How to Host a Virtual Market For Your Business on Instagram
During the tough time of the Corona crisis, many brands and small business owners are using creative ways to host a virtual market for their customers using Instagram.
The time spent on mobile has proportionally gone up due to working from home or not going out. Brands and marketers are using Instagram’s Live and story features to retain the attention of their consumers right now.
Dark&Cozy is an Amsterdam based entrepreneur who runs her own product line of handcrafted homewares and sells them on her website and Instagram. Leira, owner at Dark&Cozy was supposed to launch her new range at a home-made makers’ marker in the Netherlands that unfortunately got canceled due to the Corona crisis.
But she decided to host a virtual market on her Instagram stories to launch her new product line.
Today, we are covering everything about hosting a virtual market using Instagram Stories.
Ready to dive in? Let me share with you easy actionable steps on hosting a virtual market for your business on Instagram.
Have a Pre-launch Strategy for your Popup
Before you host a popup on your Instagram, give a few days to build excitement on your stories and posts where you share enough details about the date and time of your virtual popup.
Make announcements using the Instagram Countdown sticker which is a great feature to build excitement for your popup launch. You can also choose if you want to allow people to follow and share your countdown. If you allow them, they will be able to turn on a reminder so they can be notified when your launch is actually happening.
Create stories to give sneak peeks of your popup launch that you are going to be hosting. The more the pre-launch content, the higher the excitement you are building.
Make a list of all the content you will need for your pre-launch and launch to host your virtual popup
Since, you are hosting a popup virtually, you must make a list of all the content types in different formats you might need to host your virtual popup.
3-4 Vertical pictures of your products and the entire collection
Close up shots of your best products
Videos of your products
Any information about your material, cost, shipping, and other product details
Ask your followers and micro-influencers who you are friends with to promote your popup and direct their followers to your page.
Create a little home studio set-up to display your product line
Don’t fret too much about this part. Just use some natural light to display your products in any aesthetic that suits your brand.
Take enough pictures you could use in your launch and promotions.
How to Host Your Virtual Market
A great idea is to host this popup both on Stories and on Instagram live but not all of it together.
Hosting a Market on Instagram Live:
Instagram Live is an incredible channel to drive new followers, engagement and getting your audience to submit their comments and questions in real-time. It might seem a little daunting in the beginning but if you plan it out a little ahead of time as to what you exactly want to broadcast in your Live, it is going to be very easy.
Hosting an Instagram live for your virtual popup will boost your credibility and will help so many new users discover your profile.
Hosting A Market on Stories:
It will also be smart to use pictures, boomerangs, and videos to host your popup on Stories along with your Live for the audience who might not want to watch an entire Live broadcast.
Use all your launch content pieces and share them together to give a preview of your product line.
Do not shy away from asking your followers to promote your virtual market on their accounts
Ask your audience and followers and micro-influencers who you are friends with to promote your popup and direct their followers to your page.
We really hope this inspires you to host a virtual market or any feature launch that you want to do during this time. If you haven’t started using Instagram Live for business yet, now is the time!