If you own a business with an online presence, you must be aware of the term ‘Social Media Marketing’. Now, there are more than 50 social media platforms that can boost up your business to several manifolds. From Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest to Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, you have a generous area to market yourselves.
With 1 Billion monthly active users, Instagram is the third most used social media after Facebook and YouTube. So, if you have a business account on Instagram, here are a few ways in which you can market it effectively. And, if you don’t have it yet, what are you waiting for?
Instagram Contests/Giveaways
One of the best ways to lure customers is by holding attractive contests. It can be as simple as a hashtag competition or a giveaway of your products. If you are an avid Instagram user, you might have stumbled upon one of these contests where you are required to post a picture of yours with a certain hashtag to enter the contest.
A few businesses even ask you to follow them or tag some of your friends to get eligible for the contest. This way businesses can increase their visibility on Instagram. People entering the contest will go through your feed and, if you have worked on it perfectly, the chances of driving sales automatically increases.
For instance, @paperstore has organised a giveaway contest exclusively for the Mother’s Day. Refer to the image below to get an idea of how a simple giveaway is done on Instagram.
One more way to reach out to potential customers is to run ads on your contest. You can boost up your contest and make sure it reaches out to maximum people.
Instagram Stories
Though these are only 24-hour stories, you can leave a permanent effect on people’s mind if you do it the right way! The best thing about stories is that you can see who all viewed it. Instagram gives you a lot to play around with the stories.
You can use stickers, images, texts, GIFs, and much more to make your story attractive. Always remember to use clear and to the point images with a call-to-action like “Buy Now: Link In Bio”. You can also use “Yay-Nay” stickers and ask people’s opinion over something. Polls allow you to get an idea about customer’s choices.
Adding your prominent stories to your account’s highlight is also a great idea so that people visiting your account can view those highlights to get a brief idea about your business. Consider the below example of Maybelline New York. Have a look at their highlights, as well as, the way they have put their bio.
Another thing that you can do is to add hashtags to your stories. Yes, hashtags play a vital role even for your stories and, we recommend you not to miss them. However, if you don’t know much about it, refer to Instagram Stories: 7 Ways To Use Hashtags Effectively.
Run Instagram Ads To A Landing Page
Running Ads on Instagram is much easier than running them on Facebook. Ads are unique to Instagram because it allows you to add a CTA and click-through link, which isn’t possible on any other type of Instagram post. You can create an attractive ad for your products and direct them to a landing page or a product page.
Try to be innovative with the images, call-to-action, and landing pages. For best results, you can include “Limited Period Offers” or “Discounts” so that people are urged to buy the products right away. You can either display a single picture or multiple images like Club Factory.
Club Factory is showcasing its 5-6 products and a simple call-to-action saying “Shop Now”.
However, you have to optimise your landing page for high conversions else, you won’t get profitable returns.
Post Discount Coupons On Instagram
Yet another way of driving sales is to post discount offers, sales, and coupons. People (especially, women) often get attracted to ongoing sales and discount offers and, this is when you can earn a considerable amount of profit, as well as, genuine customers.
Usually, people scroll through their Insta feed just for the sake of passing time or getting updates from their peers and family. But, if your product promotion is tempting, you can turn those lazy users to avid customers.
Try to include catchy texts in the image and also make your caption relatable to the people. But, don’t give offers more often as it might make you look cheap and unauthentic. You can always provide discounts on special days like Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s etc.
For example, have a look at this promotional ad by Medium Kelley. She is holding an exclusive Mother’s Day Sale while giving 30% off, a coupon code, and a simple yet relatable caption.
Post High-Quality Pictures On Instagram
Well, that is what Instagram is made for – Pictures! Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than words and 40% people respond more to visuals than words. Hence, you shouldn’t take the images lightly. Don’t post product images just for the sake of posting.
Always share high-quality images of your products and, try to use only lifestyle images so that people can relate to them. Also, be as much creative as you can with the caption and try to include your customers in a conversation.
For instance, have a look at the handbags posted by @flaunt-with-grace. Clearly, they have neither worked on the images nor on the captions. Such posts never manage to get the attention of users.
On the other hand, have a look at the way Accessorize has done it. An attractive product image with a descriptive yet precise caption. Now, this is something that would urge the people to click on the link in bio.
These were some of the ways in which you can market your business effectively on Instagram. And, this is not a one-time process. It requires regular hard work and passion. So, if you are busy dealing with your inventory and sales, you can hire a reliable digital marketing agency to work for you.
