Any marketer worth their salt knows that Instagram is a valuable marketing tool. As part of a wider social media strategy, Instagram can help bring in new audiences, promote your brand, and mark you out as a top-tier content creator in an extremely crowded field. With more than half a billion active daily users, Instagram is a platform you should definitely consider integrating into your social media approach.
However, it's not as simple as "use Instagram to market your product and achieve success". Like any other platform, there are rules you must follow if you want to get the most out of Instagram as a marketing tool. Your content, interaction with your followers, and scheduling all need to be on point, among other things. Here's our guide on how you can begin marketing your product on Instagram.
Create great content featuring your product
The fastest and easiest way to market your product on Instagram is simply to create great content featuring that product. If your followers can see the product working in situ, doing what it's supposed to do, then they'll be more inclined to believe it's a great product.
While you can try any number of different tricks to shrewdly market your product, if you don't believe in it, then it'll never take off, and in order to believe in it, it's got to be a great product. Show off that belief in your content, and your followers will quickly realise it's worth buying - if you have followers, of course.
Make sure there are enough people to see your content
Instagram accounts live and die by their follower counts. While this isn't the only metric of success, it's certainly an important figure to consider, because if you don't have any followers, then there isn't anyone to see the content you're creating.
If you want to know how to get free Instagram followers quickly, then you should think about using a follower service. This can be a great way to build a quick, organic following for your business so that you can get on with the important part, which is, of course, marketing your product!
Partner up with influencers to promote your product
Influencers are essentially the lifeblood of Instagram. The term "influencer" simply refers to any content creator capable of influencing audience opinion, so it should stand to reason that if you're trying to market a product on Instagram, you'll want to recruit influencers to help you. There are a few ground rules here, though.
Try to work with influencers who operate within your sphere; it's important that they should espouse similar values to you and target similar demographics. Don't go straight for the bigger influencers, either; working with smaller influencers increases your clout, and they'll be grateful to you for sending work their way as well.
Run giveaways and competitions
Like other social media platforms, Instagram absolutely loves competitions and giveaways . Think about it - when you're browsing your own feed, doesn't it feel exciting when someone you're following says they have something to give away?
That's why it can be helpful to do this when you're marketing your own product. Getting your product into the hands of its intended audience so they can see for themselves how well it works is one of the most effective methods for marketing it; after all, if it's a great product, your audience will organically spread word-of-mouth.
Instagram - and, by extension, other social networks too - is all about social culture. That means authenticity and being genuine are prized almost above all else. You shouldn't try to hard-sell your product on Instagram, because your followers - and the wider culture as a whole - will be incredibly skeptical of your intentions if you do.
Instead, involve your followers in what you're doing. Talk to them, get their feedback, reply to their comments (more on which in a moment), and generally become part of the community. When you do, the line between brand and buddy is blurred.
As a brand, it's very important that you engage with your followers wherever possible. They're the ones who'll prop up your account, buy your products, and generally act as your sounding-board, your audience, and your mouthpiece all at once.
For this reason, you should make sure to go through the comments for your content and reply to as many of them as possible. This means engaging with negative feedback, which can feel bad, but is a crucial element of keeping your audience interested in you. Of course, that doesn't mean you should feed the trolls .
Keep your profile optimised
It's hard to sell products if people can't see who you are and what you're about at a glance. That's why it's important to keep your Instagram profile optimised as a brand. Your bio should be short, snappy, and communicative, while your gallery should showcase the best of what your brand and products have to offer.
With sloppy communication, people won't know how to identify your brand amongst your competitors, and you can guarantee that they'll be putting the work in to make their profiles look great even if you don't.
Increasing visibility is extremely important on Instagram, and one way you can do this is to properly utilise captions and hashtags . Instagram hashtags are how people find trending content on the platform, and they're how you'll raise the visibility and discoverability of your posts.
Make sure to pay attention to what's currently trending on the platform and adjust your strategy accordingly. Try to hit trends so that people are drawn to your products while browsing naturally, but don't appear too desperate; Instagram doesn't value desperation.
