Back in May, 2018 Instagram rolled out one of their most significant updates to date – the ability to tag products in your images. With Facebook Zero destroying organic reach on Facebook in January 2018, Instagram stepped up and took the crown as the B2C e-commerce marketers dream!
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
- You can now leverage Instagram’s platform as a direct sales tool, eliminating the need to squeeze your bio link for all of your sales and marketing purposes.
- You can now create remarketing funnels within the platform (leveraging page engagement and video views) and effectively create decision phase content to convert users ON Instagram, rather than pushing them to Facebook.
- You can push a more direct style of content – showcase your products on your profile but keep in mind the importance of standing out and being super creative.
- It’s not all good news for everyone though, platforms like https://have2have.it/ are going to suffer, how’s that for digital disruption! (I guess Schedugram will know how they feel once Instagram releases desktop scheduling).
So, How Do I Enable Product Tagging On Instagram?
There are some criteria that need to be met before you can go ahead and enable this. First, ensure the following:
- The products and services you sell comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies.
- For the time being, your business is within the US, UK, Australia, France, Canada, Italy, Germany, Brazil or Spain.
- Your account is an Instagram business profile.
- You’ve connected your profile to a Facebook Catalogue.
Once you’ve satisfied this criterion and your account is all set up, follow the steps below:
- Go to your profile.
- Press “Get started”.
- Press your “Settings” cog.
- Press “Shopping”.
- Press “Continue”.
- Choose the product catalogue you want to link with your profile.
- You’re done!
Now you can get tagging and turn your engagement portal into a sales machine. Keep in in mind that content is still going to be your king but be conscious of the way you’re displaying your products. Choose photos that add the right context to your products and find that sweet spot between the “showcase” style of Instagram and the shop.
Good luck!
