Instagram Basics for Lazada and Shopee Sellers

As part of what marketers call the "marketing mix", Instagram plays a significant role. As a platform where over 1 billion people consume content daily, it is straightforward for anyone to see that the platform is a fantasyland for marketers. From Influencers to A-list celebrities and meme accounts, there's a niche for any product. What is essential is to understand your product and the type of content you should produce.

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Please note that the following information should be used in conjunction with all other facets of your marketing mix, all of the elements of your marketing mix should be symbiotic.

Types of Marketing options on Instagram

We believe that Instagram has the most varied options to reach audiences outside of Facebook, especially younger generations. This stems from its ability to tap into trends and fads, also known as the "zeitgeist." The three go-to platforms to attract young people's attention are Tiktok, Instagram and Twitter. Remember that social media has an attention-based economy; the less engaging your content is, the more likely you will fail. The following are some simple channels to use for marketing:

Affiliate marketing: An affiliate can make money by promoting the goods of another individual or business by using affiliate marketing. The affiliate merely looks for a product they are interested in, promotes it, and receives a cut of the revenue from each transaction.

Through affiliate connections from one website to another, the sales are monitored. As in the image shown above, affiliates only get paid when specific criteria are met. In this case, the conversion of buyers is the key.

Influencer marketing: Unlike affiliate marketing, influencer marketing does not involve any prerequisites for paying the "talent", as is the case always. Influencers have established audiences, usually a focused niche too. This makes advertisers' job much easier as there is already a waiting audience that fits their descriptions.

A brand works with an online influencer to promote one of its goods or services through influencer marketing. Some partnerships between brands and influencers in influencer marketing are less concrete than that; they merely aim to raise brand recognition. Influencers can be found anywhere, unlike celebrities. Anybody might be one. Their substantial online and social media followings are what gives them influence.

Paid ads (In Feed, Explore & Stories: As we mentioned earlier, there is a myriad of options on how to reach audiences:

In Feed: Your Feed is the first thing you see when you log into the app. If you do not see it, click the little icon with a house on it, and it should appear. The Instagram Feed functions similarly to Facebook's News Feed in that it displays postings from each person, business, and animal you follow. You'll see advertisements in the Feed that resemble ordinary posts but have a "Sponsored" tag to let viewers know they are advertisements.
Explore ads: The little magnifying glass next to the home icon will take you to the explore page, where you will come across the following ad. Instagram selects stuff that it believes you would enjoy here. You will most likely see art in your Explore section if you engage with several accounts that produce art. You can scroll through similar posts if you tap on a seat on the Explore page. Every few postings, an advertisement might appear; you'll notice it by looking for the ad tag at the top of the post.
Stories ads: Your stories appear on the home page, and the highlighted circles at the top of your screen are the stories. Typically you can find your friend's posts, which disappear within 24 hours of uploading. Through Stories advertisements, you can post both photographs and videos but bear in mind that something taken horizontally might not be the best choice for a Story because the stories media format is, by default, vertical to cater for the aspect ratio of phones. The call-to-action in Stories advertising allows viewers to swipe up to go to the landing page of the advertiser's choice. IGTV, Instagram's long-form video feature, is one relatively new place for advertisements.

These are just a few ways an advertiser can leverage the Instagram platform.

Content strategy

Simply knowing where to advertise on the platform is a small piece of the puzzle. Learning how to curate and guide the creative vision of your page takes time and effort. Recall at the beginning of this article when we noted that the main reason why people use Instagram is for entertainment. As such, your content should be easily consumed and understood. Don't be bored!!!

Varied content types (stories, reels, posts, videos, polls etc.) will keep your Feed fresh and exciting. If you are going to post stories every day, don't make it formulaic (unless it's a fun interactive post like a poll or tally), your audience is intelligent, and they will notice if you do.

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Hashtags are critical, and we will do a separate article on these alone, so keep an eye out for that. Captions are the window to your soul as a brand, so be sure to write well but not too long.

Giveaways are an exciting way to keep your audience engaged and attract new customers' attention because everyone loves free things! In conjunction with influencer marketing, giveaways can result in some solid results and increase traffic to your site, thereby increasing sale odds.

Remember that most people log into the platform for entertainment and not to get stuff sold to them. Thus your content needs to catch the eyes of typically uninterested people. Not only that, but you also need to hold their attention long enough to get your message through.

Ultimately, it is essential to remember that Instagram and all other social media platforms are funnels to your site where interested parties can purchase and know who you are after. This will inform the type of content you need and the kinds of affiliates and influencers to target. Keep a good mix of content types to keep your audience entertained and engaged, be consistent in your posting and watch your SEO!

If you want part 2 of this article, do let us know on The E-commerce blog, as there is tons of info we didn't cover in this article for the sake of SEO. As you may have guessed, if you need help leveraging your social media to funnel traffic and generate sales reach out to us at Leap, where our E-commerce pros will help you maximize all your assets and grow your store today!