Instagram Marketing

When Instagram first popped onto the scene back in 2010, it had been a bit like the other social platform: filled with selfies, pets, and pictures of food.

Fast-forward to 2019 and Instagram’s transformation from a simple photo-sharing app to a full-on marketing channel is almost complete.

Just have a look at some of the latest features! In the last year, Instagram has released many of the latest tools for businesses like advanced analytics, shoppable Instagram posts, and easy ways to get traffic from Instagram Stories, and with a new video platform, IGTV.

Instagram Ads

Advertisers now have 5 different ad options:

• Photo ads – Standard Instagram post format

• Video ads – It's the same as above, but with video in place of an image.

• Carousel ads – Its slideshow type ad, which allows us to add multiple images.

• Stories ads – This is Instagram’s version of Snapchat ads that are shown at the top of the feed.

• Collection ads – It’s a catalog ad that takes users through your product offerings.

Why You Should Invest in Instagram Ads

According to Instagram, 60% of people say they discover new products on the platform, and 20% of users visit a business profile every single day. Plus, 33% of the most popular Instagram Stories are shared by businesses like yours. Similar to Facebook ads, throwing some money behind a post will lead to more exposure for your brand, also like more control over who can see your post.

Instagram reaches new audiences through hashtags

Instagram makes it exceptionally easy way to find new audiences.

When you include any hashtag on your post, it creates a clickable link that results in each post that has been shared with the same hashtag.

Creating an Instagram Marketing Strategy

A social media marketer knows that before you dive into a new platform, you have to first develop your strategy. Because each platform offers different opportunities and nuances, you can’t assume that what works on one will bring you success on another – no matter how similar they may seem.

Every post needs to have a unique combination of photo or video, a good caption, and all the relevant hashtags to help audience on Instagram to discover your brand.

Broken down, the steps to creating your Instagram marketing strategy would look like the following:

1. Identify your audience

2. Determine brand goals and objectives

3. Build your team and assign specific roles

4. Establish your brand personality

5. Create your Instagram theme

6. Utilize Instagram Stories

7. Implement a social media calendar

8. Check in on your Instagram Analytics

When you decide what you would like to accomplish on Instagram, it is time to create your brand personality, consider your Instagram feed's theme, and implement a social media calendar to keep your content organized. Take a look at our complete guide to developing an Instagram marketing strategy that works. Additionally, affiliate Instagram marketing strategies might be a good avenue for you to consider.

Instagram Analytics

Some of the most important data for your unique brand is right under your nose. Instagram Analytics is a free analytics tool within each Instagram business page that tracks metrics like profile visits, website clicks, reach, and impressions. The tool also collects data that will tell you when your audience is most active, where they live, their age, and their gender.

Your analytics is that the data that you simply reference when you're planning your next Instagram post, Story, or maybe your next marketing campaign. By diving into this free (yes free) information, you'll better understand how to connect with the people that follow you.

It will provide much information about how the progress on the platform. We can see how often our impressions, reach, and engagement is going up and down.

By comparing this information against top-performing posts and analyzing their performance, you'll detect trends and patterns which will assist you to make your marketing effective in long term.