Instagram marketing has been gaining a lot of traction among small businesses lately. After all, it’s a very popular platform that is easy to use and appealing to the eye. But many businesses think they need to have a picture-perfect product if they want to succeed on Instagram. We’re here to tell you that’s not necessarily true. Many businesses that don’t even have a physical product have been very successful on Instagram. How, you ask? Read on ahead to find out!
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Why Choose Instagram For Marketing?
Instagram is an extremely popular social media platform. It has over two billion monthly active users, making it the fourth most used social media platform. This is a huge user base that small businesses can leverage to their advantage. You can find people from every demographic on Instagram. This ensures that your niche audience is on the platform.
The thing about Instagram is that it focuses on visuals, i.e., pictures and videos. This aspect is what sets it apart from other platforms. Visuals are more appealing than text-based content. You can share your message in a fun and interactive way. Text-heavy content quickly bores people, and they don’t even bother to finish reading it all the way through. But a picture can quickly convey your marketing message before their attention span runs out. This is a clear advantage that Instagram holds over all other social media channels.
Instagram Marketing Strategies
There are many great strategies for Instagram marketing, but it’s important to nail the basics first. We’ll help you set up the fundamentals of an Instagram marketing strategy. Read ahead!
Optimize Your Account
The first step to Instagram marketing is to optimize your account for success. It might just be the most important step that determines how your marketing strategy performs. After all, your Instagram profile tells people who you are and what you do.
We’ll start off with the basics. Choose a username that defines who you are. This will be the name of your business or brand. Your username should be easy to read and remember. People shouldn’t have to look too hard to find your Instagram profile. Another thing that makes your Instagram account easily recognizable is your profile picture. For this, use your logo or brand icon.
Add a short and catchy description to your bio. Your bio should highlight what you do. The ideal practice is to focus on your brand’s philosophy. It’s easy enough to get carried away here, so make sure you keep it concise yet interesting. Lastly, add a link to your website. This is a critical part of your profile. A backlink is important to drive traffic to your website in order to generate sales. But you can also link to your blog if that’s your goal.
Create Quality Content
Social media is all about content. The more interesting your content is, the better it will perform. But creating interesting content is easier said than done. Instagram is a visual-based platform, so that makes things a little easier.
You can post a lot of different types of content on Instagram. Your posts don’t necessarily have to be about your products. They can be tips and tricks, UGC, tutorials, announcements, and behind-the-scenes action. But they all have to be high-quality and visually appealing. Posts with more light get 24% more likes on Instagram. Use editing tools to make your pictures and videos stand out.
When planning what to post on Instagram, it’s important to focus on your tone. You don’t want to sound too sales-y. Follow the 20/80 rule. On any social media platform, only 20% of your posts should focus on selling your products. 80% of your posts should be about educating your audience and keeping them interested. These posts shouldn’t cater to your product or service but to the general niche you and your audience are in.
Leverage Hashtags
Hashtags are the most powerful tool Instagram marketers have in their arsenal. People use hashtags to find content they’re interested in. If your content pops up under these hashtags, your reach and visibility will increase drastically.
Add relevant hashtags to your captions to increase their reach and grow your following. There’s no such thing as too many hashtags, although Instagram has put a cap at thirty. A study by Buffer showed that posts with eleven or more hashtags got the highest engagement. The more hashtags you appear under, the more people will see your content.
Another factor to consider is relevance. You don’t want to appear under hashtags that have nothing to do with your business or your target audience. This is why you need to be careful when selecting the best hashtags. Only choose those that pertain to your niche audience. You can use tools such as All Hashtag or RiteTag to find relevant hashtags. Or you can create your own hashtag and make it go viral.
Make sure the hashtag you choose doesn’t have a traffic of over a million. This will ensure that you don’t get lost in the sea of content. Lastly, put your hashtags in the first comment of your post. Don’t add them to your caption. This will visually separate the post and the hashtags.
Engage With Your Followers
Instagram marketing is so much more than just posting pretty pictures and videos. An important aspect is engaging with your followers. When you interact with them, it humanizes you. It shows that you are more than just pretty pictures on their screen.
There are many ways to engage with your audience. The simplest way is to reply to their comments. People are always going to leave comments under your posts. There will be good comments and reviews, with a few bad ones mixed in there. It’s important to address them both. Thank the users who left a good comment. Apologize to the users who had a bad experience with your product or brand. Ask them how you can improve. Talking to your followers will deepen the relationship and result in brand loyalty.
Another great way to engage your followers is to host a contest. Create a hashtag and ask your followers to post pictures with that hashtag. You can set your own theme for the contest and choose winners. Award them with free products or discounts. Hosting live sessions is also an excellent way to interact with your followers. This way, you can talk to your followers directly in real-time.
Instagram Marketing for Small Businesses Is Worth It!
Instagram is a highly popular social media platform that small businesses can use for their marketing. This visual-based platform can help SMBs reach out to their target audience and convey short and interactive messages. SMBs have to create interesting content that is relevant to their audience. Add hashtags to increase their reach and engage with their followers.
Are you using Instagram marketing for your small business? Talk to us below!
