Table of contents
03
Introduction
05
How social media helps small business
07
Set up your Instagram shopping account
11
5 Approaches to selling on Instagram
22
4 Ways to improve your Instagram sales strategy
27
Boost your sales with Instagram Shopping
A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 2
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Introduction
A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 4
How often do you scroll through Instagram When custom pin manufacturer WizardPins
and love the look of something so much that got started on Instagram, they knew driving
you want to buy it? If you’re anything like the sales from a brand-new account would be a
130 million people that click on Instagram challenge. But a series of pin giveaways on
shopping posts each month, Instagram helped the company generate
you probably feel that way fairly often. $25,000 in revenue. WizardPins also realized
that Instagram had compounding benefits.
And that’s why you need to know how to Giveaways took them from 0 to 30,000
sell on Instagram. followers in 18 months, drove 100,000
visitors to their website, and turned the pin
Instagram gives business owners a chance winners into brand ambassadors.
to sell products, build brand awareness, and Keep reading to learn how to sell on
connect influencers and brand ambassadors Instagram, including instructions for setting
all in one place. What started out as a visual- up, options for selling, and tips for improving
centric social media network has become a your Instagram sales strategy.
valuable eCommerce platform. People are
already on the app for an average of 28
minutes a day. It doesn’t take much for
casual scrolling to turn into active shopping.
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How Social Media Helps
Small Business
A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 6
How Social Media
Helps Small Business
You’ve known for a while that social media While social media can serve many
for small businesses is important — but functions, here’s a quick look at some
2020 has made it essential. Seventy percent high-impact benefits of social media for
of small-business owners are concerned small business:
about financial hardships due to the COVID-
19 crisis. At a time when money is tighter
than ever, social media can be a lifeline.
Low-cost brand recognition with free Event promotion through features
social media accounts or small- such as Facebook Events and
budget brand-awareness initiatives Facebook Groups
Targeted reach through tools, such as Customer service options that
Instagram Ads or Facebook Ads, that endear you to customers.
homes in on specific demographics
(i.e., age, gender, salary, location, etc.)
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Set Up Your Instagram
Shopping Account
A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 8
Set up your Further, we’re sharing the first three steps
you need to take to start setting up your
Instagram shop. If you’re already set up on Instagram
Shopping, skip ahead to the "Set up your
shopping account shop" section below.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 9
Getting started with
Instagram Shopping
Step 1 Step 2
Make sure you’re eligible for Connect your Instagram account
Instagram shopping and confirm to a Facebook Page
you have a business or creator
account Next, you need to connect your Instagram
business account to a Facebook page.
Start by converting your personal profile This can be done through the Instagram
to an Instagram business account and App by selecting “Edit Profile” and then
checking whether you are Under Public Business Information,
eligible for Instagram shopping. selecting “Page.” If you already have a
Facebook page for your business, head to
Instagram’s Help Center link to learn how
Instagram Shopping eligibility
to connect it to your Instagram account.
requirements:
Business needs to be located in a
supported market Step 3
Business has to sell physical Sign up for
goods Business Manager
Business must comply with the For the third step, you’d need to set up
commerce policies a Business Manager account, which will
Instagram account must be a allow you to set up your shop later in
business page and connected to Commerce Manager.
a Facebook page
Business Manager lets you manage your
ad accounts, your pages and the people
who might be working on them. And it's
entirely free to use.
You can head to Facebook’s Business
Manager page to create a Business
Manager account.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 10
Set up your shop
Now you can either build your catalog To add products manually, use Catalog
manually or through a third party. Manager to upload product photos and
If you already have a Facebook Shops information individually. To speed up the
catalog, you can save yourself some time by process, upload products in bulk with a
connecting it to your Instagram account. spreadsheet, or use a Facebook pixel to
Just make sure you’re happy with the import products from your website.
catalog you choose, because it will
automatically create your Instagram You can also use one of the certified
shopping catalog, and you can’t third-party eCommerce platforms:
change it later. Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce,
Magento Commerce, or OpenCart.
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5 Approaches to Selling
on Instagram
A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 12
5 Approaches to
selling on Instagram
Once you’re all set up, it’s time to start
selling. Here are five main options for selling
products on Instagram
01 Use Instagram Shoppable Posts
You can recognize Instagram Shoppable Instagram’s built-in ecommerce feature
Posts by the white shopping-bag icon allows you to tag products in your
in the corner of an image. Other than the Instagram stories, images, or live videos
shopping-bag icon, photos and stories will and link them directly to your catalog.
appear to users as normal posts. Instagram
Shoppable Posts are very effective because
they appear to potential customers as part
of their regular Instagram experience.
Photos from joeandjune. Shopping-bag icons appear in the top right corner when viewing a profile and in the
bottom left when viewing an Instagram post. Clicking “View Products” brings up individual product photos
and links.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 13
When creating an Instagram post, you can Additionally, you can also feature your
add up to five products per image or up to products during a Live. Before going live,
20 for multi-image posts. Simply tap on tap the shopping bag icon on the left side
products in the photo, and then tag of the screen and tag up to 30 products
products from your catalog. You can also or a collection to feature during your live.
share products in Instagram stories, but you
are limited to a single product per Story.
Photos from senita. Instagram Shoppable Posts mark the products for sale with a white dot
(left). People can tap to view more information (center) and then open up a link to shop (right)
Not only can people see your Instagram
Shopping Posts as they scroll through
their feed, but they can also complete the
purchase without fully leaving the
Instagram app.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 14
02 Curate product collections
If you’re looking to create a shop experience Here’s an example of what a collection
tailored to your followers and your brand, looks like from Ink Meets Paper. When
then you should consider using collections you head to their Instagram Shop, the
for your business. first thing you see are their collections.
A collection is a group of 6 to 30 products
that are curated based on a specific theme,
color, season, or even a cultural moment.
This will help shoppers to find what they’re
looking for and possibly increase their order
size. With Collections, you can infuse the
look-and-feel and tone of voice of your brand
into a shop.
Inkmeetspaper uses Collections to curate groups of products into collections based on a feeling.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 15
03 Try Buffer Shop Grid
Our Shop Grid feature turns your Instagram With Shop Grid, you can leverage your
profile into a grid-inspired shop page. Think link in bio to feature multiple product pages.
of your grid like your store’s window display You can add a link to each photo that takes
— a curated collection of products that show people directly to the product page on your
off your brand’s style. website.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 16
Use Buffer Shop Grid to add direct-to-product links to each photo
Instagram allows users to add only one link And with Buffer Premium, you can
in a bio. With Shop Grid, you can make the schedule shop posts ahead of time and
most of that single link and turn it into a view Instagram analytics to improve your
catalog for every product photo you share. Instagram shopping marketing efforts
Once people click on your Shop Grid link,
they’ll see clickable versions of your images
that take them directly to the associated
product’s page.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 17
04
Sell through comments and
direct messages
Wondering how to sell on Instagram
without a website? Some startups and
smaller businesses rely on manual methods,
including comments and
direct messages (DMs).
To sell through comments, share your
product photos with “Comment to buy”
instructions in the caption. For example,
you might say “Comment ‘SOLD [your size]’
to buy” for a clothing item. Then, you’ll need
to follow up on each comment by sending a
DM to arrange shipping and payment.
Or you can use third-party tools such as
Misgracefuljewellery uses
Comment Sold to automate parts “Comment to buy” in captions and responds
of the process. to purchasers in the comments
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 18
If you take this approach, Many small businesses on Instagram
Buffer's engagement features might help prefer to skip straight to DMs. Selling
you to keep on top of any comments you get through DMs is a popular option for artists
on your posts as these can easily get lost who make one-of-a-kind pieces or a
amongst other notifications on Instagram. limited amount of a product and for
service-based businesses.
Watch Engagement video on YouTube
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 19
Here’s an example from Hungry 4 Pasta, a Comments and DMs require a lot more
fresh pasta delivery service business based manual work than Instagram Shoppable
in Lisbon, Portugal. In their Instagram bio Posts or Buffer Shop Grid, but this manual
and feed post captions, they prompt method is a good starting point for up-and-
customers to make an order via DM. coming businesses that don’t have a
website or a formal product catalog just yet.
Hungry4pasta.lx prompts their customers to send them a DM to make an order
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 20
05 Use Instagram Shopping Ads
Until now, we’ve only proposed organic Through Instagram Shopping Ads, you can
approaches to selling on Instagram. If your create a campaign that drives people to your
budget permits you to explore other areas, Product Detail Page, which will then direct
then an effective way to increase the them to your website where they can
number of potential customers engaging complete their purchase. If you’ve enabled
with your shoppable content is through checkout within the Instagram App, you can
Instagram Shopping Ads. also let people shop a promoted or boosted
post without ever leaving the app. To learn
We recommend combining the use of how to set up Instagram Shopping Ads in
Instagram Shopping Ads and Custom Ads Manager, you can check out this guide.
Shopping Audiences to get your Shop
in front of your target audience and
increase sales.
tastycreamery promotes an existing Instagram shoppable post to reach new customers.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 21
Now, let’s hop into how you can best utilize You can then use Instagram Shopping
Custom Shopping Audiences. Once you start Ads combined with Custom Shopping
running Shopping Ads, the number of people Audiences to retarget people who have
who interact with your products in your Shop interacted with your shoppable content.
will increase. This group of people will be
added to your Custom Shopping Audiences.
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4 Ways to Improve Your
Instagram Sales Strategy
A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 23
4 Ways to improve Want to step up your Instagram shopping
game? Try out these tactics.
your Instagram sales
strategy
Create a signature style for your
01
photos, and stick to it
Close your eyes and think about your For example, eclectic_goods gives off
favorite physical retail store. What colors that swoon-worthy Pinterest vibe with
do you see? What vibe do you feel? We’re brightly lit, crisp photos of curated
willing to bet you can identify your favorite collections of products. Meanwhile,
stores and brands just by their aesthetic. artist stella.stardust features her pieces
Great Instagram business profiles have a individually on a plain gray or black
signature look and feel, too. background.
Eclectic_goods (left) shares photos with curated collections of products, while stella.stardust (right) shares
individual product photos on a simple background
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 24
02 Use Instagram Insights
Use Instagram’s built-in analytics, Instagram
Insights, to monitor key metrics such as
engagement rates, post shares, and likes.
Keep an eye on which post styles and
products grab people’s attention so you can
home in on what your audience responds to.
Buffer Instagram Profile Insights button
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 25
03
Encourage engagement and
word-of-mouth marketing
Our survey of 800 millennial and Gen Z
Instagram users shows 53% of users find
brands through word of mouth. Try out
different engagement tactics that inspire
people to share your account and products.
You can encourage your audience to spread
the word with prompts like “Tag a friend who
would absolutely rock this look!”
How do you discover new brands to
follow on Instagram?
Word-of-mouth
Fabfitfun partners with several businesses for a
Posts from Influencers giveaway and requires entrants to tag two friends
in the comments
Instagram Feed Ads
Instagram Stories Ads
Instagram Explore tab
Link from the bran's website
Other
0% 20% 40% 60%
How Millennials and Gen Z Discover Brands on
Instagram
Giveaways are a solid way to incentivize
social sharing. In addition to liking and
commenting on the post to enter, you can
ask people to share the post on their
Instagram Stories or tag friends in the
comments. When people tag their friends,
it often sets off a domino effect: The friend
gets the notification and decides to enter,
so they tag more friends and the
chain continues.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 26
04 Partner with influencers
Instagram influencers are a powerful
marketing tool. Our survey shows that
47% of respondents discovered brands
through influencers.
While celebrity influencers can reach
millions of users, micro-influencers
(1,000-10,000 followers) are actually
more effective. Micro-influencers have
higher engagement rates than influencers
with 10,000 or more followers. Customers
enjoy buying products from people they feel
they can trust, and it’s a lot easier to trust
someone who doesn’t have an agent, a
stylist, and a makeup crew on call. Glossier uses a photo from a real customer
to promote beauty products
Skin care and beauty brand Glossier is
well known for turning their customers
into micro-influencers. Glossier’s profile is
full of customer-submitted photos that
show off Glossier products on real people,
not models.
Think about it for a second: Are you more
likely to feel that a look is achievable if
you see it on someone like fatimaaaa._
(who has less than 2,000 followers) or
Beyoncé? That’s why micro-influencers
often beat out celebrities when it comes
to driving sales for brands.
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A Guide to Selling on Instagram as a Small Business Page 27
Boost your sales with
Instagram Shopping
As eCommerce sales continue to rise Have you ever made a purchase after
around the world, it’s more important than discovering a brand or product via
ever to learn how to sell on Instagram. Our Instagram ads?
research shows that 76% of millennials and
Gen Zers have made a purchase after I don't know
finding a brand on Instagram. 5%
No
Considering the two generations make up 19%
the largest portion of Instagram users
worldwide, that’s a significant potential
customer base.
Yes
76%
How Millennials and Gen Z Discover Brands on
Instagram
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Page 28
The Social Media Management
Tool for Small Businesses
Buffer is an all-in-one social media management tool to help you
manage your social media channels on Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. With Buffer, you can streamline your
workflows and build your brand more efficiently.
Page 29
Set up your Instagram
storefront with Buffer
With Buffer, you can not only schedule posts and track key metrics,
but you can also set up an Instagram shopfront without any third-
party eCommerce tools.
