Many small business owners are skeptical about investing time and money on Instagram marketing, as they’d rather spend most of their budgets on Facebook ads. To them, Instagram doesn’t look like an effective option. Does that mean that you should follow the crowd and be skeptical too?
Not at all. It’s been proven that the biggest world brands (Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Nike, etc.) are actively leveraging Instagram’s features to continuously develop their community, brand reputation, and business performance.
Did you know that mobile devices drive 80% of the global social media usage?
How about the fact that Instagram’s full features are only displayed on a mobile device rather than a desktop?
Instagram and mobile marketing blend very well together. IG is a free, popular, and resourceful social network that can effectively improve your business performance. More precisely, by leveraging Instagram’s powerful marketing tools (IG stories, IGTV, etc.), you can tap into a goldmine of warm and targeted traffic.
The fact that Instagram Stories are twice as popular as Snapchat Stories (400 million active users daily) proves that Instagram is a sea of opportunities, while its tools and the marketing strategy that lies behind them are the hooks. The better the hook the more captured results, and therefore the better business performance.
Before I get into some of the most useful IG features, I’d like to inform you that Instagram’s advertising system has helped many companies achieve over 25% lower cost per acquisition when using IG ads, and a 65% lower cost per conversion. You do the math!
Instagram stories are some of the most amazing features in today’s digital marketing environment. Lots of people love them because they’re short, concise, and often interesting.
Here are some of the most helpful and profitable IG stories tools and features:
To improve your IG stories’ visibility, you can introduce your location tag and specific hashtags. When other IG users search for that location or introduce the same hashtag, they’ll come across your IG story.
By effectively leveraging hashtags, you can gain consistent organic traffic on a daily basis. Using the location tag, you can connect and engage with local businessmen or discover local business opportunities.
Instagram stories insights is an analytics feature that is integrated into the Facebook Ads Manager platform. Facebook owns Instagram, and the only way to tap into juicy statistics and details about your stories performance is to create a Facebook ads account. You also need an Instagram business profile, as most of these features are available only for professionals who seek the business side of Instagram.
These statistics (insights) include video metrics, impressions, overall performance, and the reach of your story. By consistently analyzing these elements, you can understand which story or ad performs the best, and you can focus on scaling that performance while correcting the campaigns that bring poor results.
Instagram users can now purchase products directly through Instagram stories. By swiping up an item displayed in a story, users are taken to a sales page that allows them to purchase an item in a matter of seconds. Here’s a post that shows how to create a personalized shopping campaign through Instagram stories.
Instagram’s advertising features are the most effective way to build a higher brand awareness while promoting specific content and selling specific products. There are many types of ads you can promote, and that includes:
You should figure out which type of ad format suits your business best by going through a trial-and-error process. Try more ad options and tweak your copy until you find profitable ad campaigns that can be effectively scaled.
IGTV is Instagram’s new video feature that’s currently making a huge buzz. “IGTV” stands for Instagram TV, and it is a feature that allows IG users to post extensive vertical (yes, vertical) videos.
Bryan Brumfield, a full-time content marketing associate at Best Essays AU, says,
“A handy benefit of IGTV is the fact that you don’t need to spend a lot of time or do extensive editing to get your video ready. You can record yourself using a mobile device, use a mobile video editor, and post your refined content directly from your mobile phone”.
Big brands are using it, and so should you. Here are a few insights and key guidelines on how to purpose your IGTV content and campaigns:
No matter the purpose, make sure that your audience receives consistent value from your videos. If they’re looking for specific solutions, aim to do that. If they want to be entertained, do your best to be useful. If it’s inspiration that they’re looking for, learn how to convey that too.
The key is to know what your target audience wants and to learn how to effectively give it to them. Collect the feedback of your previous actions and seek solutions every day!
Instagram is definitely a good digital marketing option for most of today’s businesses. Whether you’re selling online goods or physical products, IG stories and IGTV will prove to be exceptional tools that’ll boost your brand’s reach and reputation. Offer unique content that brings value to the table, be consistent, test your results every day, and persistently optimize your campaigns as you go.
His roots are in North Carolina, but his soul belongs in California.
Bryan’s favorite pastime is playing chess and lip-syncing Rihanna’s songs. Check him out on Twitter.