Do you like TOFU? I’m not talking about that shaking bean curd, I’m talking about Top of the Funnel content. Of course, yes, because this is the first step of every successful Instagram sales funnel. Besides, you are reading this right now.
Instagram can be your all-in-one sales funnel if you set it up for success with a solid Instagram marketing strategy. In this article, you’ll learn how to create an Instagram sales funnel from scratch, as well as content tips to help you grow your business.
What is a sales funnel?
A sales funnel is a series of steps that potential customers take before making a purchase. Traditionally, a sales funnel consists of four steps:
- Awareness (like seeing your ads on social media or noticing your brand in a local store)
- Interest (e.g. following your brand on Instagram, browsing your website)
- Evaluation (e.g. reading your reviews, starting a free trial)
- Action (e.g. purchase)
Visualizing the customer journey as a funnel (or inverted triangle) shows how many fewer customers make it to each step of the process—for example, more people know about your product than end up buying it.
Here is what a simple sales funnel looks like in the context of social media marketing:
However, two important elements of modern marketing are missing from traditional sales funnels: loyalty and retention.
Instead of being a funnel that ends after a purchase, today’s sales funnels are hourglass shaped. After a purchase or conversion, the modern funnel reopens and takes customers through:
- Loyalty Rewards
- Referrals
- Brand promotion
Adding the other half of your funnel is what creates a loyal and engaged customer base who are more likely to buy again and recommend your products or services to friends. Your Instagram then becomes a fully formed sales funnel and relationship development tool for your business. Chilly.
8 stages of the sales funnel on Instagram.
A well-run Instagram sales funnel should consist of 8 stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Wish
- Action
- betrothal
- Loyalty
- Referrals
- Advocacy
This is where TOFU comes in. We can break down these 8 stages into 4 content types: TOFU, MOFU, BOFU, and ATFU. Each type of content has specific goals and formats that work best.
TOFU: the top of the funnel
Includes: Awareness, Interest
At this point, your content should:
- Attract attention
- Increase the number of subscribers
- Let people know about your products
- Provide value and education (don’t demand a sale)
MOFU: middle of the funnel
Includes: Wish
At this point, your content should:
- Show people how your product is the answer to their problem
- Show how you differ from your competitors
- Make people think about buying from you
- Focus on education without aiming for sales
BOFU: bottom of the funnel
Includes: Action
At this point, your content should:
- Ask for a sale! (But don’t overdo it.)
ATFU: after the funnel
Includes: Engagement, Loyalty, Referrals, Advocacy
Okay, I came up with this new acronym (marketers love acronyms, right?), but it fits. This section is all about content aimed at retaining and rewarding customers after they convert. And turning them into brand advocates who can’t wait to tell everyone they know how awesome you are.
At this point, your content should:
- Keep Building Relationships
- Encourage referrals and repeat business
- Reward your customer loyalty
- Make your customers feel good buying from you
- Offer Meaningful Interaction with Regular Interactions
- Show, don’t tell, how your company lives by its values
How to create an Instagram sales funnel
This is the content you need to create a complete sales funnel.
1. Increase brand awareness with Instagram videos and ads.
It’s no secret that Reels is the most popular thing on the app right now and the easiest way to grow your Instagram account organically. Every week, nine out of ten Instagram users watch Reels. Reels are also the best way to get to the Research page: a surefire strategy to increase your follower count.
However, nothing is faster than targeted Instagram ads to promote your brand. Instagram ads have the potential to reach 20% of the world’s population over the age of 13: 1.2 billion people.
While what works for one company won’t automatically work for another, a recent informal survey found that video ads are currently the most effective.
Funnel Stage: Awareness
Instagram tactics: experiment with ads
TransferWise did a great job demonstrating the benefits of their product in a short, catchy, visually appealing ad. They received 9,000 new user registrations thanks to ads, with 40% of all their registrations coming from Instagram Stories.
2. Engage your audience in Stories
Instagram Stories are the perfect place to engage your growing audience with interactive and informative content. But what should you post?
The key to Instagram Stories is to make them informal. Professional? Yes. Polished? Optional.
People want to see why your business does what it does, who your employees are, how you do what you do, and so on. You can ask your social media manager to communicate with your audience on a daily basis or keep your stories anonymous by posting ready-made content or sharing videos from your clients (with permission, of course).
Here are some ideas to help you get started with Stories:
- Create Highlights to answer FAQs, list regions or shipping rules, show a getting started guide, or any other key information you want new subscribers to know immediately.
- Showcase your product in real life: create short videos showing it from different angles or in use, or share customer-provided content.
- Add link stickers to direct people to more information on your website. (Though our recent experiment showed that adding links reduces Stories engagement.)
Funnel Stage: Interest
Recommended Instagram tactic: Get your product in real life with random Stories videos.
Nena & Co. showcases the details and craftsmanship of this bag in a very simple short video. Creating impactful video content doesn’t have to take a lot of time.
3. Position your product as a practical solution
Show your audience how your product is the solution to their problem. The method you do will vary greatly depending on your industry. A quick video usually works best: think TikTok style, short and focused on just one moment.
No time or budget to create such content? Launch an influencer marketing campaign and use what your affiliates create on your own profile.
Yes, videos are all the rage these days, but photos or carousels are also great for showcasing products.
Funnel Stage: Desire
Instagram’s preferred tactic: Post a video every day if you can to quickly grow your audience and get people to buy.
Try introducing additional products from the companies you’re affiliated with to make your Instagram post look less selling, and as a bonus, the tagged brands are more likely to share it too.
4. Close sales with Instagram Shopping tools
Instagram has invested heavily in social commerce tools over the past few years and this makes the action stage of your funnel a smooth one.
The main Instagram Shopping tools you can experiment with are:
- Shop tab in your profile
- Live shopping
- Product Collections (such as categories in your profile)
- Buyable messages in your grid
- Product stickers in Stories
- Adding a link to your online store or campaign landing page to your Instagram bio
- Instagram Checkout for 100% in-app sales (Currently only available to US companies, but will be expanded soon)
Funnel Stage: Action
Instagram’s preferred tactic: Optimize your Store tab and Collections first, then use every shopping tool available to request a sale.
EcoRight does a good job of creating a mix of themed and seasonal collections, such as the Zip Bags and Summer Sass categories shown here.
5. Collect feedback with live video and surveys
There are countless ways to get your customers on Instagram, as that’s the whole point of the platform. During the engagement stage, you want customers to feel appreciated, but also seek their feedback to learn how you can be even more successful next time.
Here are some ideas how to do it:
- Run a poll in Stories to find out what your customers think about a new product idea or what they want more.
- Ask open-ended questions using the “Questions”text field sticker in stories to collect feedback or ways to improve.
- Organize a live video to share the product improvements your team is working on and ask customers for their feedback. Make them feel heard by tagging and thanking them for their comments right on your video.
- Post testimonials and reviews regularly in your grid and stories.
- Run a contest to collect user generated content for use in future campaigns.
Funnel Stage: Engagement
Instagram’s preferred tactic: Use Instagram’s built-in features like polls and questions to collect feedback from your customers.
Swimwear company Mimi Hammer knows that how a swimsuit fits is the most important factor influencing its customers’ buying decisions. They are good at asking yes/no questions with descriptive examples that are easy for followers to answer quickly, which increases the likelihood that people will respond.
6. Create exclusive discounts for your Instagram followers
Reward your customers with exclusive Instagram-only discount codes or special packages to make them feel like VIPs. By posting these codes only on your Instagram, you will make it the main social platform for customers.
Here are a few loyalty reward strategies you can use on Instagram:
- Exclusive Discount Codes
- Early access to new product launches
- Share behind-the-scenes content
- Run contests and sweepstakes to thank your customers (and get new ones!)
- Of course, promote your existing loyalty card program regularly so your customers know about it and how to earn rewards.
Funnel Stage: Loyalty
Instagram tactic: Exclusive discounts.
Besides exchanging the discount code with your existing subscribers, you can also easily turn it into a retargeting ad to boost your sales.
7. Run a “Tag a Friend”Contest to Get New Followers
This is one of the most popular contests on Instagram because it is easy to enter and effective in attracting new followers and referrals.
Please read the legal guidelines before running any contest on Instagram. As a side note, you can’t ask users to tag other people in photo posts, but you can ask people to tag a friend in the comments section.
Most tag contests ask people to:
- Sign up for an account if they haven’t already
- Like post
- Tag 5 friends in the comments
- Share the post on their stories for more posts.
It’s a time-honored formula for getting new customers on Instagram. You can also run an affiliate program on your website and refer people to it, but running a contest is much faster.
Funnel Stage: Direction
Suggested Instagram tactic: Try the tag a friend contest.
Rakuten, the money back app, knows what their customers want: money! A valuable prize for your target audience does not always have a high monetary value. It just has to be something that motivates people to get in.
8. Build a real brand community
This stage seems nebulous. “Be sincere!”Okay, but how? Well, if you have to ask, you’re not being sincere.
Customers can determine if a brand is posting “engaging”content on Instagram for likes, comments, and shares. It’s vibration. When companies are sincere, they consistently respond to customer comments and inquiries (not just positive ones), even if it does not bring them any “advertising benefit”.
Community-driven brands see customer interactions as an opportunity to serve them, not revenue-generating customers. The result is loyal followers who respect you and want to help you succeed.
Like I said, it’s vibration.
Here are some ways to show that you are truly sincere:
- Respond to both positive and negative comments and direct messages using a solution-focused approach.
- Stay in tune with the voice of your brand. For example, Wendy’s is known for its spicy tone, while Lululemon keeps communication casual and easy, but professional. There is no wrong answer, just be consistent.
- Show user-generated content with personalized comments that get your customer to share it – this acts as social proof.
- Listen to product reviews…and act on them.
Funnel Stage: Advocacy
Recommended Instagram tactic: Serve your customers with every interaction. Be a good listener.
Glossier has the upper hand when it comes to giving their customers what they ask for. They regularly post pictures of real customers using their products, not models, and ask people what they want and then create that product.
It sounds simple because it is, but listening to people is really the key to business (and social media) success.