Over the last decade since its launch, Instagram has grown in popularity and marketing power to become one of the most effective tools for brands. One of its biggest advantages is it is multifunctionality. You can use it to both promote and increase awareness of your brand, products, and services and to increase your sales.
In one recent report, it was found that Instagram is the go-to platform for people looking for new products. Around 70% of Instagram users in the US use it to find new products. More than 130m accounts use the tags featured along with posts to find out about special products.
Crucially though, 97% of customers are smart and still look to reviews and recommendations from their Instagram peers when they are looking for new products to buy.
This shows that there is more involved than just posting a series of great pics products in the best light. Offering customers a great experience is key, which is why you should use customer testimonials in conjunction with Instagram.
If you are trying to build your brand through Instagram and want to improve the engagement you have with your customer base, look at our guide to the most effective forms of testimonials.
User Generated Content (UGC)
You don’t need to be a marketing guru, blogger or copywriter to be a content creator. The average Joe or Jane with a passion for shopping, a smartphone, and an Instagram account is a content creator. How many people do you think upload photographs, quick snaps here and there, selfies and shots of products they’ve bought every day? It’s estimated a staggering 1.8billion do. This gives you an opportunity to harness content produced by your consumers and use it for testimonials
What makes this an even more effective strategy is the fact that most consumers relate better to UGC than branded posts. To sell more, or start selling if you haven’t done so already through Instagram, you need to show your customers your product is what they want most.
A great way to do this is through UGC. Getting a customer to buy something from you, take a picture of them using or wearing it, and post it to their Instagram account is the goal. This is basically a big thumbs up for your product. Which in turn encourages others to give your company a chance.
One way many businesses utilize UGC is by creating branded hashtags for their content. This lets them collect the hashtags all together in one place. Some use the Instagram Stories feature to share them and then use the Instagram Stories Highlights feature to make these stories easily accessible to followers and new visitors.
As well as enhancing your social proof, this way of using UGC is time, effort, and money efficient.
Customer Feedback
We live in a time when so much of what you see online from companies and businesses are paid-for-ads and sponsored posts. That’s why savvier businesses are always looking for genuine and honest customer feedback. This is why you should be using actual customer experiences to help your potential customers who are still deciding whether to buy your product or use your service.
The great thing about Instagram is it gives consumers the chance to share their thoughts and feelings, without anyone interrupting or distracting them. Which means they can be honest and open.
Big and popular companies get a lot of comments from both happy and unhappy customers. It generally follows that the more followers your brand has, the more customers you are likely to have who are going to share their thoughts and views on your product, whether good or bad.
When you do get unhappy or dissatisfied customers, you can still positively use their thoughts and feedback. By replying and offering to solve their issues or correct the mistakes you may have made, you give them a reason to try you again. When they are happy, you can use their feedback to help encourage buyers who may be on the fence about whether to trust your brand or not.
Customer Reviews
We’ve already touched on it, but the importance of customer reviews for potential customers can never be overplayed. People spend a lot of time looking at what others have to say about brands and their products. If you want to increase your sales faster, you need to share customer reviews through your Instagram account.
Success Stories
Your customers are looking for services and products that solve problems. Therefore, it is important to realize they are looking to buy solutions and not necessarily the products themselves. When looking for ways to promote your products and services, it can be particularly effective to show how your products have helped your consumers with a common problem shared by others in your target market. Sharing success stories is one of the easiest and best ways to do this.
These offer insight into how actual consumers have benefitted from your product, and how it has met their expectations, wants, and needs. These kinds of customer testimonials help to encourage others to trust your company because they want to have the same experience.
This is especially vital if you offer services instead of products.
Video Testimonials
If there is one thing that’s especially hot on all platforms these days, it’s video content. If you are looking to improve the perception customers have of your brand, try using video content. While not every customer is confident about making videos, it’s a good idea to offer them an incentive for going to the trouble. The chance to win a prize or be featured on your profile page are great incentives.
There was a time when Instagram was merely a platform for sharing photos with friends and the world. However, it is now a place where people come to learn about products and are interested in finding out what others think about brands, their products, and services.
The best way to get the most out of Instagram is by sharing customer testimonials to help enhance your customer’s experience and better meet their needs.
