With over 1 billion monthly active users and counting, Instagram is definitely a force to be reckoned with. What started as a photo-sharing app, has transformed into a business platform today with millions of entrepreneurs taking advantage of its selling power (read, your influence!), from service providers to small & big business owners.
That said, the question is how do you get started on your Instagram money making journey? The answer is quite straightforward – acquire a huge following and market your product to them, or simply get brands to pay you for promoting their products.
Need a quick guide to get you started on your journey? Read on to learn more.
How Many Followers Do You Need On Instagram?
A decent influencer account can have anywhere from 1,000 to a million or more followers. While follower count is a plus point, engagement rate plays a significant role as it determines your true worth.
When looking for collaboration, brands for engagement rate. They want to know if influencers can leave the impact that they need for their business or not. After all, what’s the point of posting content if followers don’t interact or notice it? Simply a wasted effort!
The engagement rate is the key that unlocks brands, and forms the basis of their decision to collaborate with you. While the average engagement rate on Instagram is observed at 2-3 percent, Instagram accounts that show 4-6 percent of engagement are considered high value, and the accounts with double-digit engagement percentages are considered legit viral.
Top 3 Strategies To Make Money On Instagram
Strategy 1: Post sponsored content
Want to know an effective and popular way to make money on Instagram? Yes? Then start posting sponsored content. But before we delve deeper, let’s first understand what sponsored content is. A sponsored post is content that you create and publish to promote a brand either through brand or product mentions in exchange for remuneration.
However, there are some strings attached to land such brand collaborations. The first and foremost being that you need to have a considerable follower base and the other is having a natural talent to influence their purchase decision. Here are a few tips to get started with creating sponsored content:
Step-1: Pick a niche
The first thing that you need to do before you move forward with your influencer journey is to identify your niche. For instance, if you’re a makeup enthusiast, you can become a beauty influencer; if you’re a fashion lover, you can become a fashion influencer; or if you’re a free-spirited person with wanderlust cravings, you can become a travel influencer! Whatever niche you pick, the possibilities are endless.
Step-2: Build trust, grow your following
Creating authentic content becomes easy when you stick to a niche. Plus, it helps you resonate with your audience without having to sound commercial. Not only will this help you engage with your followers better, but also build trust. Keep it going and you will notice a rise in the numbers of your followers.
Step-3: Connect with brands
One way of finding brands that you want to work with is by identifying the ones you feel an affinity with, and sending across emails promoting your influencer brand. Ensure that you mention the number of followers you have, and other key engagement metrics that will help them understand your impact on your followers.
As an influencer, you need to know your worth before you negotiate with brands. Insights into what’s the ongoing rate for posting a story that reaches 10,000 or 50,000 followers or what’s the price that other influencers are charging to run a product giveaway with a 5 percent engagement rate, and more are your non-negotiables. Knowing this information gives you the confidence to strike a deal with brands and lets them know you’re serious about this business.
And if you want to know what goes on the other side of the business, read Your Guide to Building Your Brand on Instagram.
Step-4: Post transparently, responsibly
After you sign up with the brand, you have to create and publish regular posts on your Instagram account and ensure that you mention those brands in some way or the other. This can be in the form of brand mention, link, or branded hashtag.
Do you know how to go about it? Worry not, we have you covered! Just read Hashtag Your Way To Success As An Insta Influencer!
Generally, when you post sponsored content, you will need to ensure that you comply with Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) guidelines. All sponsored posts on Instagram are flagged with ‘Paid partnership with (brand name)’, which also gives the brand visibility they need when they collaborate with you.
Strategy 2: Become an affiliate marketer
It takes quite a while to attract the attention of the right brands and build partnerships with them. Becoming an affiliate marketer is an easier way to earn those bucks on Instagram. All you need to do is sign up with a company and get started with promoting and selling their products. As a part of your compensation, you will get paid for every sale you make. Follow these steps to kick off your affiliate Instagram marketing.
Step-1: Pick a niche
We’ve already emphasized enough on picking the right niche and sticking to it no matter what. An affiliate marketer’s niche is quite different from a sponsored influencer’s niche and more product-focused. You need to remember that you cannot promote products that don’t align with your influencer brand. The key to success with this strategy is to promote only those products that you would buy yourself.
Step-2: Find merchants to affiliate with
Once you’ve decided on your niche, it’s time to identify companies or brands that offer affiliate marketing. Some companies that offer affiliate products include: Amazon, Ebates, ClickBank, Shareasale, Stylinity, RewardStyle, among others.
Next, identify products that have good customer reviews. You want to promote high-quality products so that your followers can rely on your recommendations. Following this golden rule will strengthen your credibility and reward you in ways you can’t imagine.
Step-3: Post about the product
Now that you’ve finalized the products, you need to create captivating promotional posts to promote them. Although in Instagram you cannot place clickable links in your post content, you can place links only in your bio. This means you can promote only one product at a time. Affiliate links can be long, you can condense those links by using link shortener tools to make your post more visually pleasing.
Speaking of bios, always remember to Make a Good First Impression With Your Insta Bio when looking to partner with brands!
Strategy 3: Sell your own products
Why wait for brands to notice you when you can create and market your own products? Yes, you heard us right! Building and selling your own products is another great way to make money through Instagram! This platform is the ideal place to market your brand and increase your brand awareness. Follow these steps to get started with selling your products on Instagram:
Step-1: Imagine your product
Programming experts sell courses, models sell clothes, jewelry, and accessories. Brainstorm product ideas that resonate with your niche. Then, identify the pros and cons of every product, and decide on the products you want to create and promote.
Step-2: Build your product
Whether you want to build the product right from scratch or if you want to purchase white label products, finding a supplier is key. Next, don’t forget to work on your product’s branding all along to make it appealing to your followers.
Step-3: Make your account shoppable
Instagram rolled out different features including shoppable stories, explore tab, shoppable posts, product tags, and Instagram checkout to help influencers market products better. Follow these instructions to take advantage of these features.
- To set up your Instagram shop, you will have to confirm if you’re eligible for it in the first place.
- Next, convert your Instagram account into a Business or Creator account, adding all your relevant contact info, and link it to your Facebook Page. If you don’t have a Facebook page for your business, you need to set it up first.
- You then have to create your product catalog and connect it to your account either through Facebook Business Manager’s Catalogue Manager or eCommerce platform partner integration.
- After integrating your product catalog, submit your account for review that may take a few days or longer to get approved by Instagram.
- Once it is approved, you can turn on the shopping feature and get started with product promotion.
Want to know more? Go on and click on 10 Reasons Your Marketing Needs Instagram Shoppable Posts!
Step-4: Build out your e-commerce infrastructure
Take your Insta game up to another level by setting up a website for your products, run ads to reach people, build awareness, and stay on top of your audience’s mind.
Step-5: Post your products
Post your product picture like you would post any other content on Instagram and then tag those products in the photo. Tagging products allows your followers to find and purchase your products easily.
Step-6: Fulfill your orders
Once you’ve received the orders, fulfill by delivering those to your followers turned customers either by doing it yourself or hiring a third-party logistics vendor.
Bonus Tips & Tricks To Earn Money On Instagram
- Know your worth by updating yourself with your current engagement metrics and deciding on non-negotiables. This will help you know where you stand and what you can expect from your brand collaborations.
- Keep an eye out for your competitors to learn their moves, identify hidden growth opportunities, and discover impending threats.
- Respond to customer queries swiftly. This will make you come across as a responsive influencer and will go a long way in building your credibility.
- Always be professional to stay in the good books of your followers and brands by not missing out on business deliverables, and not reacting to negativity.
- Don’t buy fake followers. Not only does it degrade your value as an influencer, but also fails to help with the business growth on the platform.
- Use Instagram tools to create better content and analyze your performance consistently. Practicing this not only helps you to identify loopholes in your strategy and correct them, but also helps you save time.
- Don’t limit your presence to Instagram alone. Promote yourself on other social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.
Adding on to your bonus, know How To Monetize Your Influence!
Making money as an Instagram influencer requires the right mix of strategy, creativity, vigor, and patience. With the right plan in place, it won’t take long to achieve your goals.
An easier way to connect with brands and earn money is to register with atisfyre, our AI-based influencer platform. atisfyre matches you to brands that have similar audiences as yours, gives the brands a gist of your profile and engagement metrics, all without you having to take the pain of tedious sifting through thousands of profiles to identify the right influencer for your brand.
To know more about how you can rev up your game with this AI platform, sign-up and talk to our team today!
