7 tools for increasing your holiday sales on Instagram

If you’ve read our Black Friday Guide you’re likely preparing to launch a massive sale this Cyber Weekend! Let’s make sure you get the most exposure possible for all those promotional assets you’ve created by going over some of the features you should be using on Instagram to promote your sale. 

Keep in  mind Instagram is the perfect platform for promoting your products because it’s all about visuals—you can easily share engaging images and videos showing off your products. Plus you can use this platform to create hype around your products and sales while making your products easily accessible for purchase. Here are the tools to take advantage of  during the holidays and beyond!

 

1. Bio link

The bio lives at the top of your Instagram profile and provides information about you or your brand. Even though you can’t add clickable links within in-feed posts on Instagram, you can add a link to your website in your bio–making it easily accessible for followers. Your bio is the perfect place to add a link to your Teepspring store or listing. When running a sale you should add your Teespring store or listing URL to your Instagram bio. If you’re running a sale make sure to optimize your storefront banner with your code too. 

You can also consider creating a Linkin.bio account with Later.com to host multiple articles within your Instagram bio. When a follower clicks on this link they’re taken to a page with all of your posts to date and the corresponding link to the product. This way, you can keep all of your product links in one place and your buyers and followers can easily discover your products.

 

2. Stories

Instagram stories let you share key moments of your day in a slideshow format. You can post as many videos or photos as you’d like without fear of overlapping content. The posts will disappear in 24 hours, and will never appear in your actual Instagram feed. Instagram’s 400 million active users spend up to 53 minutes per day on Instagram, with over 250 million clicking on at least one story per day. 

Stories are an extremely effective Instagram feature for creating awareness and hype around your products and sales. Because stories last for only 24 hours before disappearing, they are a great way to ramp up the promotion of your sale by ‘counting down’ to the day your sale starts.

Once you upload your photo or asset, you can make use of the many features within the stories function like countdown timers and polls. See some examples below of how they can be used.

 

3. Highlights

Your Instagram Stories don’t have to only last 24 hours. You can create a dedicated ‘merch’ highlight and add your merch stories to it so they’re always visible on your Instagram profile. You can even customize your highlights to feature a specific theme or aesthetic (using the design resources we mention below). Many creators feature stories of themselves wearing their merch or photos submitted by fans and followers who purchased from them.

 

4. Swipe up/IGTV

This is another feature available within Instagram stories, where you can add a website or product link to your story. The user then simply swipes up from the story to be directed to the website or product. This feature is currently only available to accounts who have 10,000 followers or more. If you’ve got access it’s an effective way to direct shoppers to your Teespring store or listing. 

Example of swipe-up function in action on our Instagram

If you don’t have 10,000 followers, you can utilize IGTV to replicate the swipe up feature. IGTV is a standalone video app created by Instagram. It allows for longer videos to be posted (between 15 seconds and 10 minutes). While IGTV is available as a standalone app, users are able to access and watch IGTV videos within Instagram. You can use IGTV to replicate the swipe up feature by uploading your video of at least 15 seconds and adding your preferred link into the description. Unlike Instagram stories, IGTV videos are permanent and will stay on your profile–so this is something you may want to keep in mind.

 

5. Placeit

If you don’t have the time or resources to do your own photoshoots, don’t worry! You can use Placeit to create custom lifestyle mockups featuring real people wearing your products—all you need to do is upload your design. These images are perfect for sharing on social media and especially Instagram. Apart from lifestyle mockups Placeit also offers a variety of customizable design templates for Instagram posts and stories, and you’ll even find templates for YouTube videos, product designs, and more. 

 

6. Canva

Canva is a simplified online graphic-design tool that makes it super easy to create professional and visually engaging graphics. There are an array of templates you can pick from, including Instagram posts and stories. You’re able to add custom photos and text to templates—ideal for creating in-feed promotional graphics that showcase your promo codes during sales. 

 

7. Unfold 

Unfold is an app (accessed on iPhone or Android devices) that specializes in Instagram story templates. You can simply upload your photos and videos into the app and customize them using Unfold’s features. You’re able to add text to the templates to tell your audience more about your promotion. When promoting you should consider using both in-feed and story posts to maximize engagement when releasing new merch or running a sale. 

 

 

Ready to put these tips to the test? Start promoting your products on Instagram now!