If you’re a business owner looking to drive traffic to your website, one of the best platforms you can use is Instagram. While Instagram does have an advantage due to its millions of daily active users, its real power is in the frequency of engagement with its content. For instance, brands with a follower count that’s less than 5,000 have an average Instagram engagement rate of 5.6% which is around 200 or more people. Today’s big brands like Frank Body, which have more than 100,000 follows, even testify that it’s Instagram that helped them make millions in sales. You could achieve the same by adopting some strategies to convert its users.
That said, here are some ways to do just that:
Add your website’s link into your bio
Before you do anything else, make sure that your website’s link is available on your bio. This is so that when interested customers visit your Instagram feed and like what they see, they have immediate access to your website. Instagram will only allow you to place one clickable link in your bio, so make sure that you choose the right one. For example, if your intention is to encourage people to start browsing your products, a “featured products” page link might be more effective than a homepage one.
Take advantage of Stories
If you’ve ever used Snapchat at some point, Instagram Stories works similarly. Instagram Stories let you upload photos and short clips that disappear after 24 hours. Due to its easy-to-consume format, it’s a quick and easy way to engage with your followers. Plus, Later’s guide to drive traffic using Instagram Stories highlights how over 500 million people use and view Stories, making the feature a good opportunity to convert traffic. For example, you can add clickable links to the Story, which you can use to lead people to your website. You can also take advantage of Instagram Stories’ “shoppable stickers” — clickable tags that you can put on top of products. Use them to lead potential customers to product landing pages.
Upload ads
According to Business News Daily’s Instagram tips for businesses, ads on the platform can appear in three formats: photo, video, and carousel. The latter is a photo ad but contains up to four pictures. Ads are then displayed onto the feeds of users who the Instagram algorithm thinks might be interested. This is based on the users’ activity on the platform, like the nature of the brands they follow or the posts they like. For example, if they engage with a lot of jewelry content, they might get the occasional ad from a brand that offers that.
Ads also have a clickable “Learn More” button that can take viewers to your website; take advantage of it.
Tap into influencers of the platform
Getting your products promoted through influencers will allow you to reach a more targeted audience. For example, if you’re a vegan brand, paying a vegan influencer to promote your products will get items in front of the right people.
Ads published this way don’t appear like ads at all — but a genuine product recommendation. Moreover, a study published in the Journal of Business Research found that opinion leaders, such as influencers, have huge sway over customer purchasing decisions. After all, they’re considered experts in the field. Here’s Nana Agyemang, an influencer who likes to try out killer tops, and her collaborative post with clothing brand And Other Stories.
Make sure the influencer’s post tags your Instagram account. This way, users can be led to your bio, which contains your website link.
There are many ways to get Instagram users onto your website, from publishing ads to posting Stories. There’s no one right strategy for every business, so it helps to try all of them and see which ones work.
*Post written in collaboration with Harriet Middleton
