Marketing over social media is all the rage these days. Businesses, whether small-scale or large-scale, have made social media marketing an essential component of their respective marketing strategies.
A change in consumer patterns is somewhat responsible for it. Consumers are becoming increasingly dependent on technology and have integrated their routine activities with technology. Subsequently, consumers are more influenced by social media advertising rather than ‘bill-board’ advertising.
The following statistics illustrate the implementation of social media marketing by businesses.
Social media, which was traditionally used for socializing purposes, has now become a hub for markers. This latest trend is understandable and justified as social media is the gateway to larger and more diverse audiences.
Businesses find it cheaper, convenient and highly effective to market their products/services over the internet.
Instagram has also become highly accommodating towards marketers with the introduction of Instagram business tools, aimed at assisting businesses with their marketing strategies.
Lately, Instagram has emerged as the most popular and the most efficient platform for social media marketing. As per research, Instagram boasts an overwhelming 600 million active monthly users and 59% of them use Instagram daily while 35% visit it several times a day.
Even though the number of active users on Instagram is lower than that on Facebook, marketers have started to prefer Instagram over Facebook as it offers the highest rate of user interactions with brands’ posts as a % of brands’ followers.
Also, Iconosquare’s 2015 Instagram study reported that about 70% of Instagram users have looked up a brand over Instagram at least once.
Realizing that it is the leading platform for social media marketing, Instagram unveiled Instagram Business Tools, back in 2016.
This set of tools is quite accommodating towards marketers, and this comprehensive set of tools are extremely practical and useful.
Instagram business tools can be utilized to stimulate the growth of your business, in an efficient and effective manner. These tools let you make the most out of your Instagram profiles, that will result in soaring profits for your business.
The business tools suite comprises of Business Profiles, Insights and Promotion tools.
Business Profiles
Business Profile is the most exciting and useful feature offered in Instagram business tools. Business profiles are distinct profiles, specially designed for users who are interested in being recognized as a business over Instagram. These profiles are extremely accommodating towards brands as they extend the convenience and facilitate the brands’ customers.
Brands, marketing their products/services over Instagram, can get business profiles activated without any cost however, Instagram has set a condition for people seeking to convert their regular profiles into business profiles.
In order to convert a normal profile to a business profile, one must have a brand presence on Facebook. Instagram representatives held security formalities responsible for the condition imposed. A business profile can prove to be extremely useful for brands as these profiles offer exclusive features for businesses.
By using a business profile, you can add a contact button in your profile. The contact button can be enabled by feeding in contact information regarding your business such as phone number and email address. This button will let customers contact you via phone call, email or text message with a single tap.
The contact option is located right next to your profile picture and is evidently convenient to access.
Instagram users can also get directions to the brands’ physical presence by visiting their business profile.
A business profile makes it easier for Instagram users to discover and approach your brand. Traditionally, users could only discover more about the brand by visiting its website. Instagram business profiles eliminate the need for accessing browsers to get information about the brand. Users can extract contact number, email or pinned location for the brand, simply by heading over to the business profiles.
Instagram business profiles will enable you to approach larger audiences and would stimulate the rate at which a brand spreads. As these profiles offer greater convenience, a swell in sales/profits can be expected.
Access to business profiles is also necessary to unlock Instagram insights.
Converting your profile to business profile is a convenient process. You’ll simply have to tap on the settings icon from your profile. Scrolling down will display the option labeled as “Switch to Business Profile.” Tap on it, follow the guidelines provided by the app and you’re done.
Insights and Analytics
Reviewing and analyzing the rate of growth, factors influencing growth, the behavior of current/potential customers and competitor’s activities is an essential element of marketing strategy.
Insights and statistics will indicate the success of your marketing strategy by highlighting the growth rate of your business.
Even though insights related to your Instagram profile can be obtained using third-party paid tools, their results might not be as accurate and useful as those provided by Instagram itself.
As per Instagram: “Insights on Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts resonate better than others—all from within the mobile app. By learning more about the behavior and demographics of your audience, you can create more relevant and timely content.”
There are a variety of useful and actionable insights that you can obtain using Instagram business tools.
Instagram insights will let you know the number of times a particular post or story, shared by your page, was seen. It will also let you know the number of unique accounts that visited your profile and saved your posts.
Insights will also provide information about your customers such as the hours of the day when your followers are the most active and the number of replies by them.
Insights will also let you know the number of times your website was visited and viewed.
Instagram insights can categorize data according to gender, age groups, and location, enabling you to understand your followers’ base better.
These insights can be used to boost the growth of your business. You can use the conclusions and information from insights and alter your marketing strategy accordingly. Utilizing these insights, brands can produce better, more relevant and engaging content for their target market. This will lead to better followers’ engagement rate.
Instagram insights will provide you with a clear picture of the status of the growth of your business.
Promotion
Instagram business tools also provide extremely effective promotion methods and techniques.
Instagram now allows you to convert your well-performing posts into adverts, of the length specified by you. The process is evidently simple. You’ll have to select a post and tap on Promote. This will enable you to select text or CTA, to allow people to take action.
Next, you can specify the target audience, set a budget, specify the length and Instagram will take care of the rest.
As Instagram allows you to utilize your already-well-performing posts for adverts, your promotion becomes more effective, and it ensures that your message will reach to larger audiences, stimulating the growth of your brand.
Maintaining Instagram Profiles
The credibility of an Instagram profile is highly influential on the growth of a business over Instagram. Once you’ve converted to business profile, you’ll have to make sure that your profile seems credible enough and exhibits professionalism.
It must also be noted that posting Hi-Definition pictures while maintaining certain decorum will make your profile look neat and professional.
Bio
Initially, you must add an influential bio, because it is probably the first thing that a random user will notice. The bio for your brand page must be brief and well-crafted. It should preferably exhibit the mission statement of a business. It should also be catchy and must provide sufficient information about the brand.
You can also add links to the presence of your brand on other social networks. This will create a stronger integration link and will ensure smoother execution of marketing strategy.
It is advised to use specific keywords to target your niche audience. You may also utilize emojis to make it interesting and catchy.
Popularizing
The popularity of an Instagram profile is directly related to the growth of any business. It isn’t a rocket science that more popular brands tend to grow at higher rates. Also, a big Instagram profile seems more credible and users are more likely to follow brands with a higher number of followers. You can utilize a variety of methods to strengthen your presence over Instagram.
If you can spare some bucks for the promotion of your brand, you may use Instagram tools to purchase followers, likes and views. Tools such as Vibbi can help you gain followers on Instagram fast. You can get them delivered instantly.
You can choose from the variety of affordable packages offered, according to your requirements.
You can also choose to cross-promote your brand. This will enable you to address larger audiences, promoting your brand in an effective manner. In order to cross-promote, you can simply share your Instagram posts over Facebook or can urge your Facebook friends to follow your profile on Instagram. Subsequently, you’ll be able to use Instagram to approach your Facebook audience too.
Sponsorship is another method to promote your brand and stimulate its growth. You can offer sponsorships to celebrities, Youtubers or other influential individuals, to promote and popularize your brand.
Affiliate marketing is another similar method of promotion. You can hire people to market your products/services. These people will fuse promotional content into their routine posts, stories or live videos, creating brand awareness about your product.
Engagement and Interaction
Engaging and interacting with your followers’ base is an extremely important factor that contributes to the growth of your business. Your followers must always feel ‘attended’ or else they’ll lose interest in your posts.
To keep your fans engaged, you must post regularly. You could fabricate a posting routine and stick to that. The frequency of your posts must be high and consistent. It will not only keep your followers engaged, but will also attract new users and encourage them to follow your page. If you find it difficult to post consistently, tools such as Onlypult and Schedugram can be used to schedule posts and manage admins for your page. These tools can also be used to schedule bulk posts.
Instagram stories and live session are the latest fads. These Snapchat-like disappearing stories are highly effective in approaching customers and seeking their attention.
Similarly, Instagram live is also highly effective in approaching the customers.
You should upload Instagram stories as frequently as you can and you should go ‘live’ once in awhile.
You can also use trending hashtags and emojis in your posts to make it easier for users to discover your profile. You can also initiate hashtag campaigns if your followers base’ is credible enough.
Instagram users are highly likely to respond to posts referring to giveaways and similar stuff. You must utilize this behavior pattern in the most effective manner. You can conduct occasional giveaways and lucky draws.
You can also use clear CTAs to encourage your audience to take action and respond.
Offer Convenience to Customers
If you’re aiming at rapid growth and soaring profits/sales, you must offer convenience to your customers, facilitate them and make it easier for them to browse and shop products. A lot of Instagram tools including Like2buy and Foursixty can be used to convert Instagram feeds into shopping galleries. This makes it hassle-free for customers to browse through products and make purchases. It will encourage potential customers to explore your brand.
In order to search for products, customers will have to click on the link placed in the bio section. This completely eliminates the need for opening a web browser to explore and buy products. The link will lead the customers directly to the featured products’ page. Modern tools let you customize the shoppable feeds in accordance with the theme of your business.
This facility will largely contribute to the growth of your business.
Instagram Business Tools, along with a few other tools and tips, can be utilized to boost the growth of your business. Considering the behavior pattern of the contemporary era, it can be concluded that it is high time to invest in Instagram marketing to uplift the growth, expansion, and development rate of your business.
