It is impossible to find even a single soul living in the continental United States who has not heard of Instagram or Instagram marketing. The widely popular social media app has grown to almost ridiculous proportions after its famed sale to Meta’s Zuckerberg over a decade ago and is all set to displace its parent company from the top spot.
That’s why businesses use a powerful Instagram marketing service to maximize their conversion rate and generate new leads.
In this article, we learn about the importance of Instagram marketing and the best ways to utilize the platform for more revenue. So keep up!
Why Is Instagram Marketing Important
Right now, measured by the total number of active users Instagram is the fourth most popular social media in the world. The app enjoys a whopping 1 Billion users globally. Similarly, well over a quarter of everyone on the globe with a smartphone has installed the Instagram app on their phone.
In addition to enjoying amazing audiences worldwide, the app is particularly famous in the U.S. market. The country has an impressive 127.2 Million American users and is far ahead of its closest competitors, Tik Tok and Snapchat, both of which have users in the 80 Million range.
American Instagram followers are only second to Indians when it comes to the highest number of Instagram users worldwide and remember that the former has about three times America’s total population.
It is fairly evident from the facts listed above that any Small or Medium sized enterprise looking to sell to Americans must essentially have a presence on Instagram otherwise they will probably end up losing thousands if not Millions of clients.
And this holds particularly true for businesses looking to market to younger audiences because over three-quarters of Instagram users are under the age of 35.
And when it comes to audiences Instagram not only offers quantity but quality as well. Studies have shown that over 80 percent of Instagram users earn well over $30,000 per annum. In other words, they have plenty of ready cash to spend.
The platform’s ease of use, friendly layout, market penetration, and privacy features are among the top reasons why it has managed to attract such a large number of people.
Moreover, Meta’s introduction of new features and performance upgrades after 2016 have managed to help double the app’s usage since 2016.
How to Best Utilize Instagram for Increased Revenue
If you are a small business owner who has not been paying attention to Instagram marketing, it’s about time you started. So, here is a list of important Instagram marketing techniques that can help you shine on the platform.
#1 High-Speed And Reliable Broadband Connectivity
First things first, you cannot hope to execute an effective social media strategy on Instagram or anywhere else if your internet connection keeps on lagging. So, before you even think about marketing on Instagram make sure to figure your internet situation out.
Established Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectrum provide extremely high-speed broadband. In addition to fast speeds Spectrum’s Customer Service is one of the best in the market. So, even if your connection runs into some kind of trouble you will be able to access help in a matter of minutes.
#2 Understand What You Want And Define Your KPIs Accordingly
One of the biggest mistakes people make when marketing on Instagram or any other social media platform for that matter is jumping into content creation and paid campaigns without clear goals.
There are multiple different goals you can achieve through Instagram. You can use it as a primary marketing platform or use it to route traffic to your website or any other primary platform.
Moreover, you can use the platform for making direct sales, creating a certain persona for your brand, increasing your interaction with your customers, or all of the above.
Each of these different goals requires you to monitor different performance metrics and indicators. Hence not having an idea of what you are trying to achieve means that you have no idea of what to monitor which means that you cannot effectively assess your performance. And obviously, if you do not know how you are performing, you will not know how and what to improve.
In short, know what you want.
#3 Your Account Bio Must Be Spot On
This one is an obvious task but since a lot of businesses tend to miss out on this anyways, it is worth the emphasis. The first thing you should do after creating an Instagram account is write down an accurate, to-the-point, and complete Bio.
Remember, any new customer who gets attracted by your posts is going to move to your bio, make sure that you do not disappoint them. Also, since Instagram does not allow you to paste links in post captions, your bio is the only place with your website’s link, treat it as such.
An incomplete comes off as extremely unprofessional and can end up ruining the best of campaigns.
#4 Formulate An Effective Content Strategy And Execute It Consistently
Instagram has a host of features that help small businesses stay regular on its platform. One of these features is the app’s content calendar, use it effectively.
Take some time out to think about the type of content that speaks best to the people you are trying to target, and choose brand colors that match your customers’ palette, your captions should use the same vocabulary as your audience and try to be as original as possible.
Also, remember that content creation is not a linear process. Once you’ve decided on a certain type of content, check its performance and observe what’s working and what’s not and make changes to your strategy accordingly. Because Instagram is not a platform that favors the rigid.
Lastly, if your business is looking to sell to people in your local area, geotag each post. Geotagging will help your customers locate you and also let your audiences know that you belong to the same community as them.
#5 Freebies Go A Long Way On Instagram
Another very effective way of garnering new loyal customers on Instagram is through giveaways. People love free stuff and most of us do not forget the companies that have given us that free stuff.
Make sure to offer plenty of discounts directed particularly at your followers, this way you are rewarding them for their loyalty and interest. You can also try organizing contests and offering gifts to the winners, this will help increase the reach of your account.
Discounts, flash sales, and promos were not invented by social media giants, physical businesses have been deploying these techniques for ages and they work just as well on social media.
#6 Promote Users Who Give You A Shout Out
There will always be users who are so happy with your services or product that they will go out of their way to make posts or replies for you, and highlight these users. Human beings like being put in the spotlight and encouraging people who take out the time to make posts for you will have a multiplier effect.
Moreover, user-generated content has a certain honesty to it. Customers tend to trust other customers more because while companies are expected to always praise themselves, users are not. A single amateurish post by a customer is worth ten professional cards posted from your own handle.
#7 Keep An Eye On The Platform And Discern Trends
All social media and Instagram particularly are trend based. A few users start talking about a particular topic and everyone jumps on the bandwagon and by the evening the topic has lived its moment in the sun.
Every day brings new topics of discussion, trends, and hashtags. It is extremely important to monitor these trends.
Many brands have managed to multiply their traffic by properly choosing hashtags. And if you pay attention your brand could be the next success story.
#8 Approach Third Parties And Get Them To Talk About Your Brand
Instagram influencers enjoy dangerous levels of sway over their audiences. If an influencer says they want to buy a certain product their fanbase is going to rush in the same direction.
Reach out to influencers and offer them deals to direct audiences toward your brand. You can offer influencers free samples, gift them your products or even make cash payouts, whatever gets the ball rolling.
But make sure to perform an accurate analysis of the type of audience an influencer has before reaching out to them. The traffic has to be relevant to your brand’s niche otherwise you’ll end up getting an audience bulge without seeing any reasonable increase in sales.
#9 Converse With Your Audiences
People love it when brands take out the time to respond to their messages and comments, it makes them feel special. So, make your loyal audiences feel special. Be responsive. Reply to messages and like comments. This direct engagement will help you re-affirm old clients and turn them into repeat customers.
FAQs on Instagram Marketing
Here are some frequently asked questions about our topic:
Q1. How Can I Measure the Success of My Instagram Marketing Efforts?
This question addresses the need for businesses to understand how to track and measure the effectiveness of their Instagram marketing strategies. It could cover topics such as key performance indicators (KPIs), analytics tools, and metrics to monitor to evaluate the performance of Instagram campaigns.
Q2. What Are Some Effective Ways to Engage With the Instagram Audience and Build Brand Loyalty?
This question focuses on strategies for businesses to effectively engage with their Instagram audience and cultivate brand loyalty. It could discuss techniques like responding to comments and messages, creating interactive content, collaborating with influencers, and leveraging user-generated content to establish a strong connection with followers.
Wrapping Up
Instagram’s popularity has skyrocketed over the last decade. No small business without Instagram advertising can hope to achieve success.
So, if you are looking to launch an Instagram campaign for your brand pay close attention to this write-up. Because the advice mentioned above has a proven track record of helping businesses increase their sales.
