If you are a new or a small business, your best first move would be to join Instagram properly. We will help you with some forward-thinking Instagram digital marketing ideas to start you off in the right direction.
Instagram is, for sure, the number one platform for making your brand noticed online. When you think about it from a marketing-potential point of view, there are over 700 million users on a monthly basis, making it a vital tool in any CEO’s marketing belt.
Like with any other social media channel, in order to generate content for your audience’s interest, you have to possess a specific etiquette.
This is the reason we went around and gathered a short compilation with content marketing tips for you to consider applying and things for you to avoid, and with that being said, let’s start with the “Do’s.”
Creating beautiful environments to show off your products
Got a photogenic product? That means you are all set to go! Although, if it happens to be mundane, maybe take a short marketing campaign trip on a beach and take some accurate shots. Visuals are an important aspect from a consumer’s point of view, and it applies to everyone.
Asking your fans for their participation
Another social media marketing strategy is to generate engaging conversations with your followers. To achieve this, you have to ask questions, encourage people to share your content and reply to the comments. Just a couple of marketing actions that could stimulate interactions from your audience.
Promoting events
Make use of geo-tags for sharing the location and invite your followers that may possibly be nearby. The best-case scenario would be for you to meet them face to face, ensuring the creation of brand ambassadors organically.
In case you are not able to join the event to promote your marketing plan in person, ask your audience to use a dedicated hashtag, or even tag your account when they post their thoughts about the experience. You can even share their posts making the statement that you acknowledge them and, after all, recognition is an excellent tool in Instagram marketing strategy.
Use your hashtags liberally #marketing
Instagram feed is a fast-moving organism, and if you want to increase your posts’ shelf-life, you have to use hashtags. They are an essential asset in your startup marketing strategy, because it gathers your posts inside the communities that are linked by keywords, thus remaining discoverable.
The plan is eventually to create a branded hashtag that represents your business. This way, your posts will be easy to find just by searching through the hashtag. It requires a little bit of marketing creativity as you don’t want your hashtags to be bland. Hashtags have to be unique but brief and to fit your brand’s personality, previous digital marketing that you have been into.
Let us give you some insight into a couple of hashtag ideas:
- Stay connected with the trending news and make it so that your brand can represent the context that surrounds the story.
- Instagram marketing etiquette dictates that your hashtags are cleverly constructed and funny. At the same time, make sure that it’s catchy and fits with the rest of your voice.
- And one of the most important ones: proofread your hashtags! After you’ve done that, proofread it again. We cannot stress the importance of it being double checked with a different eye. It will help to make sure they are not open for unwanted interpretations and potentially jeopardize your marketing content.
Use captions to your advantage
The fact that Instagram is based on visual, should not stop you from making great use of some well-written marketing content. Captions give meaning to a photo by telling a story that connects your followers and makes them think.
You can use this as a part of your content marketing plan to make your followers discover a new angle of the photo, and maybe go back to it and take a closer look.
Give your followers a behind-the-scenes look
A great way of connecting with your followers is by showing the human side of your business. All it takes is to take them on a walk through your employees’ day-to-day activities in the office. Or you can show your audience how you make your product by profiling your employees in a hard-working day, all of this without seeming unprofessional.
Now that we’ve touched a couple of do’s in the marketing section, let’s go through some of the most important “don’ts” in social marketing:
Don’t overuse hashtags
Only because Instagram doesn’t have the character limit restrictions like Twitter, do not abuse this by tagging your photo with 30 hashtags and potentially ruin your marketing campaign.
Don’t spam your audience
Use Instagram as an engaging marketing tool for conversations, not as an advertising channel.
You might risk losing your followers if you’re being perceived as a spammy channel.
Don’t ignore negative comments
Think about the negative comments as an opportunity for improving your marketing strategy. Just engage in a conversation with whoever left the complaint or negative feedback.
Conclusion
If used correctly, the social media giant can make wonders happen in your marketing campaign and bring the brand identity to your business.
By using it, your scope should be to achieve buyer loyalty, because the associations that people make with your business is as significant as your product. Don’t ignore the marketing power of social media and use it as an ally in your battle for success.
What marketing strategy tips do you usually apply when posting on Instagram? The stories and experiences that you have encountered may help others start on the right foot with their business.
