5 Ways to Get More Traffic with Instagram Influencers
Since Instagram’s creation, this photo-sharing platform has evolved. With over 800 million monthly users, it has become a powerful marketing tool. Nowadays, 70.7% of U.S. brands use Instagram to reach their target audience and promote products/services.
From the expansion of advertising opportunities to shoppable tags, Instagram gives many opportunities to spur business growth.
But showing off your product isn’t enough to turn Instagrammers into customers.
Modern customers opt for blocking traditional ads, so content creation in advertising is evolving: marketers collaborate with opinion leaders who will endorse their products on social media without being too promotional. Yes, influencers add a new twist to product promotion. Let’s take a look at data and statistics to back it up:
- 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
- 74% of people rely on social media to inform their purchase decisions
- 60% of customers take social media posts into consideration while shopping
Here’s something we can both agree on:
Instagram influencers can help to boost conversion rates, and therefore increase your sales.
But they can help to boost your website traffic as well.
So, wouldn’t it be great if you could kill two birds with one stone?
To begin with, let’s find out four ways Instagram allows business accounts to insert website links, and therefore drive traffic:
- Bio section
- Ad campaigns
- Shoppable tags
- Clickable stories links
The more followers you have, the more website traffic you can get, right?
Although building a massive following on Instagram is crucial for any business, you can enter an already-established community and reach potential customers fast if you collaborate with influencers.
No matter how influencers help your business, whether they encourage followers to visit your website or IG account, you can improve your Instagram reach and encourage engaged Instagrammers to visit your website.
But:
When it comes to the creation of UGC, 50% of consumers have a stumbling block, and they want a brand to tell them what type of content to create and share.
The trick is to give guidelines and directions for creating engaging content.
Instagram Post Ideas that Boost Traffic
Collaborating with opinion leaders, there is a variety of Instagram post ideas that can help brands get more website visits.
#1. Stories Links
Ephemeral content is on the rise these days. Having a short shelf life (24 hours), it creates the fear of missing out (FOMO) that drives more engagement. Moreover, it’s a way to share behind-the-scenes content without overposting.
Instagram Stories aren’t just a buzzworthy trend. Within a year of its launch, Instagram Stories surpassed Snapchat by acquiring 250 million daily active users. Rolling out new features, it gives marketers an opportunity to reach their target audience to deliver their message.
Collaborating with influencers who have 10k+ following, you can drive more traffic to your website as they can add a clickable link to their Stories. As they appear in a separate feed, and it helps influencers avoid spamming their followers with promotional content.
Here’s an example how Fracture got traffic with the help of an Insta mom, Sina aka @happygreylucky:
Sina added several stories to show off Fracture’s products and inserted a link to their website to make it easier for her followers to learn more about the brand:
So, how to make the most out of influencers’ Insta stories?
- Bring transparency: mark a paid collaboration.
- Make it easy to find you: ask an influencer to tag your IG account.
- Create a sense of urgency: offer something limited in time.
- Choose the right link: be sure to give a great landing page to make the visitors stay longer.
If you have a good following and can add a link to your Stories, that’s great. However, don’t underestimate the power of influencers’ following: asking them to add your link is a way to reach potential clients.
#2. Live Stream Collaboration
Live streaming gives marketers an opportunity to grab and hold their audience’s attention as they can’t miss a chance to see something that happens ‘right now’. Moreover, live streaming on Instagram, followers can put questions and get replies without waiting too much.
While more and more brands go live to show behind-the-scenes episodes or allow their fans to see the product launch, just a few companies opt for live stream collaboration with influencers. However, it’s a great way to draw attention to your brand fast.
For example, the clothing retailer J.Crew collaborates with influencers who wear their clothes during live streaming. The brand creates shoppable tags posts with the influencer and adds the description and prices. J.Crew also adds a sense of urgency, offering links and promotions, valid only for the length of the video. Once the live video ends, those sales are gone for good.
Drawing inspiration for J.Crew, you can boost creativity and find out actionable ways to drive more traffic to your site even without asking an opinion leader to add a link.
The bottom line? Lifestyle image hints at what customers can expect after buying your product.
#3. Call to Action
There’s no need to ask an influencer to add a link to your website to drive traffic. You can get more visitors with the help of a regular Instagram post – just ask an influencer to put a question to call followers to an action.
Call to action helps to drive more engagement which means going higher on your Instagram feed and being visible to more users. For marketers, it means reaching more potential customers.
A beauty and fashion blogger, Lauryn Evarts Bosstick, uses this tactic to interact with her followers and promote a brand.
What does she need? A beautiful picture of a product and a call to action! One thing to keep in mind – remember an influencer to tag you to make it easier for followers to visit your account:
Causing a buzz around your brand is a way to reach interested Instagrammers, and therefore get more website visits.
#4. Promo Codes
Although you can’t add a link to your post, you can unlock sales potential if you know how to encourage followers to visit your site.
There’s no secret that brands use Instagram to sell their products. Posting promotional content, people pay little attention to it as they know: you just want to boost sales.
But:
If an influencer uses something, it’s more likely he or she approves this product. People tend to rely on their reviews, so asking an opinion leader to share your product is a win-win solution. Moreover, you can generate a unique promo code for influencers to pass on to their fans and make them want to check your website.
Natali Danish, a Ukrainian model, collaborates with companies to promote their products. Working with Sloane brand, she posted her selfie wearing sunglasses and added her personal promo code to offer 40% off their products.
Visiting Sloane’s website, you can ensure that the promo code is valid:
How to use promo codes effectively:
- Generate a unique promo code for every influencer to track the ROI.
- Create a code valid for a limited time to make followers act fast.
- Ask an influencer to tag your IG account to make it easier for followers to go through with their purchases.
People trust influencers, so they listen to their recommendations. And when you provide encouraged followers with a promo code to save their money, it’s more likely they will visit your website to learn more about your brand (at least) and buy your product.
#5. Giveaways
Here comes the brutal truth: people love free stuff.
Organizing a giveaway is a great way to build brand awareness and loyalty and reach potential customers (especially if you give away your own product as a prize). And if you want to attract more participants, consider collaborations with opinion leaders as they can influence their followers to take a part in your contest.
Most influencers love this type of collaboration as it helps them boost engagement, and therefore become more influential without spending much time or effort.
A bookworm Lisa (@lifeinlit) is a book reviewer who reads a lot and shares book recommendations with her followers. She often collaborates with brands to promote their book-related products. To run a giveaway, she works with several accounts to offer her followers a bigger variety of prizes:
It’s not just a good way for an influencer to interact with followers, but an opportunity for brands to promote their accounts as well.
Moreover, running a giveaway allows you to get website traffic. For example, you can write out the rules about the contest on your website and ask an influencer to share the link in a bio section.
Once you know what posts help to boost your website traffic, it’s time to focus on choosing the right influencer. Influencer marketing is a waste of time and money if you are not working with the right ones.
How to Choose the Right Influencer?
It seems easy at first blush: the more followers an influencer has, the better, right?
In fact, it’s a complex task as you need to pay attention to not only following but engagement rate as well.
Look:
As specified in DigiDay research, Instagram influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers have a like rate of about 8%, while those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers have a like rate of 4%. When it comes to a bigger following, Instagram influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers see a 2.4% like rate, compared to 1.7% for those with 1 million to 10 million followers and more.
Obviously, influencers put effort and time to build their community, so they expect brands to pay for the collaboration. Having your budget limitations, you need to be picky about influencers. Collaborating with one macro-influencer isn’t a good way to get results, so your choice should go well beyond an Instagram influencer’s number of followers.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all type of influencers, you can answer 4 questions to understand whether you want to reach out to the right opinion leaders for your business goals:
1. Do they belong to your niche?
Find relevant influencers within your niche. To get results, the influencer should resonate with your target audience, so the area of his or her expertise must be relevant to your industry or product.
2. Do they have an engaged community?
If you want to boost website traffic, pay attention to influencers who have 10k+ following as they can add clickable links to their stories. Moreover, it’s proven that they offer the best combination of engagement and broad reach.
3. Do they collaborate with your competitors?
Obviously, you want to beat your competitors so promoting where they hang out isn’t the best way to find new customers. Luckily, modern people don’t have to be world-known celebrities to influence people, so the number of Instagram influencers is big and you can find one who doesn’t promote your competitor to get better results.
4. Do you have anything lucrative to offer?
Every marketer wants to promote a product on a budget, but influencers want to get a reward for their efforts. Depending on the following, engagement, and personal ideas, the price for the collaboration varies, and you need to be sure you have what to offer – whether it’s a payment, product, or shoutout.
If you have ever tried to scroll the Instagram feed to find an influencer, you know it’s easier said than done. Choosing an influencer, it’s you who decides whether scrutinize or use influencer marketing platforms like Klear or Upfluence to identify influencers in any location and category you need in just a few clicks.
One thing to keep in mind: no matter how many followers they have, influencers get many offers from brands, and you need to know how to stand out from your competitors to make the most out of influencer marketing.
How to Motivate Influencers for the Collaboration?
If you believe paying an influencer is a key to success, we have bad news for you then. It’s not enough to convince them to work with you.
Here’s what may help you motivate influencers for the collaboration:
- Show your respect: know more about an influencer and his/her passions
- Help them grow: promote their accounts
- Nurture reliable relationships first: build long-term connections to gain influencers’ trust.
- Don’t forget about them: if they have published a post about you, it doesn’t mean you should stop paying attention to them. Likes and comments can help them become more influential
Collaborating with an influencer is not the same as hiring a worker: you need to take care of them to motivate them.
In a Word
Instagram rolls out new features that make the platform even more valuable for achieving marketing goals. It’s not just a way to build brand awareness and establish communication with your clients, but a way to drive website traffic and boost sales as well.
If you haven’t tried influencer marketing, it’s time to jump on the band wagon and get better traffic with Instagram influencers.
Read how you can increase your conversion rates with micro-influencers: https://blog.convert.com/how-micro-influencers-can-help-you-boost-your-conversion-rates.html
Written By
Aaron Chichioco