With over one billion global users, Instagram is one of the most used mobile apps of all time. 90% of users follow at least one brand, making the app a great opportunity for businesses to build their own community.

Instagram is constantly growing and changing and has recently replaced its ‘activity’ tab with a ‘shop’ tab, making it easy for its users to access all their favourite brands in one place.

In a survey commissioned by Facebook, 81% of respondents said that Instagram helps them research products and services.

With that in mind, the Ad Lab Magento eCommerce agency in London has put together some top tips for Instagram e-commerce success.

Post visually appealing, high quality images

When uploading photos to your feed, it is good to keep the quality consistent. Establishing a specific style or aesthetic and sticking with it will make your photos recognisable and unique to you. Craft stores may opt for images of a single product on a flat backdrop, whereas clothing brands may use images from photo shoots. Whatever style you decide to go for, keeping it consistent will help shape the image of your brand.

Establish an upload schedule

Exposure is key. Mastering a frequent upload schedule is good for achieving high engagement rates – the more you post, the more you will show up in your followers’ feed. Posting daily will allow your community to make a habit of looking at your products.

Engage with your followers

As well as replying to comments, DMs and queries posted on your brand account, you should also check posts that customers have tagged you in and may feature your products. Try to make a habit of liking and commenting on all of them. This engagement helps the customers feel closer to the business, or even just feel valued and appreciated. Try to share customer posts on your story, or even repost them to your feed, making sure to tag the original creator. This allows new customers to see returning customers reviewing and enjoying your products.

Competitions

Hosting competitions are a great way to bring traffic to your page. Create a post with instructions on how to enter; most often require the entrant to be following your account, repost the competition on their story and potentially even tag a few of their friends on the post. This allows your followers to act like advertisers, promoting your content in exchange the potential prize. This is one of the most effective ways to encourage user interaction and increase impressions.

Carefully target promoted posts

When paying Instagram to promote your posts, your aim is to get as many visits to your page as possible. Sorting customers by only age and gender won’t narrow your search down enough, and you may end up wasting your budget. In order to maximise impressions, consider what hashtags and similar accounts your target audience may follow. Also think about the type of customers that would be shopping via social media.

Use tags

Make sure to tag your specific products in all images they appear in. This allows customers to easily navigate your page and find products they’re interested in. Clicking a tagged item will take them to a page directing them on where to find that particular product on your website.

Another form of tags are hashtags. Take inspiration from other similar, small business’ tags, rather than those of big companies. You may even create your own hashtag for a specific product, or just your whole brand. This allows your customers to use it too and encourages them to post about you.

As well as being a Google partner, Ad Lab also have an Instagram page. Be sure to check us out.