Instagram marketing provides a great social channel to reach potential customers from every corner of the world. Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has developed at a rate similar to Facebook, adopting new functions at a lightning-fast rate and becoming even more valuable to merchants and users alike. With over 1 billion monthly active users and over 500 million daily active users, it’s no surprise that marketers at trendy fashion & accessories and high-end cosmetic brands have flocked to the platform.
What is Instagram marketing?
Instagram marketing is a type of social media marketing in professionals utilize to market their business online. If “promote their business” sounds broad, that’s because it is: Instagram marketing can include a number of various strategies and tactics, used to achieve all kinds of targets a business might have. When looking at various ways to use Instagram for marketing purposes, you can divide the activity into two main categories:
- Paid strategies like advertising and influencer marketing
- Unpaid strategies like building organic content, such as posts, Instagram Stories, and comments, as well as engaging with other users’ content
9 reasons why Instagram marketing is important for your business?
1. Reach
Instagram has 800 million monthly active users. This massive number of worldwide users makes Instagram a good bet for business and brand promotion. Instagram also has a large organic reach, a quality the network is intentional about preserving with newer features like the ability to follow hashtags and a “Suggestions for You” section, which shows posts that your friends have liked. Make sure to use the proper hashtags that your target users are actually looking for. You can also generate targeted ads to reach even more potential clients if you’re willing to spend a little time and set aside some budget.
2. Engagement
Another of the advantages of Instagram marketing being an organic platform is that you can see a lot of engagement on your posts without having to pay for it. Engagement with businesses on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter. Moreover, Instagram users “like” 3.5 billion times per day. With this ocean of users available, businesses can make resounding successes with dedicated Instagram marketing tactics
3. Visual content
Instagram is a social media platform predominantly focused on visual content. This platform is included solely in photos and videos that can be associated with the text, but the text is not essential. Using a photo or video-centric platform makes your followers remember your business betters, and it makes them more likely to engage with your content. Both of these elements bring your followers on Instagram one step closer to making a purchase decision
Using Instagram to check what resonates with your follower visually will encourage you to flourish your branding across the board, and you can associate the pictures you post on Instagram with your other marketing channels, such as your blog and email newsletters.
4. Make Money Directly
Instagram allows commercial posts, which help businesses to add tags to the products in their photos with links to price, product description, and the “shop now” function which redirects the potential customers to your website. Moreover, 72% of Instagram users report buying decision processes based on something that they saw while looking through the app. So, if you’re not combining Instagram marketing into your marketing plans, regrettably, you’re missing out
5. Instagram stories, highlights
With many of the features geared for a greater user connection, you can really make a lasting impression with stories and live broadcasts on Instagram. Sharing visual content is the perfect way to help your users see what you’re about and create a relationship with potential shoppers and ambassadors. A customer rather than product-centric approach has long been the typical approach in marketing strategy. With this in mind, it’s necessary to avoid an Instagram feed that be full of products. Instead, concentrate on feelings! Embrace the potential customers that Instagram brings to encourage an emotional response to your brand, and you’ll view a clear impact on the success of your business overall — from visibility through to sales and returning customers.
Highlights can be used to show customers processes, answer frequently asked questions and more! The best part is that it won’t disappear after 24 hours like Instagram stories do. You decide when highlights come and go
Tip: Utilize Instagram Stories to share ‘behind-the-scenes or organize live Q&As with your audience.
6. IG TV
IG TV or Instagram TV allows you to upload longer videos through channels that are all in a vertical format. It is much easier for audiences to discover your business channel and allows users to curate their content. Users can share, comment and like just like a regular post. For brands, this means a chance to get closer to your potential customers and not be limited by time or format. It even shows at the top of your profile for easy access!
7. Advertising on Instagram
As stated previously, Instagram was bought out by Facebook a few years back. Due to this, Instagram’s capabilities fast expanded to start matching Facebook’s capabilities. You can advertise to people by age, interests, behavior, and location on Facebook, which means you can now do the same on Instagram. These sponsored ads will appear in users’ feeds outside of your follower base. You can run regular targeted ads or you can re-target customers. Retargeting ads are beneficial because they allow capture clients who may have been shopping on your site and abandoned their cart. And since Facebook and Instagram work together you can re-target people on both platforms!
8. Collaborate with Influencers
Great Instagram influencers are known to take your marketing efforts and sales to an unprecedented level; penetrating demographics that you wouldn’t usually approach thereby boosting your ROI. A famous influencer can spread the word of your business to millions of Instagram followers with a few posts. But beware of the wannabe ‘influencer’ not all accounts and their followers are real!
9. Trackable Performance
Analytics and social listening allow you to fine-tune your Instagram marketing strategies by analyzing and monitoring the best practices for your business. With Instagram insights, you can know the best times to post and what to post. Platforms such as native Instagram Insights, or paid tools like Sprout Social, and Iconosquare serve as free and effective Instagram monitoring tools.
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