How to sell on Instagram: practical tips that do work

First steps to sell on Instagram

To sell on Instagram you need:

Have a company profile on the social network.
Post relevant content.
Get quality followers.
Offer your products through Instagram Shopping.

In order for you to successfully progress through each of these steps, we have created this definitive guide that will help you understand how to sell on Instagram.

You will learn the keys to creating a company profile, how to customize it, when and quality content, how to set prices on the social network and attract more followers, and much more!

And if you are thinking about how to give your business a boost, we already recommend selling through your own virtual store. This will allow you to automate (many) processes, in addition to optimizing your time.

Did you know that Tiendanube is a simple and intuitive platform to create online stores? Take the opportunity to!

Today all over the world. It is, without a doubt, a great sales channel for brands that want to make their products known.

With the Instagram Shopping feature, brands have the ability to use their Instagram account as a virtual storefront. This allows them to display their products with price tags and redirect followers directly to their online store.

In this way, Instagram becomes an excellent ally in the marketing strategy of any online business, and it is this potential that you will discover in this guide. Shall we start?

Requirements to sell on Instagram

Before telling you what these requirements are, it is important to understand the relevance of Instagram as a sales opportunity for all online businesses.

An interesting fact in relation to this point is that 50% of the visits received by cloud stores come from a social network such as Instagram or Facebook!

Traffic in an e-commerce is essential to generate sales. The most powerful network to achieve this today is Instagram. Therefore, it is essential not only that you be present in it, but that you dedicate the time and effort necessary to take advantage of its full potential.

Instagram can help you generate more traffic (that is, visits) towards you and achieve a greater presence in social networks. This translates into an increase in your transactions!

In addition, 1 out of 3 sales made between cloud stores are from sessions initiated from a social network, the main one being Instagram.

Two years ago, Facebook accounted for 80% of those sales, but Instagram is growing every month. Today 85% of sales come through that network (and less than 15% via Facebook). There is no doubt that Instagram is the social network of the moment.

For this reason, we believe that selling on Instagram is the perfect complement for your virtual store. If you stay alone in the social network, the management becomes very manual and requires a lot of time. In the following link, we invite you to learn more about .

Now yes, then, we will tell you what the requirements are so that you can start selling on Instagram.

From personal to professional profile

To sell on Instagram, the first thing you have to do is change your personal profile to a professional account.

There are three types of accounts on Instagram:

Persona: Access features to share photos and videos, create stories, reels, and broadcast live. This profile is not intended to sell on Instagram. You can set the account as public or private.
Creator: This type of Instagram account is intended for content creators, who can be influencers, artists, bloggers, public figures.
Company: the profile for businesses, brands or organizations. It is specially designed for trading actions.

In the last two profiles, Instagram allows access to detailed analytical information and statistics to monitor the interaction of your community. That is why we call these two “professional accounts” and it is key that you choose one of these profiles.

Creator or Company accounts will allow you not only to present yourself to your followers as a professional brand, but also to have additional functionalities that the platform offers exclusively to businesses.

The most relevant advantages of having a professional account are:

Statistics. Where you can check the interaction that people have with your publications. With that, you will make better decisions in your social media strategy.
Promotion of your publications. So that your reach is increasing and you get more quality followers.
Activation of Instagram Shopping. It is the star functionality of this social network at a commercial level. By linking it to your online store, it allows you to sell on Instagram. Later, we go into detail about this point to teach you how to enable it.

So how do you create a page on Instagram to sell? Let’s start by making sure you have a professional profile by following these steps:

In Settings, find the Account section.
Click on Switch to professional account.
Select the Category that best represents your business.
Fill in the requested information and you’re done!

Once you’ve changed your personal profile to a business profile, you’re ready to optimize it and start posting on Instagram to sell.

By promoting your products or services through this social network you will spread your brand and gain visibility. As you grow and get sales, you will surely want to automate processes to spend your time thinking about business strategies.

At that point we recommend you. Remember that in Tiendanube you can create your online store for free to see how simple and intuitive the platform is, you’re going to love it!

Here are more details about the process:

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5 keys to a successful company profile

Your professional profile on Instagram is a crucial space to take care of because it represents your brand on the network.

From your photo, the name of your account, your description and even the use you give to Instagram stories: all this is important to achieve a successful company profile and, thus, attract new followers and retain the ones you already have.

If we ask ourselves how to sell on Instagram, the fundamental basis is to make your brand easily recognizable on the social network. I followed these five tips to achieve it!

1) Use a simplified version of your logo

In order for your profile photo to be easily recognizable and to leave no room for doubt, we recommend that you use a simplified and summarized version of your logo.

For example, on its social networks, Tiendanube has its simplified logo that says “Oh my”. In this way, the brand is identifiable at a glance. Look:

original-logo

Simplified logo

If you chose to put your entire name, the words would look small on your profile picture. That would make the brand less recognizable and attractive.

If you haven’t created your logo yet, you can do it with our . You just have to enter the name of your brand, indicate what category it belongs to, what its style is like and choose the logo you want.

2) Pay special attention to your account name

When thinking about your company profile, it is important that you use keywords related to your business. This will help Instagram users quickly identify what your brand is about or what category it belongs to.

For example, Tiendanube sells clothes for babies and children, and its name on Instagram is “minianimabebes”.

3) Take advantage of the description (bio) to get closer to your audience

This is a key place where you can tell more about yourself and your brand. Therefore, take advantage of it in an attractive way to make yourself known on the platform.

Of course, you only have 150 characters to write your! So put your imagination and creativity to the test to communicate, in a few words, the spirit of your brand. These tips also apply to product descriptions on Instagram Shopping.

As we are going to tell you below, to sell there you need to link your products to your online store. So, this is another good reason to . You will make better use of the social network and boost your brand!

If you already have an online store, you can add a call to action inviting your followers to visit it (for that, add the link of your store in the corresponding tab). Take advantage of this space to add more sales!

📲 Bonus tip! In your posts, tell your followers that there is a link in the bio that they can access to learn about your online store.

And if you use a hashtag frequently in your business, include it in the bio description. This will make your profile easier to find in the “Explore Instagram” section.

Finally, you can also use tools like or that allow you to add more than one link in your biography to share different information. It can be a link to other social networks of your brand, to the contact page of your online store, etc.

Having your own sales site is very simple! Look:

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4) Exploit the highlights

Unlike “regular” stories that are only 24 hours long, featured stories don’t disappear. These are located in a privileged place.

Therefore, we recommend that you take advantage of this functionality. How? Creating different stories about aspects of your business that you think may be attractive to your followers. For example:

How was your brand created?
Images of your showroom, premises or workshop.
Photos from your latest collection (remember to update them as soon as they change).
Ideas on how to use your products.
How to buy in your online store.
What forms of payment and shipping do you offer in your e-commerce.
If you toast with other contact options (such as WhatsApp).

The important thing is that your featured stories catch your potential customers and generate (a lot of) interaction with them.

The highlighted stories are, then, a very valuable space within Instagram. They also allow you to answer the most frequent queries of your potential customers and thus help them get to know you and buy from you.

💡 Bonus tip! We recommend that you be very clear in the titles you choose. These have to guide people. Also, add attractive features that encourage users to view the content and reinforce your brand identity.

5) Encourage yourself to create content using the formats of reels and Guides

Four years after launching Stories, Instagram launched Reels and Guides, two features that allow you to take your brand content to the next level!

To start creating content in these formats, you have to enter your profile and click on the “➕” symbol that appears to the left of your profile. There you will be able to choose between different formats available to generate content, among them you will find “reels” and “Guides”.

Reels: star tips to create them

The key when creating content in this format is to make a short video with as much creativity and spontaneity as possible! The maximum duration of the reels is 60 seconds.

I shared tips, behind the scenes, daily tasks, details where the dedication you put into your business shines, ideas on how to use your products, the…