Instagram is a powerful marketing tool. With over 800 million users, it’s a great way to reach a large audience quickly and easily. But if you want to make the most of Instagram for your business, there are a few things you can do to make it more effective.
It is no more just a social media platform to interact with people in a leisurely manner. You can plan a strategy for effective marketing for Instagram, and the growth it can bring to your business will surprise you a lot. Many business owners have seen their businesses achieve exceptional sales and revenue growth only through productive Instagram marketing.
How Effective is Instagram Marketing?
Without a doubt, Instagram is an effective marketing tool. In fact, a recent study found that Instagram is the second most popular social media platform for marketers, behind only Facebook.
The study found that 70% of marketers are using Instagram to reach their audiences. And of those who are using it, 85% say it’s effective.
The main reason behind the effectiveness of Instagram marketing strategies is the large population all over the world using it. You can expect to find your target audiences quite conveniently on Instagram, and the best part is that it lets you reach the masses through the web without any physical presence in any city. So if you’re not using Instagram for your business yet, now is the time to start.
How Do You Build a Successful Instagram Marketing Strategy?
Building a winning Instagram strategy is essential to success on the platform. But what does that actually entail? What do we mean when we talk about marketing on Instagram? Does it only mean posting regularly on the profile or running paid ads on it to reach maximum target audiences? The answer to all these queries lies in creating strategies that include all the necessary steps that can help promote their business through this platform.
There are a few key things you need to do to make sure your Instagram strategy is effective:
- Connect With Your Audience: This means understanding who they are, what their needs and wants are, and what they’re interested in. Only then can you create content that they will enjoy. Understand that relevance brings relatability which eventually increases the engagement level.
- Identify Your Business Goals: What do you want to achieve for your business with marketing on instagram? Do you want to grow your brand recognition, increase sales, or drive traffic to your website?
- Create an Engaging Profile Bio: Your profile is the first thing that people will see when they visit your page, so it’s important to make a good impression. Focus on your colour palette, designs, messages your profile convey and the engagement it seeks. Know that you have to offer versatility and uniqueness at the same time as your customer has to stay glued to your profile despite other profiles posting lots of content every hour!
- Create a Content Template Reserve: Creating a content template reserve is a great way to save time when planning your posts. Wherever you store it, the important thing is to have all of your content in one place so you can easily access it when you need it.
- Identify Your Keywords and Hashtags: People use hashtags to discover new content, and if you’re not using them, you’re missing out on a lot of potential engagement.
- Create a Content Calendar: Creating a content calendar is a great way to keep track of your posts and make sure you’re posting regularly.
- Take Advantage of Automation Tools: There are a lot of tools out there that can help you with your Instagram marketing. You can even combine tools such as Hootsuite and Skweezer to run engagement efforts automatically.
- Monitor Your Analytics: This will help you understand what’s working and what’s not, and make changes to your strategy accordingly. Understand that none of the marketing strategies on Instagram will yield desired results if you do not monitor the analysis from time to time. Analysis helps figure out whether you are moving on the right path or you need to make some changes.
- Audit Your Account Regularly: This means deleting any old or irrelevant posts, updating your bio and profile photo, and changing your username if necessary. You have to ensure that your users get first-hand information and stay updated with whatever changes you bring apart from the marketing strategy for Instagram.
- Keep Your Account Active: The more active you are on Instagram, the more likely you are to get new followers and keep the ones you have.
- Keep Watch on the Competition: To do a competitive analysis, start by following a few of your competitors on Instagram. Then, take a look at their posts and see what’s getting the most engagement.
Improving on a Failing Strategy
You can follow all the best basic practices, and still, your strategy may not be as prosperous as you want it to be. If that’s the case, here are some more advanced ways to troubleshoot a failing Instagram strategy:
When you have a new product coming out, but you don’t want to do a hard-sell campaign yet, consider using a product teaser. This is where you show just enough of the product so that people know it’s coming, without giving too much away. Understand that an effective marketing strategy for Instagram is not about splurging the money. You can spend whatever fits your budget and still get the best results.
This is a great way to drum up excitement for a new product without bombarding your followers with sales pitches. To craft a product teaser post:
- Choose an eye-catching image or video clip
- Use an attention-grabbing headline
- Write a short description of the product
- Use relevant hashtags
- Add a call to action
- Monitor your analytics
Give Sponsored Ads a Try
If you’re not getting the reach you want organically, consider using Instagram ads. You can target a specific audience with your ad, and you can even run A/B tests to see what works best.
To create an Instagram ad:
- Choose your objective
- Select your audience
- Set your budget and schedule
- Create your ad
- Monitor your results
Use Automated Engagement Tools
If you want to save time on your engagement efforts, consider using an automated tool like Skweezer. Automated tools can help you with tasks like following and unfollowing people, commenting on posts, and liking photos. These tools help create effective marketing strategies for Instagram based on the information about who is interacting with you the most and how. The activity on your profile tells you about the customer behaviour using which you can strategize the content they will engage with the most.
There are a lot of different automation tools out there, so make sure to do your research before choosing one. Dig deeper and check the features that your preferred tool has to offer. Take a virtual tour to determine if you can conveniently use the tool and decide which one would solve your purpose in the best possible way.
Source User-Generated Content
User-generated content, or UGC, is a great way to build social proof and show that people are using and enjoying your products. You can use UGC in your posts, in your stories, or even in your ads.
They help build trust with potential customers and can be a great addition to any Instagram marketing strategy.
To find UGC for your brand, you can:
- Run a hashtag campaign and encourage people to use your branded hashtag
- Search for mentions of your brand on social media
- Use a tool like Tint to curate UGC from across the web
- Encourage customers to leave reviews on your site or on third-party sites
- Run a contest or giveaway and ask people to post about it
Reach Out to Influencers
If you want to reach a wider audience, consider partnering with influencers as your marketing strategies for instagram. When you find an influencer who aligns with your brand, you can reach their audience and get your products in front of new people.
To find influencers for your brand, you can:
- Search for relevant hashtags and see who’s using them
- Use a tool like BuzzSumo to find popular content in your industry
- Check out who’s talking about your competitors
- Reach out to influencers directly
- Monitor your results
Create an Interactive Hashtag for Your Brand
Hashtags are a great way to get people talking about your brand on Instagram. When you create a branded hashtag, you can encourage people to use it when they post about your products.
To create a branded hashtag:
- Do some research and choose a catchy phrase that’s relevant to your brand
- Make sure the hashtag is short and easy to remember
- Use the hashtag in your posts
- Monitor the hashtag to see who’s using it
- Respond to people who use the hashtag
Conclusion
Instagram marketing can be a great way to reach new customers and grow your business. By following the basic best practices, you can set yourself up for success. And if you want to take your strategy to the next level, consider using some of the advanced techniques we’ve covered.
No matter what level you’re at, Instagram marketing can be a valuable addition to your business. To really give your efforts a boost, try Skweezer.
Skweezer is a platform that helps brands grow on Instagram. With Skweezer, you can get real, targeted followers and likes on your posts and stories. So, why not try Skweezer for free today?