Creative Instagram marketing is taking online marketing by storm. As of June 2016, there was around 500 million users connecting every month. This number alone should convince you to use this hugely popular mobile app for your marketing efforts.
Almost every top brand and even celebrity personalities are on Instagram for business marketing. National Geographic posts stunning, magazine-quality visual content everyone has come to love. AirBnB gives us a daily dose of some of the best lodging places in the world. Adobe features 100% user-generated content that appeals to creatives. These brands have acknowledged the power of Instagram in cultivating a following and building solid relationships with consumers.
So why does Instagram for business marketing work? What makes this award-winning app stand out from the crowd of social media platforms? In this article, we will discuss what makes this app work for marketing and how you too can start a creative Instagram marketing campaign for your business.
Why Instagram for Business Marketing Works
Instagram is a hot spot for engaged and interested consumers that interact with brands that post creative content consistently. Here are five good reasons why Instagram for business marketing would reap major benefits for your company:
1. Visuals Are an Effective Marketing Element
The primary reason why creative Instagram marketing works is the visual orientation of the app. Many marketing studies have shown that people generally retain information presented visually rather than pure text. Studies also suggest that visual data is being processed by the human brain 60 thousand times faster than text. About 65% of your audience are visual learners and will respond better to visual posts than plain text posts.
More Visual Content Statistics:
*90% of information processed by the human brain is visual.
*93% of human communication is actually nonverbal. So we don’t often rely on spoken words; we are geared to observe visual elements in any communication setting.
2. Wicked Algorithms Won’t Hide Your Content
Facebook marketers are often perplexed by the ever-changing algorithms used to deciding which posts will be shown to specific users, making it a “volatile” social media marketing platform for many. Instagram won’t do that to your posts. If someone follows your account, your posts have the same chance of being seen by that follower as any post of other accounts being followed by the user. This makes Instagram for business marketing ideal if you want to expand your reach and maximize your exposure.
3. Instagram Is King of Mobile Social Media
Instagram was born as a mobile media app, making it very popular among mobile users. Most, if not all, Instagram users are on mobile because you can’t post anything on their desktop version of their website. More and more consumers are going mobile. In fact, recent studies show that mobile online time in the US is now at 51%. This is considerably higher than desktop online time which is 42%. If you put in the effort to penetrate this mobile market, you’ll definitely see a growth in your business. Instagram offers you a way to do that.
4. Branding Your Business Through Visual Storytelling
A picture tells a thousand words. Cliché but this is still very true. Instagram makes it easy for you to establish your brand with just a photo that tells a relevant and interesting story. Your followers would love to see a human side or a glimpse into how things are done in businesses that have traditionally been inaccessible to consumers. They would also love to see the culture of your company, the things your employees do for fun, how it’s like working for you, the struggles you encounter, and more. These stories reflect what your business is all about, and that’s top notch branding for you.
Tips on How to Start a Creative Instagram Marketing
Creative Instagram marketing doesn’t just happen. You need to come up with fresh ideas that work. Let us help you begin with these tips on starting the best creative Instagram marketing campaign:
1. Use Hashtags Effectively
According to Simply Measured, posts with at least one #hashtag have a higher average of engagement (12.6%) than those without. The keys to using hashtags effectively are using the right number of specific hashtags. For example, if your post is about Italian cuisine, use specific hashtags like the name of the food, or who cooked it.
To look for effective hashtags, see what your competitors are using and use Instagram’s search function. In the search bar, type in a search term related to your brand and then select the “Tags” tab. There you will see a list of relevant hashtags for that topic. What about the right amount? Studies have shown that posts with four or five hashtags had an average of 22 interactions while those without hashtags had at most 14 interactions. Posts with 11 hashtags performed poorly as well.
2. Host Competitions with Irresistible Rewards
Photo contests will draw engagement from users. That is if you promise a reward they can’t resist. A great example of a successful photo contest is a selfie contest held by Om Nom Nom Cookies, a vegan cookie company. They asked participants to post a selfie with an omnomnom cookie and submit it with an @mention to the company. The winner(s) receive a branded t-shirt. This is also a great way to drive sales AND promote engagement. Two birds with one stone!
3. Keep It Relevant to Users
Relevant content means content that speaks the language of your audience. If the majority of your followers are middle-aged men interested in sports fishing, it’s not a good idea to use a language and tone commonly heard around teenage girl cliques. It’s all about understanding your audience because no matter how creative your contests are or how many hashtags you use, if the content is not relevant, it will flop.
4. Use Different Kinds of Posts
Another thing that makes Instagram for business marketing perfect is its versatility. You can experiment with various types of posts other than photos. For example, stop motion videos are quirky, cute, and amusing. These are always a hit with Instagram users. Use a stop motion video of your employees at work or other business processes that you think might be enjoyable to your followers. Live videos are also a huge hit! There’s just something so interesting about a live broadcast. Be sure to keep the posts aligned to your brand though!
Creative Instagram marketing, when done right, offers tons of benefits to any brands. Instagram for business marketing is an innovative and cost-effective solution to a companies need to build a relationship with customers. So remember that it’s never too late to start a creative Instagram marketing campaign. Just read up on a lot of resources to get more ideas on how you can nail this thing down, and don’t hesitate to go on Instagram for business marketing purposes because it will surely pay off.
The post Why Creative Instagram Marketing Works: Tips on How to Make It Work! appeared first on SocialProof.
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