By Birbahadur Singh Kathayat
Instagram is the most happening social networking destination, and the 6th most visited website on the web. There are over 500 million daily active users on Instagram, spending 2 hours on average. More than 60% of its users use Instagram every day. In figures, over 200 million people visit at least one brand profile or account every day. Users are fond of the new trend called stories on Instagram a lot and tend to watch stories anonymously of others.
These stats simply testify why Instagram is among the most used marketing channels for global businesses. Here’s how e-commerce businesses can leverage Instagram to reach their goals –
More power to buyers
Instagram is like a superhero of social networks that allow users to connect with their friends and brands of their interest and research products and make informed buying decisions – all at the same time. No other platform does that!
About 81% of users use the platform to research products and services of their interest. And one-third of users have used the platform to buy a product online.
You too can help your customers find your product and make a favorable buying decision. Though it will all depend on the way the (ad) content is pitched.
You can create content that aligns with the needs and challenges of your audience while offering them a solution. This will be more like empowering your audience with purchasing power.
Ad and content targeting
Another great benefit of Instagram is, it enables eCommerce businesses to target their campaigns to their specific audience. In fact, it has the most powerful and advanced social media targeting feature among other social networks.
Speaking of targeting, the platform also allows marketers to retarget their campaigns. Meaning, you can retarget the same audience based on specific criteria or definition. You can (re)target the audience of your competitors as well.
To be specific, you can retarget people or groups of people based on their views, engagement, browsing history, behavior, and interests. No other social media platform is as mightily as Instagram!
Analytics
The performance of Posts, Stories, IGTV, Reels, and ads on Instagram can be measured and analyzed. You can monitor if your Instagram marketing campaigns are delivering to your expectations. It gives you an opportunity to understand (the behavior of) your customers and create compelling ad campaigns that resonate with their needs and situations.
The main feature of these insights is to tell you whether your efforts and strategies are paying off. You can track the number of clicks on your posts, account visits, and info about visitors such as their location, gender, name, and age. You could also identify the types of posts that generate the highest traction. Based on that, you will be able to create high performing content for your reels, IGTV, stories, and timeline.
For example: if they like to watch how-to videos, there’s no point in posting images or infographics.
Similarly, if they like to read blogs, there is no point to create long, difficult-to-digest captions on Instagram. Rather, it would be wise to create stories with a link that diverts your visitors to your blog or landing page.
The intelligent AI-enabled analytics can predict the efficacy of your ads and help you deliver the most promising ad to your audience.
Instagram is a must-have marketing tool for businesses, as it helps you with the brand building; connecting with the audience; set up your shop and sell; deliver quality customer service, and pitch organic and paid ads in a more effective manner.
Instagram influencer marketing
You can multiply your reach, engagement, and sales with the help of Instagram influencer marketing. Technically, an influencer is a blogger or content creator who encourages his large, well-engaged fans and Instagram followers to try and buy your brand.
Instagram influencers can also be celebrities, movie stars, and sportspersons and athletes, promoting your brand among their hundreds of thousands of followers.
As per an estimate, the global Instagram influencer marketing spend crossed the US $8080 billion mark in 2020.
Over 93% of marketers are planning to use Instagram for their influencer marketing campaign this year. It is indeed a platform of choice for influencer marketing.
One of the best practices of influencer marketing is to avoid promoting your brands directly. Rather, ask the influencer to share his/her opinion about your brand without actually acting like they are your brand advocate.
How to use Instagram influencer marketing for your brand
To get started with influencer marketing, the first thing you will need is a strategy in place. You should have a separate strategy for influencer marketing for your brand on Instagram. Though, it should be flexible enough to fit into your overall Instagram marketing or brand strategy.
Work with your marketing, sales and customer service teams (and other departments, if needed) to develop an effective Instagram influencer marketing strategy. But before think of an Instagram influencer marketing strategy, you will need an Instagram profile for your brand.
Next, you will need to find an influencer. There are different types of influencers – nano influencer, micro influencer, macro influencer, and mega influencer. You should choose the one based on your strategy and expectations.
You and the influencer will need to work together for high-quality, result-driven sponsored posts and ad campaigns. And when you are trying to clinch the attention of their followers, don’t ever force the tone or language of your brand on them. Let them be them. Apart from that you need to work with good website development companies to improve user experience, design a mobile and user friendly e-commerce website that can convert visitors into customers. This could help you to get 1000 Instagram followers or more.
Here are some of the tried-and-true ways to make Instagram influencer marketing work for you –
Simple and clear language
While it is important that you do not force your brand’s language on the influencer, it is of equal significance that the language they speak is clear and easy-to-understand – for you and for your audience, as you will also be sharing the same post with your unique audience too.
Ensure that the influencer uses the same language and tone every time he/she works on your campaign.
Honest reviews
The reviews being shared by the influencer should be honest. Don’t use exaggeration while endorsing your brand. Fake positive reviews are good for nothing. They give you short-term favors only.
While honest reviews bring to you a loyal fan base, fake reviews can adversely impact the image of the influencer as well as yours.
Work with multiple influencers initially to find the best brand partner for your campaigns. Additionally, keep analyzing the performance of your campaigns to understand what’s working and what’s not, and always be ready to alter your strategy and efforts.
Before you launch your very first influencer marketing campaign, it is crucial that you learn and understand the rules and regulations issued by the government.
While working on the influencer marketing strategy for your e-commerce business, focus on involving the three essential elements – relevance, resonance, and righteousness. Your content should be relevant for your audience, should resonate with the needs of your customers, and should have the right information about your brand and offer. Good luck for your influencer marketing efforts!
About the Author
Birbahadur Singh Kathayat is an entrepreneur, internet marketer and co-founder of Lbswebsoft, a digital marketing company. He has 12 years in digital marketing experience and helps some of the biggest companies build their brands and keep their reputation while increasing sales in the process.
