It might have started out as just another social media app to add to your phone but Instagram has grown so popular with the masses so much so that it is now ranked with other top players such as Facebook while offering serious competition to others such as SnapChat.
Apart from the millions of personal accounts that Instagram boasts of, it has over 8 million accounts registered to businesses. The existence of these business accounts means that Instagram has evolved into a social media marketing behemoth, having evolved from a simple app mostly used for sharing pictures and short videos among friends.
It is estimated that over 80 million images are uploaded to Instagram on a daily basis by its very active user base. This user base is perfect for businesses that are looking to maintain their current clients as well as reaching out to new ones.
Worth noting is that a majority of Instagram users; about 60% fall into the 18 -19 age bracket. For businesses that are attempting to build a viable audience, this is a very valuable demographic. This makes Instagram a very competitive platform given the ephemeral and veneer tastes of this young generation.
However, if your brand has a firm identity and a well thought out marketing strategy, your business will easily get amplified on Instagram.
This article will delve into a number of Instagram marketing tips that will go a long way in helping you achieve astounding results.
Use an Instagram Business Profile
The first thing you need to do before engaging in any marketing activities on Instagram is to create an Instagram Business Account for your brand. Some of the benefits of creating a business profile for Instagram marketing include:
- Your brand’s followers can easily get in touch with you by clicking on the ‘Contact’ button, in addition to clicking through to your website.
- Enjoy unrestricted access to Instagram analytic tools, that is, Insights. Using Insights, you are able to access data such as the number of impressions your stats have as well as the reach for your content
- Easily create and publish ads on Instagram without having to rely on Facebook’s ad tools.
- By using a business account you will be increasing your chances of your brand posts appearing on your follower feeds
Take Advantage of Sponsored Ads
Findings released by eMarketer revealed that the number of businesses advertising on Instagram was on a steady increase and that that number would surpass the number of businesses advertising on Twitter in the year 2017.
This goes to prove that Instagram marketing will soon be a staple for any business that takes itself seriously. In reaching out to your audience, you should always try do so in a cost-efficient manner.
Just in case you’re still on the fence about marketing your products or services on Instagram, remember that Instagram has a user base of over 700 million. If that fact alone is not convincing, you might want to consider the following facts especially you use Facebook to promote your brand:
- Since Facebook and Instagram share the same advertising platform, you can use experience gained from advertising on Facebook to target your audience on Instagram.
- You can manage the entire ad creation process in the Facebook ad manager including budgeting. This means you do not have to spend your time teaching yourself how to familiarize yourself with a different ad platform
- Due to the fact that Instagram ads are designed to be non-intrusive yet engaging, you are able to get a good conversion rate yet at a reduced cost
- When advertising on Instagram, you have the freedom to choose both videos and images to promote your product
- Instagram ads though non-intrusive are hard to miss especially when using the Instagram app on your phone this further improves their click-through rate
- You are able to create split tests within the advertising platform hence increasing your chances of getting a better return on investment
Joining Forces With Influencers
One of the most effective ways of promoting your brand on Instagram, is by reaching out to individuals who have a considerable following. This is an easy way to actually reach a particular audience. By collaborating with an influencer, you will be able to get your brand in front of your ideal audience very quickly.
This method of promoting your brands is effective because more and more people purchase products and services based on the content of their feed.
Influencers leverage on the trust they have built with their followers to push products and services to them. Their followers are more likely to accept their recommendations and make a purchase compared to when they come across a random ad.
When choosing an influencer, you will need to choose one that has a very targeted audience in your industry.
If you choose to partner with an influencer you should not focus on short-term gains but instead come up with ways you can build a strong awareness for your brand all the while targeting an audience that is likely to buy from you.
Promote on Other Social Media Networks
One of the most effective ways of broadening your reach, is by promoting your Instagram account on other social media platforms. Assuming you already have a significant following on other social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc, you can let them know of your presence on Instagram and invite them to follow you.
This way you will be able to create more exposure for your Instagram content. In addition, you will be reducing the cost of creating new content as well as enhancing your brand image.
Various business have different goals, so how you cross-promote will depend on a number of factors. Below are some ideas on how you can cross-promote:
- Publish your Instagram’s video content on LinkedIn or on Facebook and drive traffic back
- Use automation software such as HootSuite to post your Instagram content on other social media networks
- Use your accounts on different social media networks to promote Instagram contests that are designed to increase your follower count
Track The Numbers
If you want to know areas you need to focus on in your Instagram marketing efforts, you should start with understanding how your current marketing strategies are performing. When you have insight you are able to focus on the areas that need your attention not to mention you become more efficient.
In order to make huge gains you will need to track the right metrics. Some of the metrics you will need to keep track of include:
Follower Growth Rate
Having a huge and strong following can blind you from the fact that you are no longer acquiring a new audience. You can easily understand what is causing this stagnation by keeping an eye on the type of content you post as well as how frequently you post it. By playing around with these two factors, you can try and see if you’re able to onboard new followers.
Engagement Rate
By measuring how many likes and comments your posts receive, you will have a better idea of what you need to tweak in order to increase the rate of engagement. You need to pay keen attention to the percentage of engagement for both your post as well as the total number of followers.
URL Clickthrough Rate
Unfortunately, Instagram can only track the link that is featured on your Instagram bio. However, by keeping track of how many people click through to your website is crucial. By monitoring the above metrics as well as other data such as hashtag interaction as well as the growth of hashtags, you will be able to market your business more effectively on Instagram.
Strategic Use of Hashtags
If you have dabbled in social marketing before, you know what a critical role hashtags play in promoting a brand. The key to experiencing success with hashtags is to use them strategically. By doing so you will be able to enhance your reach and enable people to connect with your brand.
Two main types of Instagram hashtags that you should focus on include:
Campaign or Brand Specific Hashtags
These types of hashtags are created with the sole purpose of promoting their business on Instagram. A brand hashtag usually features your company name or slogan while a campaign hashtag features the name of the campaign you’re running.
Either way you need to ensure that no matter what type of hashtag you use it has the following characteristics:
- Easy to remember
- Catchy
- Unique
Content Hashtags
This refers to hashtags that are placed within your content. Even though they are not as popular as brand and campaign hashtags, they are used to help your target audience find your content. Even though these hashtags come across as simple they are essential if you want people to find your content easily.
Take care not to overuse them though.
Create An Effective Business Bio
When your create a strong business bio, you are more likely to get noticed faster. When creating your bio make sure you mention what business your brand is involved in as well as the type of personality it has.
Your business bio should feature the following:
Profile photo that is relevant to your company or brand
Business name or username – Whatever you choose to use to identify yourself on Instagram will be used to search for your business account
Bio – Spend some time writing a great bio. As of now your bio should include 150 characters, so keep it concise.
Website link – Ensure that you put a relevant link that you would like to promote on Instagram, a link to your homepage will do.
Call-to-action button – An Instagram business account allows you to insert call to action links such as email, call etc
Strong Content Strategy
Before you embark on your Instagram marketing efforts, you need to ensure that you have a firm strategy in place. Having a strong strategy in place before you start your marketing efforts will ensure that you have direction.
Understanding the intent of your marketing efforts is critical to crafting the right content strategy. Let us say for instance, you want to grow your brand’s awareness. You should create content that talks about your brand; products and services you offer. You can create videos or share behind-the-scenes images that highlight the company culture.
Depending on what you want to achieve, you can even have user-generated content published on your Instagram page.
Creating Content In Advance
Most businesses struggle with posting content on a regular basis on their Instagram account. However, there’s no escaping the fact that if you want to see good results, consistently posting on Instagram is key. One way to deal with this challenge is by creating your content at least one month before it is due.
If you choose to create your content beforehand, there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind:
Anticipate
Before creating your content a month before publishing date, you need to anticipate events that will take place in the coming months and integrate that into your content. This way, your content will always resonate with your target audience.
Make Edits
Always edit your images and videos beforehand. This way you won’t make a last-minute rush trying to edit your content as you are likely to make plenty of mistakes.
Schedule
You can easily schedule out your Instagram posts using one of the many scheduling tools that are easily available. This will definitely save you time that could be used to focus on other aspects of Instagram marketing.
Leverage Instagram Into A Sales Funnel
You should take advantage of your presence on Instagram and start pitching to prospective customers. Unlike selling on other social media platforms, there are a couple of differences. For example, if you’re promoting your post with as a paid post, you won’t be able to include a link.
In order to make any meaningful sales on Instagram, you will need to focus your efforts on building a strong brand image.
You can achieve this by:
- Regularly interacting on your feed
- Post photos that promote something else other than your product, for instance, your company’s ideologies and beliefs
- Ensure that a majority of the photos on your Instagram feature people
- Showcase regular people using your products
If you would like to learn more about marketing on Instagram, please feel free to get in touch.
The post Instagram Marketing Tips That Give You Results appeared first on The Texas SEO Company.
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