With more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, Instagram is too popular to ignore, especially if you have an eCommerce or brick-and-mortar business. While it started as a simple photo-sharing app, it has now evolved into a place where people share and explore content, usually from family, friends, brands, and influencers.
Instagram is so effective at increasing brand awareness, reaching new customers, and forging deeper relationships, making it the engagement king. Its audience is more engaged compared to other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, thanks to its immersive formats.
If you’re new to Instagram, you might find it challenging to get noticed and build an engaged community. Be sure you’re headed in the right direction with these Instagram tactics:
1. Create content your customers love
Most Instagram users follow brands out of sheer interest. They can be interested in a particular brand’s product/service, promotions, or the industry they belong in. Some users even hit the follow button just because they find the brand’s content entertaining.If you have a feed that’s unique, arresting, and full of personality, you can turn traffic into sales, and that’s because your followers feel more connected to your brand. They can make their own decisions without pressure from your business.
To keep the spark alive, it’s essential to share visuals your audience want to see – be it sneak peeks, inspirational images, or product launches. A great way to figure this out is to check what your competitors are posting. You can also look for inspirations from popular websites. When you find the style that resonates to your followers, stick to it.
While Instagram is a powerful tool to showcase your products, don’t oversell. Apart from the aesthetics, it’s all about building a relationship and culture among your followers. People tend to unfollow a brand when promotions become excessive.
2. Make the most of shoppable posts
Image courtesy of Pandora
60% of users discover new products on Instagram, and 75% of them take action after seeing a post. If you take advantage of shoppable posts, there’s a great chance that those actions can result in conversions.
Shoppable posts allow you to sell directly from Instagram, thus streamlining the buying journey. Your customers can visualise themselves with your product better, see the information they need to come up with a decision and make a purchase without leaving the app. It’s proven to be effective because you can exhibit and sell your items without being overly pushy or aggressive.
3. Monitor your analytics
A quick review of your Instagram Insights will help you determine which of your social media marketing strategies work and which ones need improvement. Although the information it provides is not as in-depth as Facebook yet, it is still enough to help you know more about your customer base.
Here, you can see which posts have the most likes to learn what type of content your audience prefers and leverage this insight to improve engagement. You can also find out what when your followers are online by day and hour so you can schedule your posts accordingly.
4. Step up your #hashtag game
Your posts can get buried in Instagram feeds quickly, but with the use of hashtags, you can make them discoverable forever. Since users can see them in the search results, it’s a great way to attract new customers and understand your audience better.
Save your time and create a list of your hashtags in advance for every product category you have, so you can easily copy-paste them when necessary. To determine the best hashtags for your content, you can brainstorm keywords relevant to your brand then research the trending and popular hashtags in your niche.
Avoid overusing hashtags as they can make your post cluttered and may come off as spammy. Instagram allows up to 30 tags. You can use 5 or 6 for your captions, then put the rest of your tags in the comments to keep your post neat.
5. Be proactive
Don’t even think of buying likes or followers. It may seem like the one of the easiest Instagram tactics to supercharge your profile, but it can do more harm than good over time. Although Instagram doesn’t disclose their criteria for penalising accounts, it’s best to think that having a huge number of followers and low engagement could backfire.
That said, go the extra mile and interact with your target audience. You can like, comment, and follow their posts and accounts to encourage them to visit your page, exchange likes, or even start following you. You can also collaborate with social influencers to boost your exposure. This can help organically grow your amount of followers.
Another effective way to make users spend more time on your posts is to include a call-to-action in your caption. You can hold contests or go for a simpler tactic like asking a question.
Bottom line
Achieving Instagram success is all about building positive brand image and strong relationships, and it doesn’t have to be daunting. All you need to keep in mind is to balance your creatives and strategic planning. Although growing your following will take some time and effort, it can become an invaluable tool in your business’ social media arsenal.
For more Instagram tactics, feel free to get in touch with DigitalMaas. We also offer social media optimisation services so you can be a step ahead of the competition. Sign up to our digital marketing platform for free to get started.
