Organic beverage brand Suja Juice recently turned Instagram into an effective digital storefront by combining inspirational content with a buying mechanism, resulting in the social network becoming the top mobile referral site for mobile sales.

Recognizing that Instagram is an important marketing channel for reaching mobile customers, Suja Juice partnered with Curalate to leverage its Like2Buy solution, enabling consumers to like a post and be directed to the brand’s Web site. However, the brand also grasped the need to incorporate inspirational content to ensure the success of the buying mechanism.

“Any brand that sells its products online and has the resources to create high quality, engaging content can use Instagram as a virtual storefront,” said Heather MacNeil, vice president of marketing at Suja Juice. “By using a tool like Like2Buy, powered by Curalate, brand fans simply ‘like’ a brand’s post, and they get directed to the brand’s ecommerce site.

“It’s a great way to build an emotional connection between a brand and its consumers, and an easy way to drive online sales,” she said.

“We focus on creating a hub that will inspire our fans to live a long, beautiful life. Whether we publish informative health and wellness tips, beautiful pictures of our juice in our local SoCal setting or inspirational quotes, all are a reminder for our fans to take some time to treat themselves well.”

Organic engagements
Suja Juice realized early on Instagram’s to reach mobile customers, with comments from fans suggesting that these users were loyal and that they appreciated being able to connect with the brand in an organic manner.

Compared to Pinterest, another visually oriented social media network, Instagram has less of a focus on products, making more organic engagements possible.

To establish Instagram as a storefront, Suja Juice integrated Curalate’s Like2Buy solution, a tool that allows users to go from browsing on Instagram to a nutritious juice recipe or blog post about healthy living on the brand’s Web site.

Mobile referrals
Since tapping Like2Buy, Instagram has become a top mobile referrer to the Suja Juice Web site and the number one mobile referral site for mobile sales.

Over a 30-day period, Like2Buy was the number one mobile referral site for online purchases and accounted for 20 percent of the brand’s overall traffic, with 49 percent of those users representing new visitors.

“Instagram isn’t about pushing products; it’s about sharing experiences,” said Matt Langie, chief marketing officer of Curalate. “What Suja Juice does a great job of is complementing their core product offering with the types of experiences that the Suja customer aspires to have.

“Over the last year or so, we’ve seen both Instagram and Pinterest emerge as important drivers of inspiration, intent, and mobile referrals,” he said. “Marketers can harness these channels by understanding who their Instagram and Pinterest audiences are, how they differ, and what type of imagery they are most inclined to take action on.”

Final Take
Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York