It’s frustrating to watch businesses throw away so much potential because of their mediocre Instagram account. Especially ones that put a lot of work into the photography and design aspect. Of course, Instagram being as visual as it is, you can’t neglect the content, but you need a marketing strategy behind it all.
Although there is a lot of benefit from heading into this with a budget, you may be a start-up that doesn’t have the marketing funds. Or Instagram may be untested waters or something that your company has never fully invested in with a focused strategy. Whatever the reason may be, here’s how to use Instagram as a shining company beacon; solidifying brand awareness and alluring leads.
If you take anything from this article it’s this; engage with your Instagram community, don’t publish content on them. You want to create a dynamic dialogue around everything to do with your brand.
Give kudos to companies that could cross-sell with yours.
Reward posts that feature your brand in a positive light with discounts and give #shoutouts! You have a community to nurture.
Set up affiliates with influencers of your target demographic.
Be bold. Don’t expect customers to swarm towards you by posting pretty, filtered photos like the 8,000,000 other businesses on the platform.
This rolls nicely on from my previous point as they come hand in hand like Hansel and Gretel following the breadcrumbs to your company. Except for the part with the witch, your company will deliver on its promises.
Your previous satisfied customers are a serious asset. After receiving an order, email incentives to get them posting on Instagram and recommending your products. 90% of customers sales are impacted by positive online reviews. Consumers are much more likely to believe businesses when they are reinforced by happy customer testimonials.
As enthusiastic as you may be about your company you can’t market it without the help of your online community.
Creating an attractive Instagram account is both a science and an art. The color schemes and that I’ll leave for another day. For now, I’m going to start you down the research path.
11 hashtags are the optimum number per post. The platform allows you to have thirty but this clutters your message, and often feels over-advertised. These actionable insights you collect along the way to enhance your feeds’ engagement prowess.
There are a few things that you need to commit to, and you’ve got to stick to them:
Saying that, you have to be able to follow the trends. That’s why I’m against the automated three-months-ahead social media plan. Of course, have a prevailing schedule and create content about a month ahead of time. But be adaptable and prepared to capture hype for your company’s benefit.
Use humor, quizzes, hashtag contests, and keep your eyes open! Not only does this make your brand stand out, it also makes visiting your feed an enjoyable experience.
And that’s where too many businesses lose out.
They become obsessed with the brand image, the perfect lighting, the expensive promotional campaigns. This guide helps those without an Instagram marketing budget and shows that you can make a whole lot of impact by connecting and growing your Instagram community and giving them a reason to revisit your brand.
Businesses still lag behind on this count. This reluctance makes sense given the incredibly choreographed ads on TV today. In live media, there is no retake. However, the likes of Buzzfeed and Dunkin’ Donuts show us that you can use this spontaneity to your advantage.
It’s this real and honest interaction that creates a loyal community of customers.
The live aspect of Instagram Live is perfect to make viewers commit to a CTA. Entice a new product with sneak-peaks. Develop exclusivity and draw leads to your site to sign up for further information.
Your upcoming content also gets instant feedback from your target market.
The general pattern is veering towards the video medium. So, determine your company’s tone and tactics for live video streaming and have a CTA. Again, don’t hold yourself back with the fear of failure. Mastering your unique live video approach will take some time, but you will see increased engagement with persistence and tweaking to analytics and feedback.
I’m not going to kid you that a free analytics software package has the same capabilities as the powerhouses on the market, but it’s a good start. Instagram Insights is your go-to. This feature is only available for business profiles so make sure that you set your account to business mode to avail of these features.
Preview is an excellent Instagram streamliner. Here you can fuse a lot of the editing and feed management with tools including:
Another handy trick up their sleeve is the ability to drag and drop posts. With this, you can reorder your feed to produce a clean, well thought out feed.
An easy to use, intuitive tool for converting your data into useful analytics. They have a section on competitor analysis how you stand up against your competitors in engagement rates and reach. With Socialbakers, you can see the results of your marketing strategy and how effectively you connected with your audience.
Quantitative data performance combines with feature inspirations in this app to help you produce an account that bolsters your brand.
There is a pro version of this app that reels out more features, but I’d recommend starting off with the free package and seeing if you need the add-ons.
This is for companies with under 25,000 followers. The graphics are as the name suggests crisp and straightforward. However, you get a surprising amount of insights into your account’s engagement. Simply Measured gets you reports on user engagement, likes and comments per post, outbound messaging and other variables. You get all this in return for following their Twitter page.
Instagram is a fantastic platform for selling. You can express the best aspects of your brand and create value for lead, prospects and customers alike. Using tools, and knowing the trends, both within social media and your niche industry, helps you to focus your communication and entertain your audience. All you need to invest in this medium at the beginning is time. Invest in it wisely, maintain your key message and tone but tweak to fit the trends and watch the analytic reports rise in your favour!
One last little secret of ours: if you are sick of not being able to grow your Instagram, you want to learn the SECRETS of getting followers, you’re READY to start making money from IG, we highly recommend you look into the Instagram Insiders course. We guarantee you’ll see results if you fully commit to its teachings.
Intro Producing content on social media can be a painstaking process. Anyone in social media…
Intro Having a platform to communicate with your audience is one of the keys to…
Online marketing can be a little tricky sometimes. That’s why having helpful tools to use…