Instagram is not just a platform for sharing your photographs and videos with your friends but it’s a lot more than that if you have the eye to look for details. Instagram is a very important marketing tool today and if you have a business it is one of the first places you should be concentrating on for marketing and advertising purposes.
Maybe you have not realized yet, but a lot of companies and individuals who have understood the potential of Instagram as a marketing tool are already making use of it. In fact, companies have employees just to do social media marketing which includes Instagram and other popular social networking platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
An important part of the Instagram marketing tactic is increasing your engagement and gaining an audience. There are services like LightningLikes and FluidBuzz, where you can purchase likes and followers and get them instantly. Their packages are very affordable, starting at $1-$2.
Paid Promotions on Instagram
Haven’t you noticed paid promotions of products and brand while you scroll through the posts of the people you follow? Yes, that’s exactly what we’re talking about. These are paid promotions and you need to pay Instagram to reach your followers.
When it comes to paid advertisements and promotions you need to frame a compact group of target audience so that you can reach the right people and not waste your money over people who aren’t even interested in your product or brand. For example, promoting a make-up item should be only among women and not men and you need to categorize these women based on their age, their previous searches on the internet, their region, and their interests.
Basically, you need to make sure that your paid promotions reach only the right group of people who are your potential customers.
Promoting Your Business without Any Costs
Now, that’s with paid promotions and advertisements. You may have seen a lot of companies promoting their brand and products through an official account of theirs.
For example, Lakme, Ferrari, Nike, and every other international brand have an official Instagram account which they use for Instagram marketing. If you have a business and you want to promote it on Instagram make an account for your brand apart from your private account.
You can manage both the accounts at the same time by clicking on the “Add another account” option that will appear if you click on your username on the top left-hand side of your Instagram profile page.
The kind of Instagram marketing you do should be based on how much you can spend on it in terms of all the resources. In other words, if you have a small business and a small company, you may not want to appoint a separate social media specialist to do Instagram marketing.
Instead, you can learn all about Instagram marketing and do it on your own. All you require to spread your brand identity and promote your products and services is a good internet connection and some patience.
Here’s a step by step guide on what are the things that you should concentrate on while starting an Instagram account for promoting your brand and products:
Identify your target audience
The first thing in making any marketing plan is that you need to have a target audience. If you really can’t spend money on getting information about potential consumers, try to stalk the activities of different interest groups or active followers of your competitors.
For example, if you have a salon in a particular region, try to get followers from your competitors’ accounts. You should be very clear about your audience and their demographics before proceeding with the marketing plan further.
Research and develop a plan
Once you have your target audience, try to understand them better and make a plan on how to promote your brand and product among them. This totally depends on the size and range of your business and your plans for future expansion.
If you own a business that functions only in a particular city, you need to include places and events in that city while you’re posting feed so that your audience will feel connected to you. However, if your target a whole area with different cities you should go for a wider approach.
Create a logo for your brand
Having a logo is one of the basic necessities when you’re trying to promote your brand on social media. This applies to almost all kinds of advertising and marketing plans.
You can either get the help of a professional designer to design a logo for your brand or you can do it on your own on photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop if you don’t want to shell out any money for it. Remember that you must stick to your logo for at least a few years of your promotional activities so that your target audience will recollect your brand wherever they saw your logo.
So, make sure that you create a great logo which reflects your brand identity.
Regular posts
Post regularly on your business account and try to get more likes and comments on them by playing the game smart. You can post about the offers you have and ask your followers to tag their friends in the comments so that you get more followers.
Don’t make all of your posts regarding your brand and products but try to post things that indirectly help you in marketing your brand. For example, you can create and post make-up tutorial videos with your products.
Instagram stories
Not just posts, but you can also make use of Instagram stories to promote your brand, products, and services among your target audience. Most of the people go through all the stories of the accounts that they follow even though they may not scroll through all the regular posts.
Hashtags are the backbone
Use hashtags wisely because hashtags can get you followers from every sphere of life. People search for things that they are interested with the help of hashtags and if you use relevant hashtags in your posts, you get people who search for those things to your account which means that you’re reaching all the right people with the help of hashtags.
Engaging the followers
Arrange for online contests and games to engage your followers once in a while. You can ask them to tag their friends on your posts to win discounts and giveaways (free gifts).
Instagram dm online
If you are having a sale or a big discount, you can try messaging your followers directly so that they don’t miss any information. DM is a very important tool in Instagram marketing because if a follower responds to you, you can try and convince them to make a purchase.
The risk of Instagram unfollow
Be aware of the risk of losing your followers. People will unfollow your account if you don’t engage them in interesting posts and contests. This will be a huge loss for you and you need to be smart enough and create enough to not let it happen.
So, the above are a few things that you need to do if you’re into Instagram marketing but make sure that your marketing plan suits your marketing goals and the type of target audience you have. You Instagram marketing plan should also make use of the budget you have allotted for it in innovative ways and give you positive results. Another very important thing to keep in mind is that the nature of your business must be an important factor while planning on how to market your brand and products. Last but not the least, don’t just market your brand and don’t just market your products, keep doing both simultaneously for an overall growth.