Every year, consumers around the world look forward to getting serious deals on one of the busiest shopping days of the year: Black Friday. In fact, Black Friday sales have continued to soar year after year, with U.S. Black Friday sales reaching an unprecedented $9.0 billion last year, according to Adobe Analytics.
Needless to say, this is one of the biggest annual opportunities to generate significant sales for your brand! However, preparing for Black Friday can feel somewhat intimidating to many digital business owners.
Plus, when it comes to Instagram, the tactics that really work keep changing as user behavior changes and new features are added.
In this article, we talk about some of the best Instagram marketing strategies you can use to rock your Black Friday sales.
1. Prioritize video content
With Instagram stories, reels, and IGTV dominating the digital content landscape, there’s no doubt about it: Video is absolutely unmissable when it comes to marketing your brand on Instagram.
If you’re not taking advantage of this super engaging form of content, you may be losing some effective marketing power, as brands continue to shift more and more toward the video medium.
So, what are the best ways to utilize video in your Black Friday marketing plan?
Vertical video
For one thing, shoppers are using mobile devices for their purchases more than ever before, and this means that the focus should be on engaging them on these devices.
Vertical video – as is popular with Instagram stories, for example – is something that users can easily consume on-the-go, or wherever they are using their phones (which is basically anywhere and everywhere).
Plus, the highly-engaging, real-time nature of stories makes it easy to grab your audience’s attention, as well as emphasize time-sensitive offers (as stories only last for 24 hours).
IGTV shopping
Instagram also recently rolled out a feature that lets users shop directly on IGTV, making it super easy for brands to optimize their video content for selling.
Now you can shop right on IGTV. 🛍 🎥 And later this year we’ll start testing shopping on Reels.
We want to keep making it easier to find products you love while supporting your favorite creators. pic.twitter.com/szutd49ZM2
— Adam Mosseri 😷 (@mosseri) October 5, 2020
Balance the professional with the personal
While sleek, pro marketing videos are always a good thing, don’t forget that your customers are human beings, and it pays to be personal. Remember that they are probably being totally bombarded with Black Friday marketing messages, so it can be easier to be seen and heard if you’re not just another one of those!
Consider speaking directly to your audience, showcasing real-life user-generated content created by your existing customers, or sharing more low-fi videos and behind-the-scenes content in order to connect with people on a human level.
2. Optimize your bio link
With increased shopping activity comes increased traffic to and from your social media accounts and website. This means that it’s extra important to make sure your Instagram bio link is set up to accelerate your Black Friday conversions!
Instagram limits your promotional avenues by only giving you one place to include a link on your profile: The bio link section. In order to make the most of your Black Friday activity, it’s essential to optimize this crucial traffic portal.
Setting up a high-quality branded “link in bio” page with tools like Spotlight PRO helps you direct your Instagram traffic directly to where you want it to go – including your time-sensitive Black Friday promotions.
To learn how to boost your Instagram marketing strategies through a single link, check out our page on how you can create a high-impact link in bio page with Spotlight PRO.
3. Monetize your Instagram content with shoppable feeds
If you don’t already utilize shoppable feeds – Instagram’s feature that lets you tag products in your posts – you might want to consider it in order to boost your Black Friday conversions.
Shoppable feeds allow customers to click these posts and easily buy the tagged products, which means that your gallery essentially becomes a visual sales funnel.
Even if you already use shoppable feeds on Instagram, you might not realize that you can actually utilize the same content on your website too. With Spotlight PRO, for example, you can add shoppable Instagram feeds to individual product pages or your cart page to make cross-selling and up-selling a breeze.
If you’re offering special Black Friday deals, shoppable feeds are a great way to showcase them and get your site visitors clicking.
4. Share user-generated content
With so many promotions floating around the internet leading up to Black Friday, one of the best things you can do to inspire confidence in your customers is to share user-generated content (UGC).
Not only does UGC show your audience that your products are legitimate; It also showcases them in real life, letting people see them in different contexts, being used by real people.
User-generated content inspires more engagement, which is always a positive when it comes to your Black Friday promotions as well as your Instagram marketing strategies in general.
You can do this on your website in two ways. You can embed tagged Instagram post feeds or even create an Instagram hashtag feed. Speaking of which, there’s a lot you can do with hashtags.
5. Run a contest with a custom hashtag
Everyone loves giveaways! So, one of the best strategies for getting your audience engaged during the holiday shopping season is running a contest.
For example, you could ask your customers to post a photo with a custom hashtag during Black Friday week. Then, give away a prize to the person whose post gets the most likes.
You could also give your audience the chance to be featured on your website if they are among the most popular posts from your hashtag campaign. This incentivizes people to participate even more and takes just a few clicks to set up with Spotlight PRO’s hashtag feeds feature.
Contests and custom hashtag campaigns get you more engagement, create social proof for your brand, and drive traffic from your Instagram to your website, which is great for SEO.
6. Give your followers exclusive offers
The magic of Black Friday comes down to rare, limited-time deals – but don’t forget the element of exclusivity if you want to maximize your marketing impact.
Online shoppers love a good deal, but they love an exclusive deal even more.
You could give your Instagram followers exclusive discounts, access to products that rarely go on sale, or access to new product releases ahead of time, for example.
Whatever you choose to offer, make it exclusive to the people who follow you on Instagram. This will help you grow your following as well!
Rock your Black Friday sales with Spotlight PRO
All of the Instagram marketing strategies we talked about in this post can be achieved with the help of Spotlight PRO. Get started with:
- creating a beautiful link in bio page,
- monetizing your Instagram content with shoppable feeds,
- featuring user-generated content,
- featuring contest and hashtag campaign participants, and
- driving attention toward exclusive deals for your followers.
Purchase Spotlight PRO today to take your Black Friday promotions and Instagram marketing to the next level.
