Selling T-Shirts On Instagram, Finding The Best Influencers

Selling t-shirts on Instagram is becoming a big deal these days. If you are seriously considering this as a novel way to increase your total sales, then you will need to know who are the t-shirt Instagram influencers in the market for your niche. You will then have to evaluate these possible influencers if they can really help you with your objective, to sell more t-shirts.

How do you find the best influencers on Instagram? You will find the best t-shirt Instagram influencers by first identifying what groups are you trying to sell your t-shirts to. You will search Instagram for accounts with followers that exceed 100K. Contact the owners of these accounts and try to reach an agreement with them to promote your t-shirts.

There are other details related here that I will discuss to help you make the best use of Instagram marketing for your t-shirts.

But first, I want to show you how powerful Instagram marketing is. And I will assume that you already have an existing Instagram account for your brand.

Why You Should Use Instagram

The following are numbers related to Instagram that will show you what are the possibilities that you can reach when this social media platform is used.

1 billion people do use it of which 20% are in the US.
There are more female users than male.
50% of US users are below the age of 30.
72% of teens are on this social media platform.
35% of adults who are online use it with 28% of them in the US
70% of them of adults in the US earning more than $30K a year.

You can gather from these numbers just how big the market is. The figures above show that there is a huge market outside the US for your t-shirts. Lastly, a majority of this social media platform users have money to spend.

Why Selling On Instagram Makes Sense

Let me begin this section by sharing with you the 2018 percentage utilization of social media platforms by influencers worldwide. This is for brand collaborations:

Instagram – 78%
Blog – 16%
YouTube – 4%
Facebook – 2%
Pinterest – 1%

Instagram is a runaway success here. It is apparent that these influencers just don’t find news feeds on Facebook helpful along with its paid ads and highly biased political content.

I just would like to add that Facebook owns Instagram.

This social media platform, with its highly graphical content, is a haven for influencer marketing.

People with amazingly beautiful posts and sociable are taking advantage of these its features to make money out of it. They are collecting thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, followers.

And let’s face it, it plays a role, if not a major one, in helping highly skilled social media users decide on what to purchase. They are guided by what they see here and even discover products, and in this case, t-shirt designs that can be purchased.

T-shirts are perhaps one of the easiest products to be promoted for everybody wears or have at least one in their respective closets.

You may not realize it but you or your friends and family may have just recently bought a t-shirt based on what they saw on Instagram or heard from their friends who are using it.

It is not difficult then to have an Instagram t-shirt business.

And it would really make sense for you to get an influencer to tap this fertile market.

Checking Out T-Shirt Instagram Influencers

I mentioned earlier that you should set a baseline of at least 100K followers to consider this influencer to be approached.

Anything less than this prescribed number of followers can be considered as long as the niche is tied closely to what I have and they have very well-thought of and engaging posts.

There is a good chance here that they will be probably cheaper to get compared to ones with a bigger number of followers.

I would do an extra layer of checking here by spending time going over this person’s profile and posts.

First, I will definitely check if the followers of this influencer are part of my target audience.

It is not practical for me to approach an influencer whose niche is in carpentry work unless I have plenty of carpentry designs. I would rather focus on influencers in fashion, streetwear, and other niches that are close to the designs I am primarily working with.

If my designs are predominantly on health and fitness, then it is important that I choose an influencer who is fit and have posts that are related to wellness. Exercises, wholesome foods, and healthy living should be part of their posts.

I will search the posts in this profile to see if my close competitors’ products are already being promoted there. It will not help my Instagram t-shirt business if I will use the same influencer if this is so already. That is unless my designs are different from that of my competitor and this influencer has enough reach to sell mine as well.

I will also check the quality of other products being promoted by this person. If I think that that this influencer is promoting controversial products or causes or supporting controversial figures with their posts, I will definitely not consider using them. I do not want my brand to be associated with this person if and when fallouts happen.

Checking for familiarity in how they are promoting a product would be the next thing I will be checking. I think this person should simply just have the feel of what the customers or target audience prefer.

This is a very important matter and I would discuss this more in the succeeding section.

Reaching Out To Instagram Influencers

By this time, I should have identified potential t-shirt Instagram influencers.

I will check for the contact information contained in their respective accounts and send them an email.

I will be casual in my approach stating that I like their profiles posts and I think that they can be of help to me as I am trying to market my t-shirts. I will then include a sample of my designs in this email or message and ask them which among these would be appreciated by their followers.

If these people are also my followers, I will just send the link to my Instagram or other related sites.

I will then ask for how much they would be charging me for this promotion. If I can afford it, I will try to close the deal with them. I will also ask for their tips on how to run promotions on their accounts for future reference.

Remember earlier that I said that I will check for how this influencer is promoting a product.

This is critical because I think it would be best if I leave it up to this person, as to how they will post the content for my brand. They probably would be offended if I tell them how to do this because it is simply their job and that is what they are being paid for.

That’s why when you checked for this before, you should see posts that are natural and organic as often as possible. This method is a tested one that will drive traffic and engagement to my sites. People tend to shy away from hard sells or when they think that they are being sold something.

I will now give an overview as to how t-shirts are being sold on Instagram.

Overview Of Selling T-Shirts On Instagram

Here is how the selling process will work once you have closed the deal with the t-shirt Instagram influencer.

Influencer will create a post that will showcase your brand and at least one of its products, preferably by having them wear your t-shirt. Your contact details will be part of the description or link in bio so that followers of this influencer can easily reach your bio link. You can respectfully request for your other contact details to be posted like your online store or website.
When the followers of this influencer reach your bio link, they can follow you and click on your website. Entice these people by saying that they can get discounts or promos when they check out your page. This will definitely increase the number of new followers of your own profile.
You need to have a discount or promo set up prior so that people who are directed to these sites can check it out and select if they want to. A t-shirt promo giveaway is a good idea here especially if you ask these followers of yours to tag their own friends in your posts or share them. Just make sure your promos comply with Instagram Promotion Guidelines.
Work with your site administrator or learn to set up follow up emails being sent to these visitors of your sites. Remind them of the promotions that you have set up in case they haven’t taken advantage of this. For ones who did, send them additional offers or find out how they are liking the t-shirts they bought.
Continue retargeting these customers but don’t be too pushy for your emails might be considered as spams. Try to set a reasonable amount of time for follow up emails.

Things To Consider In Selling T-Shirts On Instagram

I would like to share with you additional points regarding this subject.

Overnight Success Is Possible But Not Probable

Not unless you have managed to obtain the services of the Kardashians or Selena Gomez, you will have to be patient here.

You need to have the right mindset that this will take time to happen. Most likely, you will not make sales in terms of thousands of t-shirts immediately.

Your work is cut out for you since you will only expect to garner big sales when you are retargeting your warm leads.

This is what I mean with tip #5 in the previous section.

You will make money on people who have liked and purchased your t-shirts. These are the people who you have sent follow up emails on a consistent basis. On their own, they are promoting this item whether with their comments or their own posts with your t-shirts worn.

If you have patience here, then you will know that this is working out as a long term strategy. This kind of selling is more on the recurring revenue type rather than the quick sale one.

You will have your own loyal followers and who knows, you might just become a sought after Instagram influencer on your own.

Test Your Promos Before Going “Live”

Checks here include that you have a working Instagram account for yourself, if not for your own brand.

Verify that the links that will be placed in the influencers post description are already up and running such as the websites, online stores, and others.

Remember that this influencer is charging you money so it is to your interest to get as many followers, likes, leads, and of course, sales with his post.

Also, simulate the promos that you have created by testing it yourself or have a friend do it for you. Make sure that these customers are indeed getting the discount or whatever promotion you have proudly advertised.

Mistakes here are embarrassing and you will definitely lose potential clients here.

Now that I have shown you how to work with influencers to drive sales of your t-shirts, I will share with you how to improve your own Instagram account.

What Is Instagram Shopping?

Instagram as cited earlier is a very powerful tool in marketing.

It would make sense for them to keep all the traffic within their platform for this purpose rather than having viewers click links that go off the platform to purchase the liked item. They would obviously like to make money off of these sales transactions.

They are now partnering with Shopify and BigCommerce for this purpose and they are narrowing it down to merchants with exposure in these e-commerce platforms. This partnership saves Instagram the hassles of handling fraudulent transactions, customer service matters, and other concerns related to e-commerce.

This is being done by allowing these business owners to tag products on their posts or in Instagram world, a “Shoppable Tag” will be created. The item’s price will be then displayed and a lead to the appropriate funnel will be established.

To be precise, if a viewer wants to purchase this item, he will select the Shop Now options and he will be taken to the merchant’s Shopify or BigCommerce site.

All of these will be done within this social media’s own platform.

Instagram shopping is not available in all countries and territories.

Setting Up Instagram Shopping

You will need the following to be completed:

Have a Shopify Shop on the Basic Plan or a BigCommerce store set up.
Check that Instagram and Facebook Sales Channels are enabled in this Shopify store.
Check that you are an Administrator on your Facebook Business page.
Link your Instagram Business Account to this Facebook Business page.
Ensure your installed Instagram version is the latest one.
Activate Product Tagging on Instagram.

Creating at least 9 shopping posts in this social media platform will automatically activate this Shop Tab which will show under your bio. This Shop Tab allows your viewers to get a complete view of all your posts that have tagged products on them.

Additional Tips To Have A Better Instagram T-Shirt Business

By following these tips, you will be maximizing the marketing capabilities of Instagram for your business.

Instagram Insights

This is similar to Facebook’s Page Analytics tool.

Through Instagram Insights, you will be able to check important information related to your account. They are how many users have visited your profiles, the demographics of your followers, how many accounts now have seen your posts and others.

You can see the Insights button right at the top area of your Instagram account.

UGC And Hashtags

UGC stands for the User Generated Content and this applies to posts that your followers created that refers to your brand.

They are excellent pieces of marketing because it shows that your followers and people who have bought your product like them (hopefully!). You can show your appreciation by thanking them directly, in comments to this same post, or sharing it with the rest.

These people can refer to your products through the use of hashtags. That is why it is important that you have one and are using it consistently.

You need to devise a unique hashtag for your t-shirt Instagram business and for your main products. You need to follow this hashtag, once created, so that you will know every time someone uses them.

I suggest that you create hashtags for the industry that you belong to and the geographic location where you’re primarily at. Doing so will further increase this visibility of your products.

You can make effective use of 30 hashtags in a single post although I would not recommending using this maximum number. Instead, aim for quality hashtags for this will show you are on top of things.

Hashtags should not be placed on the post itself or in the description. It would be better to have them in comments instead. There are hashtag tools available online for your use.

Getting More Instagram Followers

These are creative ideas on how to get new followers:

Create posts in your other own social media accounts that will inform your followers there that you are now on Instagram.
Craft funny content in your posts that your followers will probably share.
Use the power of collaboration. Contact other brands that might find your t-shirts useful for them. This will enable you to post on their Instagram and they can do the same with yours.
Socialize with your followers by checking out their own posts and liking them. This will show that you are also aware of them and not merely thinking of them as a sales tool.
Set a very clear Call-To-Action or (CTA) in the description area of your posts so that your follower will be guided as to what you would prefer these people to do next.

Getting More Instagram Likes

This is where your creativity and authenticity would be of tremendous value to you and your account.

When you create posts, they should be natural, high-quality, and professional made to generate a WOW response from your viewers.

Responding to other people’s posts should be done naturally meaning you are reacting because you feel that you need to do so. Showing support for causes promoted in these posts is one way to prove your authenticity.

These reactions shouldn’t be forced at all.

Using Instagram Stories To Sell T-Shirts

Instagram Stories is also a tool launched that is similar to Snapchat.

Your posts here will only stay for 24 hours so you need to maximize its reach.

One way is by adding hashtags and location tags to your Instagram Stories.

I suggest that you pin your best Instagram Stories in your profile so that they can appear as highlights.

Swipe-up Instagram Stories can also help here. This tool will allow you to share links on your Instagram Stories which enables your followers to go to your shop directly.

You will need at least 10,000 followers to activate Swipe-up Instagram Stories.

Having Optimal Posting Times

Posting at the minimum of once every day would reinforce the perception that you have an active Instagram account.

This is good for your business for it will constantly remind your followers of your presence. Instagram algorithms will also take note of this that you have an active account.

You can go back and check the Instagram Insights tool to see the time when many of your followers are viewing your posts. Check online tools that will permit you to schedule your posts in case you can’t do it yourself at the right time.

What About An Instagram T-Shirt Ad?

Image by stokedonprinting

I will suggest that you consider using Instagram t-shirt ad especially if you are a newbie in this business. This will start the process for you in generating sales and followers.

These are the advantages of using an Instagram t-shirt ad:

You can reach a wider audience that is beyond the reach of your own followers.
You can add a link that can be tapped by your followers and that will take them to your shop.
An audience that is ready and willing to buy your t-shirts can be reached with these ads.

You can create these ads from your phone or desktop computer. They can be either photo ads, carousel ads, video ads, or stories ads.

Creating An Instagram T-Shirt Ad From Phone

You will start by simply by clicking on the Promote label button shown on your profile. This will show your recent posts where you can run an Instagram ad.

You can’t create an Instagram ad through this Promote function.

You will have the choice of whether you want your engagements to be directed to your profile or your own designated online site.

For audiences, you can specify Automatic, Local, or Manual.

The automatic option will let Facebook’s algorithm select the audience for your ads while for the local selection, you can specify the area where you want your ads to be shown.

Manual option lets you target your audience on several geographic locations and with more than one interest.

You can set a budget for how much funds you will be spending in this ad and for how long you want it to run.

Creating An Instagram T-Shirt Ad From Desktop

You will need to establish this first in the Facebook Ads. This link will provide the actual details needed to be completed.

Ad campaigns here can increase traffic going to your designated online sites.

If you use the Facebook Pixel, you can produce conversion campaigns and just be charged if a visitor completes a certain action such as visiting your profile or completing a sale.