5 Tips for Marketing On Instagram

So you want to use social media to leverage your company, but don’t know where to begin. I have one simple answer for you, Instagram. It is the perfect place to market your business and promote your brand. It quickly gained its popularity and has a user base of over 500 million accounts worldwide that are active each day. And over 80% of those accounts follow a business. This is an opportunity you can not afford to miss!

Using Instagram as part of your marketing strategy can only propel you forward if done correctly. Here are some tips to keep in mind while creating your Instagram profile.

Related: Tips & Benefits of Instagram for Business

Have Consistent Branding

So you created your Instagram page! Congrats! Be sure to showcase your businesses personality similar to the one on your website. Your profile picture is most likely going to be the company logo so it will be easy for customers to recognize your brand. When it comes to choosing a handle, using your company name or another already established social account’s name would be best.  This will make for a cohesive online presence. Plus, makes it easier for discoverability!

Share Your Business Information

After you’ve got your picture and handle, you’ll want to include everything customers need to know about your business. From the acquisition of Facebook, you’re now able to link your Facebook page to your Instagram page. After that, you’ll want to select which category your business falls under to help people understand what you’re all about.  You’ll want to include a short biography about your company who truly showcases who you are and what you do. Finally, be sure to add a link to a website and some form of contact like an e-mail, phone number, and/ or mailing address.

Define a Theme

There are so many routes you can take when it comes to the content you post, so it’s vital to come up with a strategic plan before choosing one path to go down. When marketing on Instagram, there are two key points to keep in mind when deciding what content to post: 1. The posts should look great in the Instagram feed 2. The posts should look amazing in a grid format on your page. Each post should be able to stand alone with an intriguing image and caption. And each post should also create an aesthetically pleasing layout for when people visit your profile. The best way to curate a beautiful page is to preview your images in a grid format beforehand. Placing similar photos next to each other doesn’t look as pleasing to the eye versus when you space them out. So be sure to keep that in mind when planning out what you want to post. You want to make a good first impression and it all begins with your Instagram posts.

The list of grid possibilities is endless, but here are a few to start:

Color Co-ordinated

Checkerboard

Flatlay

Minimalist

Patterns

Whatever you decide, you’ll have a beautiful theme that will keep your followers wanting for more!

Stories, Stories, Stories!

Using Instagram Stories are essential for your Instagram marketing strategy. There are currently 250M+ daily story actives and that number is only increasing. Stories allow you to display new products, help drive engagement, and create more interaction between you and the customers. Short-lived, engaging content is looked highly upon by the next wave of consumers. With a short attention span, consumers love seeing content that gets the point across but is still visually captivating. Instagram stories have a variety of ways for you to build your brand and, ultimately, encourage future sales

Related: How Can Instagram Stories Benefit Your Brand?

Instastories have been stepping up their game immensely. They offer a variety of options that you can add to your stories and your end goal defines which tools and strategy to you.

1. Having a sale: Flash various images of what items that will be on sale for the period of time. If the products are similar in style, think about showing them at different angles, on different people, or a different environment. Be sure to include a promo code so they know the sale is reliable and trustworthy. And finally hit them with a call to action: “Limited time” “Get it now!” “Don’t miss out!” This is a killer strategy that any kind business can use.
2. Showcasing a guest: Instagram story takeovers by online influencers have been an effective and unique way of showcasing your brand. Having someone with a substantial amount of following that followers can relate to portrays your company in a more organic manner.
3. Wanting more engagement: Inviting your audience to engage with you is one of the most important ideas to act on! Giving them the opportunity to get involved makes your Instagram feel as more of a conversation. Including a poll is the best way to get your followers involved. You can ask them simple lifestyle questions or questions related to your brand. Anything work, just get asking!
4. Drive traffic to your site: Want to get them on to your page directly? Well if you have over 10,000 followers, you can add links to your Instagram stories. This feature is huge because you can directly link them to the landing page you want. This is the perfect way to drive traffic and sales from your Instastory.

Community Management

If you’re a smaller business, word of mouth is powerful. My final tip is to examine all the feedback received – from the good to the bad. You can learn a lot about your customers based on what they comment on, how they comment, what photos they tag, and what they share. It’s so important to listen to what they have to say and respond to it. Instagram is a social media platform and a conversation is a two-way street. Keep in mind that you’re representing your company when commenting and your language should replicate that. The more followers you interact with, in a sincere way, the better the results of your efforts.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, now you have a few more tips on how to utilize Instagram for your business efforts. It’s so much more than posting pretty pictures. Marketing on Instagram is the perfect platform for engaging with your customers and posting relevant, insightful content. You can get proven results with Instagram.