Marketing With Instagram: 5 Tips To Take Your Business To The Next Level
Marketing with Instagram is one of the best ways to build a name for yourself online. Instagram is currently one of the most popular social media sites in the world, and it’s also the sixth most visited site on the web. With over a billion people to connect with on the channel each month, Instagram represents a great opportunity for all kinds of brands.
Of course, like any promotional tool, Instagram works best when you know how to use it. Learning how to leverage the right content to speak to your audience, drive engagement through carefully structured posts, and gather new followers is a must.
Let’s look at how you can generate growth when marketing on Instagram.
Instagram Marketing And Your Business
Instagram marketing involves using the Instagram social media platform as a way to connect with your target audience. Instagram reaches around 140 million US users and over 1 billion customers worldwide, so it’s sure to give you plenty of opportunities to build a raving community.
Not only is Instagram packed full of users spending around 30 minutes per day on the platform, but the channel is also great for brand/consumer interactions. Around 2 in 3 people say they use the network for building connections to brands, and 81% use the channel to research products. Another 130 million Instagram users tap shopping posts each month.
Learning how to collect new followers for Instagram and engage your existing ones means you can interact with a huge number of potential buyers and advocates for your brand.
5 Tips To Take Your Business To The Next Level Through Instagram
Excellent results on Instagram start with the right marketing plan. Here are five tips sure to take your strategy to the next level.
1. Use An Instagram Growth Service
An Instagram growth service is exactly what it sounds like – a solution designed to help you find followers on Instagram as quickly as possible. As the number of companies on Instagram continues to grow, generating natural, organic growth is becoming a lot harder.
Instagram’s algorithm and its followers prioritize posts from companies who already have a decent following. If you have no fans connecting with you on Instagram, you’re going to struggle to make a massive impact. A growth service can help with this by attracting customers to your profile and encouraging them to follow you. This might mean that your service goes out and likes profiles of the people you most want to follow your company, so they’re tempted to come and check out your page.
You grow faster because you have a company helping you to find followers, and because your profile looks more professional with a higher follower count. Just make sure you choose a growth service that’s legit. Relying on spammy bots and other underhanded tactics could lead to reputation damage, or even your Instagram account getting banned.
2. Maximize The Potential Of Instagram Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the most valuable tools for Instagram users. Around half of daily Instagram users say they’ve made a purchase based on an influencer recommendation. Your audience will automatically trust your company more if they see you connected with a reputable professional.
With influencer marketing, you leverage the existing impact of a leader in your marketplace. It could be a celebrity, or simply someone with a highly engaged following. Almost any kind of company can use Influencer marketing to improve their marketing with Instagram. Subaru, for instance, used the #MeetAnOwner campaign to show people enjoying their time in their new Subaru vehicles.
To get the most out of your influencer campaign, make sure you:
- Choose the right influencer: Look for someone with the same voice or values as your brand. Make sure they reach out to the correct audience, too.
- Listen to their advice: Follow your influencer’s advice on what kind of content to produce, they may know more about the current trends than you.
- Go beyond celebrities: Micro influencers and smaller names can be just as effective at driving new people to your profile and generating trust.
3. Put Emphasis On Instagram Engagement
If you want amazing engagement online, you need to be willing to embrace the “social” part of marketing with Instagram. Engagement on Instagram refers to any interaction your audience has with your brand, from leaving a “like” on your photo, to responding to your Instagram Stories, leaving comments on your videos, or even messaging you.
Anyone can glance at your Instagram account and never look at it again. However, a follower actively engaging with your content can actively help you grow. These are the people who are going to share your posts, click on your store listings, and check out your latest products.
To encourage engagement, try:
- Responding to comments: Try responding to the comments people leave on your content with thoughtful messages. This builds a relationship with your audience.
- Run competitions: Run photo contests or giveaways to get people talking about your company. You could ask people to tag a friend in one of your posts for a chance to win, effectively improving your brand reach.Run live Q&A sessions: Use live video as a way to reach out to your customers and answer their most pressing questions.
4. Be Relatable With UGC And Authentic Content
It’s the kind of content you share that often makes or breaks your chances of success when marketing with Instagram. Over 500 million people use Instagram Stories each day because the temporary content medium is often seen as the most “authentic” place on Instagram, alongside Live video streams. Your audience wants to see the human side of your business.
There are plenty of ways to make yourself more relatable on Instagram. One option is to create more “behind-the-scenes” content. This might include an IGTV video of the process your team goes through when getting a package ready for delivery. Or you might have a live video stream where you walk your customers through the steps you take to get ready for work each morning.
Apartment Therapy shows behind-the-scenes looks at artists creating prints and paintings for interior design. This is a great insight into how much goes into each image.
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Another excellent way to improve your chances of being more “relatable” on Instagram, is to share user-generated content. User generated content, or UGC is any content created by your audience, which showcases them using your product or interacting with your brand. Customers are far more likely to trust a happy customer showing off your item than they are to trust your marketing messages.
5. Take Hashtags Seriously
Finally, hashtags are a significant part of any Instagram campaign.
On Instagram, hashtags are how people find your content – they’re a crucial part of the social channel’s search engine. If you’re not using them correctly, then people won’t be able to find you.
Start by making a list of the kind of hashtags you should be using in each post. You can use up to 30 tags in a single post (but most use less than 15). Ideally, you’ll need a selection of different hashtags, such as:
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- Trending hashtags: The relevant tags people are using right now
- Niche hashtags: Tags related to your specific industry and audience
- Branded hashtags: Hashtags you create for your company, such as Nike’s #JustDoIt
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You can find hashtags by looking at the kind of tags your competition uses most often or paying attention to what influencers use in your industry. Another option is to check out the Instagram Explore page and see what kind of hashtags are trending. Alternatively, there are plenty of tools online to help you find tags related to your niche.
Mastering Marketing With Instagram
Instagram is an excellent tool for boosting your brand awareness and reach.
However, just like any promotional strategy, marketing with Instagram requires a specific strategy. Using the tips above, make sure you know how to strengthen your position on the top visual social channel, with growth services, hashtags, authentic content, engagement, and influencers.