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Time flies and a lot of things change with it. We used different methods for marketing purposes back then. But everything changed when Instagram marketing attacked.
I hope you did get that pun. If you did not, why not Google it?
Back then, there were leaflets and all that other environmental foes. Maybe they are still around.
However, we can be sure that they are falling in popularity and leaving their places in the marketing industry to virtual advertisements day by day.
One thing, though, do you know how to use Instagram for marketing, or are you just getting started with your Instagram business experience?
Either way, I’ll try to help you with some sneaky Instagram marketing tips for businesses. It is true. Marketers are shady people.
How to Market on Instagram: Create an Instagram Business Account
We could not stress how important it is to fetch the valuable analytics that Instagram serves you.
You can share promoted posts with an Instagram Business account, and you can observe your engagement and impressions with just a tap.
Well, it is a marketer’s wet dream.
You can use the metrics called Insights to track your engagements and even demographics of your audience.
From there, you can observe when is your audience is active the most, percentage of their genders, their ages, and much more.
It is obvious that the better you know your audience, the better you can address their needs.
If those reasons are not good enough, you should know that people can tap on the ‘Contact’ button to reach you immediately if you are using a business account.
Additionally, you will not have to use Facebook’s Ad Manager anymore as you can sponsor posts directly within Instagram.
If you want to do further research on Instagram’s Business Tools, you can check the official Instagram Help guide by clicking on the highlighted text.
Optimize Your Account to Its True Potential
People will decide to follow or ignore your account in the first three seconds while looking at your profile. The ultimate goal is to attract them and make them fall in love with your content at first sight.
It is a difficult task to achieve, but people care about their time more than anything.
You should ask yourself some questions first.
- Why should they follow and interact with your profile?
- Is your content good enough?
- Is your purpose on Instagram is clear enough to the average user to understand easily?
If you are lacking the positive answers to these questions, you should not be ashamed.
Everyone was at day one at some point in the past.
Your only concern should be about what you can do to optimize your account to its true potential.
Is Instagram Followers Important?
Well, nobody would want to buy something from an account with only ten followers. It is even worse if these ten followers are some spam accounts or your family and friends.
Do not hate the player, you can hate the game if you want, but facts are facts. As an Instagram marketer, your highest priority should be embracing the harsh truths.
Truth sets us free.
You may consider buying Instagram followers, as it will remarkably boost your experience on Instagram as a rookie marketer.
With this action, your account will show at least some numbers, and people may consider following you if you already possess a somewhat audience.
It is about tricking them into following you. Otherwise, only real people can buy your stuff or services.
Additionally, if you would like to naturally attract more followers, you can check our How to Gain Instagram Followers guide.
Your Account Should Indicate Value
Your reputation as a brand or business is strongly correlated with your networking strategy. If you seem like nobody, you are nobody.
We always say quality beats quantity, but it is not going to work that way if you are just starting with your journey of marketing on Instagram.
You should get a sleek look on your profile as fast as possible.
A neatly designed logo will achieve many things for your success, so do not avoid any expenses and leave that work to professional designers.
Additionally, your account biography must explain your brand or business as clearly as possible in just 150 characters. This number is the maximum amount of characters your Instagram bio can hold.
When a potential customer or follower visit your profile, he or she should instantly understand what your account is standing for and why they should follow you.
Instagram bios do not appear on search results, so do not worry about stuffing it with keywords. Also, you can embed account names and a URL to your profile bio.
Use that field wisely as this is the only domain where we can put clickable links and drive traffic. If you do not have a web site to embed, order one from professionals as fast as possible.
Experiment With Different Types of Instagram Posts
When Instagram first launched, you could only post standard pictures on your feed. Not even videos were available back then.
Good, old days.
However, everything changes.
Today, you can choose between images, videos, Carousel posts, Hyperlapses, Boomerangs, and you can even add Instagram Stories to this list. It does not end there, though.
These posts branch out to topic-related, specific posts.
Our point is, there are a lot of things to post, and a lot of ways to post content. You will have to deal with a lot of visuals on your Instagram marketing strategy.
If you are struggling to post on Instagram, you can check our article to learn How to Post on Instagram.
Also, if you do not know what is the best time to post on Instagram, you check our other article to learn about Best Time to Post on Instagram.
Posts of Employees
Starbucks is the most successful executor of these types of posts. The intent of these posts is, creating a relatable bond between your employees and customers.
Hence, you would want to share your employees’ own content as a repost.
First of all, it is empathetic. People love to relate to people, especially service providers.
If people can correlate to your employees, they will choose your services more often.
Information and Knowledge Posts
These types of posts generally explain and illustrate some skills that people value.
BuzzFeed is considered as one of the best executors of these posts.
These posts are usually prepared as videos as “how to do” content usually require some demonstration.
Behind the Curtain Posts
These types of posts are the most influential posts on your audience as people love to know how their products are made.
Additionally, it shows your business’ spontaneous side, and it is an excellent way to make people bond with your niche.
Just make sure that the post seems authentic, even if it was staged. Time to play it shady again.
Influencer and Promotional Posts
Promotions are a big part of social media marketing these days for several reasons to consider.
First of all, if you do not already possess the dynamic customer base you need for sales, there are not too many options for you to reach potential followers.
This is one of the hardest things to overcome as an Instagram marketer and a lot of people quit when they realize how hard it is to wriggle oneself out between the tight competition.
However, promotion is not something to be scared of.
If you are wondering about How to Become an Instagram Influencer, you can check our article by clicking the anchor text.
Understanding the Instagram Influencer Marketing
Instagram influencer marketing has come a long way, and it is not reserved for celebrities with gazillions of followers anymore.
It is known, thanks to researches, accounts with fewer followers pull higher engagement rates.
Not just one or two percent higher, but the gap is substantial.
We are saying it is like ten percent more.
That made marketers to comprehend the importance of micro-influencers as their audience is more loyal and ready to shop than macro-influencers by long odds.
What Is and How to Make an Influencer Post?
You can make an Influencer post by paying an Instagram user with at least somewhat loyal following base to promote your products on either their feed or stories.
The best part of influencer posts is reaching a completely different audience.
In that way, your sales can sky-rocket as your new customers will be fresh and eager to shop from their idols’ choice.
Inspirational and Motivational Posts
We are not comfortable to address this, but the general majority of people on social media are depressed.
These people are trying to find a silver lining on social media while they are busy with surviving on our dangerous and highly crowded planet.
Most of them are stuck with nine to five jobs they hate, but there is not so much for them to do.
Why not give these people some hope, and encourage them to accomplish their long-awaited dreams?
Inspirational posts on Instagram are one of the most interacted post types on Instagram.
There are a lot of personal and self-improvement coaches on Instagram with high engagement rates.
We do not mean any disrespect by saying this, but all they do is posting motivational quotes!
It is excellent for them to make a living of these quotes, but why can’t you use this for your marketing strategy?
User-Generated Contents (UGC)
This content is similar to employee posts, but for these types of posts, you might need a brand hashtag.
If you do not already have a brand hashtag, you should create one anyway.
In this way, your customers and fans can post their creative process to your brand hashtag, and they can tag your business account to these posts.
After that, you can curate a charming collection of reposts among them.
This curation will not only create authentic engagement and adornment for your profile, but it will also bond your followers to your business.
They will feel closer as everyone would expect.
If you do not regard your customers’ devotion to your brand, they can always find another brand.
There are countless of them.
If you have no idea about reposts and their working system, you can check our article to learn How to Repost on Instagram.
Newsjacking Contents
Did you ever find yourself ranting on social media about some trend that churning the country?
If you did, you are not alone.
Trends and breaking news are great tools to attract more engagement and followers to your business, even the most tragic ones.
You may want to post something about the Super Bowl when everyone is talking about it.
If you post something completely different, apathetic to the things happening on the continent, you may not receive any engagement at all.
We are not even considering the chance of backlashes from angry customers.