Selling your products

[@deepica] Hey everyone, I'm Deepica Mutyala and I'm the Founder and CEO of Live Tinted, and I'm also an influencer. And I started my entire career here on Instagram to launch my very own beauty brand, which is why I'm here to share tips and tricks with you on how you can sell your products on Instagram.

I started my brand because I grew up not seeing a beauty company represent for people like me. I never saw us in campaigns. I never saw products made for us. So I told my parents at a very young age that I would one day change and disrupt that. And for me personally, after being in the beauty industry across being at corporate companies and then being a beauty influencer, it really was important to me that we started as a community. Which is why it made complete sense for us to launch our products on Instagram and do it through Instagram shopping.

Opening your shop on Instagram

So when I set up my shop on Instagram what was really cool about it was that it kind of created this like seamless connection from what the community already was on our Instagram account and transfered it into the shopping experience. So for us, obviously, diversity and inclusion is at the core of the brand. So, on our Instagram shopping page we made sure that there were images of people from different skin tones reflected there so you could see similarly what you saw on our page into the Instagram shop experience.

Promoting your shop

Something that's really important to me is that when we do release a product there really is a storytelling component to it. We definitely incorporate photos and we do videos and also specific images of the product but it always goes back to storytelling about people from the community and their specific experience using the products. So it doesn't really feel like a sale, and it really helps with that connection to the product on an emotional level. Something that I found to be really valuable is there's actually this tagging aspect. So on the product image, or even in the video, you can directly tag the product that you're trying to sell in Stories and the post itself. And so literally with just a few clicks people can easily get to the Instagram shopping experience and buy your products.

Customizing your shop

So I'm looking at our Instagram shop page, and you can see on here that it really allows you to showcase all the range of your products and something I really love about the individual product pages on the Instagram shopping experiences is that you can not only add images, but you can also put video, actually, demoing people using your product. My most favorite part is like, it really creates this amazing product experience where you almost feel like you can touch the products because the imagery is just so delicious. And I feel like that's really important when people are doing shopping online and through Instagram. And I really think that we've done a great job of making it so you get that range of products, videos, really beautiful imagery. And another great way to get additional eyeballs onto your Instagram shop is for me on my personal page. I'm able to link to my brand's Instagram shop. So it just keeps that conversation going and making sure that as many people as possible can discover your Instagram shopping account.

Key takeaways

So if there's three things you take away from this it's this.

1/ Number one, listen to your community. They're your biggest advocates and get them involved. For us, our very first product was, actually, created based on a poll that we did on Instagram Stories. And they told us they wanted a product for hyperpigmentation and dark circles. So we created it. And you can keep that kind of connectivity with your community going into the Instagram shopping experience through UGC and making sure that they feel seen.

2/ Number two, focus on storytelling. Just by doing that and being authentic and sharing that story, you're already getting that connection with your customer. And then you can add the Instagram product tagging tool to drive them to your shop and create that seamless experience.

3/ And number three, build out those product pages. It should really feel like a seamless experience going from your Instagram account to your shop page. You want it to feel like people can, actually, experience the products through that shop page and almost feel like they're touching it IRL. I really hope you guys found this helpful in any way. And just remember, if an Indian girl from Texas can make this happen and live out all of her dreams. I hope you guys know that you can too and know that I am rooting for you. You got this.