Business
5 Creative Ways to Use Instagram to Boost Your Income
Whether you run a physical product company or a service-based business, Instagram can help you grow your audience and boost sales. But how do you monetize your social media platform?
Instagram offers various ways to earn money, such as sponsored posts and running an online store. Finding a strategy that works for your situation is the best way to make it.
Promote Your Business
Whether you sell products, services, or yourself, promoting your business on Instagram is an excellent way to increase your reach. Using hashtags related to your niche is one way to do this, but you can also use a tool to track competitor posts and see what hashtags work for them.
Sponsored content is another popular way to earn money through Instagram. Fashion brand @everlane, for example, regularly features shoppable posts where they tag products in their images and direct followers to their online store. This is a fantastic option if your business wants to promote specific products but needs more inventory to expand the product line. You can collaborate with a print-on-demand service such as Teelaunch to customize T-shirts, mugs, and other items with your images without the burden of stocking inventory.
Sell Prints
If you are passionate about photography, Instagram can be a great platform for selling your prints. You can use various platforms to turn your Instagram photos into posters, mugs, pillowcases, and more.
Alternatively, you can use Instagram to promote your online shop or marketplace. Services allow you to include a clickable link in your Instagram bio to a product catalog where users can browse and purchase items.
Many IG sellers prefer to bypass a website and conduct all sales through DMs, which makes it easy for their audiences to keep shopping without leaving the app. This approach can be particularly effective for products that require a significant upfront investment. For example, a ceramicist could profit by selling kits that let buyers build their pieces.
Offer In-Stream Video Ads
Instagram’s in-stream video ads are a great way to promote your brand and drive more followers to your website. Creating a video that blends in with its environment and looks genuine is crucial to achieving the desired outcome. Blatant promotional content tends to scare people away. Instead, try to offer value in your ad. For example, if you’re a fashion company, you can create a tutorial or a customer spotlight video to inspire your audience.
Whether you’re an influencer or not, it’s important to diversify your monetization strategies. One way to monetize your social media presence is through sponsored posts with brands, utilizing shoppable images to lead your followers to your online store, or providing online courses for your audience. This will help ensure you can keep earning money even if one revenue stream slows down.
Sell Virtual Products
Installing virtual products is one of Instagram’s most popular ways to make money. This can include everything from video tutorials to e-books and one-off payment programs like astrology reports.
This type of monetization works well if you have a strong niche audience, keen followers, and a high number of engagements. For example, a profile with advanced graphics skills can offer a course to teach people how to make the most of Instagram.
Another way to sell virtual products is to use a dropshipping service that handles logistics. For instance, a seller could offer premade emotes or bit badges for gamers or streamers on Twitch. They’d get a small cut from every sale without the need to store any inventory.
Offer a Course
If you have a valuable skill, you can use Instagram to sell your online course. For example, if you’re an influencer with photography skills, you can offer a photography course on creating engaging Instagram posts.
Share course information and a link to purchase your course in your Instagram bio. You can also promote your system by creating shoppable posts or adding links in Instagram Stories and Direct Messages.
Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.