Over the past few years, the process of business marketing has evolved greatly. What started as leaflets and simple billboards has now turned into whole strategies revolving around Search Engine Optimization and Social Media. As easy as business marketing has become over the last few years, it has also evolved into something much more complex than it was before. There are techniques and statistics that need to be kept in mind when developing a marketing strategy and marketers are in a constant struggle to stay one step ahead of their competition.
One major part of the marketing efforts taken up by marketers in recent years is the use of Social media. Social media has the power to influence both young and old minds alike and with millions of people using it worldwide, it can and is used as a major tool to reach huge audiences. Social media includes websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Instagram is perhaps the most influential websites that are being used for marketing in today’s times. This is because of the basic layout of the website; it includes pictures and videos that are naturally much more attractive and eye-catching as compared to long paragraphs explaining details about your product. According to statistics, over 500 million people use Instagram every single day and ignoring an audience this huge would just be a huge mistake on part of the marketing team of any business operating in the year 2019.
Why Instagram?
1. Visual content
As mentioned above, the use of images and videos to promote your product has a much higher potential of attracting and keeping prospective customers interested simply because it appeals to their short attention spans. Being surrounded by technology every day and with how easily everything is accessible to us, we have become very impatient in our daily lives and this is what leads to us being not as receptive towards marketing campaigns as we used to be. In simpler words, we get bored very soon. Keeping this in mind, the significance of Instagram’s photos and videos can be evaluated. They provide a quick but informative look into the business and its products to the audience without requiring much of their time. This is what makes Instagram marketing effective and highly rewarding.
2. Building trust and credibility through storytelling
Storytelling is one of the greatest tools that marketers can use to promote a product and the business as a whole. People love a good story; we’ve grown up listening to stories and fairytales and that’s what we’re drawn most to. Using Instagram to tell stories about your brand, the people behind it and the customers that have been involved with it is a superb way to connect to your target audience on an emotional level. Humans are naturally emotional creatures and when something appeals to the emotional side of us, we can hardly stay away from it. Through the storytelling process, people get to know the raw side of the business and the people that work behind the scenes. This is what leads to building trust and credibility and makes prospective customers feel more inclined towards a certain business.
3. Unlimited and unfiltered feedback
Marketers that want to stay ahead of their game need to be aware of how their marketing campaigns are being received by the target audience and what sort of impact they are having. Additionally, when people buy your product or make use of your service, they are most likely to mention your brand name in their stories or their posts using hashtags or direct mentions. This is a great source of valuable feedback that tells you exactly what sentiment your customers hold for your brand. Getting access to raw information and insights about how your customers feel about your product can be the game-changer when it comes to designing your next campaign. Instagram makes it possible for you to know these small details which might otherwise not be accessible for you through surveys or customer feedback forms which most of the times do not represent the true feelings of the customer.
4. Target specific customers
All social media websites including Instagram make the use of cookies to take into account the interests of their visitors and then use that information to display only the relevant promotional ads in front of only those viewers that might be interested in them. This makes the surfing experience convenient for the viewers as they are not bombarded by all sorts of ads on a regular basis. Moreover, this also allows businesses and brands to display their ads specifically in front of the people that might be potential customers. This is a highly effective tool that helps a business get in touch with the most likely customers leading to greater potential sales and revenues.
5. Keep an eye on competitors
Instagram is a public platform. This means that whatever your competitors post about their product and the way they post it is all available for you to see as well. This makes it extremely easy for a marketer to keep an eye on competitors. Any new trend that has been gaining popularity or any new technique of using social media more effectively in the marketing process cannot stay hidden for long and this is what makes the use of Instagram even more rewarding for a brand. What content are they posting, how often are they posting it and how are they engaging with their followers can all also be used to take notes and learn from the leading brands in the industry. These techniques and tricks can be used to derive your own creative strategy which can target a separate group of customers. It is important to keep in mind, however, to always be original and not copy content. Copying any sort of content can lead to immediate bad publicity for your business that will do your brand image more harm than it will do good.
Need more convincing? Take a look at this infographic from FameMass which highlights many more Instagram statistics and emphasizes why your business or brand needs to on Instagram in 2019.
