Boost Your Sales With TikTok and Instagram

TikTok and Instagram are two of today’s most popular social media platforms, each having over 1 billion users across the globe. Aside from being good sources of information and entertainment, these apps are also perfect for advertising your products and making more people know your brand. Wanna know how? Here’s a guide on how you can get more engagement on these platforms and eventually boost your sales on TikTok and Instagram.

Are these platforms for you?

Of course, before we get into the nitty-gritty of advertising on these platforms, you have to figure out first if they apply to your business. To help you decide, we’ve broken down all the information you need to know about each app.

Get to know Instagram!

Instagram or IG is a social networking platform used for editing and sharing photos and videos. According to Statista, 71% of its monthly users are under 35. Moreover, while it has over 140 million users in the US, 88% of its total active users are from other countries, with India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Russia as the top four (Hootsuite).

Why advertise on IG?

According to the platform’s stats, 90% of people on the app follow at least one business. Moreover, 50% of the people they’ve surveyed said that they become more interested in a brand when they see its ads on Instagram.

Is this for you?

If you want to present your products with aesthetically pleasing photos and stories, then this platform is for you! Instagram is also perfect for those who want to do giveaways and partner up with influencers to promote their products. Thus, if you resonate with these and your target audience is active on the platform, you better start creating an account!

Now, what’s TikTok, and how popular is it?

TikTok is a video-sharing application that gives users the freedom to create, edit, and share videos up to three minutes long. The platform is now accessible in 154 countries and has over 62 million downloads in January 2021 alone. It is most popular among Gen Zs or those born between 1997 and 2012—they make up 60% of the app’s active users.

Why use TikTok?

Apart from its growing popularity, TikTok allows you to connect better with a diverse set of audiences and find people who may be genuinely interested in your brand. On TikTok, you can easily find all sorts of videos such as tutorials, product reviews or recommendations, and those related to food, fashion, music, and even the rarest niches.

What’s interesting about TikTok is that once you’ve captured the people’s interest with your content, it’s easy to go viral and intrigue more potential customers about your business.

Is TikTok for you?

If you want your brand to be known among youngsters and you find it interesting to create short but entertaining videos, there’s no reason for you not to go for TikTok! Similar to IG, this would also work well for you if you plan to collaborate with influencers or content creators in promoting your brand.

And now we’ll cut to the chase

Now that you’ve figured out which of these platforms you should advertise on, we’re giving you a few tips to help you get started!

Tips for advertising on IG

Convert your personal profile into a Business Account

You can easily set up an Instagram business account by going to your personal profile’s account settings and switching to “Professional Account.” Once you have a business account, you finally get access to different features that can help you monitor and improve your shop’s performance. These features include the following:

• Instagram Insights. This feature allows you to gauge your impressions and engagements through the following tabs:
  • Activity. This tab shows you how many users have visited your profile, viewed your content, clicked the link on your bio, and even those who asked for directions in case you’ve put your business address.
  • Content. This tab allows you to keep track of your feed post, stories, and promotions’ performance. It shows you the number of times such content is seen, liked, and commented on.
  • Audience. The Audience tab gives you a glimpse of your audience’s demographics, such as their location, gender, age range, and the number of followers.
• Call-to-action Buttons. Instagram also offers call-to-action buttons. However, the availability of these depends on the platform’s providers. The following are simple examples of CTA buttons you can use, but we encourage you to use your creativity and brand personality to create an effective CTA button:
  • Ask for directions
  • Call
  • Text
  • Email
  • Book Now
  • Reserve
  • Order Food
  • View on website
  • View Products
• Add your Facebook page to your IG. You can easily link your FB page to your Instagram account from either platform. If you’re doing it from Instagram, you just simply go to your profile, tap “Edit Profile,” and under “Public Business,” click “Page.” You will then be asked for the FB page you’d like to link.
  
  From Facebook, you can do this by going to Pages > Settings > Instagram > Connect Account.

Be engaging

You’ll never run out of ways to be creative on the gram! Apart from posting eye-catching photos, try creating more content that will compel your followers to engage with your page and encourage others to join them.

You may publish mood boards or posts related to birthdays, zodiac signs, and personality types with which your audience will surely resonate!

On IG stories, you can also create yes or no polls, short quizzes, teasers about new products, and promotions for a website or another page that the users can visit by simply clicking on a link.

Constantly update your followers

Speaking of IG stories, you better maximize this feature to remind your followers of your presence constantly.

Working on a new design? Found out something worth sharing about your niche? Got fantastic, heartwarming feedback? Share them with your followers through your stories and let them react! This would make your followers feel that you’re close to them and that they’re part of your brand’s every success.

Make and share memories with your audience

If you want to take your interaction with your followers to the next level,  try going live! With Instagram Live, you can talk with your followers in real-time and do exclusive giveaways!

However, if you’re camera-shy, you can always utilize IGTV and story highlights to share your brand’s story and your memories with your followers. Story highlights allow you to categorize your past and present IG stories and keep them displayed and accessible on your profile, right below your bio. Meanwhile, IGTV lets you post videos that are between 1 to 60 minutes long.

Collaborate with influencers

Find influencers that appeal to your target audience! This will help you get more followers and further establish your brand’s reputation.

And in case you have one in mind, here are some things you can do to reach out to them finally!

1. Write a personalized and compelling message.
2. Tell them why you’d love to work with them.
3. Be clear with your objectives and what you can give them in return.
4. Contact them through their preferred channels. Some influencers put their email address on their bio, while some are open to casual DMs.

Tips for advertising on Tiktok

Be interesting

Most TikTok videos won’t go over 60 seconds. Thus, if you want to capture the viewers’ attention, you better be able to do it within the first few seconds.

You may start with a striking yet relatable question, an intriguing statement, or a piece of catchy background music. You also have to effectively communicate your call-to-action within a short period and allow the viewers to engage through the comments or hashtags.

Work with influencers

Influencers are called ‘influencers’ for a reason. Their image and big following can potentially boost yours and even bring in new customers! Find the one that’s perfect for your niche and collaborate with them!

Go with the trends

With over a million videos viewed on the platform each day, trends come up and go viral before you can even notice them. These trends include dance challenges, dubs, duets, and even the use of new filters and sounds. Hence, you have to keep tabs on these trends and participate, mainly to entertain your target audience.

But apart from the content, you must also keep an eye on the trending hashtags. These are the keywords that would help your content reach more people.

…Or strike out on your own!

Now, if you’ve thought of creating content no one else has published yet, try sharing it as well! Who knows? You might start a new viral trend of your own!

And if you’re using both…

Optimize your hashtags

Having too many hashtags may make your posts look cluttered. Thus, be wise in choosing which keywords to use in your hashtags and make sure that they can potentially bring in new followers!

To give you some idea, here are some of the most popular hashtags used on TikTok in 2021 ranked by Socially Powerful:

1. #foryou
2. #foryoupage
3. #fyp
4. #duet
5. #tiktok
6. #viral
7. #tiktokindia
8. #trending
9. #comedy
10. #funny

To keep an eye on trends in real-time, you can always open your TikTok and go to the Discover tab, which you’d find at the bottom of your screen. This will show you a preview of the videos that are using the currently trending hashtags.

For Instagram and all your other social media accounts, you can use the help of apps like Hashtag Generator for Instagram, Sked Social, and HashMe.

Make sure your content is mobile-friendly

These platforms are primarily accessed through mobile phones, so be sure that your content’s designs and orientation consider the mobile version of these apps.

Put links in your bio

Make it convenient for your audience to respond to your call-to-action. Put all the necessary links in your bio to help them figure out where to go next. You can also use Linktree to generate a link for a webpage that shows all your important accounts and links.

Maximize platform tools

Both Tiktok and Instagram offer tools that will help you track your following and engagements. These tools include analytics or statistical reports you can use as a basis in planning your following content.

Schedule your posts

Posting regularly will constantly remind your followers of your brand. However, if publishing posts consistently is becoming a challenge, you may schedule your posts for the entire week and just wait for the engagements! This will also give them a reason to visit your page regularly.

Engage with your audience

Of course, you have to interact with your audience! Whether it’s on private messages or comments, don’t hesitate to answer inquiries and see it as an opportunity to build a good relationship with them.

Ready to share and sell?

Choosing to share your content and your brand’s story through such big platforms is already a bold move that can potentially boost your business’ sales and popularity. And although it doesn’t guarantee success on the first try, constant research and improvements will surely get you the desired outcomes!