Many owners of commercial accounts or blogs on Instagram don’t use this social network to collect email addresses for further campaigns. However, this solution can be very effective when used correctly. Our friends from Zengram told us why collecting organic subscriptions via Instagram brings so good results, and how it should be organized.

Why You Should Use Instagram to Collect Email Sign-Ups

• Popularity. Today, Instagram is an extremely popular platform. Users are getting more active, with thousands of new active followers and registrations every day. From 2016 to 2020, Instagram is expected to have 26.9 million more users. That means it can generate you way more prospects than, for example, a traditional landing page.

• Economy. It’s much cheaper to promote an Instagram profile than optimize your landing page for search engines. You can do it by yourself or use services for automatic promotion, that typically don’t cost much.
• Audience segmentation. During the promotion on Instagram, you can only show your posts to people who belong to your target audience. When you start an ad campaign or automated promotion, you can choose gender, age, or residence of the audience you want to reach and encourage to subscribe to you. Collecting subscriptions outside social networks does not provide this opportunity.

Subscription Form in Your Instagram Bio

A link in the bio is the easiest way to collect subscriptions, which also does not require any extra costs. To double its effectiveness, you need to stick to the basic rules.

• The subscription link shouldn’t be the first words people see in your bio. Start by telling about your company, its activities, and offers, and only then ask to click on the link.
• Place the link before contact information. People are less likely to go to your website or make a phone call than subscribe to posts.
• Encourage to subscribe. Offer people something of value: discounts, promo codes, free shipping, etc. Statistics show that such perks may double the number of clicks or even do more.
• Make the link friendly and informal. A small text or a cute emoji put next to it makes your call to subscribe more trustworthy and sympathetic.

Subscription Form in Instagram Stories

Another method to post a link is by adding it to Instagram stories. It is also quite effective, as people are more willing to view stories rather than posts in the news feed. Almost half of Instagram users view stories every day.

Adding a link to stories is easy. Just create a story and insert a form in it. But make sure the story itself is encouraging and motivating. To make one,

• post the relevant text in the story. Apart from a call to subscribe, it should contain some valuable incentives similar to those you put in the bio;
• think over the story concept. The sign-up should be relevant to the story message.

Instagram Lead Ads

Instagram Lead Ads is a built-in multifunctional tool that allows you to add a subscription link to stories or news feeds. It is set up using Facebook Ads Manager.

Instagram Lead Ads is able to forward the user not only to the subscription form but also to your website or landing page, or your accounts on other social platforms.

Moreover, you can also use Instagram Lead Ads to create small questionnaires to help identify your audience's preferences.

Several Tips on How to Get Followers on Instagram

Even the most effective subscription collection methods won't work unless there's regular traffic to your account. There are three effective ways to ensure it:

• contests;
• calls to action;
• automatic promotion.

Contests

If you announce a contest with prizes (even not very expensive), the audience activity will increase dramatically. And this applies not only to your subscribers, but also to users who have not yet subscribed to you. After the announcement of the contest, the number of your visitors will grow, and so will new subscribers. And of course, you can use the advanced stats for Instagram to understand how to further increase engagement with content.

You can post the subscription form directly in the contest post, or make a subscription a must for participation (for example, the first three subscribers receive prizes).

As prizes, you can use not only material gifts, but also more abstract bonuses - for example, discounts or an invitation to a free master class.

Calls to Action

You can encourage users to subscribe by asking them directly. Such a request can be placed in stories or in one of the promoted posts. Try to convince the users that the subscription will really be useful. For example, it will provide the latest news on arrivals or promotions and discounts. This will be much more effective and will not cause rejection in your audience.

Encourage users to subscribe to your account. The more popular your account is, the more subscribers it would bring.

Automated Promotion

You can also get followers to your account with the help of specialized online services that help you promote your Instagram page. There are different tools that can help increase conversion and email subscriptions.

• Masslooking. Masslooking is watching the stories of other users automatically. SMM promotion shows that if a user sees that their stories are viewed from your account, they go to your account and view its content. If you've added the subscription link correctly, it's likely to bring results.
• Massliking. The mechanism is similar to masslooking. Only in this case, you give likes to other posts, and people usually like yours in response. Most often, they go beyond, and if your page has a properly set subscription link, they will use it.
• Automated direct messages. The service allows to automatically send messages offering to subscribe to your campaigns.
• Automated comments. The service allows to automatically post pre-written comments which can also contain a subscription invitation.

To Sum Up

Email is one of the most effective ways to deliver a commercial offer to a potential customer. Use every opportunity to collect email addresses, including Instagram. You can place a subscription link in your bio, stories, or posts. However, putting a link is not enough - you need to encourage people to click on it. There are several ways to do it: launch contests, calls to action, or automated promotion. To use the later option, try automated promotion services that would automatically view stories of your target audience and like their pots, encouraging them to visit your page.