Is your brand on Instagram? ought to.
The social networking site has over 2 billion monthly users.
It's a billion with a "b". And 90% of people follow at least one business on the app.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that Instagram bills itself as "the number one media platform for building brand relationships."
Instagram is a powerful social media channel with huge marketing potential to grow your audience and reach your customers.
So if you don't have an account for your organization yet, create one now. We will wait.
Once you have your Instagram business account up and running, it's time to start using it to build your brand.
In this guide, we'll walk you through how Instagram marketing works, why it works, and a strategy that will help you gain new followers and accelerate sales.
How effective is Instagram for marketing?
More than just a platform to share photos and videos with your social circle, Instagram's visual format makes it an essential part of any e-commerce strategy.
Whether you use organic content, paid ads, or a hybrid strategy, Instagram is a great way to build a visual presence and showcase your offerings.
Even better, as a platform, it generates more user engagement than Facebook and Twitter.
In fact, over 47% of US social media users aged 16-34 have purchased a product or service on Instagram.
Even without a calculator, it's easy to see millions of people making purchases on this social media platform alone. And you have to ask for your turn.
Well, you might say, but how do I do this?
First you need to understand how this meta platform works.
Types of Instagram marketing content
Let's start by looking at the different types of content marketing you can use.
There are four main types that you can use individually or in combination: organic marketing, paid content, influencer marketing, and affiliate marketing.
Organic content
There are different types of organic content that you can use on Instagram: photos or images, videos, stories and reels.
The first thing is easy to understand, but what is the difference between videos, stories and reels?
Not all video content? Yes they are, but they are all used in different ways.
Videos are shared on your profile and appear in the feeds of people who follow you. This can take up to 60 minutes for some accounts.
Stories are short clips that appear on your profile. They appear as small circles at the top of your followers' feeds. These clips can be up to 60 seconds long and disappear after 24 hours.
On the other hand, Rails is a meta answer to TikTok. Videos up to 90 seconds long are easily enriched with music, text and visual effects for use on both Facebook and Instagram.
Additionally, you can choose to go live with the aptly named Instagram Live. For marketing, it allows you to connect personally with your audience, show your personality and answer followers' questions.
Paid content
You can also pay Instagram users to have your content appear in their feed, story or navigation tab.
Paid content is similar to regular posts, with one exception: they have a "sponsored" tag. You can include features like buttons, links, and galleries that aren't available in standard content.
You can choose from multiple formats, including images, videos, lists, collections, and navigation, so you can use the best format for your specific purposes.
You can extend regular posts to make them accessible to targeted audiences for a specific period of time, as well as create and run full campaigns.
As with most paid digital advertising, the cost of these paid ads varies based on targeting, competition, and programming.
Influencer marketing
Social media has created a new generation of celebrities: the famous. In other words: influencers.
With thousands, if not millions, of followers, these individuals provide a huge opportunity for businesses looking for a way to market their products or services.
Influencer marketing, otherwise known as paid posts, usually involves some compensation from a brand to an influencer for a feature in their profile, writing, story or game.
Instagram shop
Instagram allows you to include your product catalog on your profile so you can sell directly to customers through your posts, reels and more.
The Shop tab is located at the top of your profile below your biographical information, which when clicked will direct visitors to your shop on the platform.
You can tag your store's products in posts just like tagging another user.
How to create an Instagram marketing strategy
As a marketer, you know that trying to engage your audience without a strategy is futile.
To get the most out of your Instagram marketing, you need a well-thought-out plan.
Develop your strategy by following these steps.
1. Define your goals
What do you expect from this forum? Want to increase brand awareness? Do you want to sell? Do you want to supply your product quantity? Or show user generated content (UGC)?
There is no wrong answer and you can have many goals, but what you are trying to achieve will change the way you measure your performance.
2. Define your audience
Instagram allows demographic targeting, so you can say exactly who you want to target. When deciding who to target, consider factors such as age, gender, location, income and interests.
If you're not sure who you're targeting, see who's linking to popular posts and hashtags related to your niche.
Then look at their profile to get an overview of their demographics and interests.
3. Look at the competition
One of the best sources of information about what is and isn't working on Instagram is your competitors.
Conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis, including:
- Identify major and minor competitors.
- Collect information about your followers and the types of messages they post.
- Analyze your activity to determine which types of posts get the most engagement.
4. Create a content calendar
At this point, you should have a good idea of the type of Instagram content you want to create. This means it is time to develop an implementation strategy.
Make your editing calendar as detailed as possible.
Being clear about the date and time you want to post content, the type of post (live images, real, live, etc.), hashtags used, and many time-saving calls will save you a lot of time after the escort. .
It's also a great place to document important holidays and events in your industry, or to highlight sales or new products.
5. Create your content
Well, you've defined your goals, defined your audience, evaluated your competitors' Instagram strategies, and created a detailed content strategy.
Before you start publishing, there's only one thing you need to do: create the content.
Remember, everything you post on Instagram or any other social media site reflects your business. So, you need to make sure that it matches your brand personality perfectly.
Consider color schemes, the type of language you use, and the specific needs of your audience.
Make sure each post has a goal you're trying to achieve, and include calls to action (CTAs) whenever possible.
Types of Instagram posts
Not sure what kind of posts to post?
The beauty of Instagram is that you can be as creative as you want.
For inspiration, here are some of the company's most popular posts.
- Images and videos of products and services.
- Trending topics to create brand relevance (news hacking).
- User Generated Content (Reposts, Reviews, etc.).
- Behind-the-scenes footage that shares things viewers don't usually see.
- Inspirational posts to build brand and engagement.
- Educational information (recipes, tips, etc.).
- Contests to generate engagement, actions and data.
Instagram marketing best practices
I hope you now have at least a basic understanding of how to use Instagram marketing to promote your brand.
This social media platform offers incredible flexibility that allows you to experiment with new approaches and ideas to see what works for your unique situation.
Here are some best practices to help you maximize your impact:
- Improve your profile - Find a good photo for your profile picture, take the time to write your bio and be sure to include your CTA.
- Visual Story – People love story even within a single post. Make sure your content is engaging and tells your brand's story.
- Post when your audience is active – It may take a little experimentation, but generally every domain has an optimal time to post.
- Use the right hashtags – Your posts should always include relevant hashtags to get more visibility. Whenever possible, use niche or industry hashtags instead of generic hashtags.
- Engage with your followers - Don't skip comments and find ways to respond to your followers.
- Stick to your schedule – Like any other marketing campaign, your Instagram campaign should have a constant flow. Inspirational posts can be fun, but they need to be separate from your strategy.
Make Instagram work for you
Instagram is a great platform to build relationships with your targets, educate customers about your brand, and grow your audience.
And because it provides clear metrics, you can quickly figure out what works and what doesn't.
What works for one business may not be foolproof for another, especially since Instagram is constantly evolving. But that's the beauty of it.
Don't be afraid to try.
Always make sure you keep your goals and objectives in mind and you'll be an Instagram star in no time.
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Featured Image: Christian Dina/Shutterstock