Everyone is fighting so hard to make their presence felt in the market that no one wants to leave even a single marketing tactic. Be it traditional marketing practices or digital marketing strategies, businesses want to try them all to give tough competition.
Above all, social media is one of the biggest platforms that each business wants to rule on because this the place where millions of users are present and it becomes easy to connect with the target audience. This is not something that we are just saying, this has been experienced by most of the businesses.
Each tactic used by businesses for their promotion has its own importance and it delivers good results if implemented in the right way. Now, when we have talked about social media, there are several famous platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Each of those is targeted by brands according to their business’s niche.
Our sole focus in this post is ‘Instagram’ as it is one of the most popular social media channels which is used by millions of people across the world. Let us see about Instagram in brief.
Instagram for Social Media:
Instagram is a social networking platform that is used for sharing videos and photos with your friends or we must say, followers. Launched in the year 2010 on iOS, Instagram was soon introduced for Android as well two years later in 2012. This platform gained so much attention and popularity in such a less period of time that now, it has become an integral part of people’s lives around the world.
Initially Introduced for individuals, Instagram is also now a key part of marketing strategies adopted by businesses. Every business is trying to make a strong presence on Instagram in one way or the other. There has to be a genuine reason for why Instagram is gaining so much attention by businesses and we must say that there is not one, rather there are many.
Here are some of the benefits of Instagram that has made it popular among businesses like it is for individuals.
Benefits of Instagram for marketing
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The number of users is increasing daily
We feel that this is one of the key reasons why businesses want to show up on this social media platform. Instagram is not too old and new people, even businesses are joining it in large numbers daily. This makes the opportunity of getting the attention of the target audience better and bigger. The more the audience, the wider your reach will be.
Another key importance of having new people on Instagram is the growth of a strong network with others. It’ll help companies to get new leads and expand their business.
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Easy targeting
One of the most important aspects of marketing is the target audience. If you don’t show up to the audience which is perfect for your product or service, you are never going to get the attention you want. With Instagram, you can easily target the best audience for your brand and customize your ads accordingly.
There are people of all interests available on Instagram, it’s just you have to find yours and attract them. No matter whether you are offering your products or services in one location or multiple locations, Instagram will be ideal for you.
Besides targeting, this social media platform also helps you retarget your audience. It could be done by analyzing people who have visited your site, spent a good amount of time, or even added few products to the cart but in the end, left without making a successful purchase. This is just an example, you can also target the audience based on the gender, age group, demographic, or any other criteria as per your needs.
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Tell stories
Storytelling is one of the key aspects of telling people about your business. The reason behind that is the people’s love for stories, they give stern attention to something which is unique, engaging, interesting, and informative. And for storytelling, there could not be a better place than Instagram.
Most importantly, if you are able to connect your target audience emotionally with your story, gotcha! You have hit the right spot. You can create relevant yet attention-grabbing visuals and post them in Instagram stories. If it is implemented in the right manner, you will see numerous views, comments, and even high web traffic.
Many businesses have experienced a positive response with Instagram stories and you could be the next one.
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Visual content is more effective
Instagram only focuses on images and videos; thus, it is the best social media platform for promoting your business through visuals. There is no doubt that texts hold equal importance when it comes to digital marketing but, with the addition of visuals the value of text just gets doubled.
An image or a video attracts people easily than a text does and this is why your business must have a presence on Instagram. Posting a video or image about your brand or a product or service you provide in an innovative way will help in better recognition and high web traffic.
To drive better results, it is important to post real photos rather than downloaded & edited ones.
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Hashtag Instagram marketing
Hashtags are ruling the social media and Instagram is one of the most popular platforms for using them. Through the effective use of hashtags on social media, you can reach potential buyers and attract more leads.
As we know that there are millions of Instagram users who stay online round the clock, you can create ads and target the ones that are important for you by adding relevant hashtags. Doing this will bring more traffic to your site and ensure improved recognition in the future.
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Get feedbacks
Whether customers are happy or not, those who are frequent Insta users post their experience about the product with its image on Instagram. Plus, they also tend to talk about your brand in comments with friends and followers. You might also see many of your customers commenting on your Instagram page based on their experience.
Thus, considering the numbers, you should not ignore the feedback of people given on Instagram as you might get some gem of advice that could do wonders for your brand.
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Know what your competitors are doing
Having a presence on Instagram is not only to build your audience, fan following, and presence on digital marketing but it is also helpful in knowing your customers. Through active presence on Instagram, you will come to know about the strategies adopted by your competitors to grab the attention of the audience. Plus, it will also tell you what people are talking about them.
Thus, while knowing what your competitors are doing, you can strategize your moves accordingly to have a competitive edge over them. You can see what they are posting when they are posting, and how they are posting. This information is enough for a business to plan better and see how it works.
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Offers valuable analytics
For businesses, Instagram provides detailed information on some of the key parameters including likes, views, shares, and clicks. For the betterment, it is advised to make use of dedicated tools that provide insights into your Instagram account for social media.
These valuable analytics are very helpful in deciding which of your posts are doing well. Hence you can strategize your further posts by pointing out the elements liked by your target audience and using them in your future posts.
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Improves sales
The popularity of Instagram has increased so much that people have started using it to buy products & services as well. A study has found that a good percentage of Instagram users purchase products online via Instagram. And this is one of the reasons why businesses are focusing to be on Instagram.
You might be thinking that how this happens. The theory is simple, people get attracted to the ads placed by brands on Instagram and if they find the product worth buying, they proceed towards making a successful purchase.
This is how it works and not even commodities, it is also the platform to promote software and mobile Apps.
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Different for businesses
This is one thing that everyone should admire about Instagram. It offers different features to the accounts that are made for individuals and for businesses. Thus, having a business account means that you have some extra features like post promotion, call to action for visitors, and much more. Instagram also tells visitors about the page that it belongs to a business, not an individual and that helps in ensuring more engagement from the genuine audience.
These are some key benefits of effectively using Instagram with your social media marketing. It is one such platform that could bring around 30% of web traffic or even more. All you have to do is post unique & interesting photos and videos about your brand, offering some tempting discounts might improve the results.
Final Words
There should not be any discrimination when it comes to social media platforms, as all hold equal importance. But when it is about Instagram, the popularity just increases. It is a platform that only focuses on visual content and people love to see their products before buying. Thus, what could be better than Instagram for showing what you sell and how it works.
By posting real photos of your products you can show it to the target audience and using videos, you can tell how your products behave and how they are different from others. If you are able to please them, congratulations! They will just visit your site or app and make a purchase.
Instagram is still growing and, in the future, you might see the number of users getting doubled. So, don’t waste any time and just ensure your presence on Instagram to reap benefits that could become better in the future.