Businesses of any size can no longer afford to ignore Instagram and its reach. With over a billion monthly users and a marketing audience of over 850 million, about 75% of all companies use Instagram as an important aspect of their business strategy.
Your business can leverage the trove of influencers available on Instagram to target niche audiences and post relevant content that will generate customer engagement and increase brand awareness. Here are the top 17 marketing strategies you can adopt to get the most out of Instagram.
- Get a Business Profile.
Your brand’s Instagram page should ideally be a business profile. This allows potential customers to contact you directly. A business account also gives you access to Instagram analytics or Insights, which can help you monitor any future campaigns. You can publish Instagram ads without having to use Facebook’s advertising tools, making the process seamless.
Many blog posts explain how you can convert your profile into a business account. With a little research, you’ll be on your way to enjoying the free perks of a business account on Instagram.
- Free Instagram Tools.
Instagram offers its business accounts several powerful tools that can help you with your marketing strategy. Insights give you a look into the metrics of your posts like impressions and engagement data.
You are even presented your data based on gender, age, location, and even active hours. Understanding your users’ behaviour is key to providing content that will boost engagement.
- Well-defined Goals.
Instagram can be leveraged for several purposes, including increasing brand awareness, making sales, capturing new leads, or even establishing your brand as a business leader.
A marketing strategy with clearly defined goals gives you structure and also allows you to measure its success. If your posts are not generating the level of engagement you want, then you can relook the type of posts you are creating.
- Target Audience.
Building a buyer persona is essential to your marketing goals. For example, if your primary customer is a teenager, then using an influencer who is popular in that demographic can give you enormous rewards.
With Instagram Ads, you can target your ads specifically to specific demographics. When you know your audience or customer, then setting up your ads to reach the targeted audience becomes a more efficient use of your resources.
- Use Product Teasers.
Any social media advertisement is hugely different from the ads run on traditional media. The latter is about pushing the product on a medium that is the same for every audience. Social media, on the other hand, is personalised. Your advertising cannot seem pushy, or else your followers will leave.
Use product teasers which mention your products without being pushy. Potential customers are more likely to buy from you if the messaging is laid back. This doesn’t mean that you abstain from showcasing your products. You just have to refrain from the ‘BUY, BUY, BUY’ rhetoric.
- Visually Enticing Content.
At its core, Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform. Your content needs to be visually compelling to stand out.
At the very minimum, your posts need to be well-lit, composed well, in focus, and sharp. Many brands find higher engagement with videos as well. Your videos must have a tight script and be neatly edited.
If you are just starting with making videos, then you can try the Instagram video editor to play around and find what works for you. You must decide what type of content is more effective as a picture post or as a video.
- Make Sponsored Ads.
Depending on your budget, you can create sponsored ads for Instagram, which allows you to reach a broader audience who may not be following your profile. Use compelling content to create the ad. You can even convert high-performing posts into sponsored ads. The ads can be a photo, video, carousel, or stories.
- Instagram Stories.
Instagram Stories are displayed right on top of a customer’s feed and are immediately visible. Stories can be used to give your audience a look at the behind-the-scenes work which can increase customer loyalty. Since you can tag other handles on stories, it is a great way to promote collaboration.
From photos to videos to live videos to boomerangs, the possibilities are endless. You can experiment and find a content type that works for your brand.
- Influencers.
While the days of working with influencers with a large following are mostly over, there remains a lot to be said about leveraging micro-influencers with niche audiences. This holds true, especially if you are a small brand or one that is just starting.
Working with an influencer can dramatically increase the range of audience you can reach while also growing your brand’s credibility.
- Audience Generated Content.
You do not always need a highly paid ad maker to achieve the goals you want to. To increase brand trust, you can use the audience generated content. Run a campaign where you offer your loyal customers to create content for either a discount code, or merch, or even free products. Use the tag #regram and tag the original content creator. This will increase brand awareness and brand trust.
- A Good Brand Hashtag.
A memorable brand hashtag allows you to find customer posts that you can use quickly. It is essentially free advertising since users who post with the hashtag are presenting your brand to their followers. If you already have a good brand slogan, then use it to create the hashtag.
- Timing is Everything.
Use third-party tools to find out when your followers are most active and post during that time. Do not bombard their feed with multiple posts. At most, you should be looking at posting one or two posts a day. It is important to stay consistent with a regular posting schedule.
- Build a Community.
Use an actionable hashtag that promotes the community around your brand. Promoting a lifestyle conversation around your brand increases the number of organic posts generated by your audience.
- Good Captions.
A good caption for your posts should reflect your band’s personality while promoting engagement. You can use it to provide clear, actionable content to your audience. The language has to be clear, crisp, and concise.
- Instagram Shopping.
Sometimes, certain products immediately catch the eye of your audience, but they might not want to trawl through your website to find that particular product. Instagram shopping lets you solve this issue. Tag your products and let your customers do the rest.
- Measure the Metrics.
Track your follower growth rate to learn if your strategy for Instagram is working the way you want it to. Other important metrics to evaluate your plan are the average engagement percentage and the average engagement rate of each post.
- Streamlined Styling.
Instagram’s interface allows you to invest in creating a cohesive style for your brand. Not only does it set your brand apart, but it also boosts brand recognition. This can be something as simple as the colour tones or the font used.
Conclusion.
While marketing on Instagram is not an exact science, experimenting with these tips will give you the right insights into what works for you and your brand.
