Do you want to put your cake business on Instagram but don’t know how? If YES, here are 10 sure tips to advertise and scale up a cake business on Instagram.
Instagram has become one of the most far-reaching and effective social medium platforms to leverage on when you want to advertise or market your products on the internet. Trust me, loads of people are making massive sales from Instagram.
If you run a cake business and you are wondering how you can scale up your business and make more sales, then you need not worry anymore. All you need to do is to make sure that you sign up on Instagram and then read through this article.
10 Smart Tips for Advertising your Cake Business on Instagram
-
Post Excellent Pictures of Your Cakes with Spot on Captions
No doubt, Instagram is more about pictures and short videos and people on Instagram will always give attention to sight-capturing pictures. So, one of the tips you need to follow if you want to be successful with advertising on Instagram is to ensure that you get excellent pictures of your cakes and add compelling captions before posting the picture of the cakes.
Pleases note that you are expected to be consistent with posting these pictures on Instagram and also make sure that in each caption you add to the picture of the cake, try highlighting the product’s selling points, mention its price, and direct people to where they can get it.
-
Make Use of Audience-Specific Hashtags
In this era of micro -blogging, hashtags are essential tools to use if you want to reach out to a larger audience beyond your followers; hashtags help in grouping ideas, concepts or conversations on Instagram. They make it easier for people to find others who are posting about topics they are interested in.
So, beyond just posting pictures of your cake and adding the right captions, you should also make sure that you make use of audience specific hashtags. By including the appropriate hashtags in your post, you can effectively reach out to new people who may be interested in your cake.
The key is to use hashtags that not only describe your photos and business, but are also actively searched for and used on Instagram. Examples, #Cakefactory #Cakeplanet #Cakelovers and any trending hashtags within your city or country
-
Make Use the Right Filters
Another effective tip that you need in order to achieve good results when it comes to advertising your cake business on Instagram is to ensure that you make use of the right filters. Interestingly, loads of Instagram users don’t even know that Instagram filters affect engagement— they just use what we think looks good and post away.
The truth is that the filter you use has a way of influencing your overall interaction. A recent study conducted by TrackMaven shows that found photos with the Mayfair filter, no filter or the Inkwell filter ended up with more likes and comments.
-
Know When to Post
It is one thing to post the pictures of your cake on Instagram, but another thing to know the appropriate time to post. If you are conversant with Instagram, you will know that there are peak periods; the period where your followers are active and can easily be engaged.
IconoSquare has an optimization report that identifies the best times for you to update based on your previous posting history and engagement.
The report shows black circles representing the times you’re currently posting and light-gray circles representing the level of interaction those posts receive. The biggest light-gray circles represent the best times for you to post based on your followers’ engagement.
-
Partner with an Instagram Influencer
As with other micro-blogging social media platforms, Instagram also has some influencers; people whose posts draw attention and get likes from several thousands of people within a short period of time. So, all you need to do if you want to reach out to a wide audience is to partner with them to help post pictures of your cakes or brand.
Although you are expected to pay for this service, but if you have relationship with some of these influencers, they can do it for free for you. Please note that the larger the follower the influencer has, the higher the amount they charge to promote a product on their handle/page.
So, the idea is that if you are just starting out, make sure you do not go after influencers with pretty large followers – instead, look for influencers that have genuine connection with their followers and a heavy social influence and an influencer whose value and brand aligns with yours, or else it might backfire.
-
Share Your Customers Testimonials, Stories and Reviews
Word of mouth is perhaps one of the most effective ways of promoting a business or a brand and if indeed you want to take advantage of Instagram to advertise and promote your cake business, then you must be ready to share the testimonials, stories and reviews of your cake.
The truth is that family members and friends of your customers will easily trust their words as against when you reach out to them on your own. It is a strategy that works offline and it is also very effective on the internet and Instagram.
-
Run Instagram Ads to a Landing Page on Your Website
It is been proven over and over again that one of the most easy and effective ways you can drive sales for your business through Instagram is by creating ads for your products that link to your ecommerce store or website. Ads are unique on Instagram because they allow you to add a CTA and click-through link, which is not possible on any other type of Instagram post.
Please note that when you run Ads on Instagram (front – end), then you must make sure your back-end is reliable and ready to deliver quality cakes and services or customers will badmouth your service.
-
Highlight New Cake Designs on Your Story
No doubt, Instagram has loads of advantages especially when compared to other micro – blogging social media platforms when it comes to picture and story and of course one of the biggest benefits of having an Instagram Business account is that you will be able to easily link to external URLs from your Story (please not that this feature is not available for non-business accounts).
All you need to do is to take advantage of this by highlighting the various designs of your cakes from your business on your story, with a swipe-up link that people can use to purchase it directly from your website or other social media accounts.
-
Give Out Freebies Occasionally
Another effective means of reaching out to a wide range of customers on Instagram is to give out freebies occasionally from your handle. Trust me, people love freebies and once they know you are giving out freebies, they will flock to your page and that is perhaps one of the easiest ways of building your followers.
All you need to do is to engage the followers, collect some user-generated content, and spread brand awareness to your followers’ connections.
Interestingly, you don’t need to spend a fortune giving out freebies, you can give out cupcakes or other small – sized unique cakes. So also, you can have in-store ads to promote the fact that people can get a discount if they share a photo of your cake and store on Instagram and mention your brand.
-
Organize a Contest
Similar to giving out freebies is to organize contests where the winners will get gifts. All you need to do is to ensure that the contest is designed in a such a way that it will help you win more followers and above all help you spread your brand and reach out to more target audience.
For example,
You can run Instagram contests where customers can share photos of your cake and brand. The photo that receives the most “Likes” can be rewarded with a discount or a free large cake. On certain days of the week (ideally in areas where you have low foot traffic), let people know they can get a reward (like a free cake) if they post an Instagram photo of your cake and mention our brand’s hashtag(s).
Let existing customers redeem free gifts or cake if they bring along a friend and also if they make an Instagram post about this with your hashtags and mentions.
Conclusion
These top ten sure-fire tips can help your scale up your cake business, but I must mention that there are other strategies you can leverage on when it comes to advertising your cake business on Instagram. Please note that the fact that social media is dynamic means that other new strategies might emerge that are not listed above.