If you are among the 1 billion monthly active Instagram users, then you probably know, or at least have a rough idea how powerful and effective the social network can be as a marketing platform. It's the go-to platform for many a brand to connect and engage with their customers, promote their products, and increase their brand awareness.
It is therefore quite frustrating, if you are one of those business owners who are yet to figure out how to mine this social networking goldmine. It is a common mistake to find marketers trying to gain entry into this platform using the very strategies they use for other social networks like Facebook and Google. But more experienced marketers know this; to stand out on this platform, you must think and act differently.
Being a photo-sharing platform, this platform does not allow clickable links on images. Therefore, marketers have to figure out other smart ways to promote their blogs and brands on Instagram. Here are 7 time-tested strategies to help you successfully market your blog on Instagram:
Share Customer Testimonials, Stories, and Reviews
In an effort to boost their customers confidence and trust in the quality of their brand and brand offerings, marketers leverage their ability to convince. But as many would tell you, if they would be honest with you, this is hardly ever enough. The more experienced marketers don’t try too hard. Instead, they leverage something even more powerful: customer testimonials, stories and reviews.
It's one thing to market your products as the best in the market, and it's another when your followers can read reviews and testimonials from someone else who has used your products. In social media marketing, an excellent marketing strategy for any company would be to collect as many reviews, stories, and testimonials about their services or products as they can, then share them on their Instagram accounts. This way, they can increase their convincing power many times over, as customers’ trust in their products grows.
Get Customers to follow you on Instagram on a discount
Instagram can sometimes turn out to be a relatively passive social media platform. What does this mean? People generally scroll down their feeds with little or no buyer intent. They just use their Instagram accounts to check out the latest trends, or just pass time. For this reason, if your brand wants to drive sales using Instagram, its key that you find ways to engage your customers with content that will catch their attention and turn them into active viewers. An effective way of achieving this by adding a discount coupon to your sales message..
People usually react well when a promotion is combined with appealing product content. On your product post, you can attach a discount promotion, say 10% or 20% (depending on how much your business can afford) to encourage your followers to purchase your products.
Engage with your Followers on Instagram Live
While leveraging different types of content on Instagram, Instagram Live is a powerful way to explore. Instagram's live broadcast allows you to engage with your followers on a more personal level. Product launches, Q&As or influencer takeovers work very well when you want to use live broadcasts. Make sure you announce your broadcast in advance using other forums such as Stories, posts, or through other social media platforms. This way your broadcast stands a chance of performing exceptionally well.
Additionally, have a clear goal of what you want to achieve from your broadcast and work towards it in order to achieve your desired results. Having a clear objective helps you focus when creating your broadcast.
Follow Other Bloggers and Engage with their Content
Publishing likable and engaging content is an effective way of attracting followers to your Instagram account. Another great way that can help you grow your following is by actively following, liking, and commenting on content or posts shared by other users in your niche.
To find other bloggers or similar content to yours, you can make use of your search and look for people or hashtags in your niche, then start connecting with them.
Use Instagram Ads to Drive Traffic to Your Blog, or Blog Posts
It's a fact that most businesses have the potential to create and run very successful Instagram contests. But if you to achieve the optimal results from a contest make use of Instagram ads. Instagram Ads is one of the most effective ways that can guarantee that your contest will reach out to tons of new potential clients; the ones likely to be more interested in your service or product.
When running a contest ad, just make sure you highlight the prize of your product, as this will ultimately get your fans to click on your contest and start participating. in addition, consider putting a light copy to your contest ad such as “Click for your chance to win”. This generally will grab the attention of your target audience.
Track Your Performance With Instagram Analytics
To realise your social media marketing goals, it’s best you use Instagram analytics. Instagram Insights and Instagram Analytics lets brand learn more about their followers as well as giving them insights on how their content are performing among their target audience. Instagram analytics also helps track:
- Impressions – The number of people that have seen your post
- Reach – The number of unique accounts that saw your post
- General engagement – The number of times a post has been liked, shared, saved or commented on
This helps brands know which content are doing well and which ones don't get engagement among their audience.
Install the Awesome Instagram Feed Pro Plugin on Your Website
Instagram Feed Pro plugin is a simple and effective way to help you increase social engagement, save time, keep your social site looking fresh for your audience. You can also customize all your Instagram Feeds according to how you want them to look so that they can blend perfectly into your site.
Once installed, Feeds give users the power to display their Instagram photos or images within 30 seconds even without any professional or Instagram developer’s help.
Guest post courtesy of Marquis Matson