Instagram Shoutout Template For A Dropshipping Business

In this article I will show you how to prepare visuals and text for a shoutout in shopify dropshipping!

For this tutorial we’re going to be using SaleSource – a team of enthusiasts who make it possible for people all over the globe to start their low-cost eCommerce ventures. By the way, here is how you can launch your own dropshipping business with the lowest  startup investment possible! 

To profit from your online business, it’s not enough to simply have it running.  The key to your success is smart business promotion - and that’s exactly what I will  help you with today.  In our previous article, I was talking about Instagram shoutouts - an efficient promotional  instrument that helps you gain recognition, reach new customer audiences and improve your  profits.  That article was all about the process of arranging a shoutout, but today, I’ll talk about an  even more important aspect of this promotion: the shoutout itself. 

You can spend long hours researching the market, finding the best product for promotion, looking  for the perfect blogger account, and negotiating the shoutout price and placement.  Still, if you don’t pay attention to the advertising material you prepare for this  shoutout, all your hard work will go in vain.  Let’s see what you can do to never let that happen! 

Prepare the visuals

In the previous article I’ve explained 2 strategies of selecting an awesome product for your shoutout.  Now, your goal is to make everyone see how amazing it is!  The first step is go through the selected product’s page on AliExpress and choose  appropriate pictures or videos for your ad. 

For example, this item has lots of good photos and even a high-quality video - but all these  visual materials show the seller’s logo clearly. 

For an aliexpress dropshipping store, this is a big mistake.  These logos clearly show that you’ve taken this product from somewhere else, and it stops  you from building your own brand.  So, here’s a little trick: scroll down to the product details section and see if it contains any pictures you can use.  Let’s see what we’ve got there. 

There are a lot of photos to choose from!  They are great quality and free from seller’s watermarks, so any of them could be a good choice for your upcoming shoutout. 

But what if the description field doesn’t contain any images you can use?  In this case, you need to look for the identical AliExpress products and check their pages carefully.  Use the free SaleSource extension - the tool that lets you navigate AliExpress products easily. 

Simply click on the Search icon and view the list of similar products.  Check all of them: for example, this product’s gallery contains lots of great pictures with  no watermarks, so you can take them for your future shoutout. 

What’s next?  Now that you have a bright high-quality picture without any watermarks, it’s time to think  about what you will do with it.  At this point, there are some decisions you need to make.  What do I mean by that? 

If you want to show more than one product in your shoutout, or if your item has several  variations, it is a good idea to make a collage to show all of them at once.  Something like this will do:

As you can see, this collage also contains important extra details, like the discount  amount and the free shipping option.  If you don’t want Instagrammers to miss the important details in the post description, just put them in the most visible place - on the picture itself. 

By the way, what shoutouts placement format have you agreed upon?  A typical Instagram post, a carousel post and a Stories post are a bit different in  their formats and aspect ratios, so you need to keep this in mind while creating the design. 

For instance, this is a single pic of our product: 

An example of a product picture for Stories 

An example of the pics for Instagram carousel (function allowing placement of several photos  in one post to swipe right):

If you’ve found a good product video, you can make a shoutout out of it as well.  Video editing requires a bit more skills than making a photo collage, but if you can do  it yourself, don’t miss this opportunity!  Here, the same rules apply: pay attention to the video’s aspect ratio and other technical requirements and add extra text or stickers on it if you want to. 

Write the right caption

Okay, so your work of art is ready.  Now what?  The next step is to write the right caption for it.  Effective shoutout text should introduce your product to the viewers and let them see how  they will benefit from using it.

Also, you should definitely link to your store account on Instagram - otherwise, no one will  know where to get your incredible item!  Don’t forget about the call to action: ask the viewers to tag a friend, write their opinion  in the comments, or interact with this post in some other way.

If your shoutout promotes several products, make sure that the caption describes all the  items you’re advertising. 

Use the matching hashtags

Do you want your shoutout to go viral?  Think about adding three or four hashtags to your caption.  Take a couple of hashtags that are directly related to the products you’re advertising  and pick a couple more broad hashtags that are popular among your target audience.  As a result, your post will be seen not only by the followers of your partner blogger, but by a wider audience as well.  Many people follow specific hashtags and use them to find interesting posts, so use this opportunity to reach lots of potential clients! 

Shoutout template checklist

Okay, let’s go through the details of the perfect shoutout once again! 

·       Quality product image(s) or video(s)

·       Short but powerful caption 

·       Your store tag

·       Link to the product/category 

·       3-4 hashtags 

Do you have all the elements from this list?  Awesome!  Now, send them to the blogger you’ve selected, and don’t forget to make an identical post in your own account. 

Oh, and here is one more thing: make sure that the store page you mention in the shoutout  looks appealing and trustworthy to the visitor!  You don’t want to send Instagrammers to a page that doesn’t open or looks like a scam, right?