6 Smart Instagram Marketing Tips to boost your business
These days, it seems that everyone and even their grandmother have an Instagram account.
Therefore, it makes sense that more and more businesses are creating presence on the platform. They want to reach their target audience directly on a personal level.
But just because Instagram is a platform used worldwide, does not mean it is used correctly.
If you are just interested in sharing baby photos and holiday plans with your family and friends, then you do not need to sweat strategy.
But if you are trying to make an impact from a corporate or commercial point of view, there are some best practices to follow to ensure that your efforts are effective.
Below are six clever tips that you can use to succeed on Instagram marketing.
1. Watch and Learn
Keep track of your competition and get ideas for your business. But without copying them, create your own original content.
Is it a competitor using new hashtags that you think will apply to your products or services? Does a local business have a specific design style that you think will help inspire your profile pictures and layout?
Take whatever you find and rely on it. Edit it and use it as a spark for an entirely new campaign of your own.
This is the beauty of social media – it is designed to share. So take what you can learn from established professionals and apply it to your strategy with your own unique spin.
2. Design with intent
Instagram personal users need not worry about the consistency of the design. They only take photos and publish them as they play into the story of their lives.
Instagram business users need to pay attention to designing their profiles and designing posts accordingly.
This means that you choose a particular style and keep it consistent in all positions. This applies to both images and content.
Maintaining a consistent design style emphasizes professionalism and stresses your status as a thought leader in your industry.
3. Stay loyal to your business
Make sure the style you choose stays true to your personality, as well as the mission and values that are important to your business.
The use of images of powerful athletes who win races and win national titles can emphasize healthy bodies and lifestyles. But it’s not exactly the right fit for a local health food boutique that sells vitamins, tea leaves, and organic products.
Learn who you are and follow a consistent design of your brand to reach your target audience.
4. Do not use bad captions
Yes, Instagram is a visual platform.
But that doesn’t mean the captions have to be rough.
Captions are part of maintaining a consistent style of your business.
Short, hasty, last-minute captions should be avoided.
Accurate, consistent, intellectual / informative captions highlight the time and care you put into your profile. Which, in turn, suggests that you pay equal attention to all things related to your company, services and customers.
Captions should be seen as part of your strategy, as an equal part of your Instagram profile.
5. Find the right hashtags number
The whole point of hashtags, in every social media channel, is to group similar conversations around a particular word / topic and help bring together users with common interests.
Use them as they should match the image and content of the post. Don’t overdo it (think 4-6 per post, depending on the type of post and your business).
6. Regular Engagement
You may have the best strategy and Instagram profile, but if you do not deal with it regularly you will lose the ability to communicate directly with your customers.
It shows that you are actively tuned in to current trends and that you take good care of your customers ‘(and potential customers’) desires / needs / opinions to participate in the discussion.
You’re actively tracking your Instagram account. Try to respond to questions and comments within 24 hours when possible. Follow and link to other accounts that talk about similar issues.
Your stay on Instagram increases your brand awereness.
In conlcusion
One of the best things about Instagram is that, unlike many other marketing and advertising strategies, you usually get what you put into it.
If you work without planning and research, without regular posting or engagement, you probably won’t have a big ROI in follower growth, brand recognition, etc.
On the other hand, if you take the time to design a balanced platform, with quality images, thoughtful captions, strategic recommendations and engaging your audience every day, you will start to see increased sales and greater brand awareness.
