Since its inception, Instagram has become a significant entity in the world of marketing. With the millions of users on the platform, it would not come as a surprise that many brands have actually dedicated apart of their social media marketing budget to this platform. You may have heard of users earning from the photos that they post daily. Have you ever thought of how to e Money on Instagram?
Instagram has the reach and influence needed to explore various streams of potential revenue. Now, you may be asking yourself how people make money on Instagram, and how to do the same. This article gives an insight into tested tactics that you can put into use and get an income from Instagram.
Getting Started-Attract Followers
The first thing that you must work on is your following. Most brands will be looking for a loyal and strong following. The amount of following is not necessarily as many as you may be thinking right now. Ideally, it depends on the kind of revenue channels that you are exploring, what niche you choose and whether you can tie it directly to a certain product category, and lastly, how engaged your followers are. You may have over 100k followers but if they are not active with opinions, likes, comments and so forth, they may mean nothing. The more engaged followers you have, the better.
Ways to Increase Followers While Building a Professional Instagram Account
As already mentioned, before you even think about ways to earn on Instagram, you must first work on increasing your followers. Here are ways to help you achieve this.
- Create an attractive bio– have the right info on your bio including your contact info, your niche and where you come from. You can add some hashtags and keywords to make followers find you easily.
- Good photos– ensure that the photos you are posting are of high quality.
- Post regularly-another way of growing your numbers is by posting several photos every time but not all at once.
- Engage with your followers-, you need to start by liking or commenting on your follower’s posts for them to reciprocate the favor. When you do this, they also get view your account and start appreciating what you are all about. In no time, you will have your loyal rank of followers.
- Hashtags– to have your photos reaching a wider audience, use the relevant Hashtags. Reaching a wider audience is one way of growing your Instagram account.
Making Money on Instagram
Now you have increased your account followers and you are ready to make money. Explore the following different ways of making your cut.
- Work with Brands on Sponsored Posts (Become an Influencer)
When you partner with brands and promote their sponsored posts, you become an influencer. An influencer is someone that has earned an online reputation by doing nice things or sharing things online. When you are an influencer, your audience sees you as a trendsetter, tastemaker, and a trusted expert at giving opinions on certain subjects.
Brands are looking for such personalities to help market their products. Influencer deals involve the creation of content and in this case an Instagram video, post, or story. Such deals are negotiable. Depending on your agreement, you can do a single post or the entire campaign at an agreed fee. When you are an influencer working with a brand, you are not just giving away content but also access to your audience.
However, before promoting a certain brand, it is important to ensure that it fits your already established personal image on Instagram. You want to show your followers that the product you are rallying behind fits into your set lifestyle.
If you are big enough on Instagram, most brands will find you and try to strike a deal. However, you can also go out of your way to search for brands that are on the same level with your personality terms and values so that you remain respectable with your fans and always have their trust.
- Affiliate Marketing
With affiliate marketing, you promote a product and you are paid per sale. As opposed to influencer marketing where you only have to create awareness, here you need to make sales for the partner brand for you to get a commission.
This is made possible with the use of a traceable link or a unique promotion code that tracks any sales made. Instagram does not allow for links anywhere else outside your bio, so you can only focus on one product at a time. You can incorporate the promotion code or URL in your bio or captions. When people make a purchase through your link, then you earn a certain commission from the sale. This type of marketing works well with such things as clothing, hotel industry, and beauty. For instance, you can talk of your tour to a certain tourist destination, and then include a link of a hotel where one can stay while on tour. For every person that books through your link, you earn a commission.
- Selling Your Photos
You can use your Instagram account to showcase your photography skills and sell your photos to agencies or even individuals. Add watermarks and captions list the selling points. As already mentioned, ensure your presence on Instagram is always active and ensure to interact with your followers always.
- Open Your Own Online Store
Just as you would do affiliate or influencer marketing, you can market your own business or products on Instagram. Whether you sell physical goods, services, or digital items, you can become an extension of your brand with your followers being at the center of it all. Your fans and followers will show love and support by buying from you. Here are two creative ways of promoting your services and products, and making money off Instagram.
- Behind the scenes
You can post behind the scenes photos of your handmade soap being wrapped, a cake being decorated or just after being taken from the oven, a piece of clothing being stitched, or jewelry being stitched together. Such kinds of posts are appealing to and they can prompt those viewing them to make a purchase.
- Customer’s photos
You can get your customers to share photos of your products after buying from you the use the repost feature to re-gram them. Give them a unique Hashtags to be using so that once they post, you can repost. This method has been proven to work and create more curiosity, which leads to more people wanting to try out the product in question.
- Sell Your Instagram Account
Assuming you have been on Instagram for long and your account is well developed but you now want to move on and probably close it. Your efforts will not have gone down the drain. Regardless of the reason for quitting, you can simply transfer management by selling your account. Depending on the number of followers, how active it is and the command you hold on your fans, you can actually make handsome cash out by selling it to an interested party.
It is undeniable how Instagram can be a great opportunity to start earning. You can start small by posting silly photo shoots with your toddler, sharing pictures of food and making people laugh but later snowball into a huge opportunity for making money. There is so much in store if you have a loyal and large amount of followers who never skip your posts. Seize your moment today.
