The Power Of Instagram Marketing

The Power Of Instagram and Instagram Marketing

Instagram, the leading photo-sharing app and social network which was created in 2010, has amassed over 700 million users and over 400 million users actively use the app every day. With new features being constantly announced like stories, live video and disappearing messages in direct, businesses now have more ways than ever to express themselves and bring customers closer to their brand.

According to recent figures from Instagram, one in five stories on Instagram gets a direct message from its viewers. With over 70% of users following a business, it’s no surprise that one-third of the most viewed stories are from businesses. Businesses are quickly realising the power of Instagram and the valuable benefits but at FCDM, our experienced team understand the mechanics of Instagram and how to use it as a key lead generating and brand building tool.

Understanding the Mechanics of Instagram

Although the ultimate goal for a company when using Instagram is to engage their current audience, while also growing their following, Instagram can become a powerful lead generating and brand building tool when used correctly. With Instagram, it is never advised to immediately post sales focused content, as nobody will engage with your page and your efforts may go to waste. Thus, it is vital to first understand the mechanics of Instagram, analytical tools available and then and only then, devise a strategy to drive Instagram engagement to promote your business effectively.

Know Your Followers

Instagram Insights can help you to learn key information about your followers and the people interacting with your business on Instagram. Insights relating to gender, age range and location are at your disposal. You can also see which posts and stories your audience sees and engages with the most, allowing you to adapt and share unique and valuable content to those audiences, at the right time.

Driving Engagement

Now that you have gained an in depth insight into your followers, your social media strategy and content scheduling can now be aligned correctly in order to drive maximum engagement. Here are some of our tips for driving Instagram engagement:

• Encourage increased user generated content and ask customers to share their photos
• Go “Behind the scenes” of your business and share the daily happenings
• Use relevant hashtags
• Make sure your posts are on brand and on trend
• Run giveaways and promotions or co-sponsor an Instagram contest to include Like contests, Comment contests & Photo Challenge contests
• Reply to all your comments promptly
• Promote your Instagram presence on other platforms

It is important to remember that real-time content on Instagram lets you reach people any time with your brand message, so your brand is “always on” and just a tap away, so it is vital that businesses reply to comments promptly. This will assist in building deeper, more meaningful relationships with your potential customers and builds trust in order to lead them to a potential purchasing decision.

Instagram Advertising

Now that you have the knowledge on who your followers are and how to engage them, Instagram Advertising is the next step in order to encapsulate the power of Instagram Marketing and start your lead generation and brand building strategy. Creating relevant content that resonates with your audience, sharing it at the right time, then measuring performance, is the next step.

Instagram Ads can be created using the same tools that you use to create Facebook ads using ad creation, Power Editor or the Facebook Ads API. Creating Dynamic Adverts on Instagram, that target people who have already expressed an interest in your company, can aim to convert prospects into profitable customers, where they now feel inspired and take actions on posts, as it is now more relevant to them. Highly targeted types of Instagram ads, with the help of video ads on Instagram, can bring your key messages much closer to your audience and drive profitable action. Facebook and Instagram Dual ads can also be easily created thus allowing you to reach a larger audience than just running Instagram ads alone.

Measure Performance

Monitoring Ad performance and calculating the engagement rate is the next step in order to evaluate the effectiveness of your Instagram Marketing strategy. Engagement refers to anytime a user likes or comments on one of your business posts. To calculate the engagement rate, it is the number of the total engagement received by an Instagram account, over a time period, as a percentage of followers.

The equation is Engagement = Engagement / Followers.

At FCDM, our experienced team understand the mechanics of Instagram and how to use it as a key lead generating and brand building tool. If you feel that we can assist your business in devising a strategy to drive Instagram engagement and to promote your business effectively, please get in touch today and see how we can take your business to new heights!