It is no secret that social media marketing is a must for business. However, certain social media platforms may suit a business better for their marketing efforts than others. Additionally, social media is becoming increasingly more visual and interactive, and one reason Instagram marketing may be so successful is that IG-based content is generally on the cutting edge of this trend. For those who want to know how to do Instagram marketing the right way, start with a video marketing plan and stick to it.
Around one billion people use the platform every month, with 88% of them being located outside of the United States. That makes Instagram a gold mine for reaching a global audience. If your target audience is under the age of 35, then Instagram is definitely a platform to use for marketing purposes. 71% of the platform’s users from around the world are under the age of 35.
For now, let’s take a close look at how business owners and social media marketing managers can leverage Instagram to improve their business performance.
Optimize Your Instagram Business Account
Whether you have an Instagram account already or you’re just now creating one, it’s important that you open a business account. If you have a current profile, you can easily switch it.
Getting a business account comes with several advantages. Your followers can click on your contact button to message you much the same as they do on your website. Plus, you can create and publish Instagram ads, access analytics (Insights), and look at stats that help you refine your Instagram marketing strategy. All of these perks come free of charge with an Instagram business account.
On your business account, it’s very important to optimize it with branding features like a logo and bio. These branding features should be clean and clearly displayed. They are the first thing a follower will see when they click on your profile.
Get More Instagram Followers
Follow acquisition will become easier and more natural if an Instagram business profile first follows industry leaders, brands, competitors, and other movers and shakers within their field. Additionally, commenting on others’ posts and maintaining your visibility can prompt people to follow your brand. You can also post about your Instagram account on other social media platforms you already have a following on.
Another way to get more followers on Instagram is to cross-promote your hashtags. Let’s say you create a hashtag for Instagram, but very few people know about it. By cross-promoting on it on brochures, fliers, receipts, print ads, and more, it then becomes easy to spread the word about your hashtag and the meaning or cause behind it. As more people learn about it, you will grow your followers.
Post at the Right Times
You should post at certain times of the day reaches more people. To pinpoint when to post, you should study your target audience. When do they use Instagram? What are they doing when they use the platform?
Ideally, you’ll conduct tests to see which posts garner the most engagement out of your Instagram posts. If you don’t have time or resources to conduct these tests, you can always lean on external research and data. SproutSocial analyzed customer data and discovered there are several ‘best’ times throughout the week to post.
Posting around 5:00 AM CDT on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays tends to generate high levels of engagement. This is when people normally wake up, and, of course, the first thing they do is check their phones when they get up.
Use Hashtags in Captions
Always make proper use of hashtags. Too many hashtags can seem stuffy and may not place your content in appropriate circles. Doing hashtag research and knowing which ones to put in your comments/caption can gain your content heightened visibility, allowing you to potentially reach more people, gain more followers, and acquire new customers.
To do hashtag research, check out these sites:
Leverage Video and Interactive Content
Instagram differs from other social media platforms, as videos, photos, and interactive content rule the Instagram world. With this in mind, it’s important to create and deploy a strategic video marketing plan on Instagram.
Some of the best-performing videos on Instagram are those that are 30 seconds or shorter. With a social media video agency in your corner like IGW, it becomes simple to create engaging videos that increase your following and brand awareness. When videos are between 30 to 60 seconds long, this keeps the viewer’s attention. Today’s social media users have extremely short attention spans, making it all the more important to keep your videos short.
Are you ready to create a killer Instagram marketing strategy that uses videos and other forms of visual marketing? If so, contact IGW today.
