Does your social media marketing mix include Instagram? Or, are you just focusing on Facebook, which has the highest monthly active users globally?
Well, if you’re not advertising your business on Instagram, a platform with over 2 billion monthly active users, spending approximately 33.9 minutes daily, you’re missing out.
When done right, advertising your business on Instagram can be more effective and help you create a loyal audience. And here, I’ll share how you can target those billions of potential customers, as well as some exclusive benefits of Instagram marketing.
So, let’s begin!
How To Advertise Your Business on Instagram
Creating an Instagram marketing campaign is fairly straightforward, and you can set it up in a few simple steps:
Get Started With the Basics
The first step is to set up a business profile on Instagram. If you’ve already created an Instagram account, you can also switch it to a business profile.
Once this is done, optimize it as much as you can. Add a display picture, preferably your business logo. Other than this, optimize your business profile by adding a headline and a link to your website. You can also add different collections of your product’s photos or add customer reviews. The goal here is to quickly inform potential customers about your business at a glance.
Choose How You Want to Advertise
There are several ways you can advertise your business on Instagram, for instance:
- Reels
- Videos
- Stories
- Carousels
- Hashtags
- Sponsored Posts
- Influencer Marketing
Here, the good news is that Instagram doesn’t restrict the use of these methods simultaneously in your marketing mix.
However, keep in mind how your target audience interacts on Instagram. For instance, if they loyally follow influencers on Instagram, then get them on board and spend a major chunk of your budget on this marketing channel.
This way, you can get effective results from your marketing campaigns. And at the same time, have fewer marketing channels to monitor.
Engage Your Customers
Instagram is a dynamic social media platform. And, if you don’t engage your target audience, they might switch to another brand.
There are a few things you can do to ensure that your target audience is hooked to your brand. You can organize giveaways, conduct live sessions, offer responsive customer support, or hire influencers to do your bidding.
Get Help From Marketing Tools
If you’re already advertising on different social media platforms, Instagram marketing can feel like there’s too much on your plate. On top of that, if you’re using multiple marketing channels on Instagram, managing everything simultaneously can be difficult.
However, I suggest you get help from marketing tools like Hootsuite or HubSpot. You can get an interactive dashboard on these tools, where you can automate and schedule posting on multiple platforms.
Plus, they also offer detailed analytics to analyze how your marketing campaigns are performing on different social media platforms.
On a side note, ensure you have a reliable connection to run these tools. While you’ll also need it for Instagram marketing, these tools are bandwidth-sensitive. These tools are capable of generating real-time analytics of your active marketing campaigns, and hence need an active internet connection.
Speaking from experience, I had to switch to a fiber connection, Optimum Internet, because my previous internet plan wasn’t capable of supporting these tools. But now, I can easily manage multiple marketing campaigns and analyze their performance like a breeze.
Benefits of Instagram Marketing
Now that you know how to advertise your brand on this platform, let me explain a few major benefits of Instagram marketing.
Reach a Massive Audience
As I mentioned above, Instagram has 2 billion monthly active users, and this makes it an ideal platform for marketing. As an e-commerce store, I’ve found a large audience on Instagram. And if you’re running a clothing brand or selling other products, you can easily reach the relevant audience on this platform.
Create Targeted Marketing Campaigns
Instagram offers several marketing channels for advertising. You can create reels, detailed videos, post stories, hire influencers, and more on this platform. With so many options to choose from, you can easily engage the targeted audience in different ways.
Mix of Organic and Inorganic Strategies
While marketing on other social media platforms can be expensive, you can choose organic advertisements and still be effective. For instance, other than sponsored ads and influencer marketing, posting reels, videos, carousels, stories, or collections is free.
Track Your Campaign Performance
Other than analytics tools like Hootsuite and HubSpot, which I mentioned above, you can also analyze your campaign’s performance with Instagram.
With Ad Insights, you can analyze your campaign’s key metrics like impressions, likes, shares, comments, and conversion rates. Also, solely relying on Instagram’s analytics tools can significantly reduce your marketing cost, as you won’t need to pay for third-party tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to pay to create a business profile on Instagram?
No, you can create a business profile for free on Instagram.
How much do Instagram influencers charge?
In most cases, how much an influencer charges depends on the number of their followers. Also, if they have expertise and a loyal audience in your brand’s niche, they might be costly to hire.
Can I create a store on Instagram?
Yes, you can create an Instagram store without spending any money.