Instagram has a lot of features that make it ideal for advertising. It’s user-friendly since it rewards aesthetically pleasing images, promotes engagement, and works for a wide range of industries. With more than a billion monthly active users, Instagram provides a ready-made audience for your brand’s promotional efforts.
The receptiveness of Instagram’s user base towards brands is, however, what makes it stand out as a branding platform of choice. If you can engage Instagram users with engaging material, they will happily follow you and patronise your brand. Take a look at these Instagram metrics behind the scenes:
Most Instagram users (90%) follow at least one commercial brand
Instagram facilitates user-to-brand communication, according to 2/3 of its users.
Half of Instagram users who see a brand’s ad are more likely to consider purchasing the product.
However, establishing your business on Instagram may not go as planned at first. There is some education required, and the optimal decisions aren’t always blatantly evident. Here are 6 expert Instagram branding strategies to help you build your brand and attract more customers.
Business Instagram Accounts: How to Create One
If you intend to utilise Instagram for branding purposes, though, you should convert to a corporate account rather than a personal one.
Advertisements can be purchased more quickly and easily through a business account, and this is only one of many advantages. In example, having a contact button built into your business profile makes it easier for customers to get in touch. With a business account and Instagram Shop, you can sell branded stuff right on the app itself. In addition, Instagram provides you with access to Insights, an in-house analytics tool that can help you determine the success or failure of your post.
Creating a business account on Instagram is a breeze, and it doesn’t cost anything. Simply follow these instructions if you currently have a personal Instagram account:
- Click the gear icon and choose Preferences.
- Select “Account” from the menu.
- Select Upgrade to Premium Account.
- If you must pick between being a Creator and a Businessperson, go with the latter. Professional influencers should use the Creator accounts.
- Pick the class that most closely applies to your product.
- Check the details and then hit the Done button.
- All done! Settings > Account is where you may toggle between your company and personal accounts.
One of the most important things you can do for your Instagram profile is to optimise it.
Most Instagram users who are considering following your brand will first visit your profile. Main features are a username, handle, and profile image; additional important details include a link, address, and bio.
Pick a topic that fits nicely with your overall branding strategy
Attempting to appeal to Instagram’s diverse user base is futile. Instead, you should zero in on a specific subset of the population and cater your material to them exclusively.
To maximise the effectiveness of this tactic, focus on one central idea. If you’re a clothing line, you might focus on glamorous photographs of accessories or candid shots of people wearing your designs in their daily lives. A fashion firm shouldn’t put cat videos with photos of their latest collection.
Establish practical Key Performance Indicators
It’s not easy to put a number on your social media success, but it might be tempting to look at your number of likes and followers as a kind of “scoreboard.” Key performance indicators (KPIs) are useful for measuring progress and shedding light on trouble spots, just as they are in other areas of business.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) for Instagram branding frequently focus on the number of likes, comments, page follows, or uses of a hashtag, but these metrics need to be practical and reachable to be effective.
Although there are brands with millions of followers on Instagram, even a thousand or a hundred should be considered a win.
The question “what do I post?” is one of the most frequently asked regarding Instagram marketing and branding. As was previously noted, the performance of content varies across brands and is dependent on factors such as voice, tone, and objectives.
However, there are certain types of material that consistently do well regardless of format or field of application.
User-created media
Sharing (and giving proper credit for) the content created by your followers is a great way to build relationships with said audiences and encourage audiences to share additional content relating to your company.
Having difficulties getting your name out there? Hold a contest and offer prizes to the people who create the most compelling content promoting you. However, there is a designated hashtag that must be used for the competition.
Take note of comments and tags
Captions are a terrific way to give your images more meaning. Although Instagram captions can be up to 2,200 characters long, just the first two lines will be displayed until the user taps “more.” That’s why you should put the meat of your message in the first couple of sentences and use the remainder of your character count for punctuation and hashtags.
When it comes to Instagram branding, one of the most crucial decisions you can make is which hashtags to utilise. Using the proper hashtags can increase the likelihood that strangers who share your interests will see your posts as they read through their feeds. They’re great for reaching out to those who could be interested in your business but have never heard of it before.
Include video into reels and stories
Instagram’s Stories and Reels are the greatest formats to use if your audience is more interested in watching videos. It’s important to test both to determine what works, just as you would with any other content.
Instagram Stories are similar to video blogs in that the user films themselves doing something or talking about something for a brief period of time and then shares it with their followers. Since Instagram Stories are deleted after 24 hours, using the feature is more of a daily habit.