Instagram marketing and Digital Marketing is a type of social network marketing that involves using Instagram to promote a brand. This social media network assists businesses in connecting with a big audience, raising brand recognition, and increasing sales.

There are over 1 billion Instagram users worldwide, with over 500 million of them using the app every day and sharing an average of 95 million photographs and videos per day.

Those are enormous figures. And you’ll be able to contact your target audience on Instagram regardless of their age, gender, occupation, or anything else.

Why is Instagram marketing important for businesses?

Instagram is the ideal platform for reaching a massive audience of over 1 billion monthly active users. Thus, Instagram users spend an average of 53 minutes per day on the platform, making it the second most popular networking site after Facebook.

Instagram makes it easier to keep in touch with clients and prospects. People enjoy connecting with brands on Instagram, with 90% of users following at least one firm.

Another factor to consider is Instagram’s ability to accelerate sales. According to a Facebook poll conducted in 2019, 65 percent of those who saw a brand on Instagram accessed its website or app. A brand was purchased by 46 percent of interviewees, whether online or offline.

Instagram marketing provides access to a large audience that actively engages with companies and wants to buy from them. However, there are a few other advantages to using this social network.

Instagram has transformed over the last few years from a place to flaunt money or achievements to a useful platform for business. Digital marketing companies have been actively promoting the usage of Instagram as it helps in-

Brand strengthening

Brand awareness is greatly enhanced through Instagram and Digital Marketing. 83 percent of users admit that this social media platform assists them in discovering new items or services. Even better, people have higher faith in the products they see on Instagram.

74% of people think brands with Instagram accounts are relevant, and 78% think they are popular. Brands without an Instagram account, on the other hand, are more likely to be disregarded by prospective clients.

Improved engagement

One of the most effective ways to retain consumer ties is through social media. They enable you to collect input from your audience via likes and comments, engage them with compelling content, tell them about special deals, and more.

As a result, Instagram performs even better in terms of client engagement than other social media platforms. A photo on Instagram often receives 23% more interaction than a post on Facebook, despite the latter network having twice as many active users.

Enlarged sales

We obviously see that Instagram users are willing to buy things. This purchasing audience is massive. Instagram acknowledges this peculiarity and allows businesses to make the most use of their platform. Instagram has a number of options that enable users to shop directly from the platform. Shopping tags,  Links in Instagram Stories links,  advertisements, and more are among them. 

Audience growth opportunities

Instagram expands your company’s reach by allowing you to pinpoint your target demographic. Because of its targeting options, Instagram advertising manager provides this opportunity. You may target the most appropriate audience based on demographics, interests, behavior, and other factors.

Even better, Instagram Ads Manager has a variety of remarketing possibilities. When targeting and retargeting are combined, you can effectively motivate more qualified Instagram leads as well as nudge leads from other channels through the sales funnel.

The Instagram analytics tool helps to monitor the effectiveness of your ads. You may keep things in check like outreach, total campaign budget, number of sales, cost per buy, leads, and more.

To summarize, Instagram marketing enhances your brand, attracts a ready-to-purchase audience, and keeps them interested in your company. 

How to optimize your Instagram profile?

The best ways to get the most out of your profile photo, bio, and link

Your Instagram profile serves as your platform’s home page. It gives you a place to publish some information about your company while also allowing you to drive attention back to your website.  In this section, we’ll show you how to make the most of your Instagram profile. 

Your bio/description

What you choose to publish here should be indicative of your business and demonstrate to your followers who you are as a company, as your description is very unique to your brand. Most businesses involve one (or both) of the following:

• Apple’s “Think different” is an example of a brand slogan or tagline.
• A brief description of you as a business and what your company does.

Some prominent brands may also include a brand hashtag.

Profile picture

Your Instagram profile picture is among the most crucial aspects of your account and the finest approach to show off your business. It’s ideal if your brand is easily recognizable when someone watches one of your posts or visits your profile.

For many brands, this means choosing between three options:

• Logo
• Logomark 
• Mascot

Your link

Instagram, unlike most other social media platforms, does not enable you to include links in every post. Instead, you are given only one link, which is the one on your profile. Instagram Stories allows accounts with much more than 10,000 followers to share links.

This link is typically used to direct users back to a company’s homepage, but it can also be used to direct traffic from Instagram to campaign-specific webpages or unique pieces of content.

You must upload a related picture or video on Instagram whenever you release new content online, and change the link in your bio to highlight it.

Instagram Marketing Tips

Accept user-generated content – For Instagram marketing, user-generated content (UGC) is a magical formula. It allows you to post photographs and videos without having to lift a finger. Even better, user-generated content boosts Instagram promotion. It increases conversion rates by 4.5 percent, increases engagement, and boosts expense metrics and click-through prices for paid INSTAGRAM MARKETING.

The reason for this is that user-generated content functions similarly to word-of-mouth and social proof. People trust client recommendations far more than paid advertisements. Encourage your audience to upload their video and photos with your branded hashtag to acquire UGC for your account. Repost the greatest pieces, but don’t overuse user-generated content; it works best when combined with genuine branded content.

Share your Instagram posts on Facebook – This isn’t precisely Instagram marketing, but this will help you improve your online networking performance in general. Instagram enables you to instantaneously publish photographs and videos to Facebook. All you have to do is turn on the Facebook slider in the “Also post to” portion of your article while it’s being published.

This feature is not only time-saving and convenient, but it also improves your performance. Images shared on Facebook via Instagram receive 23 percent greater engagement.

Use stories and highlights

Instagram Stories are only visible for 24 hours after they have been published, hence it’s easy to overlook their significance. This format, on the other hand, is too wonderful for your Digital Marketing to pass up. According to Instagram research, 62% of individuals stated seeing a brand or product via Stories sparked their interest in it.

Stories are an excellent method to connect with your customers on an emotional level. While your feed should be immaculate, Stories are excellent for raw lifelike content like backstage tours and behind-the-scenes footage. They’re also a way to share in-depth customer reviews with purchase links.

The icing on the cake is that you can retain your stories indefinitely. All you must do is place them in the Highlights section of your page.   Stories can use by businesses to generate interest in new things on their website. The brand can first offer a discount on their new services or products before displaying some of them.  Each story includes a link to a new clothes services or product category the business is trying to promote on the website.

Collaborate with influencers –For influencer marketing initiatives, 79 percent of INSTAGRAM MARKETING regard Instagram to be the most essential medium. The argument is that for every ₹10 spent on influencer marketing, firms make ₹ 100.  Follow these guidelines to establish an efficient influencer marketing campaign:

• Pick an influencer with a similar audience to yours or , your marketing efforts will futile since no one will interest in what you have to offer.

• There must be no bots or false subscriptions in your audience. Ensure that the influencers you collaborate with have active followers. Use sophisticated tools, like trendHERO, to verify this.

• Determine how the audience feels about the influencer with digital marketing. Some bloggers who have a large following generate more hate than love. You won’t receive any new subscribers or sales if you promote through them, so read the comments carefully.

• Launch an Instagram shop–  In 2020, Instagram expanded its selling options and introduced a new format. The Instagram shop is a distinct account part that looks like a storefront on a website. People may access it through their Instagram feeds or Stories, browse products, and purchase items without ever leaving the app.
• Businesses can use this application to build product catalogues, create collections, and arrange products into categories that reflect the story of their brand. Follow the directions on the Instagram website to establish your digital marketing shop. Not only does the corporation highlight some of its top products, but it also keeps track of the items that have been recently viewed in a different Digital Marketing category. Users will have easier access to the things they enjoyed as a result of this shift.

Conclusion

By now you have a brief idea of how Instagram is not only used for personal use but also has changed into a stage for businesses to promote their new products, recruit new employees and motivate their audience. The ways mentioned above can truly guide you through your Instagram marketing journey and help you promote your brand in the friendliest way possible, without imposing it on your customers.

Author’s Bio

Shirin Pedhambkar

I have completed my degree in Hotel Management and working in the field of Digital marketing. I am mainly focused on content writing but besides that, I find myself interested in SEO and Social Media marketing. My expertise spans in the field of the hospitality industry, mainly in the food and beverage department. LinkedIn