- Have a Plan – Are you using Instagram to engage current customers or, perhaps, to gain new customers? It is important to keep your target market in mind when determining what content you want to share through Instagram. By planning content that is relevant to your audiences.
- Visually Demonstrate Your Service or Products – If you’ve ever gone to a fair, you have probably stopped to see at least one product demonstration and may have even been tempted to buy it. This platform provides the opportunity to show the world your creative process or champion the results of your service. The key is making your audiences want to experience your service or product.
- Be Human – Repeated posting of a coupon spread is a great way to turn people off to your social engagement. It is important to show personality rather than being a faceless marketing machine. Focus on providing great looking content that will encourage your followers to share.
It is important to make sure that your Instagram profile is optimized for the biggest impact. Individual posts do not allow links to an external URL, meaning you have to find creative ways to get customers to visit your website. Fortunately, you can put an external link in your business page bio to direct customers to your landing page or edit it for specific products you are promoting at any given time.
The Benefits of an Instagram Business Account
The popularity of Instagram has grown steadily since its launch in 2010 and subsequent purchase by Facebook in 2012. While Facebook still remains a dominant force in social media, Instagram has proven very effective for a wide range of industries attempting to reach the platform’s nearly 200 million monthly active users. Here are some of the benefits of an Instagram Business Account:
Untapped Customers
Because of its easily digested format, Instagram has an incredibly active and engaged user base. With the opportunity to easily get high engagement numbers, Instagram provides an incredibly appealing opportunity for businesses to provide superior customer support and build relationships with untapped customers. Provide valuable insight into your products or a behind the scenes look at your business to reach new customers.
Trend Research
Like Twitter, Instagram is an excellent source for identifying trends in your industry. Through the use of hashtags and the ability for customers to tag you, you can have a direct line to your most valuable customers to effectively build relationships with them. This platform has proven extremely beneficial for restaurants and other business with products that have a great aesthetic value.
Shareable Content
When planning your content strategy for an Instagram account, you will likely find that the content you have prepared is content that your customers will want to share. The user interface of the Instagram app makes it simple for your customers to share your posts with their friends, expanding your reach. Fortunately, content used on this platform can also easily be transposed to other social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter.
Sales and Lead Generation
With the evolution of smartphone cameras to support HD pictures and affordable or FREE photo editing apps, it has never been easy to provide high-quality content for a visual platform like Instagram. While it may seem easy to just post a picture of your product with a tagline encouraging the sale, the products and images should sell the product themselves. It is important to creatively display your products and provide descriptions that will encourage customers to purchase your products.
