As a graphic designer, you can use Instagram to get more clients for your business. But, you must have a strong strategy for marketing your designs and merch on the platform.
If you’d like to learn more about building an effective plan, then read on to discover 5 genius tips for profiting from your skills in this graphic designer's guide to selling on Instagram.
This may sound like a clichéd tip for graphic designers, but switching to a business account will help you get your work in front of more clients.
A personal account can help your marketing efforts in many different ways. With it, you can do a lot to promote your brand and be able to track likes, follows, comments, etc.
But, with a business account, you'll be able to use the platform’s eCommerce functionality and create shoppable posts.
You’ll also be able to procure more insightful data that will allow you to focus on growing your business by tracking a lot of important metrics, including the following:
Instagram analytics provides you with a ton of information, and with this data at your fingertips, you have the power to make better-informed choices about which audience to target, the best posts to promote, the types of content to publish in the future, and much more.
In short, you’ll be able to improve your content strategy on social media and reach wider audiences. To switch to a business account, all you have to do is:
You can partner with another brand on Instagram to help you sell your products or services as a graphic designer. When done well, this type of social media collaboration can benefit the audiences of both brands.
The strategy is called co-branding and focuses on getting two or more brands to create, share, or promote content in order to harness the power of their respective audiences to boost each other's marketing efforts and increase the target audience of all parties involved.
Some of the benefits of cross-sharing with other brands on social media include:
There are tons of companies that already benefit from this type of marketing strategy. Some popular brands include who are using this strategy effectively include:
There are tons of companies that already benefit from this type of marketing strategy. Some popular brands include who are using this strategy effectively include:
Follow these steps to find the right partners for cross-marketing:
Once you’ve found the right partners, draft and sign an advertising contract that will protect both parties and ensure all conditions are met.
This agreement will include all the responsibilities of both brands, including a budget, expectations, and any other relevant information that will help you work together successfully.
As a graphic designer, you can leverage social media to project yourself as an authority in your niche. One of the best ways to do so is to use common brand messaging across all parts of your digital marketing mix.
One of the best ways to start is by using web design tools for your website to create unique, engaging, and on-brand content that can be used as a template for the content shared on Instagram and other social networks.
By maintaining consistency across your marketing, you will create a brand message and visual style that is instantly recognizable by your target audience. This will help you build trust with them, which will result in more engagement and sales.
“When people scroll through their feeds, they need to be able to identify you in a split second,” branding expert and founder of Mojomox Saskia Ketz explains. “Consistency in color, tone, and fonts helps people recognize brands in an instant.”
You can create consistent campaigns by following these tips:
Instagram and Facebook work together seamlessly for business. The ability to link Facebook and Instagram gives you the opportunity to leverage the cross-sharing, messaging, and eCommerce capabilities of both platforms.
Connecting your Instagram account to your businesses Facebook page is a simple process:
After connecting your two social media accounts, you can then proceed to create a product catalog on Facebook (if you haven't done so already).
Once you've added the shop to your Facebook page, you can submit your account for review, and as soon as it's approved, you'll be ready to start making sales through your Facebook shop.
The review process typically takes a few days, and once you’re approved, you will receive a notification on Instagram. After that, you'll be able to start adding products to your posts by selecting the "Tag Products" link which appears below the "Tag People" option.
*Note that in each post, you can either tag people or products, but never both.
This is important because there are so many different types of graphic design available today, including:
...to name but a few.
You want to create content that captures the interest of your actual prospects, which means you must specify your niche and avoid straying from it in everything you do on social media.
Just don't restrict yourself too much. You must still be able to show your creativity, but make sure that the vast majority of the content you post on social media is clearly within the realm of your chosen specialization.
These 5 tips will help you sell more and Instagram. Implement them as part of your marketing strategy on the platform so you can start enjoying the many benefits that come with making full use of the platform’s marketing and eCommerce features.