Instagram has evolved form a simple photo sharing social media platform to one of the most useful tools for marketers today, and Instagram marketing strategies have developed in parallel. Falling just behind Facebook and YouTube, IG, the common shorthand for Instagram, has an average of 500 million daily users and one billion monthly. In addition to reach, Instagram allows you to present your products and services in some of the most visually attractive ways.
Today startups and established major brands take advantage of the audience and reach made available through Instagram. let’s take a quick look at IG’s numbers:
- 25 million business accounts
- 2 million monthly advertisers
- About 44% of active users discover and explore new brands
- About 53% of typical users follow their favorite brands
- More than 95 million new posts are made daily
Instagram allows you to reach users through both paid and organic means. However, the most important thing for any user or brand that wants to be seen is to post original, relevant, and engaging content.
To take advantage of the full potential of IG, we’ll look at Instagram marketing strategies to help you reach your Instagram marketing goals.
Optimize Your Instagram Bio
The first thing Instagram users will see is the bio. The bio is the small area on your profile page under your username where you can enter details about your brand and want you want other users to know about you. Engage users with a captivating and informative bio.
Keep this in mind when drafting your Instagram bio
- Use the name of your business as your username and fulfillment name. If that’s not possible, use the most recognizable part of your business name.
- Use your logo as the profile picture. Remember that the image will be cropped and be displayed in a circle.
- Summarize how your company helps people. It should include a branded hashtag, a call to action (CTA), and a reason for users to click the URL.
- Include a URL to a landing page or a product you’re promoting.
- Change your account to business for deeper post insights.
Be Authentic
Instagram’s content is primarily visual, so the focus is on photo and video. Through phot and video is how you’ll create an identity for your brand. You need to be authentic, because once visitors hit your pagel, they should be able to understand your brand message. Give people a reason to stay loyal to your brand,
Consistent Brand Aesthetic
Instagram is a visual platform and for that reason your brand aesthetic should be consistent. Being consistent informs your customers of what they can expect of your brand
This doesn’t mean that all of your posts need to be identical. You could alternate minimalist posts between more visually complex image posts for a balanced look.
But remember, there is more to branding than the visuals. Your image captions need to also fit your brand. Be mindful of your connections also, the brands or people you follow or connect with are also representative of your brand.
Stay Relevant
Your content should apply to the products or services you’re offering customers. Posting unique videos or photos from time to time can be okay, you need to ensure anyone visiting your profile can instantly identify what it is you have to offer.
Customers and potential customers want to see a brand posting about their own products and services; not about what other people or brands are doing.
Also, remember that the Instagram algorithm was changed from showing posts in chronological order to showing posts based upon the significance to a user’s personal interests. For that reason, ensure your posts cater to your target audience.
Appropriate Hashtag Use
Hashtags are important and put to use intelligently if you want your IG posts to increase your audience size. The Instagram algorithm puts a lot of emphasis on using hashtags to introduce new content to users.
Users can search through content via the Discover tab and they can also follow particular hashtags they find interesting to find similar Instagram profiles. Users following particular hashtags will see content appear in their newsfeed using the followed hashtags.
Be Active
If you want to get more likes, be more active. The IG algorithm rewards users who are more active and post regularly.
However, that doesn’t mean you have license to post excessively. Business accounts should post about once or twice a day. Excessive posting won’t help you reach more people and it might also cause you to lose followers as they become annoyed with your posts filling their feed.
There’s also a best time to post, which, for businesses, is Wednesday at about 3 PM. Of course, this may vary for audience so it’s still good to experiment ti find the best time for your brand’s target audience.
Consider Your Audience
If you’re brand is already established, you’re likely already familiar with your target audience. Think about how your target audience relates to Instagram marketing.
Think about these questions
- Do they being in any IG communities?
- Which hashtags are they usually using?
- What kind of Instagram content are they likely to engage with when they see it in their feed?
Identifying the likes and dislikes of your target audience is certainly challenging. If you’re still trying to understand your audience, identify who is engaging, sharing, and tagging your brand. It also might be useful to visit the profiles of your competitors to see what Instagram marketing strategies are working for them.
Be Compelling
Make sure your posts are creative. Just don’t be so creative that your brand messaging is lost, because posts, though creative, still need to be clear and informative.
Remember, this is social media and just like in advertising, evoking an emotional response pays off. For example, use FOMO (fear of missing out) by emphasizing stocks are limited. This will create a sense of urgency and make people rethink waiting to buy later.
Also, if you it makes sense to your business, offer incentives or rewards for user interaction and engagement with your content.
Leverage IGTV
Need more than 60 seconds for your promotional video? IGTV is the perfect tool for promoting your brand with longer form content. The only other channel for accomplishing the same is YouTube. IGTV is convenient for users and brands because it’s a convenient platform that has a variety to offer.
Make Use of IG Stories
Although IG Stories are only available for 24 hours, they provide an excellent opportunity to engage with your audience. You can use IG Stories to create polls, launch Q&A sessions, and you can promote engagement and interaction with your audience. Oh, and the 24 hour thing, you can work your way around that by saving Stories to your highlights.
IG Storis also provide you with an opportunity to link to your website in the post. A user viewing your Stories can simply swipe up and a browser will take them directly to your website.
Influencer Collaborations
Collaborating with influencers can introduce your brand to new audiences. Influencers promote brands or businesses through their own social media accounts. If you’re working with an influencer, a good course of action is to provide guidelines for their posts so that neither your nor the influencer’s brand faces a conflict.
Of course, not everyone has a huge budget, and if you don’t, you can start with micro-influencers. Micro-influencers have a smaller following but their followers are highly engaged. Always remember to be honest and let people know when a post is paid. Also, it’s not a great idea to require influencers to leave a positive review.
Most Importantly…
Your Instagram posts should be well thought out with beautiful images, relevant hashtags, and interesting captions. These 3 aspects combined will crate highly engaging posts that willl appear to regular followers and encourage the sharing of your posts.
Remember that not all Instagram marketing strategies will apply to every audience and work for every brand. Stay true to your brand and maintain brand cohesiveness, but don’t be afraid to experiment with different content types.
Let’s Talk About Your Brand
shane@3catslabs.com | Call +65-3159-4231
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