Back in 1995, when Amazon appeared, no one could have predicted the rise of online shopping.
Today, 69% of Americans have shopped online which means more and more people discover and buy products on the web. The ecommerce market is growing. Otherwise, retail ecommerce sales wouldn’t have been predicted to reach 4.92 trillion US dollars by the end of 2022.
With the popularity of social commerce, when customers pay close attention to recommendations from friends and family, brands have started using social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for promoting their products and selling online. What is more, the demand for social media online stores has grown exponentially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When it comes to choosing the best social media platform for selling online, most brands use Instagram. It’s one of the fastest-growing social media networks with the most engaged user base. Plus, most people are visual learners, so it’s no wonder that the popularity of Instagram shopping is growing fast, too.
In this article
About Instagram Shop in Brief
The history of Instagram shopping dates back to 2018 when product tags were introduced. Since 83% of users discover new products on the platform, the demand for a seamless shopping experience has grown.
Last year, Instagram introduced Instagram shops, fullscreen storefronts that allow businesses to show off their products on the profile and sell items from the catalog.
When visitors and followers tap on the ‘view shop’ button, they can see items, explore collections, and buy products without leaving the app. Here’s an example of an Instagram shop from Levi’s:
Instagram shops help both businesses and customers enjoy the in-app shopping experience. However, it’s not enough to create an online store on Instagram to attract customers and drive sales.
It’s also important to invest time and effort into promoting it. The best way to spread the word about your Instagram shop is to make it a part of your email marketing campaign.
Why Promote Your Instagram Shop with Emails
Email marketing is one of the oldest yet most effective marketing tools. Despite the popularity of social media platforms, 70% of customers say that email is the most preferred way for communication with brands:
To promote your Instagram shop, it’s time to coordinate social media with email marketing for three main reasons:
- Reach a wider audience – It’s practically impossible to reach all your customers on Instagram. Since people try to avoid phishing attacks, it’s more likely your email subscribers are loyal to your brand which means they are interested in following your Instagram shop once they get an invitation via email. As a result, it helps to reach a wider audience of potential customers.
- Spark interest in your products – Most email users say that they are open to receiving brand updates and product news via email. With emails, not only can spread the word about your Instagram shop, but you can also encourage subscribers to discover your products.
- Boost ecommerce sales – Being on your email list, practically every subscriber is a potential customer who is interested in your brand and its products. When you tell your subscribers about your Instagram shop, you promote your products without being too sales. Since people spend a considerable amount of time on Instagram, it allows you to boost ecommerce sales with Instagram.
Now that you know the importance of promoting your Instagram shop with emails, let’s find out 7 proven ways to do it the right way.
7 Ways to Promote your Instagram Shop with Emails
1. Tell about your Instagram shop
The more people know about your Instagram shop, the better. It allows you to increase Instagram followers, spark interest in your Instagram shop, and convert visitors into customers.
One of the easiest ways to promote your Instagram shop with emails is to tell about your Instagram profile. Although you can dedicate your email marketing campaign to the promotion of the Instagram shop, you can also mention information about it as a part of your email. Check out how Pink Clove did it:
What works best? The company shows authentic photos of their products and tells email subscribers about its brand hashtag–#PinkGloveStyle–that allows users to tap on it and see all posts with the company’s items. What is more, the company has an action button that encourages email subscribers to check out their Insta shop which leads to Instagram growth.
2. Include social media icons
Not all of your email subscribers know about your social media presence.
Adding social media icons to your email signature is a proven way to help your potential customers find your social media profiles with ease and therefore attract more Instagram followers to your business profile.
With this feature, you add a hyperlink to the relevant social media icon that redirects interested readers to your Instagram business page.
Although you can use basic social media icons at the end of textual information, you can also think outside the box and find out new creative ways to create eye-catching social media icons, just like Childrensalon did it:
To create similar eye-catching visuals for your social media icons, you can use a drag-and-drop visual editor like Canva. But if you’re looking for other options, you can also check out various Canva alternatives to find a graphic design tool that suits your business needs and wants.
3. Give email subscribers a discount
For most marketers, it’s no secret that people join your email list to get exclusive offers and discounts. When it comes to promoting your Instagram shop, a solid discount can also entice your subscribers to follow your business page.
There are many ways to make the most out of this email type. For example, you can segment inactive subscribers and give them an exclusive discount on your Insta shop. Not only does it have an impact on email deliverability, but it also helps to encourage subscribers to make the purchase decision faster.
Here’s how Deep South Pout uses its strategy:
Not only does the company show the products and prices, but it also tells about the exclusive sale in advance to reach a wider audience. Knowing the sales cycle, you are able to send these emails to the right audience at the right time which can help to spark interest in your products and grow revenue.
4. Show your Instagram fans
Modern customers crave authenticity more than ever, so they pay close attention to the thoughts of other consumers. In fact, 91% of them read online reviews before making a purchase.
Online reviews vary. The days when text reviews worked are far behind us. Today, customers want to see other customers, so it’s a great idea to publish user-generated content.
Since Instagram is a visual app, it’s a great idea to feature your fans who wear your items and then share these images in your email to grab the attention of other customers.
When it comes to clothing brand promotion, this strategy is highly recommended. Why? It’s easy to show off your products on customers and therefore ease the worried minds of potential customers. Check out how Oasis did it:
Oasis collects user-generated content on Instagram and the company always creates the list of top picks every month so that their email subscribers can see the variety of products in action and spark interest in its Instagram shop.
5. Organize a contest
People love free stuff, so social media contests are popular among users. It’s proven that Instagram profiles that run giveaways grow 70% faster than their competitors, so organizing a contest allows you to attract more visitors to your Instagram shop.
To promote your contest or giveaway, it’s a good idea to attract potential participants who don’t follow you on Instagram. How? Tell about your giveaway in an email, just like in the example below:
To encourage email subscribers to take the desired action faster, EyebuyDirect told its subscribers about the time-limited giveaway and the valuable prize that caused a sense of urgency.
NB: Instagram giveaways drive user engagement, so you can find more potential customers on the platform. To make the most out of your giveaway and grow your email list, put something like ‘sign up for your email list’ or ‘share your email address’ as the entrance requirement as it’s a proven way to get emails from Instagrammers. Win-win.
6. Announce an Instagram live session
Most marketers know the importance of the FOMO (fear of missing out) effect.
Being available for a short period of time, live-streamed content encourages users to join your session in order not to miss out on something important. Thus, it’s a good idea to organize an Instagram live sale and announce it via email.
For example, you can learn from Bobbi Brown and organize a series of Instagram live sessions where niche experts can share their professional tips and show your products in action. To boost sales, you can also offer featured items with a discount code.
Here are several ideas for your Instagram live stream to attract your audience:
- Organize a Q&A session with niche experts
- Show your products in actions (tutorials or how-to’s)
- Create an Instagram live sale
- Take users behind the scenes and show the product creation process
7. Team up with influencers
Paid ads are not effective anymore. In fact, 92% of consumers trust influencers more than brand ads or celebrity endorsements. This encourages brands to team up with influencers who can spread the word about their products.
Look:
Modern customers trust influencers as much as their real-world friends, so influencer collaboration can promote your Instagram shop in a variety of ways:
- An influencer can tell about your Instagram shop on his/her profile
- An influencer can become a model for your next ad campaign
- An influencer can spark interest in your brand and product
When it comes to promoting your Insta shop with emails, you can still work with influencers. One of the most obvious ways is to share the photos of an influencer who represents your company to grab the attention of your email list.
But here’s the deal:
With the growing number of social media influencers, more and more people seek out new ways to promote their profiles. For a chance to be featured on your business profile and get brand offers or deals, influencers are happy to become brand ambassadors.
Let’s take a look at Paul Hewitt. To find new brand ambassadors, the company organized an email marketing campaign.
The Bottom Line
With the growing number of people who discover and research products on the platform, Instagram shops have become an important part of ecommerce marketing. Now that brands have an opportunity to sell products in-app with product tags and clickable links, companies can improve a customer shopping experience and therefore boost sales. However, having an Instagram shop isn’t enough to attract customers. It’s important to promote your Instagram shop and email marketing campaigns can help you.
If you have an email list of loyal fans, it’s important to spread the word about your Instagram shop and turn your email subscribers into Instagram followers or even paying customers. After all, email is still the most preferred method of communication with brands, so don’t miss an opportunity to integrate Instagram marketing with email marketing and bring your business to the next level.
