Now that people have the chance to buy anything they want with just a few clicks, they feel another problem: isolation.

It’s great to make purchases online, but it’s not the same without having the chance to enjoy the products, share them with your friends, and discover what brands are really about.

Instagram has solved that problem by bringing the social element that online stores were missing.

Most importantly, it has transformed companies from mere corporations (legal entities) to human-like beings.

With the help of Instagram marketing, your ecommerce platform can connect with your followers — who also are potential customers — and drive a level of human trust that stores lost when they crossed to the other side of the screen.

The full article (link at the bottom) is a very detailed marketing guide, with lots of examples. I’m including the summary here and a few interesting examples to show you what you can expect inside.

Summary of what you’ll find in the full article

• You need to start with engaging content. If Instagram marketing was a house of cards, engaging content would be the base of it; pull it out of your strategy, and the whole house will fall down.
• The best ways to have a highly effective profile to get more followers and increase your traffic.
• The 7 types of engaging content that will help you connect with your audience. Whether that’s video, user-generated content, lifestyle photos, or more, you have a wide range of options to use and strike a conversation with your followers.
• How consistency, storytelling, and finding the right posting schedule can help you improve your follower attraction and engagement.
• The way hashtags and shoutouts can let you access larger pools of followers with little money and great results.
• How to drive more sales from your posts with the help of Instagram stories (sorry Snapchat), shoppable images, and influencer marketing, you can forget the whole idea of social media as a “top of the funnel” channel and use it as a “make it rain” channel as well.
• Finally, remember the basics: it’s all about them. When you look to create engaging content, the engagement comes from a deep understanding of their interest.

So where do you start?

You could optimize your profile page, create engaging content, and all the other things mentioned in the article but…

Ultimately, focus on one thing: Connect.

Lower your interest in getting more followers, traffic, or sales for one second and just connect.

Once a follower clicks with your brand, everything else will follow.

A few examples

• It turns out, adding a keyword or two to your profile can help people find you when they search on Instagram.
• If you have done your keyword research, then take one of your high-traffic keywords and add it on your profile.
  While Google and Instagram are two separate worlds, it’s highly probable that the search volume a term has in the former will replicate in the latter.
• With a character limitation for your bio, try this tried and true copywriting technique:
  “Do you suffer from problem X? Problem X can be annoying and painful. At Acme Co., we solve problem X with our solution Y.”
• Your visitors may love your products, but they need to know how they look and feel like in real life.
  Showing people using, trying, and enjoying your products is a way to solve such a problem.
• When publishing, pick a few specific filters (which can be the ones Instagram offers or some which you develop) and use them every single time.
  Consistency is the goal; the closer the theme your images share, the better.
  Theme means a specific color palette, words, hashtags, and the look of your images.
  Examples below: Staples, Clarks Australia, Decibullz.

• Shoppable images. Use them. But don’t use the images you have on your website. Use either user-generated images or where you use your products in real life.

For much more, click below.

Instagram Marketing Tips: How To Market Your Brand Using Instagram (2018)

PS. Don’t use spammy hashtags (#instagood, #instacool, #followme, #f4f). Using them will only attract spammy accounts and only hurt you in the long run by decreasing your account’s engagement rate.