Best Instagram Marketing Strategy for 2018

Instagram, one of our most favorite social media platforms, was once a mere photo and video sharing app. It till is, but also way more. And I don’t mean the direct message feature that instagram now has which helps you to build contacts over personal message, or even the story message.                                                         

                                                                     Instagram Marketing Strategy

Here, I’m referring to the Instagram marketing platform that instagram provides which seems to boost the business these days. Be it a used book store that you started with your friends or the multinational corporation which wants to make a mark amongst today’s youth- you have the perfect opportunity to boost sales or to market your new idea, no matter how weird the idea is.

Instagram Marketing Influencers

Now the question is how to start marketing and bring about a product revolution (maybe). There are two ways you can do that. The first would be to create a personal account, start making contacts, and endorse your products through your posts or your stories. Or you could make a business account- again, a new feature of instagram, and endorse the product or service in full swing. Maybe even engage “instagrammer influencers” to help gather an enthusiastic audience for your product. What’s important is to set an attractive profile picture, and an enthralling insta-bio, something which will stir the mind of your prospective audience at one go. Make sure that your account is set to public, which means that it’s open to even those who don’t follow you. This way you or your company will gain popularity.

 Also, a good way to boost the account would be to SPONSOR your posts. Instagram, after you decide to pay a token amount, can ensure that a particular post is visible to more and more number of people.

                                                 Instagram Marketing Influencer

This is a new feature again, and is part of the much criticized new algorithm established by the company. If you wish, you can also link your instagram account with other social media accounts such as Facebook and tumblr, so that when you post something, it simultaneously pots the same post in all such social media accounts.

Following are the important points you need to keep in mind to build an engaging business and attract more and more customers.

  1. Engage with your followers- make sure that you engage with your followers and your audience. You can do so by organizing fun and friendly competitions such as quizzes, etc. or maybe ask them to use your tag, and feature the top posts from such tags. You could even organize give-away in the form of featured merchandise, one of your products as a form of appreciation, or a small token as a thank you gift. These activities will not only help redefine the company’s image on social media but also attract more and more people to follow your account, and hence ore future customers.
  2. Engage in some sort of social campaign- social work proves that you are not all about “business”. So go ahead and collaborate with an ngo, or take part in an ongoing campaign. You could even spread awareness about a cause and engage some influencers, or ask them to participate in a campaign started by you.
  3. Create an interactive hash tag- so hash tags are the new “thing”. Develop a quirky and attractive hash tag that instagrammer can use. This way you gain popularity and prove that it’s not a boring company or a product. This will ensure that more and more people across the globe follow the company’s activities through the hash tag and eve use it themselves because it will enable them to be featured on your page. This even ensures smooth and free advertising, as every time a follower uses your tag, they expose their entire contact list in the form of followers at your disposal.
  4. Repurpose content- suppose that you are finding it difficult to meet the demand of your followers for new content, all you can do is take similar content for the person who seems to have it! Obviously you will have to give them credits for the information, either by using repost, or my mentioning their instagram handle on your post.
  5. Get creative- being creative with your images, maybe even hiring a professional to get the pictures clicked, is a great way to attract viewers. Posts which look more like pictures rather than straight out advertisements are a great way to provide genuinity.
  6. Don’t over-whelm your followers- you should definitely post new content regularly to keep in touch with people, but make sure that you don’t overdo it. Continuously posting pictures on the platform to a limit where all your followers can see are your posts can even make them unfollow you. So make sure that they don’t feel as if you are on their face all the time.
  7. Take advantage of the FREE- one of the most important factor is fully utilizing the free instagram tools which can pose as a great boon for your company. Complete with a call option, it allows users to even  email or text the business. Business accounts even have the option to analyze their reach, how many people saved their picture, how the post is engaging- engagement feature. All these features are available in the settings, under the header called- insights.
  8. Post product teasers- posting teasers of your upcoming products can attract customers into getting all hyped about what’s about to come, and this may even motivate them to go for the actual purchase.
  9. Sponsored ads- set an ad budget and control how much you want to spend on advertising. This way, you can fir the target audience. You can even run different content for different target audiences simultaneously, now how cool is that?
  10. Time that post- another important factor to target the correct audience, is to perfectly time that upcoming post of yours. Post during peak days and hours when most of your followers are online. According to recent stats, Wednesdays and Sundays are the worst days to post, whereas Mondays and Thursdays are the best ones. So drive away those Monday blues with some exciting offers!

NOW FOLLOWING ARE SOME Instagram TIPS THAT YOU SHOULDKEEP IN MIND WHILEPOSTING THAT PICTURE OF YOURS:

  • Pictures which are predominantly blue in color see 24% more likes than those which are predominantly red, and images with a single color boost see 17% more likes.
  • Create lifestyle like pictures that relate to your brand culture.

 

A few other points you should definitely remember

  • Use geo tags to share a location, could be the location of your upcoming store, or a recent campaign you are planning to start.
  • Add some, not all, insider view. This could be in the form of personal snaps, or behind the scenes videos.
  • Boost engagement on instagram to strengthen customer relationships.
  • Respond to your notifications, and shout out to followers.

A vital step is to use instagram tool such as SHOPPING to boost sales.  

While the app itself does not allow followers to click on products per say, but third party apps like “like2buy” are increasingly being used by product pages. Start by using the third party app and mentioning the concerned e-market site on your Best Instagram bio. Clicking on the link takes the followers to the particular website, where it opens up a platform for them to shop directly online. How cool is that?

Instagram has over 800 million users, so obviously channelizing your products in the right way is a make it or break it deal. Billions of likes are handed over each day, so your aim should be to scoop out as much f it as possible. Also remember that the platform entertains people from variety of background and ages, so you have a great chance to ensure a wider market for the product.  And most importantly, do not make the account a “just business” one. There should be some fun too! Right? So add behind the-scenes stories, fun and quirky pictures to keep your followers entertained.

Happy marketing peeps!

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