We all know that no online marketing strategy is complete without Instagram. This platform has 800 million users and 500 million profiles are active on a daily basis. What’s more, 70% of IG hashtags are branded.
This means that if you’re not on Instagram yet, you should sign up right now. This could also mean that your competitors are already there and being followed by your prospective customers.
Marketers and businesses with an IG account are already on the right track. However, having a profile does not mean that you’re already swimming in sales. If you want to drive sales, you need a viable marketing strategy so that you can make real money on Instagram. Here are a few tips.
Increase Followers
Without followers, you will struggle in getting your posts seen. This is why one of the first things you should do as soon as you sign up on IG is to get followers.
According to studies, 73% of users on social media follow brands they are interested in. Your current customers are interested in your brand so tell them about your profile as soon as you sing up. The next step is updating your email subscribers and reminding them to follow you in Instagram. Include your IG handle and an incentive to follow you.
Include an IG badge on your website. This will make it easy for guests to find you on the social media platform. Follow other people too, but don’t just follow anyone. Follow users that fit your target audience because this is your best bet for generating new leads and driving sales.
Finding target audience is a bit tricky. You don’t need to “steal” your competitor’s followers although following them is a good idea too. The easiest way to finding followers is to search IG profiles and posts with content similar to yours.
Focus On First Impression
First impressions always matter. This is true not only for the real world, but on the internet too.
Marketers need to know this and this is the reason why writing an irresistible blog post introduction is important for your content marketing strategy.
When an IG user clicks on your profile, they see your biography and most recent post. If you want to grow your customer base, your profile should say who you are and what you do.
Having a picture of your logo as profile pic makes sense because this it’s more recognizable than a picture of one of your products.
This means that if your profile page does not grab user’s attention you won’t get many followers. So keep your profile short but to the point and professional.
Post On A Regular Basis
Posting once a month is not an effective strategy. It can’t even be called an active IG presence.
Remember that you always want to be on the mind of your followers. However you also don’t want to flood their timeline with spammy messages. Our recommendation is to post once a day. If you have a lot of content to share in 1 day, it’s better to add it to your Instagram story.
Go Live
Instagram has a live streaming feature that you should take advantage of. Users love it and brands are using it to their advantage. This is because going live gives you the opportunity of connecting with followers more intimately and in real-time. Followers can also comment while you broadcast.
Make sure to try to comment back to commenters and to acknowledge those who do. This will help to increase your engagement metrics.
Going live also has endless possibilities. You can demonstrate new products, host a Q&A, give a tour of your facility or work with other brands.
Partner With Social Influencers
94% of marketers say that their partnership with an influencer was an effective strategy for their brand. This is because many followers trust social influencers.
According to studies 82% of people are likely to follow recommendations from influencers and 94% of followers believe that influencers are credible.
Add Hashtags To Captions
It’s best to learn how to write Instagram content captions that drive engagement and hashtags are an IG necessity. There are different approaches to this. You can use existing hashtags or write your own.
Use hashtags with your brand name or brand campaign. This will make it easier for followers and users to find your product.
Encourage UGC
UGC is user-generated-content. This type of promotion uses photos or videos of users that they uploaded that’s related to your product or content.
This is a good marketing strategy because your brand gets exposure from their followers. It acts like a recommendation which we already know through influencer marketing to be an effective promotion strategy.
Run Targeted Ads
How can you reach followers on IG that don’t follow you? Run targeted ads.
This strategy targets users outside your audience giving you the ability to reach more prospective followers and customers. Furthermore, Instagram has been acquired by Facebook, giving you the opportunity of running ads on both platforms.
For paid ads, you have to set parameters like age, gender or location to select your ad preference. You can also take it a step further by targeting users based on their interests.
Take Away
Competition is can be in cyberspace so having a foothold in social media platforms such as Instagram is important. Not only does it have millions of active users every day, it has shifted from a photo sharing platform to a business related one that makes it easy for marketers to network and connect with prospective clients, influencers and like-minded brands.
Sydney Social Media Marketing Company can help you connect with clients. Our experts will collaborate with you to create persuasive social media pages and content to give you advantage over your competition.
