Getting leads from Instagram as a startup is no easy feat.
Because you’re a newcomer in your industry, no one knows about your brand and you’ll have very little to no Instagram followers.
TL;DR: It’s going to be challenging. Reeeaaallly challenging.
That’s why to run a successful IG lead generation campaign, you need tried and tested strategies. The likes of which that will compel your audience to follow you on IG, share your content, and take action on your offers.
To help you hit the ground running, we’ll share the top five tactics you can learn to generate leads on Instagram like a pro.
1. Leverage automation
Generating leads often involves tons of tedious, repetitive jobs, from content idea generation to post publishing.
However, you can reduce, if not eliminate, a chunk of your repetitive tasks by using robust IG tools with automation functionalities.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) platforms such as Vista Social provides advanced, sophisticated, and affordable features to simplify your IG and other social media content creation and publishing.
You can plan and create your Instagram content and schedule them to post automatically on your set times and dates.
If you have several pieces of content you want to publish in one day, add them to a queue, and Vista Social can auto-publish them based on the best times to drive engagement.
Image source: vistasocial.com.
Take your IG post automation to the next level with Vista Social’s Smart Publisher. It can search for, source, and publish content for you.
Image source: vistasocial.com.
Choose a category and include keywords you want the platform to search (or exclude those you don’t want to include). Additionally, you can add hashtags and mentions and prepend the texts for your post.
Automation can streamline and optimize your IG lead generation efforts and save time and resources while driving results faster.
2. Partner with influencers in your industry
Getting influencers to help promote your brand and products is one of the best ways to generate leads on Instagram.
Why? Because influencers have established relationships with thousands (and sometimes millions) of followers.
You can tap into an influencer’s legion of followers with the right marketing approach. Then, leverage the relationships influencers built with their followers for your lead generation initiatives.
Below are a few tips to help you find the best influencers to work with to support your lead generation efforts on Instagram and other social media platforms.
- Focus on influencers already working in your niche (or industry) since they have the experience and expertise working with companies like yours. Aligning your social media marketing goals and the influencer objectives is also easier.
- Do some digging on the shortlist of influencers you want to work with. Follow them, look at their followers, and develop a few ideas on how they can support your lead generation efforts. You can narrow your list to the top five and reach out to them to assess if they’re a good fit for your brand and IG marketing campaigns.
- Use nifty digital marketing software and related tools to make finding influencers and running your influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram more effective and efficient.
3. Run Instagram lead ads
Running lead ads can draw more eyeballs to your Instagram content, helping you achieve some level of lead generation success.
With lead ads, you can run ads within Instagram while collecting customer information, such as email addresses, job titles, phone numbers, and birth dates.
Before you can run IG lead ads, you’ll need to do the following:
- Turn your existing Instagram account into a business account (or create a new business account).
- Create a Facebook Business Manager account (on FB) and link it to your Facebook page.
- Go to the Facebook Ads Manager and select the Lead Generation option.
- Make your lead ads (the way you would create Facebook ads). Remember to choose Instagram as your placement.
Image source: facebook.com.
Lead ads display a lead form that Instagram users can easily fill out with their contact details, allowing you to capture potential customer information with ease.
While lead ads are great for generating leads seamlessly, running them requires trial and error.
Know which variations of your lead magnets, Calls-to-Action (CTAs), targeting options, and other creatives generate audience responses best through A/B testing.
Leverage the analytics features and get relevant data from top-tier customer engagement platforms.
You can use the actionable insights to amplify your lead generation efforts, including improving your lead ad performance.
4. Create shoppable content
Your content development strategy shouldn’t be limited to run-of-the-mill images, videos, and other text-based content anymore.
The popular content type on Instagram that’s making waves are shoppable posts.
Posting shoppable posts on Instagram is a great tactic to draw your prospects’ attention and entice them to buy your products.
It’s because IG shoppable posts include the prices and product descriptions right on your posts, making it convenient for Instagram users to shop and purchase the items.
Image source: blog.hubspot.com.
Plus, you can still count IG users who tap on your shoppable posts as leads collected on interested prospects even if they don’t go through with the purchase.
Leverage the information to learn the products your potential customers are most interested in. You can also target users with tailored ads you create based on audience engagement with your shoppable posts.
Also, shoppable Instagram posts are highly shareable, encouraging users to share your posts, widening your reach, and boosting your lead generation initiatives.
5. Host Q and A sessions via Instagram stories
Building trust with your Instagram followers is crucial to your IG lead generation efforts.
After all, Instagram users don’t know you yet. They need to trust you before you can entice them into acting on your offers and ultimately turning from passive audiences to paying customers.
A more creative and interactive tactic to help you build that trust is through Question and Answer (Q&A) sessions via IG Stories.
You can include popular questions to ask IG followers, such as their dream vacation and favorite Friends character or something specific to a topic such as the best way to speed up videos with an iPhone.
You can also leave the questions open for your IG users to ask.
Hosting Q&A sessions via IG Stories is a great way to interact and connect with your audiences, engaging them in real time and generating leads.
Make the most of Instagram for lead generation
Nail your lead generation efforts on Instagram with the tips and tricks in this guide.
Try out the tactics and assess which ones lead you to successful IG lead generation.
Leverage the right strategies and tools that work best for your audience, campaigns, and company.