Whether you are a service-based business or product based business – it’s no secret that your business needs to be on Instagram! Instagram is a social platform, where you can reach thousands (if not more) of people around the world. The more people that come into contact with your brand and follow you, the greater the potential is for a larger audience to see your business.
Here are 5 Reasons Why Instagram is Essential For Your Online Marketing Strategy:
Instagram is FREE – take advantage of its free tools
When business owners are first starting out, it can be overwhelming to see all the start-up costs piling up. Instagram fits the bill! It’s free to sign up and offers many free tools, including the creation of a business profile with access to your profile analytics. With analytics, you can track your post reach, engagement and interactions. This is key, when measuring how your marketing strategy is performing.
Brand Awareness
Instagram allows you to share your brand in so many different ways. LIVE video, stories, pictures..even with photo captions. Tip: If you share more photos of yourself, what you are doing behind the scenes of your business, or perhaps a snippet of what a typical day looks like for you – your audience will connect with you on a much higher level. You are creating a relationship with your audience and a sense of loyalty.
Creates Effective Conversations with Your Audience
What is better than having customers know you exist?
If someone takes the time to leave a comment on one of your posts, take a second to reply. Engagement sparks conversation, creates a loyal customer and potentially an unpaid ambassador for your brand. Unlike email or text, your audience signs into Instagram for entertainment and perhaps they may be more open to genuine conversations.
Hashtags can increase your visibility
By using the proper hashtags, you can separate yourself from the competition and get the eyes YOU WANT on your posts. Hashtags are similar to “keywords” that summarize the content that is in your post. People can search for hashtags to look for products or services.
For Example: If you are a home stager in Toronto, you might use the hashtag #TorontoHomeStaging, this would pull together all the posts that used this hashtag and separate you from home stagers in other cities. Just be sure to use relevant hashtags that your target audience are actually searching for.
Visual Appeal = more engagement
Photos are the most-engaging content on the internet, and Instagram is completely visual! When your posts are visually appealing and supported with value, they are more likely to get comments, likes, re-posts and even lead to sales!
In a world full of “scrolling”, you want to make sure your brand stands out and that it doesn’t get lost in a sea of images. Having a consistent brand colour scheme helps create an appealing aesthetic on your profile. The more you post, the more your audience will be able to identify your brand.
If you’re looking for more ways to stand out ONLINE, check out our Instagram page: @makeithappenservices