Instagram, the brainchild of Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. It was started as a photo & video sharing app and released on 6 October 2010. At the time of its release, no one knows that this small app is going to be one of the biggest Social Networking Sites in the world.
As of 2021,1 billion people actively use Instagram every month, making it the second-biggest social media platform only behind Facebook. As a marketer or business owner, you know how important this platform or its vast userbase is for you to market your business online. Whether to increase Brand awareness or convert leads Instagram allows you to do it all. In this blog, we will show you how important it is to include Instagram marketing in your marketing mix and various tips on how you can enhance it.
What is Instagram Marketing?
You must be thinking about what is Instagram Marketing but it is not rocket science. As its name suggests, Instagram marketing is the promotion of your product and services to the gigantic userbase on the social media platform, Instagram. There are various ways to promote your brand on Instagram like running ads on feeds & stories, collaborating with influencers and numerous other ways.
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Why Instagram Marketing is necessary for your business?
Many people doubt the effectiveness of Instagram Marketing but believe me if you are not promoting your brand on Instagram then you are losing a wonderful opportunity that will take your business to new heights.
Look around you, your friends, colleagues, family members everyone is on Instagram how can you ignore its effectiveness, it is one of the best platforms to communicate with your audience and potential customer.
You can leverage Instagram for building and maintaining relationships with people and ultimately converting them into your paying customers.
Here is a list of some amazing Instagram statistics,
1. One billion-plus people use Instagram every month.
2. As of July 2021, 180 million people actively use Instagram in India.
3. Daily 500 million stories are shared on Instagram.
4. Instagram is the second biggest social media in the world.
5. On average 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily.
6. 83% of Instagram users have discovered a new product or service on the platform.
7. 53 minutes per day is the average amount of time users spend on Instagram.
What are the ways of Marketing on Instagram?
– Instagram Stories
As mentioned above, 500 million stories are shared on Instagram every day, this statement indicates that people love to share and view stories. As a brand, you can use this feature of stories to interact with your audience or to display your offerings. This feature facilitates adding stickers and mention other accounts. You can smartly integrate this amazing feature into your Instagram marketing strategy.
– Instagram Feed
Instagram feed is another place where you can display your advertisement. People have a habit of scrolling feed and this is where you can steal their attention and show them about your product or services. You can promote small video ads as well as static ads on the feed according to the strategy of your campaign. Daily millions of people scroll Instagram feed and you can use this opportunity to attract new customers.
– Hashtags
Recently Instagram added a new feature in which users can follow a hashtag. It is represented by the symbol ‘ # ’. While posting photos and videos on Instagram you can include several hashtags in the caption. Your photos or videos will get included in that particular hashtags list and it will naturally increase the reach of your content when people search that hashtags. Hashtag is one of the most important features that you should use in your Instagram marketing while promoting your brand on Instagram.
– Influencer Marketing
Earlier only big celebrities, sportspersons are considered Influencer but with the rise of the internet and social media, the landscape of influencer marketing has changed completely. Now there are people on social media like Instagram with thousands and millions of followers known as Micro and Macro Influencers based on the number of people who follow them.
Micro-Influencer: People whose following ranges from 10,000 to 50,000.
Macro-Influencer: People whose following ranges from 2,50,000 to 1 million.
Depending upon the size of your brand you can select whether to go for the micro or macro influencer, the best thing about influencer marketing on Instagram is that you can find an influencer for almost every niche and according to your product category you can collaborate with them. It is a very lucrative and inexpensive way of marketing for brands.
Tips for Instagram Marketing Strategy
1. Set Clear Goals
The first step before creating and launching any marketing campaign is the setting of goals. You must have clarity about what you want to achieve with your Instagram marketing campaign.
If you do not set clear goals you will not achieve the desired result from your campaign. Your Instagram campaign must be aligned with the goal you are trying to achieve. For instance, if you want to increase brand awareness then you must craft a campaign according to this objective.
2. Determine your Target Audience
The most important task before launching any marketing campaign on Instagram is to determine your target audience. Who actually are your customers?
Make a buyer persona of your ideal customer. What is their interest? What are their needs and wants? What are their likes and dislikes? What are their motivations? And once you get the clarity of these questions then you can craft your marketing campaign accordingly.
3. Post Content Frequently
For better results, You can post content frequently on Instagram to engage with people. This is the best feature of Instagram that allows you to form a constant engagement with your potential customer.
You can decide the frequency of creating and posting the content on this platform. Usually, it is suggested to post 4-5 content in a week it also depends on the category you are operating your business.
4. Use Good-quality Content
Content is the pillar of your marketing campaign whether on Instagram or other social media platforms. The message you are communicating on your Instagram post should be very clear, you must the words that general people can understand.
Don’t confuse people with your content because it refrains them from taking action. Your content should be aligned with your marketing campaign.
5. Use High-quality and Aesthetic Designs
Instagram is a platform that allows you to share content in the form of photos and videos, it is a visual medium. Always make sure that your post’s designs are eye-catching and alluring.
Aesthetic post attracts more people towards them as compared to posts that are not designed properly. Instagram is a magnificent platform that facilitates you to show people your creativity, how creatively you can convey your marketing message to them.
6. Analyze and Optimize your Campaign
Like other digital and social media platforms, Instagram also gives you the facility to monitoring and measuring your marketing campaign. It provides you the necessary data of your campaign, whether it is up to the mark or not? How people are reacting to your marketing message, how customers are interacting with your message?
Everything about your campaign can be monitored, tracked, and measured. After getting these insights of the campaign you can analyze them and optimize your campaign accordingly and can get better results and better ROI.
Conclusion
I am sure that now you are aware of the importance of including Instagram Marketing in your marketing mix strategy. With the rise of popularity of Instagram in the world, it is your responsibility to capitalize on this wonderful opportunity of marketing that has the potential to take your business to new heights in this era of cut-throat competition.
If you want to learn more about Instagram marketing, how to create and launch a campaign on Instagram then you can join a free demo on Digital Marketing, which includes a detailed guide to Instagram Marketing.