Social media has become a tool for people to get in touch with one another regardless of distance. It’s also become a way to be updated with the latest information and worldwide events. Moreover, people can entertain themselves with memes and funny videos on such platforms.
One popular social media platform is Instagram (IG), where people mostly share photos. Facebook, now called Meta, acquired it in 2012. This platform has billions of users, which is only expected to grow over time.
IG isn’t just for individual users. Any business, large or small, can also benefit from having a presence on this platform, which can be a crucial part of your marketing strategy. It can expose your brand to audiences worldwide, helping increase your sales.
Yet, how can you effectively market your brand on IG to increase brand visibility and sales? Find out in this article by reading further.
1. Team Up With Influencers
Engagements can increase your brand visibility, leading to more sales. Gladly, you can hire influencers to improve your Instagram engagement. This is because they can bring a human face to your brand.
Influencers are individuals who have notable social media following. They work with brands to widen the latter’s reach and promote their products. Influencer marketing is still making an impact this year and is expected to grow more in the coming years. Thus, influencers are also paramount to your IG marketing strategy.
Here are some things to know when implementing influencer marketing on IG:
- Look for the right niche influencers to collaborate with: You can narrow down your options by considering your offerings, brand, and social media goals, and then choosing influencers that align with all of these.
- Consider your budget before hiring influencers: More than anything else, only hire influencers your budget permits. However, in your quest to save money, avoid falling into the trap of hiring those offering the cheapest rates. Instead, go for influencers that can give you the exposure you need at a reasonable cost.
- Offer contests and giveaways to influencers‘ followers: Once you team up with them, you can sponsor giveaways and contests on their respective channels. This can lead to improved brand awareness.
2. Focus On The Right Content
Content is one crucial element you should prioritize whenever you do business on this platform.
It can contribute to brand visibility as long as it’s targeted and effective. It can also help increase
your sales by attracting more people to check out your offerings.
You can publish various types of content on Instagram that can help increase customer
engagement on your channel. These include the following:
- Instagram Stories
IG Stories are a content type that stays on one’s profile for about 24 hours. They’re more
informal than IG posts, and one doesn’t have to plan much for them. Many people are
utilizing this feature, making it a sensible option for brands who want to market
themselves.
You can market your brand through IG Stories in the following ways:
- You can use hashtags and geotags.
- You can also create polls, which allow for more audience engagement and help you obtain essential customer insights.
- You can link Stories to your shopping page and promotional posts. You can also utilize IG’s ‘See More’ feature as your call-to-action (CTA).
Likewise, you must know how to schedule posts on Instagram as it can make all the
difference in your IG content strategy. For one, if you intentionally post content, such as
Stories, during your target audience’s active hours, there’s a better chance that you’d get
more engagement. In addition, by scheduling your IG posts, you can make time to really
focus on your content quality, ensuring that captions have been properly researched,
written, and edited, images have been polished to perfection, and all relevant IG channels
have been tagged prior to publication. Lastly, you get to free up your own schedule so
you can respond to people’s comments and queries.
- Instagram Live
This is a feature wherein you can livestream or broadcast videos as they happen. You can
find it next to Stories, just at the top of the main IG feed.
You can market through this content type by:
- Doing a live session with an influencer
- Holding a class, workshop, or tutorial related to your brand
- Holding a question and answer (Q&A) segment
- Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels collectively refers to vertical videos that take over the whole screen, and
which can last up to 90 seconds. You can be as creative as you can be with the available
effects and tools, while still making sure that you’re true to your brand identity.
Here are some things to consider when creating Reels for your business:
- Experiment with trending audio clips.
- Post regularly.
- Know all the details about the IG Reels algorithm.
- Work with other creators.
- Try not to sound too promotional.
- User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) comes from your consumers. These could be images,
videos, or testimonials. And, because such posts come from people who’ve actually used
or tried your products or services, these add an air of authenticity to your brand.
Brands use UGC by reposting them on their own IG accounts and tagging the owners of
such posts.
When utilizing UGC content, you must consider these things:
- Have an objective and strategy.
- Determine the type of content you need.
- Always ask for consent.
- Credit the actual creator of the content.
3. Be Creative
Brands that have a niche have more followers in general. And. the more followers a brand has,
the higher its sales will be. Yet, the digital space is oversaturated, so it can be quite challenging
to stand out.
So, to remain above the competition , one crucial thing you have to consider is to become more
creative. As IG is visual-centric, you can try to be more creative with your visual content by
focusing on elements such as color and style.
Here are some ways you can be creative with your IG content:
- Use IG’s In-Platform Features: Some of the in-platform features you can utilize for your posts to make them more fun and engaging are GIFs, stickers, and typefaces. Meanwhile, tools such as Boomerang can help you develop unique content that can easily catch the attention of visually-driven modern consumers.
- Play Around Your Brand’s Elements: You can utilize various components of your brand, such as your business’s official logo and colors, when you create ads. This would allow for easier recall as you’re utilizing elements unique to your brand.
- Be Creative With Your Captions: One great way to create a solid connection with your prospects and IG followers is through your captions. You can create lengthy inspirational ones, one-word captions followed by an emoji or two, or just use emojis alone. You can also inject some humor, especially if it aligns with your branding.
4. Use Instagram Ads
Another marketing strategy that you can apply is to use ads. Putting up IG ads is a valuable way
to spend your business’s money, particularly if your brand is just starting.
Paid ads bring forth a lot of benefits, such as:
- Allow you to have a larger audience
- Can become a potent tool for marketing analytics
- Allow you to target your audience better
- Improve the number of your following
- Provide crucial insights
Here are the different types of IG ads you can use:
- Explore ads
- Video ads
- Image ads
- Carousel ads
You can also try shopping ads. These have many types, and their purpose is to allow the target
audience to purchase straight from the IG app. Shopping ads offer the following advantages:
- Comprehensive reporting
- Filtered audience targeting
- Self-service ad creation that’s less hard to use
5. Use Hashtags
It’s Twitter that first started the use of hashtags. Later on, these became popular on Instagram as
well. You can create one by including a text after the # symbol in an IG bio, story, or caption.
Clicking on it can take users to all the public content that uses the same hashtag. What’s notable
is that people can also follow hashtags that interest them. Using hashtags that align with your
offerings is also key to effective IG marketing as they help boost brand visibility and sales.
You can use different types of hashtags for your marketing. These include:
- Product or service hashtags
- Location hashtags
- Niche-specific hashtags
- Special event hashtags
- Seasonal hashtags
When using hashtags for Instagram marketing purposes, take to heart the following tips:
- Ensure you use a mixture of unique and typical hashtags in your posts.
- Prevent the use of spammy and banned hashtags.
- Ensure your hashtags are clear, specific, and spelled correctly.
- Know the process of using hashtag pages.
- Save hashtags that you repeatedly use to avoid typing them again and again.
To Sum Up
Businesses of various sizes can use Instagram to market their brands. You can do so by creating
well-thought-out and targeted content. You can also work with influencers with a significant
number of followers. Also, you can generate creative content to remain distinct from the rest of
the campaigns out there. Using hashtags is also ideal, as long as they align with your product or
service offerings, as well as brand values. Lastly, you can use sponsored and paid ads to widen
your reach.
Hopefully, this article has helped boost your knowledge regarding Instagram marketing so you
can adopt strategies to effectively promote brand visibility, which, in turn, can increase your
sales.
