How to Write a Selling Post on Instagram — Instructions + Examples

James J. Davis
9 min readSep 14, 2021

You can dream endlessly about figuring out the secret to the popularity of top bloggers and commercial accounts, or you can just read this article and start actively implementing the tips from it in your virtual life.

The three whales on which the popularity of the most recognizable profiles rests are: a distinctive style, interesting content and a special visual presentation.

With this combo in place, you can safely begin to monetize your efforts. Find out more about how to do this and how to write a good sales post below.

· Selling text
· How to write selling posts on Instagram
· Structure of the selling post
Remember, selling posts have specific goals:
· A little bit about visual content
· Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Selling text

Writing a sales post is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. And we will soon prove it to you. What’s more, this type of post is a powerful foundation upon which your entire content strategy for your account should be built.

Try to regularly answer the questions — what is the purpose of my profile, what profit do I want to get from it, what will this or that text and photo give me, how effective the combination you just published was? Only then will the vector of your direction be very clear.

Of course, this does not mean that from now on in the feeds of your followers will only sell materials. On the contrary, approach the presentation with all imagination and do not forget about the main objectives of this type of content:

  • Content influences decision-making. In an app, you can’t have a live dialogue with the person you’re talking to. Consequently, you can’t use proven sales leverage. Text does this in online and offline formats. Proven;
  • content builds trust and ekpertness. Thereby inducing a desire to buy from you specifically;
  • content supports the path of purchase from a subconscious dream and desire to possess to “I got the product and leave a review;
  • content helps you to make pre-sales;
  • and in the end, content is a profile asset. If your texts are concise, bold, attention-grabbing and carry a clear message, your blog will be much easier to promote and monetize.

Today, buying through instagram is commonplace, but it just makes the demands of your potential customer higher, the competition more tangible, and the buying and selling process itself a true art form.

Approach your task creatively and creatively. So, if you do needlework and want to display your brooches in an online showcase, combine sales and informational types of content, presenting 10 ways to wear your brooch with different clothing styles.

This will create an attractive image in the user’s mind, allow them to try it on and then provoke them to buy the jewelry.

The selling content also includes content that was created directly by the customers themselves. This can include product photos, text and video reviews, and even “before-and-after” series (especially relevant and winning for the beauty industry: shugaring, haircuts, hair coloring, or eyebrow modeling).

In addition to all of the above, selling content is exclusive offers (“Happy Hour,” “Dress of the Day” or “Tuesday Discount”).

Selling content is daily work on texts and visuals, thinking through the idea and overall concept, maximum unobtrusiveness and nativeness, persistence and the end result, which is important to analyze and draw conclusions.

How to write selling posts on Instagram

Surely you’ve seen more than once smeared picture of a purse, which place on the counter at the nearest market, and below a meaningful caption in the style of “Buy, do not skimp — was a ruble, is two. Naturally, such a shock content will only cause irritation, but certainly not a desire to buy the product.

The text is the second most important component of any business account in Insta. It is a component that most people find more difficult than creating a frame.

So how do you write posts that sell? You have two options: to learn this science on your own or to attract a copywriter who does these tasks professionally.

Remember that the most important feature of a good sales text is the ability to feel the reader’s “pain” and turn him into your regular customer.

A good sales post works 24 hours, 7 days a week, with no vacation, rest or days off.

But most importantly, such text has a constant constant conversion rate — in other words, converting readers into buyers. If the average conversion rate is 3%, it stays that way. There is motivation to write more and better, right?

In addition, I would like to outline the needs of your target audience that your pitch content should meet:

  • Engagement. After a hard day at work, ladies and gentlemen who are tired and exhausted by everyday problems come to Instagram to have fun, not to buy another product. They want to cheer themselves up, laugh or discuss something — give them the opportunity to do so on your page. We are confident that it will increase not only overall activity, but also sales;
  • usefulness. In an ideal world, your text not only sells well, but is useful. You help the reader cope with some problem, give a ready-made solution, close another teenage gestalt or simply, like Superman, save the day. Try to make the selling post useful at the same time — and you’ll be happy;
  • Suggestion. It’s a beautiful finale you shouldn’t forget. In essence, you demonstrate your offer (product or service), and then offer to subscribe to you, buy or order on your page.

Next, we’re going to break down in detail the structure of the selling text, which has its place in your account.

Structure of the selling post

It’s really not worth paying for large-scale seminars, trainings, classes, and courses from copywriters and authors who promise to teach you how to write in a meaningful way.

The more so because the structure of the text with an offerer is not a secret. It was invented and approved in the beginning of the XX century by American publicist writers, who published the first paper catalogs. Through many years of research on the market, the nature and behavioral reactions of consumers, the psychology of shopping and so on down the list, they found a working formula called AIDA, where A — Attention, I — Interest, D — Desire and A — Action.

  1. Attention. A good text must catch the reader’s attention with a vivid headline. How do you come up with one? Use one of the presented templates:
    - Question (question word + desire or fears of your CA);
    - Shock and intimidation (scary words + desires or fears of your audience);
    - Promise of a benefit with a time commitment to get the reward (number + simple condition + desire of the CA).
  2. Interest. Once you’ve won the potential customer’s attention, the next task is to generate interest and make the person read the entire text. At the stage of “interest” you warm up the audience, to then slam the trap sale.
  3. Desire. The desire to own something is the strongest motivation to buy. Take advantage of this, describing how cool your hair will look after using your shampoo.
  4. Action. It’s simple — at the end of any sales post should be a clear and specific call to action (call the number, write to direct, leave a smiley in the comments, or order on the site). For greater effect, it’s a good idea to use imperative slants, which work at the level of the reptilian brain.

Remember, selling posts have specific goals:

  • generate interest;
  • to create desire;
  • dispel doubts and build trust;
  • Provoke a specific action to close the deal.

You can also use triggers in your text that affect the subconscious by triggering certain cognitive chains. Here are just a few of them:

  • Scarcity (a limited amount of product, etc.);
  • Experience of possession (to draw a picture of how cool it is when this product is already available to the customer);
  • Authoritativeness (this is used by experts, it’s a choice of the best);
  • Desire to be part of the whole (join the community of progressive consumers);
  • Exclusivity (a unique product, a custom mold, just for you);
  • Curiosity (would you like to know the secret to perfect hair?);
  • Conspiracy (let’s tell you in confidence, trust this secret only to you);
  • Rationalization (people like to think they are the smartest, back up this position with your texts).

We hope that now you will surely know how to write selling posts and get not only aesthetic pleasure from it, but also financial profit.

A little bit about visual content

Selling photos is a little bit about creativity, but more about marketing. So, for a networker pushing his cosmetic products via social media, it is important not so much to show the cans, but rather the results of their application.

In other words, a collective image of the target audience, an attractive lifestyle, a great example, causing only one thought — I want the same.

It is not enough just to take a picture of a hand-knitted cardigan on the bathroom floor, it is important to demonstrate how it looks on a live person and how it changes their everyday or holiday bow for the better.

Text can affect both the emotional and the rational component of how your content is perceived, whereas a photo is always an emotion.

What will a beautiful selling photo do for you? At a minimum, it will:

  • Attracting the attention of a potential audience ready to buy a product or order a service;
  • Increasing interest in the offer you are showing on the web;
  • Creating an image of a product or service that will fully comply with the image of the target audience;
  • Strengthen the desire to have this product from the follower picture, a step closer to the glossy image and to the dream that stands behind the photo.

Remember that while you’re saving on the quality of photos — you’re missing not only potential customers, but also the real profits.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

You have gathered your courage, carefully read this article from cover to cover, scrolled through the feed, and even analyzed your competitors’ content. All that remains is to study the fatal mistakes, so that you can avoid them in your business in the future:

  • Lack of an offer. It’s no secret that advertising texts are written according to the scheme: Offer — Deadline — Call to Action. But often the seller himself misses the main purpose of the post. What your text should do — to get the audience to like, repost, comment on the material to buy the product at a discount;
  • an unnamed deadline. The second fatal mistake every third Instagram user of a commercial account makes. As long as a person doesn’t have a “now or never” feeling, they won’t buy anything from you. Therefore, an obligatory end of any text should be the phrase “only today”, “only now”, “while the product is in stock,” etc;
  • No Call to Action, or a direct call to action. Often we write a sales post and miss out on motivating the customer to buy. Essentially, after the representative of your target audience has heard about how cool it is to have an air conditioner in their apartment, they will, hot off the bat, leave and buy it on another online storefront. Take note of this and don’t repeat other people’s mistakes!

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