Businesses who are interested in reaching a bigger audience should check our Instagram marketing tips below to get insights about Instagram and how to successfully use it for their social media campaigns.
Every business’ main goals include growing the target audience and its market value. This level of success can be achieved through many different strategies. You can use advertisements, influencers, etc. to promote your product and services. Social media marketing is one of the most common promoting channels in the world at the moment. And among the social media platforms, marketing for Instagram has been one of the most useful and effective ways of promoting business while increasing your potential customers.
In this writing, you are going to find:
- How did Instagram come into play as one of the strongest social media platforms?
- The trust about how much you need an Instagram business account for your business
- A beginner’s guide to Instagram marketing
- Real examples of successful Instagram business marketing strategies
- Types of Instagram marketing
- And influential tips you can start to use the right way to bolster up your social media presence
So, keep on reading 2022 Instagram marketing trends that are going to put your business account on top and give your brand an advantage in e-commerce.
The Journey of Instagram Becoming an Effective Business Outlet
The photo-sharing app Instagram was already a hit after its launch in 2010 and its popularity only got higher with new features and its easy interface to use. Years later, with the start of the pandemic, the number of people looking for a way to communicate with their loved ones and connect to the rest of the world increased and many more people joined the limitless world of social media, Instagram being the most preferred one.
The demand on Instagram of course caught the brands’ and businesses’ attention. From the top-tier brands and companies such as Starbucks, Coca Cola, and Channel to small brands and businesses like neighborhood bakeries or hand-made items shops, all the businesses saw the potential of having an online presence on Instagram. The reason for that is the fact that high-quality content brought many potential customers to them and it was much more affordable (and effective) than any other ad they spend a lot of money on! So much so that the app itself offers a clear guideline for content creators and businesses a lot of choices in creating ads.
According to Kiely Kuligowski, a writer at Business.com, the interaction rate of Instagram users is 10 times higher than Facebook, the other ruling social media platform and the owner of Instagram. That means your chance to draw more people to your brand and make them familiar with your brand is 10 times higher.
Does Every Company need a Social Media Strategy?
You may be hesitant to get down to Instagram marketing or have doubts whether it’s really working for any line of business. And that’s a perfectly fine question as sharing product pictures and the videos of the services you are providing may seem simply effective.
However, data shows that you’ll have access to one billion active monthly users and 500 billion daily Instagram Stories users. Moreover, taking account of the fact that people spend 30 minutes on Instagram, you have more opportunities to reach new demographics and increase brand awareness. You can achieve them all by creating a well-planned social media marketing strategy and applying it regularly.
Instagram Marketing Tips 101
Before you jump into statistics and numbers of all kinds, it’s important to take a step back and understand the platform you are going to work with. This step is often seen as a waste of time and skipped when it’s the exact opposite. Because the more you get to know the social media platform, the better you can use it to your advantage.
How can you use Instagram marketing tips to boost business?
You can use Instagram for many different goals you want to accomplish for your brand and carry them out in lots of different ways. One of them is to create an account with eye-catching visual content. This can be both pictures or videos or both! Use your product or services in these pictures and services to both promote your brand and make the followers relate to it at the same time.
A good example of this from the small but thriving business side is Plant Faced Clothing which is a 100% vegan clothing brand. The brand follows a social media marketing strategy that includes relatable dog memes and aims to reach out to people with funny content while mentioning their products.
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Another example of increasing follower number through relatable and enjoyable content is The Every mom. The brand targets moms all over the world and shares on lots of different subjects from parenting to baby products. And it’s working just fine as the page has more than 290.000 followers and a direct link to a page that the followers can shop from!
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And what about the big players in the business such as Starbucks? Brands like Starbucks focus on the feeling people aim to get by buying their products. That’s why they don’t miss any special day or season to keep up with people’s calendars and encourage their followers to buy a product all the time.
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Visible Advantage Instagram Provides
Whether you are posting a picture of your product or reposting a video of one of your customers, the visual representation helps your business immensely. That’s why each day more brands and companies open up their Instagram business accounts because when you show what you produce and provide visible proof of people using it, it proves you are a trustworthy brand.
Another advantage Instagram provides in terms of the audiovisual aspect is that you can create an online persona for your brand. When your brand has an Instagram account just like the rest of your customers, it makes your product more approachable in people’s eyes.
Steps to Creating an Instagram Business Account
If you don’t have an Instagram business account or you have one but you want to boost it up so that you can grow your audience along with your revenue, the steps below are going to provide useful guidance for you.
1. Sign in for your brand
Having an Instagram business account is useful for three things: being able to reach tools that will be helpful to your business, finding out about other businesses and brands that do well online, and connecting with your target audience on a more personal level. And the first step to achieving this is to sign in to Instagram for your brand.
You can simply get on the landing page of Instagram and fill in the necessary areas. Once you have a profile, go to Settings. Then tap the ”Account” option and change your account to a Professional account. You’ll see categories. Among the categories choose ”business” and you’re ready to start your business account!
2. Upload your brand or company logo
One of the most important components of your Instagram profile is your brand or company logo. All the successful brands whether they’re big or small businesses have their logo on their profile picture. The reason for that is to create familiarity for your audience. Each time they click on your Instagram account, they are going to see your logo and if you’re able to create a positive effect on them they’ll choose you when they’re making a choice.
3. Write your bio diligently
Your Instagram bio is the first impression you will have on your potential customers and followers. That’s why being clear on what you sell and what kind of a brand you are as soon as possible matters. Include information that will be necessary for the people who visit your page and keep out the unnecessary details. The first thing to specify is what kind of product or service you provide for them. Then add a couple of descriptive information such as the quality of your service. If you have a certain location, you can state the open address to attract local customers as well.
It might be challenging to write all of them down in 150 characters so it’s a good idea to use emojis too. Of course, your line of business will be determinant on this as if you’re in a more serious profession; you may want to keep things as neat as possible.
4. Make your profile engaging
A boring and standard profile is going to make your potential customers have the impression of you’re not a professional. Because the more carefully you choose what goes into your content, the higher chance your followers will continue to wait for what you share. It simply shows how much you care about your product and service and how enthusiastic you are to share about it.
5. Decide the best content for your audience
What works for a target audience may be the wrong choice for another. So before posting content on your Instagram business account, conduct research on your target audience. This way you can pinpoint what they are looking for and create posts accordingly.
6. Take the advantage of hashtags
Hashtags are great assistants for you in the competitive and ever-growing world of marketing for Instagram. However, no need to worry as with high-quality content and the right hashtags, you can climb the upper on the algorithm faster. To use effective hashtags you need to be open to temporary falls as the best outcome usually comes from experience. You can also take examples of the top-tier businesses and brands in your sector and their hashtags. However, the important thing here is not to use the exact same hashtags as they do and try the related, similar ones. Otherwise, your content may get lost among the top players.
7. Being relatable draws people in
Remember The Every mom Instagram page above? If you click on the account link and read up on a few comments, you’ll understand how much positive feedback they get just by showing they know the daily struggle of being a mom. And they do it with a sense of humor as well so when the followers see a post, they have a good time and feel they’re understood. This type of community emotion encourages them to be loyal to the brand or company when they’re shopping.
8. Set a posting time to stay in touch
The main reason people have a lot of different social media accounts is to connect with people that understand them. When you take the time off to communicate with them directly, it will surely come back to you as increasing follower numbers and interaction rates.
9. Define your purpose for posting
Remembering why you have started a business account for your brand or company is a great guide in creating new and relatable content and rerouting when necessary. What do you post for? To inform your followers? Or do you want to entertain them by sharing funny memes that are also about your product? All these questions will help you decide the main goal of your social media strategies.
10. Be in touch with your followers and connect with them
Spare time to write back to your most loyal followers and make them know that you appreciate their support. Some companies and brands also have contests such as the picture of the week among followers and increase interaction while encouraging them to participate.
How does Instagram Marketing Help Businesses?
There are many reasons why you need social media marketing. Instagram, in particular, provides 1 million monthly active users that you can reach with a well-planned profile and high-quality content. So if you’re thinking about setting up an Instagram business account, don’t waste any more time and do it. One of the biggest advantages of Instagram is that with each passing day and more companies and brands joining the business side, the platform also adds more features that are helpful to grow your audience. Instagram Analytics and other features are always there for you to check how you’re doing online and how well it goes for promoting business.
How is Social Media Marketing Important for Small Businesses?
Having a small business may seem easier for some people while the truth is it requires the same amount of effort to grow a business, even more, if you have a small one. That’s one of the reasons to stay updated on new platforms and changing inclinations such as 2022 Instagram marketing trends.
Successful Stories
In terms of using social media to grow potential customers and increase brand awareness, the popular coffee chain Starbucks is a good example. The company has been using Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook to make sure they reach out to different customer profiles and draw their attention to themselves.
Types of Instagram Marketing
Instagram may be a social media platform, however, when it comes to marketing options, it has a lot to offer to its content creators and businesses.
- Image Advertisements
- Shopping Advertisements
- Carousel Advertisements
- Story Advertisements
- Video Advertisements
Powerful Instagram Marketing Tips That You Can Use for Your Business on a Popular Platform
Instagram is an effective marketing tool as well as it is a popular social media platform. Bringing these two sides of it together, you get a marketplace that’s open 24/7 where you can show your products and services.
Instagram Marketing Tips 1. Your audience determines the content
And how to make the most of this market? Easy, you look around and find the perfect corner where all your potential customers hang out. That’s when you also research what your customers like to see and talk about. This is a great way to customize your content for them and reach them easily. Content doesn’t just mean what you share. It also means how you share it as well. The tone of your sentences and which words you choose are all a part of your content strategy.
Instagram Marketing Tips 2. Balancing the creativity and familiarity
With the time spent on social media platforms increasing, so do the competition brands and companies have to attract customers’ attention on their pages. To step up your social media presence and promote business on a professional level, you need to create new content and not always follow the trends. However, when you’re trying to surprise your followers it’s also important to show them that you’re still a familiar brand that they love to shop for. Once you balance originality with friendliness, your content marketing will be invincible.
Instagram Marketing Tips 3. Collaborating with Influencers
They don’t say ‘’Teamwork makes the dream work’’ for nothing! Working together with Instagram influencers is a great way to raise your public recognition.
13 Things about Instagram Marketing Tips You May Not Have Known
1. The story of your brand is special
Every big brand or company out there started with a small dream and idea. And so did your business. Sharing your story brings the customers closer to your brand and makes your brand persona online more approachable and trustworthy.
2. Your profile is more than an introductory text
Instagram bio may be limited in character numbers but when used right, it can work wonders just like optimizing your content on a website. You should firstly be direct on what people are going to find on your Instagram page and give them short but direct information about your brand/product/services. That way, they can start to have an image of you in their mind.
3. Using Hashtags in your post? No Ma’am!
It’s a simple but effective rule on Instagram that using hashtags together with your post makes your page look like a new starter. No matter how suitable your hashtags choices are, when you write them along with the post, it takes away the effectiveness. Fortunately, there is a simple solution for this and our best Instagram marketing tips as of yet: move them to comment and there you have it! A clear post!
4. Use trends to let them know you’re here
There is always a meme or trend that’s going viral on Instagram just like on other social media platforms. And jumping the bandwagon and including your brand in it, even once in a while, will surely help you promote your business.
5. Be there when your followers are online
Sharing a new post when the majority of your followers are offline doesn’t help them. In fact, after a while, they might stop following because they feel late all the time. So, change your posting time according to your target audience.
6. Optimize your content
Posting whatever looks nice can be tempting but it’s useful to remember that Instagram business accounts work differently. You can actually make your content more effective by following Instagram analytics and other tools the platform provides. For example, you can find your most-liked post and try to share similar content.
7. Use Instagram Reels
Among Instagram users, the number of people using Reels is increasing. So much so that some people don’t browse any profiles but hang out on Reels. Swiping just for fun and browsing interesting content. So make sure that you’re present there as well.
8. Carousel Posts are fun
There’re mixed feelings about carousel posts among the designers. Some find them useful while some think you shouldn’t use them at all. However, carousel posts are wonderful little helpers in fashion pages especially if you want to show a new series of clothing or any other product line.
9. Interact with your followers regularly
You can’t call customers all day long and ask what they think about your new product or service. However, you can message them and reply to their questions on your Instagram account all the time!
10. Link in Bio
The link in the bio is the perfect savior for businesses if you have a lot to tell and the profile section isn’t enough. You can simply drop your website on your profile and direct your followers there.
11. Live streaming with influencers
With the start of the COVID-19, more people started to follow live streaming platforms, webinars, etc. So, it’s definitely an advantage to collaborate with influencers through live streaming.
12. Real customer reviews are the best
You can tell all about how wonderful your brand is but a single real comment will surpass them all. Ask your customers to tag you on their posts and share them on your page to increase engagement and credibility.
13. Current events are opportunities for you to shine
You can get new followers and potential customers by posting on a current event, trending topic, or even a meme. It’s not always ideal to load your page with them but they’re definitely effective moments to get attention.
Create the Best Content with Socialays Social Media Assistant
Deciding what kind of content you’ll share on your Instagram business account is the key to your success. And that’s exactly what Socialays AI-based social media assistant provides you. And more. With Socialays, you can now not only have the data of your Instagram account but also read what it really means to plan future content marketing.
Socialays provides you detailed feedback on which post your followers liked the best and the least. It can also show your most loyal followers. This way you can pinpoint the best content choices each time without missing anything! Visit the website for further information and start creating the best content for your business!
In Closing
With millions of active users, Instagram is one of the most influential social media platforms out there at the moment. Taking into consideration the Instagram marketing tips we discussed above as well as bringing data and creativity together, you can create a marketing strategy for your Instagram business account and grow your business!
