Engagement requires consistency and awareness. Engagement is essential in the ‘Know me, like me, trust me’ process where you are enhancing a relationship with your consumers in order to successfully have sales. It is regular communication or connections with consumers on your instagram page. Having the connection with the people you are wanting to make sales with will improve your interaction rate and guarantee you reliable and loyal consumers. Engagement is what gets you sales!
In order to keep consumers in the loop and aware of your business, engagement is key. WIthout engagement, there is no initial relationship between the business and the consumer. It will improve the buyer's journey as they will feel as though they can trust and rely on your business. A few easy you can help improve your engagement:
Story updates- If you maybe have not posted in a while or are even struggling with content, post a story of a ‘Behind the scenes’. Show consumers what is going on. If you are a food based business, show them possible upcoming products or how you make a certain food. This will help consumers feel acknowledged and not felt as if they have been ‘left’ out on a limb.
Question box- Take advantage of instagram's features. They are there for your benefit, if they are used correctly, you can take them and increase your engagement. On your story, post a slide where you can select the ‘question box’ so that your followers can ask any questions they may have about your instagram page. Answer these questions when you can on your story as it allows the consumers to have a chance to ask any extra questions and a great way for you to gain any other ideas for content or marketing strategies.
Recognition- Drop a story saying what offers are available and how to get them. If they are within a certain group or have been a customer with you for a certain amount of time, promote a free E-book or something to reel your customers back in.
Schedule a time- Try and figure out when you have a free half an hour maybe twice a week and just go through who your following and your followers and engage on their posts. Leave comments, message them directly or reply to their stories. Show you are interested or acknowledge them.
Reach out- Go through your followers, following. See who they are interested in who are possibly in the same industry as you. Give them a follow engagement with them. This eventually could lead to their followers finding you and browsing your instagram page.
If you have any more questions or want to know anymore about using instagram to your business's advantage, then get in touch with me via Huddle on instagram!
Inge x