In the past year, Instagram has become a real force to be reckoned with in the marketing world.
Since January, it has gained 100 million monthly active users, with the total currently sitting at a hefty 400 million monthly and 75 million daily users.That’s pretty astonishing. So it’s no surprise that brands are now dedicating a substantial percentage of their social media marketing budget to this image heavy channel.
So what does that mean for you?
Well, now is the perfect time to cash in on its growing popularity.
If you’re prepared to put in the time and commitment, you can easily find yourself in a position where you can start making serious money from your Instagram account.
No sweat! I’ll guide you through the main ways to cultivate an income through Instagram and make a name for yourself in all the right places.
Ready? Then let’s begin.
Instagram is ideal for selling products that photograph well. In other words, if your products are photogenic, most likely you can sell them with Instagram. Also, if you’re photogenic yourself or can take awesome photos, most likely you can have a huge following that can be capitalized to sell.
In general, there are at least 5 business models to make money on Instagram:
1. Become an influencer and make money from sponsored posts.
With your influencer status, you can propose to brands to help to promote them in your posts. An influencer is someone who has built a reputation by doing and sharing things online. They have a good following and they are able to convince their audiences about trends because of the level of trust they have built with their online presence.
Brands tend to partner with influencers to do sponsored posts that help spread the word about their products. Influencers have to manage many things at once such as the size and reach of their Instagram accounts as well as the trust and engagement that they build based on their content.
Top influencers make thousands of dollars per sponsored post. Imagine doing one sponsored post per day, you can make tens of thousands of dollars per month easily.
A typical influencer post includes the creation of content such as an Instagram post or an Instagram story, that will include the promotion of the brand or their products. As an influencer, that’s why it’s extremely important for you to know your audience. You need to understand who your audience mainly consists of, so you know which brands would best fit your audience. If you’ve switched to an Instagram business account, you can research your numbers a bit more through your Instagram Analytics report.
Now, you might be thinking, how do I find brands to work with that will be willing to pay me all this money for a sponsored post? Well, if you’ve created a noteworthy online presence, chances are big brands will reach out to you. But, you can also find brands yourself that you think match your personality and values the best. You can reach out to brands yourself directly (through Instagram or through their websites) to try to negotiate a deal, but you can also list yourself on an influencer marketplace to increase your chances of being found by a big brand.
As an extra tip, be careful not to lose the trust of your existing audience in the process of making money from sponsored posts. That’s why it’s always a good idea to indicate with an Instagram hashtag that it’s a sponsored post (for instance, by adding #sponsored).
2. Become an affiliate and make money selling other people’s products.
You can sell other people’s products and receive a cut. Many brands sell their products through affiliate programs. There are many people that make money from Instagram this way.
The difference between an influencer and an affiliate is that an affiliate is working towards making sales for the partnering brand in exchange for a commission. On the other hand, the influencer is mainly aiming to create awareness.
Affiliates make money on Instagram through a trackable link or a promo code to make sure that any clicks are converted to sales.
Create engaging posts, so you can promote the products without being pushy. The thing is, since you can only have one link on your Instagram bio, you might want to include a landing page to your affiliate link. In each post, include a caption that the product can be purchased via the link on the Instagram bio.
At first it may sound like a challenging game, but affiliate marketing has a variety of expansion possibilities if you plan on growing. You can expand your presence by including a website and/or other marketing or social media channels.
Our team has compiled a list of eye-catching Instagram post ideas from successful brands for you to take inspiration from.
3. Sell poster photos and other virtual products.
Instagram is all about visual content. Photogenic products would sell well on Instagram. You can sell poster photos, paintings, drawings, animations, videos, and other image or video-based virtual products. On each post, refer readers to visit the link in your bio. This is another popular way that people make money from Instagram.
If you think you take high-quality pictures, there’s a chance that you can get paid for it. But don’t limit yourself with just your photography skills, explore other possibilities that enhance your pictures such as editing and composition. Use the best photo editing apps for phones to get the most out of the photos that you take. Try to be original when you’re taking pictures.
You can use Instagram to promote your photography portfolio using relevant Instagram hashtags.
4. Sell your own physical products.
You can sell any physical product that you produce yourself or purchase from suppliers. This conventional e-commerce retailing usually requires stocking some inventory, meaning you’d need to spend some startup capital to stock some products.
And it requires a place where you can keep the products, such a spare room at home or a rented storage place. For instance, if you purchase some inventory from a China-based supplier, you’d need a space to keep them before they’re ordered by and delivered to customers.
5. Sell drop shipped products.
Drop shipping is a business model which you can use to run your store without ever holding any inventory. Once you’ve made a sale your supplier will ship your products from their warehouse, straight to your customer’s doorstep. You’ll never need to worry about storing, packaging, or shipping your products.
Promoting Your Business on Instagram
Regardless of your business model, you’ll need to promote it. Self-promoting requires more than just having thick skin. Above all, you’d need to be strategic and use proven tactics in order to earn money from Instagram.
When you’re selling on Instagram, the purchases are mostly impulse-based. For this, the promotional avenues chosen must be based on this philosophy. The key is creating a “wow” factor with the photos, videos, captions, and a seamless experience when customers are shopping for your products.
- Use compelling photos and videos produced professionally and using favorite filters and tools.
- Integrate your Instagram account with your e-commerce store to ensure a positive and consistent experience.
- Collaborate with as many influencers as possible. Select influencers whose philosophy and followers are in alignment with yours.
- Strategize well. Stay afloat and post content on a daily basis.
- Design all your social media accounts, web pages, and blogs to reflect a uniform and consistent theme.
Learning: Make Money on Instagram
By being creative with your account you too, can earn money from Instagram. You can sell physical products by posting photos, live stories, and videos. Also, you can sell services, like influencer marketing. If you sell tangible products, consider using the drop shipping model, which is convenient and cost-efficient.
How much money can people make on Instagram?
It depends on what you sell, business strategies, and marketing tactics you use. If you’ve just started, you might only make a little. However, as your Instagram following grows and you’re more familiar with marketing, the sky is the limit.
How can I make the most money from Instagram?
Learn from successful Instagrammers. Combine what you’ve learned from them with your own strengths in marketing, photography, storytelling, and photo styling. Grow your following as much as possible, create contests, and be active by posting new photos once or twice per day. At last, have a strong product and serve your customers well.
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It may take a few weeks or months to start earning a handsome amount of profit from Instagram, before you quit your 9-to-5 job. Considering so many successful e-commerce retailers earning a 6 or 7-digit income annually, selling drop shipped products via Instagram is a business model too good to pass. You owe it to yourself to start it.
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