Instagram Shoutouts – Can They Help You Boost Your Sales
You can’t scroll through Instagram nowadays without seeing a shoutout.
Instagram shoutouts are common marketing tactics that people use to promote their brand. This occurs when an Instagram user tags another account and promotes their brand through a post or story.
Even though Instagram shoutouts are popular, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they work. Can they help you boost your sales?
If you have been asking this question, you have come to the right place.
This guide will describe what Instagram shoutouts are and how they work. We will also explain how much you should pay for a shoutout and if it will really boost your sales.
Finally, browse through a few examples of successful Instagram shoutouts to get some inspiration.
Let’s get started.
What Are Instagram Shoutouts
An Instagram shoutout is a type of influencer marketing. It refers to when another person mentions your personal or brand account on their page. They do this by posting on their page or Instagram story.
The person who does the shoutout will typically tell their followers to follow you, check out your content or buy your products.
You can also expect them to post a photo of your content, a specific product, or simply post a picture of your entire page and tag you.
There are a few different types of Instagram shoutouts that can happen.
- Shoutout trade: A shoutout trade is when two parties promote each other’s content through a social media shoutout. Many users prefer this since they don’t have to pay money to get exposure.
- Voluntary shoutout: Voluntary shoutouts are the best kind. This shoutout occurs when someone loves your product or page so much that they give out a shoutout for free. When someone gives you a voluntary shoutout, you don’t ask them or pay them to do it.
- Paid shoutout: This type of shoutout is very common. A paid shoutout is when an Instagram user pays another user to promote their product or content through a shoutout. They can pay the user with cash or by sending them free products.
How Does It Work
Now that we know what an Instagram shoutout is let’s find out how they work.
Anyone can do an Instagram shoutout, but a few factors will determine if it is successful or not.
First of all, most people who do Instagram shoutouts have a lot of followers. The main goal of an Instagram shoutout is to gain exposure, which will only work if the person doing the shoutout has a big audience.
Since most people who do Instagram shoutouts have many followers, they need to have an incentive to do the shoutout in the first place. This is why paid shoutouts are so popular; many people will pay a popular Instagram account to promote their brand.
On the other hand, say you have two Instagram accounts, and both have a lot of followers. In this case, these two accounts may each give a shoutout to each other. While nobody is getting paid, each account will get exposure to many potential new followers.
Shoutouts can also promote different things. If you are strictly a content creator and want more followers, then the account doing the shoutout will tell their followers to follow your account. In this case, they will tag your account so that their followers can easily click on your profile.
On the other hand, perhaps you run an Instagram account for your brand and sell a product. The person doing the shoutout will most likely post a photo of your product and embed a link to your store. The purpose of this type of shoutout would be to send in new customers to buy your products.
In general, all Instagram shoutouts will have a call to action, whether that is following another account or buying a product. A call to action refers to when you tell your followers what they should do.
How Much Should You Pay for Instagram Shoutouts
As we mentioned above, paid Instagram shoutouts are the most popular. The amount of money you pay for shoutouts will depend on a few factors, and you will come across a wide variety of prices.
However, you can estimate the cost depending on the number of followers the user has. Even so, keep in mind that every influencer will charge a different amount.
- 100 to 500K followers: $50 to $1000
- 500K to 1 million followers: $1000 to $10,000
- 1 million + followers: $10,000+
If you are planning to pay for an Instagram shoutout, try to stick to these numbers. Some Instagram users may ask for more than they should, so always refer to the average cost of shoutouts.
However, you will need to keep some things in mind. Even though two Instagram accounts can have the same amount of followers, one may have a higher engagement rate than the other.
Engagement rate refers to the number of followers that engage with the influencers post. For instance, the more followers that like, comment and share an influencer’s posts, the higher the engagement rate.
Generally speaking, if an influencer has a higher engagement rate, they can (and will) charge more money for a shoutout. The reason why they charge more is that more followers will engage with your content.
Before agreeing to a certain price, make sure to take a look at their engagement rate. You can do this by comparing the number of followers to the number of comments and likes on their photos.
Studying engagement rate will help you get a feel of what price is fair.
Can It Really Boost Your Sales
Before handing over your hard-earned money, you should also consider if an Instagram shoutout will really boost your sales.
In this section, we will take a few moments to see if Instagram shoutouts are worth investing in. This information should give you a good idea if this route is the best way to boost your online presence.
You Will Gain Followers After an Instagram Shoutout
To boost your sales, you will first need to have an increase in followers. Getting an Instagram shoutout will almost guarantee increased followers, even if it is by a small amount.
One online experiment revealed that about 0.2% of the influencer’s followers would follow the promoted account. While this number may not seem like a lot, that number will be high if you get a shoutout from an account with one million followers, for example.
Instagram Shoutouts With a Call to Action Will Boost Sales
Instagram shoutouts can boost your sales if you have an effective call to action. For instance, an influencer can post a photo of your product, but you won’t get results without a link to your shop.
However, if the shoutout includes a detailed product description and link, you are more likely to see a boost in sales. You need to make sure that followers know why your product is good. To do this, you need to figure out the best way to market your best product.
Most influencers who do shoutouts will agree to post a product description that you send to them. If you are unsure how to write an effective caption, many websites will write promo content for you.
You Will Build Trust With Potential Customers
One of the main drivers of sales is trust. If potential customers don’t trust you, they won’t want to buy products from you.
If you get a shoutout from a well-known influencer, it can help build trust with potential customers.
Everyone follows certain Instagram influencers for a reason. They feel like they have a relationship with them. When an influencer posts about a product they love, their followers will immediately trust you since they trust the influencer.
Even if their followers do not immediately buy your products, they are more likely to have an open mind to your business in the future if they come across it again.
People Are More Likely To Interact With Brands on Instagram
If you are wondering whether an Instagram shoutout can help boost sales, then this fact is important to know: people on Instagram interact with brands more than they do on other sites.
This means that if you get an influencer to do a shoutout for your brand, there is a higher chance of it boosting sales than a shoutout on Facebook.
It is estimated that just under 70% of people on Instagram interact with brands. Facebook, on the other hand, is around 30%
At the end of the day, if you are trying to figure out what social media site is more likely to boost sales, it’s Instagram.
Examples of Successful Instagram Shoutouts
Now we know that Instagram shoutouts are effective and can help boost your sales. However, you may be a bit hesitant still about spending your money on social media marketing.
To help ease your worries, we will give you a few examples of successful shoutouts to start you off on the right foot.
Caption-Based Post
Even though Instagram is a photo-based site, many shoutouts don’t include visual content from the person receiving the shoutout. Often, the influencer will post a picture of themselves and give you a shoutout in the caption.
It is common for the influencer to post a photo that relates to your content. For instance, if you sell kitchen products, they may post a photo of themselves cooking.
Caption and Photo-Based Post
Another common kind of shoutout is a caption and photo-based post. Influencers may post a photo of your content or product and mention more details in the description.
For these kinds of shoutouts, you can usually provide a photo for them to post. If you sell products, then the influencer may post a photo of themselves using the product.
Instagram Story Shoutout
Some influencers don’t like to post shoutouts. However, many will agree to do an Instagram story shoutout.
Instagram story shoutouts are often cheaper than standard posts. This is because not all of their followers will see the story since it is optional to view Instagram stories. Furthermore, the post will disappear after 24 hours.
Conclusion
We hope that this guide has helped you learn a bit more about Instagram shoutouts.
An Instagram shoutout is when an Instagram influencer mentions your personal or brand Instagram account on their page.
There are three main kinds of Instagram shoutouts: shoutout trades, voluntary shoutouts and paid shoutouts.
People will typically ask an account with a lot of followers to do a shoutout for them. A shoutout can expose someone to a wider audience, increase follower count and boost sales.
The cost of an Instagram shoutout largely depends on the number of followers an influencer has.
If you decide to do a shoutout, avoid paying above the average costs of shoutouts and put a lot of thought into who should promote your brand.
