More than 25 million businesses use Instagram as a channel of communication with customers. Instagram marketing has great potential but only with a clear strategy. If you want to find out how to increase sales, raise awareness about your brand, and make business ambassadors from your loyal followers, then this is the article just for you.
However, if you're looking for a trick on how to dominate on Instagram and make money quickly, then you're in the wrong place. That trick doesn't exist and anyone who tells you otherwise just wants to rip you off. Nothing can be done overnight, it can only fail.
That's why, at the very beginning, we stress that one of the most important terms in digital marketing is - relevance. For instance, car mechanics have nothing to do on Instagram because they will have a better ally in Google (Google SEO, Google My Business, and Google Ads). We say this for the better use of resources that are certainly limited to every business. It's not that car mechanics shouldn't have his own Instagram profile, far from it, but it's certain that Google will bring him more customers, so he should put in more energy on SEO.
Why Does Everyone Love Instagram? A Bit of Psychology...
Instagram is currently the most popular free app for processing and sharing photos and videos but it also serves for social networking. Therefore, it's a platform of the visual concept on which it's best to advertise visually conceived niches.
It currently has over billion users and that number can be attributed to the intense pace of innovation by the Instagram team who has recognized the need for people to express themselves in new ways. They managed to respond to many requests, especially of younger audiences, by constantly innovating and introducing new stuff: stories, IGTV, stickers, sliders, GIFs...
Instagram seems like the happiest place on the planet. It's full of photos and videos of beautiful landscapes, pets, interesting places, delicious (at least, in the pictures) dishes, sports cars, fashion brands... definitely a fun, energetic, and cool place.
We carefully choose what we'll post on Instagram in order to present ourselves in the best possible light. One of the secrets of the success of social networks is precisely in the social validation, that is, the confirmation - the basic biological need of every human being.
As social beings, we need to be connected and accepted by the people we care about. Every day we share with them attitudes, opinions, what we like or don't like. We talk about new things, experiences, what we saw... Hence the fear among people of what they will post on Instagram.
We're afraid of how people will react when our post finally becomes public. Is there a better confirmation than from a lot of likes? We got hooked on likes. More likes, we're cooler, and that experience directly supports the secretion of dopamine, a hormone associated with pleasure.
It helps us feel much better and over time, we become addicted to that good feeling. We go so far that, and it's supported by new research, young people choose a place to travel and spend their summers depending on how "instragamic" the destinations are.
The Most Successful Niches in InstagramGiven the composition of the user population on Instagram and the very way this social network works today, certain business ventures and industries on Instagram have a better chance of doing business successfully.
Below are 10 business areas that have a chance to be profitable:
Why Instagram Marketing? Can Success Be Measured?In the beginning, it should be said that there's an increasingly pronounced trend in the design of "instagramic" brands and businesses today. Just like humans, every business needs a dose of dopamine. A lot of time is spent on creating a good story, a good product. Sometimes we need a boost to be on the right track, to do the right things.
Social networks have brought a big change in the way we do business. Communication becomes two-way, the voice of customers is heard more and more loudly. There's no better way to connect with customers than to tell them your story, i.e. why do you do what you do?
Instagram from a business point of view should be seen as:
- A tool to use to easily reach your target audience. By the way, it's known that the Instagram audience is the most active and interacts with the content the most.
- A visual network where you can faithfully present the story and values of the brand through video and photography because the stories are the ones that sell, they decide which brand will customers choose between two similar products. Establish an emotional connection with customers. Make a hero out of your customer and you'll have a loyal brand representative.
- Success can be measured in accordance with goals that are clearly defined through the strategy. In most cases, the goals are to increase online sales - when it comes to e-commerce - or shopping, the number of restaurant visits, etc. One more thing is important for e-commerce brands. Instagram has recently introduced the shopping feature to its stories, meaning that you can make clickable posts for certain products leading to the brand's website for more info. This further leads to the brand's website having to load fast and be live all the time. Quality hosting is necessary for both. Note that MySQL web hosting and its plans are designed for rapid response with minimum hassles. On the other hand, a large number of businesses only want to expand the awareness of their brand, which is reflected in the number of visits to Instagram profiles and which in the long run affects the above parameters.
- Hashtags can help you a lot to be found and recognized. Look at hashtags as SEO on Instagram. Success on Instagram is almost guaranteed for the B2C sector, i.e. for businesses that are oriented towards end consumers.
This is also called transparent marketing. It seems difficult but is necessary for success. You can still just pay for an advertisement and wait by the phone but it's simply unprofitable, short-term, and expensive.
There are many better strategies in digital marketing than that. It takes time and investment but the benefits are immeasurable with the previous "tactic". Be authentic and clearly and consistently convey your product or service. Show expertise in your business. Solve people's problems and you'll be successful.
Photos are always a good choice but today, a video format that's slowly taking over the world is also important and the main players, such as Facebook, are now obviously emphasizing it.
Another important thing - Unique selling proposition (USP), or the avatar of your ideal customer, is something you need to learn and do, because it will help you a lot in writing a content marketing plan.
There are so many amazing brands on Instagram that are being advertised. Search for and follow different brands related to your business. It will provide you with inspiration and ideas for quality advertising and content.
See what's good for other brands and competitors and see what's not. Analyze the content that successful brands use. Don't copy them but harness the power of creative imitation. Embed ideas in the context of your brand and you'll get unique content.
The most important thing for Instagram and any other social network is that you spend as much time on the platform as possible. More time spent, more ads you've seen, more money for them.
That's why the algorithm will always show you before other posts those that have a lot of likes and comments, assuming that it's interesting because if your friends liked it, you'll also like it. Recommendation: Create a contest or giveaway.
Advertising on the Internet is still cheap and works through the auction system. There's a certain number of slots on Instagram at all times, places to display ads, and businesses are fighting for those places.
It depends on many factors how much advertising will cost you. Practice so far has shown that, for example, in the USA for one dollar you can reach between 50 and 100 people (only). In Europe, you can reach up to 1,000 people for one euro.
The more advertisers, the fewer slots, the more expensive the advertising becomes. Take advantage of that. Facebook, Instagram, and Google make a living from advertising, but not at any cost. It's important for them that their users are happy, that they spend quality time on the networks to get relevant content in order to use it as much as possible.
That's why relevance, which we mentioned at the beginning of the article, is important. The power of social media for advertisers is that they have a lot of demographic data available to clearly define their target audience and send a relevant message. Relevant content will help you get new customers.
You can segment people by location, what apps they use, what their relationship status is, what mobile phone they use, interests, gender, age, and many, many other ways. Remarketing is perhaps one of the strongest things, certainly a unique thing in digital marketing.
On Instagram, you can repeat the ad to people who have liked some of your posts earlier. So, you no longer have to spend a lot of money, only 3-4 euros because, thanks to the algorithm, you can only repeat the ad to the people you interacted with through the inbox (so-called "warm traffic").
How to Reach "Warm Traffic"?Through ads managers, you target men and women of a certain age in your country or city who like the business your brand does. The ads manager does its job and shows the number of your audience so that, according to the calculation of 1 euro for 1,000 people, you know how much money you need to spend to reach them.
One click is enough for the algorithm to start working for you. The ad lasts for a few days and you've reached a certain number of these people. Thanks to Instagram tools and remarketing, you can determine how many people watched the video advertisement, for example, more than 30 seconds.
You set parameters and ask Instagram to show you a database of people who have watched your ad for more than 30s. Now there's a base of a much smaller number of people. You realize that, from now on, you'll spend the fifth part of the initial investment to reach potentially more interested people.
The assumption is that because someone has watched 30s of an ad, it means that it looks like a good deal to him/her. You'll offer them additional information such as payment in several installments without interest for the first, let's say, 100 customers.
You don't throw money away now, you shoot precisely as a laser!
