Good news, you can sell your products and services on your Facebook business page and your Instagram business page for free! This organic reach should be a part of your social media marketing strategy if it isn’t already. So, without further ado here are my top tips for selling on Facebook and Instagram.
“How come this blog is covering both Facebook selling tips AND Instagram product selling tips?”
As Facebook owns Instagram, I am starting to see more and more features that link the two together. This is really exciting news for business owners.
I highly recommend that you link your Facebook business account to your Instagram business account to make the most out of the platforms and the free tools that are available to help you grow your business.
Selling products on Facebook and Instagram: How to stand out on these platforms
It’s important to understand just how big these two social media giants are to realise just why you need to make your voice heard.
- Facebook has over 2.4billion active users.
- Instagram has over one billion active users.
- 78% of businesses sell on social media and this figure continues to rise. And every single business is vying for space and trying to get their products and services on their customers’ and potential customers’ newsfeeds.
Yes, it’s a challenge to be seen and heard in this crowded space, but if you know how to, you’ll reap the rewards.
If you’ve read any of my other blogs or watched any of my YouTube videos you will have heard me say previously that your posts will only reach about 2% – 8% of your followers. Unless, the posts start to attract engagement, in which case the social media platform will push the post further as it clearly is showing their users something of interest.
Here’s rule number one when it comes to gaining engagement: know your audience!
To get a clear picture of your customer, consider these points to help you increase your visibility on Facebook and increase your visibility on Instagram:
- Why are your customers on these platforms? Is it to mainly see their friends and family or are they there to get inspiration for a hobby – maybe to pick up some top tips?
- How can you add value?
- Do they have a problem that you have the solution to?
- How will they feel when they receive your product or service?
- Will your product or service make their life easier – or better?
Knowing the answers to these considerations, will help you create posts that will stop them from scrolling past as you’re giving them something they are looking for.
Whatever you do, don’t constantly sell on Facebook; you’ll turn people away. But if your audience likes the posts you put out to help them or entertain them, then they will be receptive to hear what it is that you are offering.
Do a spot of reviewing
Do some market research of your own. Have a look over your past posts and see the ones that performed well. What was it about these posts do you think that gained a lot of engagement? Identify what that was and repeat the formula in future posts.
Don’t overcomplicate what your selling
A lot of business owners fall into the trap of wanting to tell their customers what they want them to know – this is quite often the complete opposite of what their customers want to hear. Get inside their heads and think about the benefits they are looking for.
Here’s a scenario to help explain this. Imagine you are wanting to buy a frying pan. You approach two sellers in an exhibition hall both selling the exact same product for the same price. Seller number one tells you about the materials used, the manufacturing process and how long it took to develop. Seller number two tells you it’s non-stick and needs less oil making it a healthy option and the coating is easy to clean meaning you won’t waste time scrubbing it after every use.
It’s pretty obvious that you’d be influenced to buy off seller number two, as clearly they know what is important to you.
Think of structuring your posts the same way.
How to build trust to boost your products sales
Selling on Facebook and Instagram is easier when you have earned the trust of your followers. Here’s how you can achieve this with great content:
- Showcase your unique values. YOU set your brand apart from your competitors!
- Indulge in a spot of brand storytelling. People love to hear the background story of how a business came to be.
- Tell your followers what goes on behind the scenes. Don’t forget we all love to be nosey. What happens in the warehouse, what does your office look like, is there an office pet?
- Show your gratitude for those who work and support you. Let’s see the people behind the brand!
- Highlight your reviews and always ASK for them. I recently received a package and inside was a lovely card asking me to leave a review – so I did, it was a lovely touch.
- Give tips and advice.
- Above all else, just be you, your authentic self.
- Never 100% sell!
Remember most people are not on these platforms to buy, so mix up the content, share about 80% content based on what your brand is about and 20% of content for selling. The best way to sell on Facebook and Instagram for free is using these tips. On Instagram don’t forget to use the best hashtags to help get you found.
Use the free tools and features, they are designed for your products!
Finally, Facebook gave business owners some great news this year. The new shop feature is a game changer! If anyone now asks me how to sell through Facebook – this is it!
The best Facebook tips and the ultimate Instagram tips are to use the shop features:
The Instagram shop:
There used to be an obstacle in the way for smaller businesses wanting to sell their goods from their Instagram page as the platform used to ask that an account had over 10k before they could tag products using the shop feature. Now, every business can have one, providing you meet their terms and conditions – hurrah! You can tag in your products on your posts so when a customer clicks on something that they like the look of, it takes them straight to checkout.
This is a game changer for Instagram, as you can’t put links in your posts – but now you just tag product on the image it related to and voila – customers are taken straight through to your product page on the website.
The Facebook Shop:
And if this wasn’t exciting enough you can now do this on Facebook too! Shops have been available for a while on Facebook, but now you can tag your products too. In fact, if you have multiple products in an image on one of your posts, you can tag different products in the post taking customers to the relevant web page for each item.
This is a great new shopping tool for Facebook, particularly as links in the text of your posts do not perform well.
If your Facebook account is LinkedIn to your Instagram account you only have to do the one tagged post to be shared over both platforms!
If your Facebook account is Linked to your Instagram account you only have to do the one tagged post to be shared over both platforms!
If you don’t have a shop set up on Facebook or Instagram there are a number of steps you have to take to get approval. But don’t worry you’ll be thrilled to learn that I have an online course called ‘How To Set Up A Facebook Shop and Instagram Shop’. I will guide you through what you need to do over a number of simple video tutorials. At only £49.99 you can learn at your own pace and start selling straight away. Good luck!
Bye for now,
Becs
Becs Bate, Social Media Executive
