A 5 Step Guide to Giving your Business a Boost with Instagram Marketing
February 2, 2017
Who we are
Action Digital is a full-service digital agency based in Cyprus offering services in web
February 2, 2017
With over 300 million daily active users and 500 million monthly users, Instagram is far more than just a photo sharing app and social network- used in the right way, it’s also an essential marketing tool! And if you take the right steps for your business, it can help raise brand awareness, increase customer engagement and loyalty, promote your company culture, showcase your products and much more. Action Digital points out some simple ways that you can effectively use your Instagram as a visual advertising channel for your business, integrating it into your marketing campaign as you grow your business, and hopefully, increase your revenue!
As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so make sure that the photos you share really stand out to attract attention, matching your overall company image in a way that contributes to your brand identity. Choose a theme that ties in with your business and remember that quality is far better than quantity. But do be consistent with posts and encourage interaction with catchy captions – that tell the story behind your image – and relevant cool hashtags that will give you the chance to be seen beyond your sphere of followers as you build a growing Instagram fan base. To find relevant hashtags, you can use a free online programme like Webstagram. After all, you want to make sure that your posts show up when users search for something industry related. It’s a good idea to monitor a hashtag in your niche to gain inside info about market trends and who are more likely to want to find out more about your brand/product. And once you load an image on Instagram for business, you can then examine your post reach and which images are leading to the highest engagement.
Instagram enables users to create a string of images in a catchy ‘story’, with drawing tools, emojis and fun colourful text allowing for greater creative expression. And the videos in stories disappear after 24 hours, meaning you can share as much as you want throughout the day without worrying about overpoting. Create more dialogue with your followers while integrating more behind the scenes content and video into your social media strategy. Give them a sneak peak of what’s to come, build up suspense about a product launch, let them see the team in your office hard at work, or take them on a tour of your premises. You’ll create more of a buzz for your company, product or campaign, and you’ll build up a greater relationship with your audience.
More than just stories, you can also stream live video that also gives you an added way to connect with your followers. Whether you want to create a visual portfolio of your company’s work, set a series of fast demo videos, highlight special offers or make your brand more approachable with ‘behind the scenes’ shots, you’ll be promoting your company culture as you increase transparency and give your fans/customers a chance to get to know you in a different way.
With Instagram ads looking like any other shared image, you can engage a greater audience through targeted advertising- tapping Facebook’s (Instagram’s parent company) vast user data. You can either tell your story through imagery via photo ads, or use a video ad to capture attention through sound and motion. Then there’s carousel ads adding depth to photo ads, as users can swipe to view more images, while a call to action button takes them to your website to learn more. Once your ad is published, you can respond to comments and really make the most of interaction with your audience. The addition of ads on Instagram Stories should not be forgotten since it allows for full screen ads.
Be sure not to forget that everyone needs to know about your Instagram account. Make it clearly visible if you send out a newsletter, add it to any printed marketing materials, and make it obvious where users can click to follow your company via Instagram on your web page. Don’t be shy, the more followers you have, the more people will be gaining insight into your brand or company on a daily basis! For a fully integrated social media marketing plan, contact us! We will help you reach your social media goals!
