5 rules for creating great selling content for social networks

The question of whether to create selling content on Instagram is no longer worth it. On the other hand, it is often not clear how to make a plan so that every step you take is effective and at the same time does not cost a lot of money. 

When you figure out the audiences, their psychology, their capabilities and advantages, types of content, it’s time to create posts! The rules below will help you create effective posts at a low cost.

1. Pay attention to the events in the world when drawing up your marketing plan / create posts 

As mentioned above, there is event content, people react to it. The business must also react quickly to events, come up with creatives related to them, and offer subscribers a discount, giveaway, and more. For example, now, during quarantine due to the coronavirus pandemic, all online schools offer the opportunity to take their courses for free or at a huge discount. If people like this service, they will come for it already for money.

Famous case: in 2013 at the Super Bowl, the electricity was cut off, and Oreo quickly reacted to the situation and posted a picture on Twitter with the message “You can dunk Oreo in the dark!”. In an hour, the tweet was mentioned in the media, blogs, and other Twitter accounts more than 500 million times! This is very rare, but everything is within your power. 

For situational content marketing on Instagram and other social networks to be effective, remember: 

1. You should always follow the news. Subscribe to influencers, popular media, follow the Twitter of famous people and companies. 
2. Learn to quickly come up with creative pictures. Your team also needs to be fast – reviewing work, refining, and submitting for publication. 
3. Look at your ideas critically. In your opinion, the picture may seem brilliant, but to other people, it may not, and even offensive and depressing. Another creative can cause a media scandal, think about whether you need it and check before publishing if the picture will affect the negative side of animal rights activists, believers, national minorities, feminists? 

If you do not have opportunities, time to keep track of news here and now, just use the events that will be soon: the Olympic Games, Christmas, the release of a new season of a TV series or cartoon … whatever, in general. 

Use calendars, reminiscent of what a holiday is today and tomorrow. They can inspire you.

2. Audiences need dynamics 

Cisco predicted that in 2021 more than 80% of all traffic on the Internet will be in video format. On one Facebook, users watch it in total for more than 100 million hours per day. It was also noticed that on social networks we share videos 12 times more actively than texts, pictures. Thanks to this, organic reach grows, users can watch ads without annoyance. 

Residents of social networks are equally fond of both professional videos and live, filmed with a phone and without a tripod. 80% of people are more likely to choose to live on Instagram or stream than read a blog. Almost 100% of consumers admitted that brand videos pushed them to buy. 

If the video is a complex, promotional format, it is better to make it by videographers, but for social networks, you can do it yourself. See what dynamic content options you have: 

• GIFs; 
• Photos with stickers with animation; 
• Posts with animation; 
• Stories in video format; 
• live broadcasts. 

Large brands often upload videos to stories and feed, use animation. McDonald’s has almost all of its content in the video. The GIF can be made on the Giphy website. Video posts with captions, graphics, templates are easy to make in Canva, Crello. You don’t even need to download them, everything is available online.

The creation of selling video content can be automated – select a template in the selected editor, adjust the content – captions, effects, video, text. Next, download the file, that’s it, you can upload it to your account! 

3. The design is not like everyone else’s 

Statista reports: every minute more than 46 million posts appear on Instagram, a million people visit Facebook, and 2 million snaps appear on Snapchat. Do you understand how difficult it is to stand out in such an avalanche of ideas, information, people? 

If you do not have radical ideas that no one has used, just come up with a corporate identity that users will associate with you. You must have a font, logo, your colors. Gradually, subscribers will get used to your design and in a split second, they will understand whose post it is in the feed. You can even come up with your hero, invent stories about him, draw him in various poses and situations. Illustrating takes a lot of time, but it will remain in the memory of social media users. 

Create a template for the design, and then working with the design of the account will take a matter of seconds. There is no simpler way to save time and nerves for yourself and your team. Use Crello to create a template. Choose a template for an image or video, edit as you need, attach a logo. Everything, the template can be used constantly, changing some of the information on it depending on the needs. 

4. Presentation should not be mixed 

Just as the design should be, so should the presentation of the brand be. At the very beginning, determine in what tone you will speak with the audience and do not change your style. The submission should be easy to read in posts, comments, account descriptions. If the integrity is broken, subscribers can get lost. 

The colors of the account should also correspond to the style of filing the text. If you are for tenderness – use pastel shades, if for audacity – bright, juicy! 

Find your style, if it is different from others, it will be difficult to repeat and at the same time you will be benevolent, you will be easily remembered by the public. You can collaborate with illustrators and create your original bold concept! 

A striking example is Kim Kardashian’s account. Each job is a huge amount of work done, but the number of subscribers shows that the vivid images that no one will ever repeat are enticing. 

5. Be helpful 

Give users more than they expect. When you talk about your product or service, share information not only about their good sides, price, photos, but also the benefits: writing life hacks, lists, make maps. 

Useful information, especially exclusive, is very appreciated by the Internet audience. 

The main goals of the selling content: 

• story about the product; 
• announcement of new products; 
• information about promotions, discounts, contests; 
• expertise; 
• inspiration; 
• entertainment; 
• attracting attention. 

It is not necessary to compose a post advertising your product/service and supplement it with useful information. You can simply write useful text to help your users. Even if there is no mention of the brand in it, they will pay attention to it if the information helps in life. At least once or twice a month, make content aimed at value, not sales. You will not lose anything, and users will develop a more positive attitude towards you, an association with humanity.