Author: Franz Malten Buemann

After months of testing, Instagram announced a big change to its user interface (UI) in late 2020: replacing the user “Activity” tab with the “Shop” tab, the social platform’s latest move to be more business-friendly.
It’s a big evolution from where the feature was just a few years ago. Today, it’s infinitely easier for users to shop products from brands without ever leaving the app.

So, how exactly does the tool work and how can you leverage it to generate revenue? Find out everything you need to know in the sections below.
Why Your Business Should Sell on Instagram

Thanks to the Instagram shoppable posts feature and other supportive tools (like the product wishlist, product launch reminder, and shopping stickers on Instagram Stories), users can go through the entire buyer’s journey, from discovery to checkout.

Social media platforms are typically seen as great brand awareness tools. However, Instagram’s new integrations have made it a big revenue driver.
A 2019 Facebook study revealed that 54% of respondents purchased items in the moment or some time after seeing a product or service on Instagram.
And it’s not only direct-to-consumer brands that can benefit from using Instagram’s shopping features. A Q4 2020 report by HootSuite revealed that 36.2% of B2B decision-makers use the app to source new products and/or services.
Shoppable posts are marked with a clickable shopping bag icon that displays the product information and the “View Products” call-to-action to visit the brand’s Shop page.

This creates a seamless experience for the user and allows you to advertise your products without being too promotional.
1. Meet the eligibility criteria.
There are a few eligibility requirements you must check off before you start selling on Instagram. You must:

Be located in one of these markets.
Have an Instagram business or creator account.
Sell physical goods that comply with Instagram’s merchant agreement and commerce policies.
Connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Business Page.

Once you meet the above requirements, follow the steps below.
2. Upload your product catalog.
Your catalog is a file that contains the products you want to sell along with their information, such as pricing and description. There are two ways to upload your product catalog:

Take the do-it-yourself route through the Facebook Business Manager by manually adding the items.
Connect to an ecommerce platform partner, such as Shopify or BigCommerce. Find a full list of compatible partners here.

How to Upload Your Products Manually
To create a catalog through Facebook, you must first have a Facebook Business Manager account, which is different from a Business page. From there, head to the Commerce Manager and set up your catalog.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it.
It’s very important to keep your product catalog synced with your Instagram Page, and that your product descriptions and prices are accurate. If you’re running a sale or promotion, be sure to update your product catalog to reflect it.
How to Upload Your Products through an Ecommerce Platform
A second way to connect your Instagram Business Profile to a Facebook catalog is to do it through an ecommerce platform. Here are the steps using two popular platforms.
Shopify
Before you get started, you need to have the Facebook sales channel (included in all paid Shopify plans) installed on your Shopify store, which creates a Shop tab on your Facebook page.

For specific details on how to connect your Facebook page to your Shopify account, you can view the Shopify guide here.
Once you’ve done the above, you can easily add the Instagram Sales Channel to your Shopify store, which connects the products from your Shopify page to your Instagram business profile.
To do this, head to your Shopify admin and click on the “+” button located beside the “Sales Channels” heading.

Next, on the “Add sales channel” dialogue, click “Instagram” and then “Add channel.”
You’ll need to log into your Facebook account page to authenticate your Instagram account in the sales channel.
Once the Instagram Sales Channel is installed, you can enable the feature in your settings on Instagram.
BigCommerce
Start by opening Channel Manager on your BigCommerce account and click “Get Started” next to Facebook.

On the next screen, confirm that you’re using a compatible currency, sign up for a Facebook account (if you don’t have one), review the product requirements, then click “Get Started.”
Next, fill out your details on the Configuration page, including your business’ contact email, phone number, and the Facebook Page you’d like your shop to appear on.
Here’s the complete BigCommerce guide on how to do it.
Once Facebook approves your catalog, head back to Channel Manager, click “Get Started” next to Instagram, and confirm that your store meets the requirements.
3. Submit your account for review.
Once you’ve connected your product catalog to your Instagram account, you can submit your account for approval.
1. Go to your professional dashboard. Once there, click on “Set Up Instagram Shopping.”

2. On the setup page, click on “Get Started.”3. Select your catalog.

4. Review the details and click “Submit for Review.”

The approval process can take a few days. You may also need to provide additional information, such as domain verification.
How to Tag Products with Instagram Shoppable Posts
Once you get access to shoppable posts on Instagram and you’ve completed all the steps listed above, adding tags to your posts is quick and easy.
1. Upload your image and once you’re done editing, hit “Next.”
2. Click on “Tag Products.”
3. Tap on the item in your image you want to tag.
4. Search for the product and select it.
5. Click on “Done” and share the image.
Have an older post that still gets good traction, but doesn’t have a shoppable tag? You can tag products in both new and existing posts from your Instagram Business Profile, up to five products per single image post or 20 products per multi-photo (or carousel) post.

How to Optimize Your Posts for Shoppable Purchases
1. Create posts that feel natural to the Instagram feed.
While selling on Instagram is easier than ever, remember that your audience shouldn’t feel like they are being sold to. You should maintain their current content strategy, incorporating shoppable tags on photos that are a natural fit for your profile.

2. Leverage influencer content.
A great way to organically add shopping tags to your post is by leveraging posts from consumers. Studies show consumers trust influencers much more than brands and these posts serve as social proof, i.e., credibility and validation for the brand.
For example, Fe Noel recently reposted this post from a fashion influencer and added the product tag.

You can also optimize your Instagram sales strategy by using influencer posts. Influencer collaborations and sponsorships have nearly replaced traditional ads and are a huge part of social media strategies today.
55% of fashion shoppers have purchased a fashion item after seeing it promoted on the platform, according to a 2020 post from Instagram’s creator account.
Below, popular fashion model Michelle Dee is shown sporting a Herschel Supply suitcase on the brand’s profile:

An Instagram influencer’s stamp of approval goes a long way and is a great strategy to drive sales from your Instagram shoppable posts.
3. Optimize your post with multiple tags.
Lastly, including multiple shopping tags in your photos will help your audience explore and browse through your products quickly. You can also try adding shopping tags to carousel posts to test their performance against single-photo posts.

4. Activate the Shop page on your Instagram profile.
Create at least nine shoppable posts to activate the “Shop” tab on your Instagram profile. This will group all your shoppable posts under one tab for easy shopping and product discovery.

Measuring the Results of Your Shoppable Posts
Instagram business accounts have access to analytics for their shoppable posts, including data on how many people viewed product information and clicked through to the product page. This information helps determine what type of products resonate with your Instagram followers and identify gaps in the buyer’s journey.
As with all of your social media marketing efforts, you should measure performance data to see what drives the best results (and why) and use that to inform future posts.
Once your business begins selling on Instagram, keep experimenting with images, copy, shopping tags, and other factors that may contribute to your sales.
No matter what type of products you sell, delving into your analytics allows you to understand your audience’s wants, improves your content, and ultimately helps you drive more traffic and sales.
Selling on Instagram is a unique opportunity to reach users in all stages of the buyer journey through a seamless experience.

In early 2020, the world as we knew it was flipped upside down. Businesses were forced to pivot in the face of the pandemic, and as a result many companies adopted a remote work culture.
Remote work changed the way organizations and teams worked — and even how companies communicated to prospective customers and acquired new business. Employees leaned into virtual designs, presentations, and events to communicate both internally and externally.
The graphic design landscape, as a result, has changed dramatically over the past year.
Now, presentations need to work harder than ever to connect, engage, and inspire audiences into action. In fact, over 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given each day to over 500 million audiences — but 79% of those audiences believe most presentations they see are boring.
To help you crush your next presentation deck, we’ve rounded up the top presentation design trends of 2021, as predicted by creative industry experts and presentation power-users.
Here, learn from three creative experts from leading companies in the tech space on the four biggest presentation design trends that will emerge in 2021.

1. There will be increased empathy found in design.
Marissa Latshaw, Founder of Latshaw Marketing, says: “Impactful, inspiring design starts with empathy.
Empathy is one of the most powerful tools in the creative toolbox. The good news is that empathy — the ability to feel, understand, and respond to the feelings of others — is innate in us all. Our job as creators is to harness this empathy for better design, marketing, and storytelling.
Empathy boosts creativity. The empathy/creativity connection is strong — as shown in many studies over the past decade. One study asked participants to create and name a potato chip product for pregnant women. Before beginning the task, half of the participants were told to envision how the consumer would feel while eating the snack. The other half were asked to imagine what the consumer would think. An independent jury found the product concepts of the first, feelings-focused, empathy-activated group to be more original than the control group.
Empathy is also vital for inclusivity. More than ever, we want to communicate with others in a way that is genuinely inclusive. An empathetic approach ensures we understand the goals, needs, fears, and values of all the people we wish to engage (beyond just the way they relate to our brand or product). This is a call for us all to become proactive about inclusivity, and it starts with empathy.
Empathy creates connection. From in-home fitness giant Peloton to the new voice-based, social network Clubhouse, we are constantly finding new and innovative ways to connect with one another.

Both brands demonstrate empathy as they address the palpable and growing need for connection. They re-imagined how we work out and share conversations in a more socially-connected way.

Designing anything — from a presentation to an ad campaign — is no different. Each is an opportunity to reimagine and innovate how we engage and connect with the world.
Empathy helps us to stand out by standing in another’s shoes. Creating one-of-a-kind, empathy-driven experiences ultimately brings us closer together and inspires action.”
2. Designers will lean into radical simplicity.
Eliot Garcia Weisberg, Creative Director at Airbnb, talks to us about all things radical simplicity.
He says, “Despite its incredible power to connect us, teleconferencing stunts audience energy and empathy. Attention — already a fleeting resource — is further divided between the screens, speakers, slides, and sounds of the virtual landscape.
The feedback loop from audience to presenter is nearly dead. The impact of environmental design is lost. In our new world, the value of a single pixel on the cluttered screens of remote audiences is immense. And the screens themselves— their quality and colors— vary wildly from member to member.

The key to designing for the ‘new normal’ is embracing radical simplicity. A designer must reduce a slide to its core idea, then push to simplify even further. They musk ask themselves — ‘Do I really need to show this?’ Then challenge themselves every time the answer is ‘Yes.’

Slide counts will be drastically reduced. Superfluous icons will fade away. Bullets will become a distant memory. Subtle textures will be replaced by solid colors. We’ll see a shift away from image masks and bold text over photos. Instead, we’ll see full-screen photographs or simple statements that make their point obvious and drive core concepts home.
We’ll spend more time on the speaker— full screen— than ever before. Their delivery, from tone to inflection, will become a design element. Rehearsals will replace design reviews. 
The end result will feel much more human. And, if successful, radically simple.”
3. Great design will hold the viewers’ attention.
“For decades, the job of creative designers, writers, and videographers was to get attention. Cut through the noise. Deliver ads that stand out. Use creativity as a hook,” Adam Morgan, Adobe’s Executive Creative Director, says about holding an audience’s attention.
He adds, “But in today’s ultra-connected digital world, that hammer and nail approach isn’t always the answer. People choose what they want. The trend I’m seeing today is to hold attention. Less push and more pull. We have to create experiences that provide real value to an individual — not just catch their attention with shock value or clickbait.

 “We have to create communities where people want to consume our brand experiences. We have to know those individuals and groups, what they care about, and provide new information wrapped in an emotional blanket. We have to stand for things they value.”

Rather than a hard sell, we have to share a story that they believe in and be open and transparent with why it matters to them.
What this means for creative teams is that you can’t just make it pretty or funny. You have to think deeply about what your brand means to customers and then create immersive experiences that connect. It’s no longer just about the creative craft of colors and fonts and icons. It’s about stories and meaning and authenticity and purpose. Don’t just get attention with your work. Hold attention. So that you can build brands that grow and last.”
4. Designers should use clean, minimalistic fonts and calming colors.
Lastly, we tapped into Beautiful.ai’s Creative Director Anuja Kanani’s expertise to unravel one more presentation design trend for 2021.
Kanani says, “Choosing the best colors for a presentation, and good presentation fonts, are two of the most important elements of deck design. Each design decision— shapes, words, and images— affect the way your audience feels about the presentation, but colors hold the most influence.
Taking the place of bold, bright primary colors, 2021 has warranted more relaxed, muted colors following the chaos of 2020. Not only are low-saturated and pastel colors more calming, they’re more organic and natural, perhaps making audiences feel more at ease and confident in the presentation in front of them.
Using a consistent, complimentary color theme strategically can help position your brand in the mind of your customers,” adds Kanani. She recommends limiting your presentation to 3-4 colors in your palette, with one accent color to highlight key points and bring balance and harmony to your presentation.

The trend of minimalism extends to good presentation fonts, too. Seasoned presenters are opting for clean minimal fonts, such as Open Sans or Jost, and rejecting traditional fonts like Arial or Times New Roman in 2021.
Kanani adds, “Custom typography improves your brand recognition, while selecting different weights or styles can help control the narrative on each slide.”
Presentation Graphics
You’ve probably caught onto the fact that over-complicated slides are a thing of the past. Studies show that 35% of millennials say they will only engage with content they feel has a great story or theme, so to avoid boring them into a snooze, use visuals to control your narrative.
Presentation graphics, or rich visuals, can help you paint a picture in bite-sized chunks so that your audience can digest the information you’re presenting to them.
Kanani says, “Engaging, inspiring visuals in presentations make your content compelling, eye-catching, and helps convey your story beautifully.”
Choosing rich icons, diagrams or infographics, and quality photos are powerful tools to help make your presentation more memorable and impactful.
Ultimately, design is an art, not a science. However, ideally you can use these trends as inspiration for your own branded designs in 2021 and beyond. 

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