If you are a content creator, coach, service based business or entrepreneur, then you probably already know the unique power Instagram has when it come to creating connection and community with your audience. But have you been able to leverage Instagram for your Business to generate sales?
When it comes to making sales on the gram, I assure you, the best tools are behind the scenes.
While everyone is focusing on the Feed content and getting followers, serious entrepreneurs who use Instagram tactfully are focusing on using the unseen tools – Instagram Stories and the DMs.
In my post where I shared How I made my first $10,000 on Instagram, I talked about my DM Strategy and how I have leveraged the DMs as the first step of my sales funnels and closed countless sales thanks to the DMs. But there is one step in that funnel that is so very important and it is your Stories.
Instagram stories are filled with some powerful tools that I bet you are not even using yet. If all you do on stories is repost other people’s posts, share memes and post without strategy, you are missing out on some big sales machine at your finger tips.
In this post, I will break down 4 Powerful Strategies that will help you nail the sale when you use them. But also keep in mind that everything I share here is aimed at getting people straight into your DMs so that you can convert them.
You see, the idea of selling in stories, is not necessarily just to Sell directly, but mostly to lead your followers into the sale themselves. For this to happen you have to become an avid user of Instagram stories.
You want your audience to begin to expect to see stories from you daily and you want to make sure these Story Posts are well made, engaging and unique.
SEE ALSO: How To Sell In The DMs
The Tutorial/Mini Training Hack
This is one of the most powerful tools you can use to convert followers into buyers. What you want to do is create a mini series focusing specifically on offering your followers a tiny win. Teach them how you do something, how you achieve a goal, whatever it is in your niche – but sharing this in your stories makes it feel hidden and special.
They know that it will disappear after 24 hours so they stick around to watch it.
Right in the middle of your training, you want to pop up a Question Sticker asking if they need more personalized help (related to the mini training you just shared) , or a poll with two options to filter out people and find out who is ready for the next step with you. More on how to use Polls below?
Mini Trainings convert really well on stories. What you need to do is link the training directly to the next step in your offer ladder. Instead of directly selling something, you may want to give the link to your Freebie. And if you choose to directly sell something, do not miss the sale by going for it head first.
Selling on stories is really about leading people slowly through the conversion steps like Using a poll to see who is interested first before adding the slide for your direct sale. (More on polls below)
Ask Me A Question Hack
Just like the mini-training, the Question sticker will allow you share a lot of value with your audience slide by slide.
I see a lot of people use the Question sticker but in a completely non-converting way. The question sticker is so underutilized that I cannot stop myself from convincing you to use it and use it often. You are in the information business and the reason your followers follow you is because of the information you share.
If you have something to sell, sharing information that ties in directly with that service or product is one of the best ways to increase awareness and sales. And what better way to share information than to use the user generated content like questions.
Pop up the question sticker in your stories and ask your audience to ask you a specific question. This is a great way to conduct market research, find out what your audience needs and also showcase your expertise in that subject matter.
For example, if you have a coaching service teaching new Moms how to start a business on Instagram – Your question sticker can say – “Ask me a Question about Instagram”
View the example below from one of my stories.
Tell your audience specifically what to ask you is a great way to keep the conversation and your responses right in line with what you are selling.
The effectiveness of the Question sticker lies in your ability to lead your audience to ask you specific, related questions. Don’t just put up the sticker and say “Ask me a question” – You will get too many random answers.
What you do after posting the answers to this sticker is to soft sell. Right after answering the questions and giving as much expert tips as possible, Pop up a poll as shown above and ask to see who is interested in the next step with you.
The Super Poll Hack
Instagram story polls are one of my favorite tools to determine who is really interested in something. If you have set up your business properly, with sales pages ready, opt in forms on hand, freebies ready to go, your entire funnel and sequence just waiting for a lead to come in, this is a great way to convert followers into leads and buyers fast.
The reason to do this is you want to have on hand, the exact people who are interested in your offer because you are going to DM all of them. The DMs is where most of your sales will happen on Instagram so it is paramount that you know How to sell in the DMs else you might be losing out on the super power that is Instagram.
You are also going to add a slide right after your poll with a direct sale. You already have people’s attention with the answers to your question. This is a good time to make a move for the sale. But make sure you have your poll posted before the slide for the sale because you want people to show interest first and these are the people to DM.
EXPERT TIP: Personalize all the DMs you send out. It can be as simple as having a single message to send to everyone, but starting with their own name – E.g [ Hi Eva, thank you for answering the poll + copied message ]
EXPERT TIP 2 : To make Instagram Polls work, you have to create high converting call to action options. Using dull “YES/NO” options on your poll is not going to convert as well as making the call to action a prompt in the next direction. Look at these examples below
Selling on Instagram is easy when you understand how people use Instagram and how to lead them slowly through your sales process. Remember, people are not on Instagram holding their credit cards just waiting to buy something. They are on Instagram to make connections.
If you can make everything you do feel like an extra connection with your audience, you will earn the sale with ease.
Which of these tips are you going to implement? Share your thoughts in comments ?