Instagram is the go-to social media platform for all businesses at the moment, and with over 1 billion users, it is not a surprise as to why. Marketing on social media is a growing trend, and with Instagram’s recent changes to their algorithm, it has become even more important. Social media marketing can be difficult to navigate without the right tools or knowledge of how to do it efficiently and effectively.
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One challenge that many brands face is not knowing exactly how they should market on Instagram, and worse, having difficult in growing their accounts. If you are looking to market on Instagram, or are new to the platform, here are a few effective ways to market on Instagram.
Use Instagram Insights
Instagram is the preferred app for brands and businesses, and one of the reasons why is because the app offers many tools and services in order for growth. One of these tools is Insights, and it is completely free to use, if you have a business profile.
Insights gives you all of the information you need to tailor your content and create the perfect marketing strategy. These insights are helpful when used in conjunction with a growth service to organically grow Instagram followers such as Growthoid. Some of the metrics that are available include engagement rates, and even per follower, as well as the demographics of your audience, which includes information like location, hours that they are active, gender and age.
Suggest Products
A big mistake that many brands make is hard selling, or worse, blatantly advertising to their followers and potential followers. Instagram users hate when they see direct advertising, which are posts like “Buy these now!”, or “These could be yours!”, simply because they offer no value.
A much better way to do this would be to suggest products to customers, or to suggest a product and simply provide a link to the site. What often works is using Instagram Ads, posting a photo of a product, mentioning that there is a discount for it and others, and then leaving a link. Because it is so relaxed and inviting, users will most likely click the link to see what else you have.
Switch To Business Profile
As mentioned above, in order to use Instagram Insights, you have to have a business profile, but that isn’t all a business profile allows you to do. One thing that many people like is verification, and a stamp of authority. Having a business profile will not only allow you to appear more professional, it gives users a certain level of reassurance.
Switching to a business profile is one of the easiest things you can do on Instagram and helps to increase your followers since you are now verified. Click on the gear symbol on the top right of the page, then click on “Switch To Business Profile”, follow the instructions, and finally connect to your Facebook page, if you have one.
Post Entertaining Content
Something that many brands forget to do is to entertain their users, which is something that you should include in your marketing strategy. People use Instagram when they are bored, passing the time, or as a form of entertainment, so your content should achieve that.
A simple way to entertain users is to post hashtag challenges. This is basically when a brand sets a challenge, creates a video as an example, and requests users to do the challenge and tag them in the post. Not only is this free user generated content, but you are entertaining users, gaining exposure and increasing brand awareness.
Have Goals
Lastly, if you don’t already have them, you should work out a list of goals that you want to accomplish. The first question you should answer is “Why am I using Instagram?”. The answers to that could be “to get more follower”, “to increase brand awareness”, or something like “to drive traffic to my site”. All of the reasons require a different approach.
For example, if you are trying to increase brand awareness then you will have to choose an aesthetic theme, tone of voice and type of content. If you are trying to drive traffic to your site, then you would have to focus on creating content that organically shows off your products whilst leaving links and promos code when you can. Getting more followers will require to create entertaining content and to engage with users to get your name out there.
