How to Create Value on Your Instagram Account for Business
Currently, Instagram has 25 million business profiles. Interestingly, in just 6 months (from July 2017 to January 2018) approximately 10 million business accounts were created.
Is our audience on Instagram?
If you want to create value on Instagram, you need to know your audience. Instagram is the perfect channel for our business to establish close relationships with our target audience. But, how can we know if our audience is on Instagram?
Source: Audienceproject Insights 2017
According to the figures from 2017, 55% of active users on Instagram are woman.
The same application can provide statistics about our audience, so we can understand our followers' profile at all times. However, to understand and obtain more information about our target audience, we must analyse our audience, monitor the competition and, very importantly, talk to our followers.
Have a presence on Instagram
By having a presence on Instagram, you already provide value on Instagram. We've often heard it said that Instagram is only for B2C (Business to Consumer) companies, but this is not the case. Instagram is for both B2C and B2B (Business to Business) companies. It is important to note that if we choose to have a business profile on Instagram, we must use its full functionality.
“In general, brands like Instagram, local businesses are obsessed with Facebook, e-commerce businesses head for Pinterest, B2B companies love LinkedIn, early adopters use Snapchat and no one thinks much of Twitter any more. Unfortunately, they are all wrong. The real key is knowing how to use each platform effectively. You can't publish educational content on Instagram and expect it to generate traffic, in the same way that you can on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter".
Pete Caputa, Databox
Instagram is not just a good medium for Brand Awareness, it is much more than that. However, it is important to consider that Instagram can never be used alone, like any other Marketing channel. A business account on Instagram must be integrated with a digital Marketing strategy and supported by other activities, such as creating adverts on Adwords, a Newsletter, etc. And the most important thing, we must always have a general objective for each channel, such as:
- Traffic to the website
- Conversions, such as subscriptions or bookings
- Increased awareness
- A closer relationship with the target audience
- To enter a new market
To focus on perfect communication
86% of users between the ages of 16 and 65 years use social networks according to the annual Social Networks study by the IAB. Further information that we must consider is that 8 out of 10 users follow a particular brand on social networks and, almost 2 out of every 5 do so closely.
Users that follow the brands want to be informed and entertained at the same time. This information is very valuable when it comes to preparing the content strategy for this social network.
It goes without saying that Instagram focusses on visual formats. What users are really interested in are high quality images and videos. However, businesses must learn how to sell on Instagram without focussing on sales. If we create a fascinating environment where we do not mention, for example, the price of our products or services, we will be more successful in capturing the attention of our target audience. We will encourage our audience to want to understand our brand in further detail and, finally convert them into a clients. For our company to succeed, it is essential to employ a digital strategy.
Through Instagram adverts we can create a Call to Action (CTA) to aim to attract our potential clients and convert them into end clients. Please refer to the following examples:
Through our content, we will need to create a need and a sense of urgency, exploiting the concept of "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out), both for our target audience and for Instagram users in general.
The better we understand the habits, needs, challenges and dreams of our audience, the better we will be able to meet them wherever they are. The best way to understand our audience is to practise Social Listening.
There are various tools, both at a cost and for free, to understand what users think of our brand and also the activities of our competition. Active listening will allow us to create interesting content for our users, as well as to create high engagement. It is important to speak and communicate in the language and slang of our audience.
Results measurement
It goes without saying that measurement must be included within our strategic plan on Instagram but, how do we measure the results of our activities? The measurement will depend on the targets that we have previously set according to some KPIs. Instagram targets may be conversions or more "flexible" values that will depend on our general goal, such as:
- An increase in visits to our website
- Number of visits to a product or service
- Product sales
- Increase in the number of followers
- Total scope
- Commitment
To understand the full evolution of our brand account, we must check and analyse the statistics offered by our Instagram business profile.
To be able to check whether the actions that we perform are effective, it is essential to manage the costs invested into the campaigns. To be able to manage the cost, we must use the following two concepts that will undoubtedly be familiar to you: ROI (Return on Investment) and ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend).
To calculate ROI, we calculate the cost of a lead or a sale, and later decide whether the related Marketing costs are worth it. Therefore, ROI is calculated as the relationship between income and expense.
On the other hand, ROAS measures the net income generated by each Euro invested in advertising. It is a metric focussing on the advertiser that measures the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns.
In short, ROI optimises the strategy while ROAS optimises the tactics.
Success requires
Effort If we want to succeed on Social Media, it is not enough to produce ad hoc content. We must have a content Marketing strategy that supports the digital strategy of the aforementioned channel. Successful Instagram campaigns require multichannel marketing activities, since this social network is perfect for generating high engagement.
To make the most of our efforts and achieve the best return from Instagram, we must take into account the use of the new Facebook algorithm (which is also on Instagram). As well as uploading text with an accompanying caption, we must also use the location, correct tags and hashtags on all content. The higher the engagement that we achieve, the higher the probability that our content will be detected.
Many companies fall into the trap of aiming only to increase the number of followers. It is better to have fewer, high-quality followers that generate brand interaction, than to have many followers and no interaction. If we interact correctly with our followers, they can become loyal clients or even brand ambassadors.
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