How to add a product catalog and Shopping Tags on Instagram

Instagram today is one of the most popular digital channels in business for promoting your profile. Allows you to be constantly in front of your own audience, conduct a dialogue, and attract new subscribers. Now it is such a used tool that part of the business is focused solely on Instagram.

The social network's audience is more than 25 million users. It is not surprising that it is now possible to run a business without going beyond this service. Moreover, the audience there is completely diverse. If earlier it was mainly young people, now everyone uses Instagram (as it is a trend and generally useful). In fact, some Instagram companies even sell franchises.

So, if you are thinking about what kind of business can bring profit, look at the Instagram options. And we will help you.

Below are options that can bring you money. Let’s look at them in more detail, clarify what you need to know before starting your new activity and decide how to start. Forward.

Directions of business on Instagram

There are two main directions.

• The first is the development of your own profile.
• The second is services for developing someone else’s profile.

Moreover, the most popular way to earn money is considered to be posting advertising posts on profiles with a large number of subscribers. However, this is not surprising. This method is effective. But he is not the only one.

Another important nuance of business on Instagram, which, unfortunately, many novice entrepreneurs overlook is the lack of instant results. Popularity also has the opposite effect. Looking at the many successful Instagram bloggers, people begin to think that they can not only earn money effectively, but also do it without particularly straining themselves.

But business is business everywhere. And even if this is the development of your own profile to use advertising tools, you will still have to invest resources in it. The main one is time. Therefore, most beginners never go beyond the boundaries of this endeavor, losing motivation after they see how much effort and time they need to spend. Although no one says that it will be easy. They only talk about possibilities.

What will be useful to learn before you start making money on Instagram

1. SMM and online promotion. To take the right steps towards the success of your profile, you need to know at least the basics of its promotion.
2. Principles of getting subscribers. No, we are not going to advise you to use a banal cheat. On the contrary, we recommend avoiding this by any means possible. But it’s definitely worth knowing the principles of this action. So you can understand why you shouldn’t do this:

• Expensive
• Not effective
• Discourages adequate users

And knowing the basics, you will be able to more competently analyze other people's profiles.

This is interesting: to make money on Instagram, it’s not so much the quantity (also important), but the quality of your audience.

1. How to create quality content. If you think that any profile can gain popularity, then we hasten to disappoint you. Not just anyone. What becomes popular first of all is what interests people. And people are interested in content, be it photos, videos, stories, text posts - which, firstly, is made with high quality, and secondly, evokes at least some emotions (Except negative ones, of course. Although, you can build a working idea on the negative ).

Explore materials that are freely available on the topic of creating high-quality, “usable” content. See how popular bloggers do it. Understanding the basic principles will give you a good basis for successfully promoting your profile.

And once again, a business on Instagram, like any other, will not bring instant income. Moreover, he is very competitive and attractive. Therefore, be prepared that you will have to devote a lot of time and not sit idly by, waiting for mana from heaven.

Well, if this doesn’t bother you, then let’s finally move on to the actual ideas that you can use to start your own business.

What to sell

An aspiring entrepreneur needs to find an idea for a business on Instagram. I recommend not to spray. Focus on one product or activity. Later there will be an opportunity to expand the range.

So, what can you sell on Instagram:

• Hand-made products;
• Cosmetics;
• Jewelry and accessories;
• Clothes and shoes;
• Services (from plumber to personal astrologer).

Here everyone can carve out their own niche. The most popular examples of business on Instagram are:

1. Courses and trainings;
2. Astrological forecasts and individual horoscopes;
3. Cleaning service;
4. Chocolate and marshmallows of our own production;
5. Fitness instructor services;
6. Posing instructor.

The list goes on and on. The most profitable niches on Instagram today are psychology and fitness. Home-made products are in demand. If you know how to draw, sculpt with clay, sew or embroider, you can always find your audience.

No. 1. Selling goods and services

For a long time now, some of the profiles on this social network have been made up not of user monopages, but of store pages. Moreover, these can be both online stores and pages of physical stores. This is because posts with photos are an ideal way to advertise your product.

A user who is even just interested in the direction of this store can subscribe to its profile. And having subscribed, he already becomes a potential buyer.

What can you sell from Instagram pages?

• Any goods - from food to bathroom decor items. Pages of clothing and shoes are very common, especially if it is positioned as designer. Cosmetics from different countries are in great demand, since a huge part of the social network’s audience are women. Craftsmen engaged in the manufacture of handmade products have long appreciated the capabilities of this site, and buyers of these products cannot imagine that some craftsman cannot be found here.

• You can sell services. And although for most services on the Internet there are special exchanges where you can take an order and popularize your services, Instagram is becoming an indispensable tool in maintaining contact with a client who has already purchased something, and in promoting your name. Here you can find the services of copywriters, personal and family psychologists, trainers, artists, legal offices, fitness centers and others...

You can sell a product or service on this social network of any kind. It is only important to understand that everything needs to be presented efficiently and beautifully. If you are selling something, then you need to attract with the effective tool of high-quality photographs. If you provide a service, then maintain a profile for people. There is no need to give out uninteresting facts in portions. Share valuable information with your subscribers, talk about interesting cases, give advice.

Everything will depend on what exactly you are selling and who your target audience is. Unlike many other advertising tools, Instagram allows you to conduct live communication and contact your customers directly.

And remember that there is different content. In some places, photographs will be of great benefit, in others, text posts, but in most cases, alternating content will add effectiveness. Again, you need to analyze what exactly resonates with your target customer. And the main thing is to clearly understand who exactly your target client is.

If you know everything about the audience you need - what city they live in, what they do, how old they are, what their income is, then you will be able to work most effectively. This also applies to posts and profile promotion.

Ways to promote goods or services on Instagram

• Barter with bloggers. A popular type of promotion is when a company provides its product to a popular blogger for free, and he tells his audience about it, in fact advertising you (even if he doesn’t just praise you, but tells his impressions of working with you or your product). The main thing is that the blogger’s audience matches yours.
• Giveaways and competitions. A good way to increase user interest is to hold similar events with prize distribution.
• Hashtags. Stuffing your posts with a bunch of different hashtags is a popular activity among newcomers to Instagram. And for non-newbies too. Hashtags are an important and effective tool in promoting your posts. But it only becomes like this with proper use. They should be targeted to your audience. A store that sells cosmetics can put the hashtags “beauty”, “magnificence”, “beautiful” under the post. Nobody forbids it. It’s just that using these hashtags people can look for completely different information. And find you. Yes, your future clients may be among them. But it’s much more effective to “spend” hashtags on more targeted queries.
• Design of profile and posts. Study the recommendations for proper design. People love what is beautiful, aesthetic, comfortable and simple. Otherwise, you will lose your audience.
• Targeting. A professional way to promote on a social network. This feature is built into business accounts. If you don’t have enough knowledge, don’t have time to study, but have at least a small budget for advertising, contact those who professionally engage in targeting.

What will help you submit on Instagram?

• Live communication with subscribers through posts. Share not just information, but emotions. People will appreciate and treat you with great interest.
• Appreciate feedback. Always respond to comments and direct messages.
• Write the price of the product or service. Attempts to get a client to communicate using a hidden price can have the opposite effect. Not everyone is ready to spend time finding out the price tag.
• Motivate and encourage. For example, by reposting reviews. Engagement gives you more desire to interact with you further.

Greeted by the cover

The logical question is how to start doing business on Instagram? The answer is obvious - take high-quality photos of the product or service.

1. If you are advertising products of your own production, post several finished works.
2. Think about the style of the page in advance. The selling account should be designed in uniform colors and look aesthetically pleasing.
3. Organize a beautiful photo zone for your products.
4. All images are processed with one filter: whether these are soft pastel photos or sharp, provocative pictures is up to you.

No. 2. Advertising posts

The most common way to make money on Instagram. But it only works if you have a lot of subscribers. Advertisers' interest in your audience. No one is interested in paying for a post that will be seen by only a few people. And the more followers, the more expensive a place on your profile will cost.

Typically, accounts with fewer than ten thousand followers are not considered so willingly by advertisers.

How much money to charge for advertising

The most popular scheme for calculating the cost of advertising space now is the formula of 10 subscribers for 1 ruble. That is, an account with 3,000 subscribers can sell advertising space for 300 rubles based on this formula. If 15,000 people follow the profile, then advertising will be more expensive - 1,500 rubles per post.

This scheme takes the quantitative component of the audience as a basis. But there is another formula that evaluates quality. Namely, audience activity. In it, the price is taken per like and per comment. That is, the fixed cost of a like and comment is multiplied by the average number of likes and the average number of comments in posts of this profile. You must understand that there are always fewer active users than total subscribers. And several times. But they are exactly what the advertiser needs.

Where to look for advertisers

1. There are many “independent” clients. If your account is popular, then someday it will definitely attract the attention of those who are interested in offering something to your audience. They can write to you themselves and ask for prices. The frequency of such cases can be increased by indicating information about this in the profile itself.
2. The second way is to use special sites for searching. Today, there are already a lot of them. For example, Admaster, Epicstar, Sociate and others. They operate on the principle of exchanges. That is, you can find orders for advertising placement on them and see how much you can get for it. Well, then – make a decision whether to take such an order or not.

No. 3. Selling photos

How does this idea work? On the one hand, it’s simple. The algorithm is as follows:

• You take photos
• Post them on your profile
• At the same time, you register on a special exchange, posting a portfolio of your best photos.
• Next, either the client finds you through Instagram, or you look for orders on the exchange.
• On the stock exchange, a client can give you a task and, having completed it, you take the next photo on order, or he buys a ready-made photo from your portfolio.

On Instagram, your idea photos may also interest a possible client. And you shouldn’t think that few people need high-quality photographs. On the contrary, everyone uses photos to fill websites. Therefore, the client can be large companies, advertising agencies and individuals developing some interesting projects.

The key here is the quality of your work as a photographer. Therefore, if you have no experience, if you have never taken photographs and do not know how to process the material correctly, but want to make money from it, you need to start with a theoretical basis and parallel practice.

Here's a tip: try to shoot what no one else is photographing and make the photos live, not staged. This is what brands are looking for. Also, don’t take square photos.

If you are not a photographer, this idea of ​​making money can be considered more of a hobby that, with time and dedication, can grow into profit. If you have experience and interest, then selling photos through Instagram can be a great tool along with others that you are used to using.

What does a product catalog look like on Instagram?

A good online store page on Instagram is filled with content that really interests the audience and has elements that can lead the user to place an order.
One of these elements is a product catalog, which gives the visitor the opportunity to immediately proceed to purchase. Product cards on Instagram are located in a separate tab. Each is a post with photos and videos. The price of the product, description, characteristics, contact details of the seller are also displayed here, and there is a button to go to the official website of the store:

Block with products on Instagram

Posts with products, like all others, are ranked according to the principle of a smart feed - in accordance with the interests of the user. To ensure that your posts rank as high as possible in search results, always consider:

• interests of the target audience,
• relevance of published information,
• How high quality is the photo and the text underneath it?

In their feed, users see posts from their friends and acquaintances first, and then posts from other accounts.
To successfully promote your store, publish content in your account that is close and interesting to your target audience. Marketing analysis and, of course, the ability to use the platform and its tools, such as Shopping Tags, will also help you. Before enabling this function, you must create a catalog and fill it with products.

No. 4. Promoting other people's accounts

Let's return to the popularity of Instagram. The fact is that its popularity and ubiquity, as we have already said, leads to the desire of the majority to make money from it. Of this majority, some have no idea how to promote their account on their own. And the other part doesn’t want to waste their time on this. Therefore, in fact, you can also make money from this.

Moreover, both entire companies and individual freelancers do this with varying degrees of professionalism and success.

What does promoting a third-party profile include?

1. It needs to be formatted correctly
2. You need to create a content plan, the purpose of which will be to recruit an audience
3. Need to organize SEO optimization
4. You need to choose effective advertising tools
5. You need to set up your targeting wisely
6. It is necessary to develop a set of measures that will lead to an increase in the activity of profile users, that is, an increase in the average number of likes and comments.

In fact, this work does not contain super-complicated actions. You just need to understand it well. If you don't know how or what to do, then you definitely need to start by learning the basics. You can do this for free, fortunately there are many manuals on the Internet. But basic knowledge is not enough for successful work. Therefore, we recommend taking some not the most expensive paid training. Invest in yourself, so to speak.

Or you can come up with everything yourself, combining theory with practice on your own account. It will be free, but will take longer.

How to start

If you already know a lot, but haven’t done anything yet, then you shouldn’t count on a large order falling from the sky. So start small. Offer your services for free. Combine business with pleasure. This will be great practice. You will be able to present the result as your portfolio, you will understand what other layers of information need to be studied. But don't get carried away with altruism.

Advice: when completing orders, keep track of how much time it takes you to complete a particular task. In the future, this will be very useful to you both when creating a price tag and when consulting with the customer.

No. 5. Account administration

Social groups on Instagram have one goal - to get as many regular subscribers as possible. To achieve this, you need to constantly provide users with necessary and interesting information, as well as maintain activity in all possible ways.

But when the group grows to the required size, it becomes difficult to manage. Considering that, among other things, you need to have time to do other things. Therefore, all large groups hire administrators who, depending on the need, publish content, moderate chats, respond to company messages, place advertising posts, etc.

Well, due to the fact that there are so many such groups, administrators are sought with enviable consistency. In addition, this type of activity is remote in 99% of cases.

The advantages of this kind of income:

1. You can be an administrator of several groups at once
2. The work provides excellent internal experience and understanding of how certain social network tools operate, as well as how the audience behaves in various cases. All together will allow you to more effectively develop your groups in the future.

Profile analytics

Keep track of which types of Instagram account promotion are effective for you, and which are not worth spending time and money on.

The following services will help you collect statistical data on subscribers and activity:

• Socialstats
• livedune.ru
• Popsters
• Picalytics.

Self-promotion of an Instagram account from scratch requires a comprehensive and thoughtful approach. This is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is important to draw up an up-to-date promotion strategy and stick to it, while not forgetting to make timely adjustments depending on the changed situation and new trends.

No. 6. Selling your own experience

This idea is suitable for those who have certain skills and knowledge. And the narrower your specialty, or the richer your experience, the more expensive you can sell it.

For example, an ordinary copywriter is unlikely to be able to offer something to the audience that they themselves cannot find on the Internet. But a copywriter who has a long work experience, or experience working for well-known companies, or specializing in a narrow area can already sell himself. And it's not cheap to sell.

The main task here is to gather an audience and sell not just services, but advice and information. That is, arrange information business or coaching or training. Everything that the audience is now actively reacting to.

No. 7. Affiliate programs

The essence of affiliate programs on Instagram is to sell other people's goods or services to your audience for a certain percentage.

Why is this necessary if you can sell your product with a large audience? Not everyone has their own product. And if you’ve built an audience with information rather than products, then why not advertise to them what you like, making money along the way?

Just be careful with such a tool. People who subscribe to your profile because of very specific content will react sharply to changes in courses. You need to give everything in a very portioned and relaxed manner, without slipping into repurposing into a sales account.

Affiliate programs are a full-fledged tool that acts like an exchange. That is, you don’t have to offer and negotiate. You can simply register, choose an affiliate product yourself, receive an affiliate link, place it in your posts and receive money when one of your subscribers clicks on it. In some cases, you will have to wait for approval for your account in order to receive permission to participate in the affiliate program.

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse

Any activity on the territory of the Russian Federation must comply with the law. Is there a law regulating selling on Instagram? Commerce on the Internet is subject to the general rules of entrepreneurship and marketing of the Russian Federation. Before selling or advertising anything, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the current legal acts:

1. Federal Law “On Advertising”; https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_58968/;
2. Protection of Children from Harmful Information Act; https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_108808/;
3. Federal Law “On the Fundamentals of Health Protection”; https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_121895/;
4. Federal Law “On Personal Data”; https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_61801/.

How to register an activity

This question does not concern owners of existing entrepreneurs. Stable income, well-established interaction with suppliers and clients - all these are signs of a legal entity. Do I need to open an individual entrepreneur to sell on Instagram? It all depends on the expected turnover. At the initial stage, you can do without registration.

You should think about registering a business after promoting your account. An official company inspires more customer confidence. Issue a return, conclude a supply agreement - a legal entity always has higher priority. Whether it is necessary to register an individual entrepreneur for an Instagram store is a personal matter for the owner, but the official business always looks solid.

Attention – “prohibited”

What you absolutely cannot promote on social networks:

• Tobacco, smoking devices;
• Drugs, prescription drugs;
• Weapon;
• Intimate “accessories”;
• Spyware;
• Fake documents;
• People, their individual organs;
• Gambling;
• Alcohol.

And what I get for this

Instagram moderators pay attention to content in case of user complaints. If there are a large number of requests, the account or individual publication may be blocked.

If Roskomnadzor or the Tax Service becomes interested in your profile, you will have to fork out for substantial fines. More details about crimes and punishments can be found in the Code of Administrative Offenses and the Tax Code.

According to rumors, from July 1, 2020, tax inspectors will begin to catch “unauthorized” entrepreneurs. Selling through Instagram should be subject to taxes. Most likely, under the guise of an ordinary buyer, employees will order a product or service, and when the order is satisfied, they will catch the offender red-handed. I can't imagine how this will work in practice. Time will show!

No. 8. Completing tasks

This idea will not bring in much money, so it should only be considered as additional income. However, this is income through Instagram. That's why we included it in the article.

The ability to receive tasks for actions on social networks is implemented by special services. Therefore, to get started, you will need to register on one of these.

Tasks are simple actions that you perform using your account. For example, a task to like, or write a comment for a certain number of characters, or subscribe to a certain profile and not cancel your subscription within a week.

People are willing to pay for all these actions. Not much, but still pay. Because this is one of the cheating tools. In fact, you become that dead audience of the profile with fake likes that we mentioned at the beginning of the article. Your account practically does not suffer from this. In one day on such exchanges you can earn from 100 to 500 rubles. But considering that on some days there may not be very many tasks, and there are plenty of people who want to earn money without making any effort, the amount of earnings will probably be even less.

Why you need to register an account on Instagram

In 2020, it is no longer possible to ignore the influence of online platforms on business. According to statistics, 90% of brands have their own account on social media. networks.

According to Clutch's 2020 Small Business Social Media Survey, 52% of small business owners choose Instagram to promote their business. If you're in the remaining 48%, you're falling behind your competitors.

The audience of active Instagram users in Russia exceeded 37 million people per month.

To attract as many potential clients as possible, you need to promote your Instagram account.

Promotion is advertising and purchasing targeted actions on a social network. However, without proper design of social networks, your promotion will not produce results.

No. 9. Instamats

This idea applies to business with investments, because such devices will have to be purchased.

Their essence is simple - they print photos from a social network for a fee. They print instantly, like a Polaroid. And the user can print photos not only from his own account, but also from any other that is not in private mode.

If you are interested in this idea, we recommend looking for a franchise of a company that provides such devices. You can choose your franchise in a special section of our catalog.

No. 10. Creating photo albums with photos from Instagram

As the practice of the same Instagram shows, the fashion for physical photographs is returning again. This means that you can catch a trend and base a business on it. Best of all, of course, it is suitable for those who already have experience, or even an existing business in the photo printing industry, or simply printing.

Ideal for this business is to create your own website designer that will allow the client to:

• Choose a photo album design
• Select photos from Instagram that should be printed on it.
• Select the number of pages of the photo album.

But you will have to set aside a budget for this type of business activity. Because you need to spend money on many items - from creating a website, to printing services, or equipment. All promotion will be concentrated on Instagram, which is logical.

Procedure for creating a business account

Before deciding how to run a business page on Instagram, you need to create a profile. A commercial account is not much different from a regular profile. To present the face of the company, follow these rules:

1. Use your company logo as your profile photo. If the style is not thought out, post a beautiful photo of the product. Thematic pictures that reveal the essence of the activity are suitable for advertising the service.
2. In your profile description, indicate the name of your activity. There is no place for slogans here. The user must understand what is being offered to him. For example, if you sell jewelry, write “Jewelry Moscow.”
3. The additional information section should be informative. Here the user should see:
   Advertising slogan;
4. Store addresses;
5. Delivery methods;
6. Active links to the official website;
7. Store addresses;
8. Phone numbers, email address for information, ordering;
9. Options, delivery costs;
10. Link to company presentation video.