Use Instagram To Market Your Business

Owned by Facebook and now considered to be one of the leading social media platforms around the world, Instagram is a photo and video sharing platform which encourages engagement through public likes and comments, and private direct messages.

With 1.3 billion active users on the platform, using the site to engage with, follow, share, and shop from their favourite brands as well as connect with their friends, Instagram has grown to become not only one of the most popular social media sites, but also an integral part of a modern and engaging digital strategy. In this blog, we will be sharing some of the must-knows about Instagram, how to harness it to market your business, and a few tips on achieving high-level content every time.

The Benefits Of Instagram For Your Business Marketing Strategy

From a user perspective, Instagram is primarily driven by visual posts and supporting captions - making it an ideal platform for quick browsing and scrolling to fill a few minutes. Because it is so visual, Instagram is an ideal tool from which to build a tangible and impactful brand presence, introducing everything from your brand colours to your office space, your team members and more as part of your overarching strategy. While other platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn are synonymous with company announcements and ads, Instagram is a place to connect with your followers and draw out a more personal and emotive side to your brand - and in the modern world of marketing where followers are looking for businesses with morals similar to theirs, emotive and personal posts matter.

Other benefits of Instagram for a business marketing strategy include:

• Increased traffic with an Instagram Business profile
• Instagram is one of the most engaging sites with such a high focus on visual content
• An opportunity to connect with younger audiences and show them that you care about what they care about
• An opportunity to follow and engage with other brands
• Analytics and tracking, available through a business profile
• Interact with a new audience demographic - Instagram can help you to reach a younger audience

Getting Started With Instagram

First thing’s first: you need a profile. But not just any old profile. If you are setting up an Instagram account on behalf of your business, you will need to set up a business profile in order to benefit from the additional information available to business profile users - for example, analytics, the integration of a website link and contact button, and Instagram ads.

Once you are set up with the right profile, it’s time to dive in and see what you can find out about your existing followers, which demographic they sit in, and how well they are engaging with and responding to your posts.

The free tools that Instagram provides are highly beneficial in gaining this deeper level understanding about your audience - mainly because it allows you to frame future posts, recognise what your followers want to see, and tap into the areas that they are typically engaging with the most. The analytics and Insights tools will show you which posts were most popular, how many impressions they are getting, who your followers are, and even what time your followers are most likely to engage with your posts. This in turn lets you create a strategy around what to post, when to post it, and how to caption it.

And that’s just the start.

Once you have familiarised yourself with posting, it’s time to turn your attention to Instagram stories, the potential behind sponsored posts and Influencer Ads, Reels, and the different contact touchpoints that a customer might use.

The challenge that many businesses find when using Instagram is the array of touchpoints that customers will use to get your attention. Instagram offers users an opportunity to comment on posts and send direct messages, as well as respond to 24 hour stories. A high quality strategy encourages you to respond to every question and comment you get - but how do you keep on top of them all?

Tips For Improving Your Instagram Marketing

Instagram marketing is as much about engagement and interaction as it is about great images and witty captions. Instagram stories present a great opportunity to address all your followers with short videos directed at them, whether you fill those with fun behind-the-scenes content, information, or ‘meet the team’ clips. While these are filmed and uploaded live, Instagram Reels can be pre-filmed and offer another chance to address users together with a series of content streams, for example, a Q&A or new product/service release information.

Keeping on top of all the avenues and touchpoints of Instagram can be challenging, however, there are a few things you can do to keep engagement high. These include:

• Responding to positive comments and monitoring negative ones
• Sharing user-submitted photos which relate to your brand and industry
• Commenting on industry posts from other businesses and users
• Keep an eye on your DM’s but, if you don’t have time to check them regularly, let followers know to email you with queries and comments

A few other handy tips regarding your Instagram Marketing include:

• Use influencers where appropriate and beneficial. This essentially means tapping into the large following of celebrities and other public figures who may be interested in sharing a post promoting or showcasing your product or service - thus getting your business in front of a whole new network of users.
• Use hashtags! Hashtags allow users to find specific content and show the Instagram algorithm that what you are posting is relevant to specific searches. Think of them as keywords that connect you to your audience, allowing them to search for your content and allowing you to see when someone posts about you / your industry and shares your hashtag.
• Post at the right time of day for your followers (using analytics) and don’t post too much or too often.
• Get to know your audience and talk with them - not at them.