7 Tips To Use Instagram in Your Small Business Marketing

Instagram, once the red-headed stepchild of the social media world, has now turned into a runaway beer truck, exceeding 700 million users in early 2017. Small businesses are now adopting the social media platform as a primary method of generating revenue. Today, Instagram boasts over 1 million advertisers.

So if everyone else is on Instagram, why isn’t your business? Not leveraging Instagram for your small business is a lost opportunity, and should be remedied immediately! The potential Instagram provides from a marketing perspective is enormous! So let’s get started.

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Here are a few tips on marketing and gaining a following:

Use Those #hashtags

Hashtags are everywhere. You can use them with Pinterest, Twitter, and yes, even Instagram. Since you can leverage hashtags across several different platforms, they’re a great way to drive traffic to your brand. Develop a campaign with a clever and unique hashtag, create great and engaging content around it, and watch your traffic grow.

Relate While Staying Relevant

Your target audience should always be on your mind. Not necessarily at the forefront, but somewhere in there. For Instagram, the question you need to ask is, ‘Why is my ideal customer on Instagram?’ Find creative and fun ways to stay relevant to your product, while relating to your client base.

Promote

This one should be a no-brainer, but promote your Instagram channel with the same efforts you put behind your other social media networks. Add an Instagram icon to your web page or product pages, run campaigns, and use those hashtags! Build up an enticing and exciting brand, then promote the heck out of it.

Connect with Followers

Building your customer base is essential, as is using those hashtags (seriously, use them!), but you don’t want to disregard the followers you already have. Like comments, reply to posts, and even follow those that follow you. That last one is a powerful tool to make your followers feel special. Image how excited you would be if your favourite brand or celebrity followed you on social media. If you want others to engage and interact with your posts, then it stands to reason that they expect the same. The more active you are, the more exposure and publicity you’ll gain.

Find Inspiration

Great artists steal. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to plagiarise or outright copy content posted on another Instagram account. It means you find inspiration in what others are sharing. Follow great brands that post incredible content and repost with a credit to the original poster, or use it by giving it your creative flavor.

Use Instagram’s Tools

Instagram offers many tools that allow you to track performance, be notified of changes and adorn your photos. It’s important that you know how to use them all.

Familiarise yourself with all of the filters, editing tools, and special effects. If you’re a sole owner, seek out opinions before posting. Find creative ways to manipulate your photos to provide a visually compelling product.

Use the business tools Instagram provides. You have access to a lot of information, including impressions, clicks, views, and reach. The tools provided allow for a granular look at all the stats surrounding your account.

Beauty is Everywhere

Determine how your company sees the world, then find a way to make it meaningful to others. Use your account to share your vision and creativity. Begin a hashtag campaign and let your followers do the work by posting photos they capture.

Hopefully, these tips offer insight into ways to start marketing more effectively with Instagram. Don’t just settle for surface level opportunities, dig deeper and find meaningful and substantial content. Relate to your followers and show them why they should use you.

For additional help, click the link below for no cost online training:

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By Martin Goldthorpe  - Business Marketing Mastery