very cost-effective way to sell your products and grow your following. Still, please pay attention to the fact that there is no need to chase the bloggers with several million subscribers! They often ask to pay quite a lot for the promotion, and your ad campaign risks to become unprofitable.

Here’s how Subaru has integrated influencer marketing. Back in 2017, when the car brand launched its new Impreza cars they’ve engaged 20 bloggers in their influencer marketing campaign. Each created an original post featuring the new car. Here is Zach King’s post, a famous social media influencer known for his mind-blowing videos.

In fact, there is nothing difficult about it. You need to find a blogger who’s popular enough in the same niche you deal with. This blogger will promote your product or service in his or her account.

#9 Run contests

If you want to drive more potential customers to your Instagram account, you can try running contests and giveaways. Remember that they lead to a short-term boost in sales and traffic, and the effect doesn’t always last for a long time.

However, it’s a great tool if you want to attract the audience’s attention in the run-up to some special event, holiday, etc. To learn how to make the most of your Instagram giveaways, please go to this article.

#10 Offer discounts and bonuses

Giving discounts and bonuses is still a great way to draw attention to your business. However, we don’t recommend you give them for doing nothing 😉

For example, you can make them available only for those who follow your account. Or, it’s a good idea to make special offers for those who have already made a purchase from you and posted their review online as we’ve already covered it above.

#11 Avoid fake followers

There’s a big difference between an Instagram account with real followers and one with fake ones. At first, it might be very tempting to simply purchase some Instagram followers, however, the end result can have a very negative effect not only on your social media account but your business as a whole.

Here are the common traits that Instagram accounts with fake followers have:

• No engagement

Even if you have hundreds or even thousands of followers, how many of them are going to like, comment, or share your posts? The answer is simple – none of them. As a result, your Instagram account will have zero to no engagement removing the point of a social media account.

• Mislead new followers

Having an Instagram account with thousands of inactive followers can lower the account’s credibility, resulting in real users leaving your page. Don’t trick people into following you, instead, build trust and long-lasting relationships for better engagement.

• No sales

It may be easier to purchase followers, but these inactive users won’t be purchasing anything from you. There’s a reason why people follow large brands on Instagram – they either simply like the brand or enjoy the content it creates. These are real consumers who bring monetary value to a business.

Real Instagram users can share, like, comment, and engage with your Instagram posts, they enjoy it when someone on the other side is responding to them.

Let’s look at Starbucks for example. Their Instagram account is filled with aesthetically pleasing images of their drinks and people enjoying their drinks. They make it a point to respond to as many followers as possible, which is why they’re so successful at engaging with their audience.

#12 Manage a consistent content calendar

If you’re looking to boost your Instagram profile then one aspect you need to pay special attention to is your content. If you want to attract more followers, then you need to avoid posting your content at a random time.

To help you with this, keep to a regular posting schedule, or in this case a content calendar. This way, you’ll have a steady schedule and a ready plan of posts making your life that much easier.

However, keep in mind that major brands typically don’t post more than a few times a day to avoid spam. However, it’s better to complete your own research to pinpoint when your target audience is most active on social media to make sure they see your content when you post.

Sticking to a consistent posting schedule will help you build a truthful experience for your followers and build a closer relationship with them.

#13 Create Instagram Stories

Stories are perhaps the most popular feature on Instagram. In fact, more than 500 million people use it daily. For many businesses, this is a huge opportunity for promotion, whether it’s publishing user-generated content or various behind-the-scenes photos and videos.

There are plenty of features within Stories to create fun, entertaining, and engaging content for a more unique experience.

A great example of this is the NBA’s Instagram account – it regularly posts various behind-the-scenes content giving you a little sneak peek into the post-game celebrations, interviews, and other off-the-court events. Here you can see an Instagram story of the NBA champions Toronto Raptors parade in Ontario, Canada with the famous rapper Drake.

#14 Promote your account with paid ads

Don’t forget about paid promotions. Social media, in general, is becoming more and more reliant on paid promotions. Instagram, being a part of Facebook’s incredibly in-depth ad platform, allows you to win over new customers with its eye-catching ad options.

Take a look at Dunkin, their Instagram account cleverly uses both stories and video to catch the attention of social media users.

Summing it up: how to boost your Instagram

Social media can give a huge boost to your online business if you treat your promotions wisely. Being one of the most popular social networks worldwide, Instagram deserves your close attention – and gives you countless ways to spread the word about your exciting business.

We hope these experience-based tips on how to boost your Instagram will be of great use to you! If you ever used any of them to boost your dropshipping store performance, feel free to share your story in the comments section below!