Yes, it is if you know the way to do it. Social media is an extremely important strategy that every business should use to grow their business and increase sales. Instagram is not exception!

People on Instagram love photos, so this type of marketing channel is especially helpful for restaurants, bakeries, clothing stores, hair salons and other businesses that sell items which photograph well.

1. Instagram is a marketing channel

Instagram is not just for entertaining. It’s a marketing channel. As an online marketing flatform, Instagram has gained immense popularity among individuals and business.

Marketing on Instagram is different from many other channels. It is more image-driven than content-driven, because photo is the key of Instagram. Therefore, if you want to grow your brand and gain more sales on Instagram, you need to understand how it works.

Before posting any image on your Instagram, you should identify these things:

• Who is your target audience and what exactly they want to see?
• The best marketing strategy to engage them with your photos
• Things that will inspire people to talk about your business and photos

You can post any image relating to your brand and your products/services, however, don’t assume that Instagram is just a platform for showcasing your products/services catalog.

Followers on Instagram can easily see these images on other marketing channels, like magazines, Facebook, the thing they want to see may be something else, such as behind the scenes, emotional images that inspire them to like and comment.

2. Spread your brand on Instagram

Instagram is considered as a channel to communicate with your target audience by photos. The way to use Instagram effectively and for maximum impact is by focusing on branding. You can easily create an Instagram account, then post photos relating to your products and services.

Remember to post your brand name within a hashtag or to create unique hashtag associated with your brand or products. (A hash tag is a word or sentence that begins with the pound sign (#), such as #livechat. Using a hashtag, which is clickable, makes it easier for users to find all the pictures about one topic).

Similar to many other marketing channels, you need fans who will be your audience, and even your customers in the future. There are a million photos posted on social network everyday, so if you want to have an impact and gain a following on Instagram, you need to be as authentic as possible.

On Instagram, it’s photo. A boring photo will bring nothing to your site. The best way to attract users to click on your profile is to bring out emotion in those who view your profile.

Posting beautiful and meaningful pictures on Instagram and using hashtag are good ways to spread your brand on Instagram.

For example, you are selling clothes that suit for sweet girls. Whenever you post a photo of your product, hashtag your shop name and maybe name of the clothes, such as #dressforgirls, #sweetjumpsuit,…

By the time, your fans will start to use these tags and this will achieve 2 goals. The first goal is differentiating your brand from the thousands of others in your market and the second one is spreading your brand to many other people. Brand awareness, therefore, is increasing significantly by your own fans when they share it.

3. Gain more sales from Instagram

On Instagram, there are limited options for driving people to e-commerce destinations. So for most retailers, Instagram is just for branding. However, if you know how Instagram can help you gain a huge amount of online sales, you will think differently.

Although you can not direct your fans to your website right after they click to your photo, you can post information about it. For example, you can share the link you sell products and mobile phone number that customers can contact to buy.

One more option for businesses to sell products is to use Instagram ads. As of 1 June 2015, Instagram launched ads with “Shop now” button and other messages that link outside the app, so users can take remarkable action.You can reach users based on more than just their ages and genders.

The user interface of Instagram looks clean, uncluttered with one picture at a time on the screen, this enables brand to get more attraction from their followers. They only focus on the image posted without any distractions around.

You can find, and get permission to use a photo of someone using your product or doing something directly rated to your service if you don’t have an appealing picture. However, remember not to use some images on the Internet which are the same with your products, but different appearance outside. You are building the relationship on Instagram, not selling product one time, and then disappear forever.

When you post these images on your Instagram, people, who are interested in your products/services, will often ask “Where can I get this?”, “How much is it?”, or “Is it suitable for me?”,… If you want to sell products as much as possible, try to answers any comments of your followers.

Another tip for sell online on Instagram is to share the picture of your customers when they are using your products/services. People sometimes don’t believe in advertisement, they are more likely interested in products when someone tells it’s good.

Posting these pictures on your Instagram is also a good sign that your business is working properly with the satisfaction of your customers.

In conclusion

There are billions of people in the world who can use some certain social media platforms. Some can use Facebook, others use Google+, a group of people use both, some others use Instagram. That’s good if you can promote your products/services with all platforms. Instagram is very potential to ramp up sales for your business

There are many businesses successful with Instagram rather any other social media platforms. If you are finding a good marketing strategy to grow your business and get more sales, create an Instagram account and kick off your content now.