The rise and rise of Instagram have been well documented. From being a humble photo-sharing social site, a decade later, it is has morphed into one of the most influential platforms for advertisers and brand builders. And the statistics don’t lie!
According to Hootsuite, a billion people use Instagram video every month, while 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day.
The predominance of video as the ultimate marketing tool is borne by looking at the ![]()
video marketing statistics for 2020.
But before rushing in to take advantage of the hype surrounding Instagram marketing, it is important to pause and take a deep look at your overall marketing strategy, short-term tactics, goals, and deliverables. This article talks about some key tips that will help formulate a successful Instagram marketing strategy.
Have An Instagram Specific Strategy
One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is to treat all social media platforms as equal and split up their marketing budgets accordingly. However, your Instagram marketing strategies can be quite different from marketing on Facebook or
LinkedIn because you need to need to understand that audience reach, engagement mechanisms, and buying intent is different for each platform.
Before you create an account on Instagram and start posting videos and photos, you need to be sure that Instagram is right for your business. Instagram works best by telling stories. If you have the right stories to tell, Instagram could be the ideal platform for your social media marketing.
Understanding Your Audience
Knowing and understanding your target audience is critical for any business strategy. In terms of such differentiated social media platforms, it becomes even more important. While Instagram boasts of a large audience, you do not want to waste your dollars by reaching out to people who have no need or use of your products. You can start by asking yourself questions like
‘Are my customers or prospects even on Instagram?’ or ‘How likely is it that they will buy after looking at my product video?’.
You should already have a list of buyer personas that you would consider the best fit as potential customers; apply the same to
Instagram.
Targeting Your Identified Audience
Once your audience has been identified, they need to be targeted through the judicious use of hashtags and local filters. Ensure that you use relevant hashtags that your target audience is searching for. Find similar tags that your competitors or peer groups are using. Targeted ads can be used to reach even more potential customers if you are willing to invest a little time and set aside a small budget. Be cautious of overusing hashtags or using ‘banned’ hashtags, as this can potentially hurt your reach.
If there is a local aspect of your products or services, you need to make sure that you tag locations. This allows you to get location-specific exposure, which can be converted to revenues easily.
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Optimize Your Branding
Ensure that your Instagram feed reinforces your brand identity. Sticking to your brand’s consistent color scheme and style will
make your brand more recognizable in both the online and offline worlds.
Using Video as the Go-To Format
Videos have ensconced themselves as the cornerstone of every marketing strategy. To that extent, Instagram is the best social platform for visual discovery! Create your videos in the formats that align themselves with the Instagram video requirements.
Instagram allows videos to be anywhere from 3 seconds to 60 seconds long.
Videos can be uploaded or transferred in a variety of ways, giving you a lot of flexibility about how to use video content with your Instagram account. Videos offer an appealing way to promote your brand, so make sure that your videos are captivating and relatable.
Fully Utilize Analytics & Reporting Mechanics
Do not sit back after running campaigns on Instagram. As with every other social media platform worth its salt, Instagram provides numerous tools and dashboards to analyze various metrics if you have a Business Account. Metrics like engagement rate, authentic engagement, followers, reachability, impressions, competitor tracking – there is a world of useful information available to analyze success or failure. Using these tools will help build an even better campaign or redirect your budget from unsuccessful ones.
Never A Better Time To Engage With Your Customers
Customer engagement brings the best dividends for your marketing efforts. Avoid using bots and other automated engagement tools to increase the number of likes and follows. These types of artificial engagement will not deliver any monetary benefits.
It makes more sense to set aside resources to follow people talking about your products or services and commenting on their posts. This fosters the development of a powerful and loyal community, who will always support your company through ups or downs.
Summary
Hopefully, you’ve gone from asking, ‘Should I Instagram?’ to ‘What’s my best Instagram marketing strategy?’. Instagram is
currently the flavor of the times for social media marketing, and given the visual delight it offers, it is likely to stay that way.
As the world looks at marketing in the post coronavirus days, Instagram is the platform that can offer the best view in a
socially distanced and mostly indoor world.
If you are serious about growing your brand and following on Instagram, it takes a bit of time, effort, and money to expand your reach or track your progress. Do not focus purely on likes and number of followers, but instead work on creating compelling video content to cultivate a thriving community for your Instagram account. Keep up with trending and new tools to help create the best videos. InVideo is one of the best video-creation tools to cater to all your Instagram video needs. Get your story right, sit back, and let Instagram help you promote your products to the right people at the right time.
