Useful And Effective Ways Businesses Can Use Instagram For Marketing

Every business today, small or big, needs to make the best use of the social media platform for their brand and product promotion. This will help them to sustain and survive the fierce competition in the modern business environment. 

Amongst all available social media channels, Facebook and Instagram are the two most powerful channels to use. It is the interlink between the two channels, both in ownership status as well as in their features, that will help the businesses to reach far and wide.

When it comes to Instagram, which stands second to Facebook in the line of popularity, there are a few specific ways marketers can use this photo and video sharing platform to its optimal level. Why? This is because of the following reasons:

• In the past couple of years, most of the businesses are using Instagram for marketing.
• There are more than a billion users to reach out to there and 
• The features of this platform provide the perfect opportunity for businesses to convey their messages through pictures quickly to their target audiences.

In short, the marketing value this platform can produce is unthinkable and was never thought of when it was launched about a decade back. All you have to do is use your Instagram profile in the best possible way to let the large audience see your story. 

Promotional posts

The best way to enhance your chances of marketing using Instagram is to create a brand identity with the visuals in the best possible way. The most straightforward way, which is also the most common way, to do so is to focus more on promotional posts. However, at the same time, you must be very careful in designing it so that the viewers do not feel that you are out there only to woo them to buy your product. Make sure that:

• Your product promotion posts showcase the latest and best products of your business to your followers.
• All your posts are of high-quality and the images are well-edited that highlights your product, preferably only one.
• You make it most appealing by adding a perfect background to it with enough lighting so that the product pops up and 
• Show the product in a ‘real’ setting, preferably someone using it, which will add a human touch to it as well.

In short, create your promotional posts in such a way that the followers know what your product is all about and how beneficial it would be to them, if only they own it. And yes, do not forget to add a caption relevant to your product as well as the customers. 

Set your goals and pursue it 

Every business marketing strategy should be designed based on goals and objectives. It applies to Instagram marketing, as well. Therefore, make sure that you know what you want to achieve through Instagram marketing. 

This, according to the Instagram marketing experts such as Blastup is the first and most crucial stage of designing an effective and result-driven Instagram marketing strategy. Your goals and objectives will also help you to stay on the right track and focus all your efforts to achieve success in the easiest and best possible way.

Ideally, according to experts, you must follow a SMART framework to set your goals. This framework consists of:

• S for Specific.
• M for Measurable.
• A for Attainable.
• R for Relevant.
• T for Timely.

This will help you a great deal to create a better Instagram and online presence. Just make sure that your goals are based on different vanity metrics such as:

• Likes.
• Follows. 
• Comments.

However, all your goals should resonate with your real objectives and your business. This must also be related to the social funnel. Therefore, you will need to follow the four basic stages of the customer journey first to create your Instagram business strategy. These are:

• Awareness.
• Engagement.
• Customer. 
• Conversion.

All these will make it easy for you to direct your Instagram followers to the sales funnel.

Find and use popular hashtags

Every specific business has a few popular hashtags that connect the online community on the Instagram platform. You should research the most popular hashtags in your industry and use it strategically. This will help your followers to:

• Find new photos.
• Find new people to follow.

As for you, these hashtags will help you to find the pictures posted by different influencers in your niche whom you can contact and pursue to promote your business as well. When you use the hashtags, make sure that you mainly use it in the comments section rather than in your main post. This trick seems to be most underrated but is highly productive in the Instagram landscape. The reason to say so is that when you use a few hashtags in your main post, it will:

• Make the caption look stuffed and cluttered.
• Create an impression in the minds of your followers about your desperate reach.

On the other hand, when you use hashtags in the comment section, people will comment with the hashtag when they press share. It will create the same impact but will not make your caption look bad. 

Upsurge your following

Lastly, you should put in all your efforts to increase the number of followers. This is very important in the Instagram marketing strategy because if you do not have a lot of followers, you will find it very hard, if not impossible, to make your promotion posts seen, let alone shared. This means that it will be impossible for you to:

• Reach to a larger audience.
• Drive more organic traffic to your site.
• Increase the conversion rate.
• Generate sales.

The best way to increase your follower base is by sending out messages to the email subscribers with an incentive so that they follow you. You can send these emails frequently or just a couple of times in a month, but make sure that you do send them out. These simple and easy steps will provide the best results in Instagram marketing. Therefore, start implementing them today.