Instagram: Why Use Instagram For Marketing?

instagram marketing

Instagram is clearly one of the most popular social media platforms out there. Being visual creatures, we humans are undoubtedly appreciative of photos that detail our friends’ or relatives’ lives. The photo-sharing app has even served to increase the celebrity status of entertainers and other famous personalities who have found ways to maximize their Instagram usage.

The Advantages of Instagram:

  • It makes sharing photos so much easier. Not only does the app enable you to share photos with friends, relatives, or even strangers who come from all over the world, but it also allows you to use hashtags that organize your posts. This way, you and other users can refer to these hashtags to quickly find the sort of content you want to see.
  • It is equipped with features that allow you to edit your photos. Thanks to certain Instagram features, you can crop undesirable elements out of a photo or zoom in on something you want to bring into focus. There are also a myriad of filters that you can use to enhance or subdue the colors in a photograph to achieve the effect that you want.
  • Instagram can help you make new friends and pave the way for some new discoveries. Anyone can follow anyone on Instagram, so you may very well find people who share the same interests that you do. Either that or you may learn about amazing new places or products just by perusing your daily Instagram newsfeed.

These days, there are so many ways to market one’s brand. The internet itself is a vastly growing community, and in recent years, Instagram has proven to be one of the most reliable apps that could be used for marketing.

5 Reasons To Use Instagram For Marketing Your Business

use-instagram-for-marketing

Advances in technology have made many tasks easier and the social media trend has completely changed the game for companies that seek to remain in touch with their customers.  With its photo-sharing capacity, Instagram has quickly grown its user base and many brands have taken notice. Apart from maintaining company websites and separate social media accounts, a lot of businesses have also started to explore the benefits of promoting their brand on Instagram. So far, this has been an unqualified success for those who were able to do it right, and they have observed the following benefits:

  • A wider, more global reach. Instagram is clearly poised for exponential growth. Garnering about 300 million users in as little as three years, this photo-sharing app’s reach has definitely gone global. And since the app allows anyone to follow your brand’s Instagram account, getting through to a lot of potential customers from other countries can open up a whole new market for a business.
  • High visibility. Unlike other social media platforms that tend to use certain algorithms to determine how often posts appear on a newsfeed, each Instagram post shows up on the newsfeed of an account’s followers. Another plus is that every single one of your Instagram posts continues to live on in your account or profile. They don’t get archived or buried like they do in other social media applications. Using the right hashtags also increases the exposure of your carefully-curated posts and enables you to reach even more followers.
  • Potential to drive traffic to your official website. If you happen to post enough intriguing content, your followers are likely to poke around in your profile to see if they can find out more about your brand. If you included the address or link to your official website on your “about” page, then you may find your site’s traffic going up in no time.

Instagram also allows you to invite your followers to visit your official website when you comment on other posts or make CTAs (calls to action).

  • Flexibility with other social media accounts. For a brand or a business to survive, it must be able to keep up with the times. Thus, many companies usually maintain several social media accounts for their brands. Instagram has certain features that allow its users to link their profiles to their other social media accounts. This makes the sharing of unified and standardized content much easier. The fact that Instagram also allows you to import your contacts from other platforms makes retaining your target audience’s attention a lot less difficult.
  • High engagement levels. Whether it’s the interactive environment or the sheer visual impact of the material being posted on Instagram, it has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to engage your target audience. The app allows them to view your posts, comment on such, and to share photos and gushing reviews of products or services purchased from your business.

How to Use Instagram for Marketing

If you’re thinking of using Instagram to help you put the word out about your brand, here are some tips you should keep in mind.

From Visually.

This is a given.

You see, the only place where you can add a clickable link on Instagram is on your profile page itself. You can start with a link to your website. Or, if you’re marketing a certain product, add a link to that product itself. If you’re holding contests, add a link to the contest page.

Just say “Link in my bio” on your posts.

Show Services and Products with Subtlety

One thing that Instagram users hate is when you advertise to their faces. Instagram really is not the place for that.

However, you can still show your followers your products and services by means of taking photos of you using them, and making sure you use the most interesting captions and hashtags.

For example, you’re selling Brazilian Coffee. Instead of just taking a photo of the coffee packs, you can take a photo of a cup of coffee, together with a book, and some plants, and say “Coffee + Books + Fresh Air = Good Times” then use the hashtag #BrazilianCoffee or the name of your store!

This way, you create curiosity, and will not lose followers just because you have annoyed them with spam!

Text Overlays are Helpful

There are people who use Instagram just to browse photos and do not really give much time to the captions. Since Instagram caters to people who have low attention span, it might be good to just use text overlays on photos so that they’d easily see what you’re trying to say.

Basically, it’s a way of writing on the photo itself. Just make sure you only use short words and that you don’t take the beauty of the photo away. Try using Canva, Pixlr Express, or PicMonkey for editing your photos—they have really great collection of fonts and overlays that you could use!

Use the Proper Hashtags

Hashtags could make or break you.

Instead of being vague, try being specific with the hashtags you use. Say your company is called Helpful Healthy Food, and you’re trying to sell Brazilian Coffee, don’t just use #BrazilianCoffee. Use #HelpfulHealthyFoodBrazilianCofee instead.

It’s all about branding!

And sometimes, it’s alright to use clear calls to action.

Sometimes, you just have to advertise point blank, you see.

For example, say that every time someone likes your photo, he’ll get a chance to win your newest range of products, and that the link is in your bio. Or, say if you reach 100 likes, you’ll come up with a new contest.

People like it when you are being honest, you know?

Market Right

With these tips, you’ll surely be able to market your brand on Instagram the right way! Good Luck!

Summary of Using Instagram For Marketing

Looking to get started with marketing on Instagram?  We’re giving away a free 40+ guide to show you how to use Instagram for marketing.

download-instagram-marketing-guide

The following two tabs change content below.

Nick Bridges

Nick is an Award Winning web designer, is also the Creative Director for the Agency, assisting in areas like funnel creation, copywriting, Landing Page development, and more. Nick also oversees all of the technical components of the creation and implementation of Social Media Ad Genius.

Latest posts by Nick Bridges (see all)

Summary
product image
Author Rating
1star1star1star1star1star
Aggregate Rating
5 based on 1 votes
Brand Name
Black Box Digital Products
Product Name
Instagram Marketing Excellence
Price
0.00
Product Availability
Available in Stock
About The Author

Nick Bridges

Nick is an Award Winning web designer, is also the Creative Director for the Agency, assisting in areas like funnel creation, copywriting, Landing Page development, and more. Nick also oversees all of the technical components of the creation and implementation of Social Media Ad Genius.

1 Comment

  • Soumya Roy

    November 4, 2015

    Nice tips and very interesting and well written post. Truly Instagram is emerging or rather I should say, it has already come out as another important marketing tool for brands and marketers. We are using Instagram for our education services and got really good results so far. Creativity plus Wit plus Instagram is equal to amazing social campaign.

    Regards
    Soumya Roy
    Internet Marketing Coach @
    PromozSEO.com