Tips to Getting More Traffic from Your Instagram Followers

Managing your social media platforms can be time-consuming. While some marketers stop at follower count as their measure for ROI, savvy marketers know that driving people to your website is the best way to see a return on investment. Not sure how to get people to click through to your site? Here are a few tips to get more traffic from your Instagram followers.

Encourage people to click the link to your website

This sounds like a pretty obvious statement, but many people forget that the clickable link in your Instagram bio is one of the easiest ways to get traffic to your site, but few remember to tell people to click that link. Known as a call to action, encourage people to click the link in your Instagram bio to get more information about your product or service. People are so accustomed to just scrolling through images on Instagram, so you must tell them to stop, visit your bio and click that link! There are several ways to manage the link in your Instagram bio, so experiment to see what works best for you and drive the most traffic to your website.

Add links to your Instagram Stories

Small business marketers love Instagram Stories because they’re an easy way to get in front of more eyes without getting lost in the Instagram feed. To get the most out of your stories, add a link to Instagram Stories that will send traffic to your site if a user swipes up or clicks the native “See More” text at the base of a linked story. You can also add “swipe up” call-to-action stickers. Make sure you have a verified Instagram account to access this feature.

Use highlights of your Instagram Stories

IG Stories are great but, of course, short-lived. To consistently drive traffic from linked Instagram Stories beyond 24 hours, use highlights. You can either gather a library of evergreen stories you want to shine your spotlight on or use a single story per highlight as navigation to the key categories of your website.

Tag your products on Instagram

If you’re showcasing products on Instagram, be sure to tag them! This will help people interested in the products they see in their Instagram feed get to your site to make a purchase. You can do this through Instagram Shopping. This does take a bit of setup to start, including setting up a Facebook catalog, but once you have this in place, it’s easy to drive potential buyers to your site. Instagram provides a simple step-by-step guide to setting up Instagram shopping.

Add links to your DMs

It’s always a good idea to have conversations with your social media followers, and Instagram is no exception. If you have followers who DM you with questions or comments, feel free to add a link in your response back to them to encourage them to click through to your website. This could be in response to new followers, a question about a product or service, or anyone seeking more information. Of course, this is only effective if you’re actively monitoring your Instagram, so your DM response is timely. If you don’t have the bandwidth to monitor your social media accounts actively, find a small business social media management professional who can help with this. It can significantly increase your website traffic, lead flow, and sales!

Turn on push notifications and encourage people to opt-in

This hidden feature is available on Instagram, and turning it on will send push notifications to those who opt-in. Opting in turns on Instagram push notifications for posts, IGTV, and stories for your followers. Once they opt-in, they’ll receive a notification on their phone every time you post new content of that type. If you’re adding content that encourages a click through to your website, you’re now proactively encouraging people to visit your site, which can increase website traffic.

Instagram is a powerful way to market your small business and drive traffic to your site. Using these tactics can help drive more traffic from your Instagram followers to your website. Try it now and see how it impacts your website traffic.