An inbound marketing strategy is comprised of several small strategies, and one of the most important is a social media marketing strategy. A social media presence is no longer optional for businesses if they want to succeed, and Instagram is a great channel to utilize. You may think that yours is not the type of business to benefit from social media like Instagram. More often than not, however, this is misguided thinking.
Customers today look to social media to shop or get news and company updates and access customer service. In fact, 53% of Instagram users follow their favorite brands on Instagram for these and many other reasons. Instagram can be useful for your inbound marketing efforts to achieve much more engagement. It’s true; not every business will be a perfect match for every social media channel. But Instagram still might give your business a few things to consider.
Why Inbound Marketing Benefits from Instagram
With over 600 million active users, Instagram can be valuable to an inbound marketing strategy if done right, and here’s why.
Brand Yourself Creatively
Instagram gives your brand a personality that is like a real person customers can connect with. It is essentially a storytelling platform as much as it can also be an e-commerce platform. It’s not enough in business to just have a great product or service. Customers need to feel that they can trust your brand and a brand is much easier to trust when it is well-liked. This is an opportunity to show what your company culture is like by sharing office life photos and videos or outings. You can show how your business gives back to good causes and share content demonstrating the benefits of what you offer in a more engaging way than simply a website.
Get to Know your Audience
There are over 600 million users on Instagram, and your target audience is among them. A more personable platform like Instagram can be an integral part of getting to know what types of people are interested in your brand. Once you know this, you can target more specific campaigns and posts to increase your engagement with them. Instagram engagement rates are 10-84 times higher than Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Observe the reactions to your posts and engage back with your followers. You can also search hashtags that apply to your posts and build a targeted following.
Mobile Means More
These days people are opting more for mobile interactions, which is exactly how Instagram thrives. Instagram has desktop capability, but the majority of users are Instagramming through their mobile devices. This allows more frequent opportunities to catch your audience no matter where they are and increase engagement and brand awareness. The average user spends 25 minutes per day on Instagram, and more than 60% of users log in daily. With 600 million active users, that’s too much customer facetime to pass up.
Where’s the Proof?
If your company has not already established some kind of social media presence, you may want to look at the success of others for motivation. Some successful company Instagrams include:
Nike: With 73.3 million followers, Nike focuses more on posting inspirational and motivational lifestyle posts over just product promotion.
Starbucks: Engagement is above average with the Starbucks Instagram. They post lots of user-generated content that their 14.9 million users tag them in.
HubSpot: Over 102 thousand follower keep HubSpot content flowing consistently. They offer marketing tips, inspirational quotes and company culture and achievement posts.
The proof is in the posts. Whether you’re B2B or B2C, Instagram has the ability to help your inbound marketing efforts as one of the fastest-growing social media platforms around. Here are a few last tips to help you get started strong with an Instagram for your business:
- Add your Location: This has been proven to make posts more easily found.
- Use Hashtags: Use a blend of high-ranking and middle-ranking hashtags to better your visibility.
- Be Vocal: It may be a visual app, but words are still a powerful tool on Instagram, even beyond hashtags. When followers engage with you, engage back. Comment, like and be an active presence.
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