Instagram Marketing: 7 Powerful Tips With Examples
5 min read
Last Updated on September 21, 2022 by Journal Fact
Instagram is a popular visual medium witnessing more than 1 billion active users in a month and 500 million regular Instagram Stories. As per research, 71% of the businesses in the United States use Instagram because it brings them profits from an estimated 140 million Instagram users in the US alone.
Furthermore, the users on this platform are not just active but engaged. For example, 59% of its active users visit the platform regularly and spend a minimum of 7 hours every week. More than 130 million users see shopping content, which boosts sales and awareness about a product.
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So, indulging in Instagram marketing is crucial. If you do not know how to start, here are seven powerful tips with examples:
1. Decide on the Right Look and Try Maintaining It
Aesthetics are crucial when using Instagram. Maintain visual consistency if you want people to recognize and connect with your brand. This involves creating content with a similar style and color scheme. Since there are more than 100 million videos and images uploaded on the platform daily, you must create content that stands out from others, and people recognize instantly.
Take the example of Jo Malone’s Instagram feed that features understated and minimalist images of their nature-inspired perfumes. Major highlights of their images are their scent bottles and plants and flowers, which inspire them. So, decide the right style and colour scheme and choose proper filters to maintain it throughout the content.
2. Make People Buy Your Products by Posting Product Teasers
There can be no other place as efficient as Instagram when advertising a product. But make sure the advertising is not too pushy; otherwise, the followers simply drop like flies. Creating excitement around your product is necessary, and for that, why not use product teasers?
Check out Gilt Man that does not try to sell its products directly on its Instagram page. Instead, it teases the users with product images and discounts to download its app. These posts on Instagram get many likes mainly because they are laid back and not too salesy. The same can also work for your niche. Your product teaser can make the people interested and get them to buy it, provided you put the right images and words into the teaser.
3. Use Stories to Engage the Audience
Since 500 million individuals use Instagram Stories daily, they bring more visibility for any content. Plus, with a display time of twenty-four hours, they can be perfect for capturing and highlighting in-the-moment videos and images to engage the audience. Thus, it is effective to use Instagram Stories for showcasing products and brand updates. You can use them to show everything like the employees working on products, production procedures, and the work culture and engage the audience.
Why not check out Shake Shack in this respect? This popular burger-making company made Stories on the trending Met Gala topic and took Katy Perry’s burger costume as the subject and spoke about why it was their favourite costume at the Met Gala. And imagine the result – their burger sales became almost doubled after some days.
4. Do Not Underestimate the Power of Hashtags
Hashtags are a powerful Instagram marketing tool you should use because it boosts the visibility of your posts and helps you reach the relevant audience. You can either use hashtags specific to your marketing campaign or create branded hashtags that you can generally use for all business marketing initiatives. A good example here is Lays, which runs a hashtag campaign asking customers to choose their favourite flavours. Their hashtag #DoUSaFlavor was a huge hit, and helped the brand take its Instagram content marketing to another level. In the same way, you can use well-known hashtags relevant to your service or product to reach potential audiences.
5. Use Influencer Marketing for Wider Reach
The fastest way of reaching target audiences and prospective buyers on Instagram is by partnering with the influencers. They are people with a large fan following and help in influencing people to buy products and services from a particular brand.
So, getting the right influencer as per your niche industry with a good fan following is necessary. Once you get that, simply place your brand right in front of the target audiences. If you are dubious about whether it really works or not, check Gravity Blankets, a brand selling weighted blankets for stress and sleep. They had just 10000 followers. But the moment it used Jessi Smiles, the influencer with 493000 followers, to promote its products, the brand’s followers increased greatly, which naturally increased its sales. That’s only because they trusted Jessi’s recommendations.
6. Use UGC to Your Advantage
Another cost-effective way of promoting your business on Instagram is using UGC or User-Generated Content. Coming directly from your users, these contents help others get involved with your brand and enhance their effectiveness. UGC can be made in various ways, like videos, images, podcasts, or reviews. A testimonial UGC can be more authentic and trustworthy as real customers share their feedback about a product.
An excellent example is Letterfolk, which regularly shares images of its products clicked by its customers. The photographers also receive picture credit in the captions, offering them some recognition and spotlight.
7. Offer Giveaways
Giveaways are gifts a brand offers to the followers in exchange for marketing products and services. This is a simple trick where you can ask your followers to perform some actions to bring more followers, such as,
- Tagging three or more friends in a post.
- Clicking a picture beside the brand logo and tag the company.
- Posting a video or image on their profile with a brand-specific hashtag.
Peds, the popular shoe and legwear maker for women, does this like a pro by giving away some of its products along with a number of gift cards. People just need to follow the brand and tag friends to participate in the contest.
Conclusion
So, here you are! These are the seven most powerful tips to market your brand on Instagram. Whether they have a direct or an indirect impact on your marketing efforts, they can get more people to notice your brand and engage with it.