If you’ve read any of the statistics about the success of Instagram marketing, you’re likely looking for ways to get started. Instagram is an incredible marketing tool that can help you establish a brand identity, grow your customer base, and increase sales.

Before you jump in, it’s essential to create an effective Instagram marketing strategy, so you can experience the results everyone’s talking about.

Why Instagram Is Such an Important Platform for Your Business

With about two billion users, Instagram is a key social media platform for growing your brand and attracting new customers. If that’s not enough to get you to focus on the visual social media outlet, consider these statistics: 

• According to their own data, 60% of people learn about products or services on Instagram. Users are open to being marketed to and have come to expect it. By marketing on Instagram, you’re putting your business in front of people who are curious about new products.
• Again according to Instagram, 90% of Instagrammers follow a business. Many users don’t mind seeing posts from businesses they’re interested in. They may even like it and follow brands they adore.
• 44% of people use Instagram to shop, according to the platform’s research. Features like shoppable posts and the ability to save payment information within the app is driving more people to shop on Instagram. You can take advantage of this by highlighting product features and offering discounts to new subscribers.
• Instagram’s advertising reach grew by almost 21% last year, compared to Facebook’s less than 7%. This amount varies by demographic, so it’s essential to understand your target audience before you map out your content strategy.
• The Instagram app is the second most downloaded app in the world, making Instagram marketing a good investment of your time and resources wherever you may be.
• Instagram beats Tiktok, Twitter, and Snapchat for number of users. If your goal is to reach the most people possible, Instagram is the way to go.

Benefits of an Instagram-Centered Marketing Strategy

A successful Instagram marketing strategy takes high investments of time and resources. So why should you center your marketing around Instagram and not another platform? 

• Boosts Brand Awareness and Trust. Instagram gives you another place to interact with your target audience. If you take full advantage of it, you can establish your brand image and build trust in the eyes of your audience.
• Reaches the Right People. Instagram’s algorithm cross-references information about the content itself (captions, hashtags, and locations) with information about user engagement to show users more of what they’re interested in. If you utilize hashtags, location tags, reels, and stories correctly, Instagram’s algorithm will help get your business in front of the right people. 
• Grows Product Sales. Instagram offers shoppable posts, product launch features, and the ability for users to save their payment information within the app. All of these features help to streamline the purchasing process and help you grow sales as a result.
• Fosters Customer Relationships. The ability to like, comment on, and share posts makes building customer relationships and a community around your product easy. These relationships help to build trust in your business and your products. 
• Drives Higher Retention Rates. Instagram’s retention rate measures the percentage of viewers who watch your stories until the last segment. Retention rates are one of the most important metrics to consider when evaluating your reach. However, it takes lots of time and resources to foster good engagement with your content, so it’s important to be consistent and do frequent content audits to see what you can improve. 

How to Create an Effective Instagram Marketing Strategy

Success in Instagram marketing means higher engagement rates, a bigger customer following, and increased sales. The following are best practices to help you see results.

Analyze Current and Past Data

Instagram Insights offers metrics that can help you evaluate the performance of your content. These include recent highlights, accounts reached, accounts engaged, and total followers. After reviewing this data, adjust your strategy as needed and release more content. It’s important to note that Instagram Insights is only available to business accounts, and you can only access it from the mobile app.

Identify Shortfalls

Take a look at underperforming content and compare it to your top-performing posts. Make adjustments as needed. Consider whether it’s to the structure of the content, the time of day released, or the type of hashtags used that you may need to alter. 

If you’re starting from scratch, look at what your competitors are doing and think about what you’d like to do differently. How will your brand stand out?

Set Realistic Goals

While it can be tempting to set lofty goals for your business, it’s better to start with small, manageable goals and build out from there. These goals should include the number of posts a week, response time for inquiries, number of likes or shares, and more. When setting your goals, think: What do you want from Instagram, and how can you best accomplish it?

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Research Successful Competitors

As with any other marketing strategy, you must know what your competitors are doing. Look at what your competitors do well and determine how to do it better or position yourself differently. Highlight what makes your brand different from your competitors and effectively communicate that to your audience.

Plan Your Posts

You obviously don’t need to know everything you’re going to post just to get started. But it’s good to have an idea of some of the content types you plan to use. When determining your content, consider:

• Content Pillars. Content pillars help make up the foundation of your content strategy. The different types include behind-the-scenes content, user-generated content, product demos, culture-focused (showing the human side of your company), and customer stories. Your content pillars contribute to your brand image, so it’s important to consider what you want it to be when planning your content.
• Generate a Style Guide. A style guide helps ensure consistency in the look of your Instagram posts and gives users an idea of what to expect. It should include composition, color palette, fonts, filters, captions, and hashtags. 
• Content Formats. Instagram offers reels, IG Live, stories, and visual-based posts as options for sharing content. Each of these has its own benefits, so consider your campaign’s goals and how you can mix the formats to accomplish them.

Utilize a Content Calendar

Consistent posting is vital to a successful Instagram marketing campaign. Content calendars can help you plan what type of content to share and when. Then you can create content for a month or more at a time and schedule it with a social scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite.

Best Practices to Follow for Your Instagram Strategy

Remember some best practices to see the best results from your Instagram marketing strategy. These gold standard approaches include:

• Define Your Audience. The more you know about your audience, the better. Once you define your audience, be sure everything you post focuses on them.
• Solve Customer Problems or Address Needs. Users are more likely to interact with your content and follow you if they believe your profile solves their needs. Make sure to consider their needs and desires as you start producing content.
• Create a Clear Brand Image. This visual style contributes to brand awareness and associations. What do you want your customers to think of when they see your content? What are things you don’t want your brand associated with?
• Prioritize Engagement. Engaging with your audience and similar brands helps drive conversations about your products. It also helps to develop trust in your business.
• Post Actively. To get the most out of Instagram, you’ll probably want to post daily. Try out various times to determine when your audience is most responsive to your posts.
• Leverage the Professional Dashboard. This dashboard is Instagram’s central destination to track performance, utilize professional tools, and explore educational information. When used to its full potential, it can help you track your performance, grow your business, and stay informed.
• Optimize Your Profile. You can optimize your profile in various ways, including incorporating a keyword into your name or username, writing a clear and concise bio, and displaying a profile pic that best represents your brand. 

Use Proven Keywords for Hashtags. Hashtags are searchable keywords that help users connect with content they’re interested in. Using them in captions on your reels, stories, and posts can help increase your visibility and grow your audience.

The post The Ultimate Guide to An Effective Instagram Marketing Strategy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

So you want to advertise, but you’re not sure which of these two mega social media platforms is “best” for your business.

Well, to be honest, no matter how much your budget is… who your audience is… or what you’re offering… 

The answer is BOTH… and IT DEPENDS.

This article will explain why as well as give you the 4 biggest differences when creating your ad on both platforms.

Now in case you didn’t know, Facebook & Instagram are owned by the same parent company, which now goes by the name Meta. 

As a marketer, this is great because it makes advertising on both platforms super easy. Meaning, if you want to run both a Facebook ad and Instagram ad, you can get your ad on both platforms with just a few extra clicks (see below)… and possibly some minor tweaks to what your ad says and looks like (more on that in a moment).

Let’s get clear on why “BOTH” is the answer…

Whether you’re new to social media advertising or you’ve been advertising for a while, it’s in your budget’s best interest to TEST any new offer or messaging on both platforms.

When you test both, every time you launch a different campaign, you will see that the results you get per platform will vary and are affected by many different factors:

• Time and day you launch
• Who your ad gets shown to first (even if you’re targeting the same audience)
• Season
• Competition
• Ad Spend

That list could go on and on. And “the algorithm” is a tricky thing that can’t exactly be mastered because of it’s unknown and uncontrollable factors.

You see, if one platform was better than the other, everyone would be using that one!

And if you’ve heard that “your audience” may be on one over the other… you need to throw that thought out the window.

According to statista.com, “Facebook has roughly 2.93 billion monthly active users as of the first quarter of 2022” and “is the most used online social network worldwide”.

Instagram, on the other hand, has roughly 1 billion monthly active users.

BUT… no matter who your audience is, your targeting options are selected in Ads Manager the same EXACT way for both platforms… using the same EXACT data.

It could be true that MORE of your audience is active on one of the platforms, but they’re definitely on both and that should not be your big deciding factor on where to put your ads… especially if you have a smaller ad budget.

What a smart marketer will do is test their ad on both Facebook and Instagram, review the results, and if one platform strongly outperforms the other, then you can move all or more of your ad spend over to that one.

In other words, using that data you collect is why the answer is also IT DEPENDS. So…

STEP 1: Test BOTH platforms

STEP 2: DEPENDING on the results, decide on continuing with one or both

But here’s where things get a little more complicated.

Facebook ads and Instagram ads have several “placement” options! You saw about half in the gif above, but there’s really about 2 dozen of them. 

EXPERT TIP: If you’re just getting started, just focus on mobile Feeds & Stories. After you start seeing results you like, then you can test other ad placements.

Now there are definitely more than this, but the biggest Key Differences to be aware of when running a Facebook ad Vs Instagram are:

Video Length

Meta is always changing the rules on how long a video ad can be per platform and placement. The company does recommend running shorter videos, under 30 seconds. HOWEVER, take that recommendation with a grain of salt. Longer videos can still do very well IF they have a good HOOK (first few seconds that draws in your viewer), and is also helpful, entertaining, or both. That being said, I recommend going shorter when possible & keeping it under 2 min so you can run your video on both platforms without any issues.

Video & Image Ad Dimensions

Again, this isn’t just a difference per platform. It depends on your ad placement. You can easily look up all the recommended aspects per placement (also shown while you’re creating your ad). But if you don’t want to bother with different dimensions for different placements, the most universal and best optimized ratio for your content is going to be either a 1:1 or 4:5 ratio with a 

resolution of at least 1080 x 1080 pixels.

Text Length

The written portion of your ad has limits on Instagram – with the maximum being 2200 characters and the “recommended” max being only 125 characters. You may hear that having shorter ad copy a.k.a. shorter text in your ads is better. On Instagram, I’d agree shorter is usually the way to go, but again… that’s not always true or necessarily often true. Don’t be afraid to hit that maximum if you’re a killer copywriter. Based on millions of dollars of data that I’ve seen, short and long text can perform equally as good, especially on Facebook. The biggest factor in how your text performs is how compelling and well-structured the writing actually is.

EXPERT TIP: Add an extra space between sentences. Use bullet points to make it look less overwhelming. Make it sound conversational (like you’re talking to a friend).

Text Location

On the Facebook News Feed, the primary text is above the button and video/image. On Instagram’s News Feed it’s below the button and image/video. And on Instagram Stories, it’s below the video but above the button. So if you’re directing someone on where to click, then make sure you navigate them appropriately by writing out “Click the button above” or “Click the ‘Learn More’ button below the video” based on your ad placement.

It is important to note that Stories and Reels are quite different from News Feed ads and can be run without any post text at all. 

If we wanted to dive into all the differences between all ad placements, this article would be at least 5x as long… and would probably just confuse the heck out of you.

So for now, I hope this helped you understand the key differences, the importance of testing your ads on different placements, and not limiting yourself to just Facebook or just Instagram ads!

The post The 4 Biggest Differences Between Facebook & Instagram Ads appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

The social network landscape is constantly changing, and Instagram is currently the fastest growing social network. There are 1 billion active users on Instagram, so it’s no surprise that marketers should take part in this growing phenomenon.

While Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are still great ways to connect with customers and build relationships, Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most important social media channels for businesses.

Instagram is especially great for small businesses that want to increase their customer base without spending much money on advertising. It’s also an excellent platform for B2-B companies looking to reach potential customers in their industry.

With that in mind, we will go through eleven quick tips today that will help you improve your Instagram marketing. You will learn to write great captions, engage with your followers, and utilize other Instagram tools to grow your business.

Create An Instagram Business Account:

You probably already have a personal account, but you need to create a separate business account if you want to promote and sell products on the platform.

A business account gives you access to tools that make it easier to manage your profile, including analytics and insights that can help you grow your audience.

Additionally, you can use it to share photos with your customers and fans and engage with them more personally.

You can get one by following these steps:

• Go to www.instagram.com/business/. Click on “Create an Account” in the top right corner of the page. 
• Fill out all the required information on this page (e-mail address, username, and password).
•  Select whether your business will be verified or unverified (verified accounts are recommended).
• Choose whether you want to link your Facebook page with your new Instagram account (do this if you have one). 

Once all of these steps have been completed successfully, you’ll be able to log into your new business account.

Identify Your Ideal Audience:

The first step to any successful marketing campaign is knowing who you’re selling to. While Instagram’s user base is more prominent than ever before, it’s still a very niche platform. Determine who is most likely to buy from you and what they are looking for.

This can be done by looking at the demographics of your target customer base and identifying their interests and behaviors.

The above analytics shows everything age, gender, and most active times so businesses can engage with their audience more effectively.

And once you have identified your target audience, it’s time to tailor your content accordingly. This means creating content that appeals specifically to those users rather than posting the same thing across multiple platforms or accounts.

Tell A Compelling Story:

Storytelling is one of the most effective ways of connecting with people and building an emotional connection with them. It can be used in advertising campaigns, product descriptions, and even social media content.

The best brands on Instagram have a compelling story that speaks directly to their audience and makes them want to engage with the brand.

The key thing is knowing what kind of story will resonate with your target audience. Here is an example of @coastalcollectivemarketing agency:

Coastalcollectivemarketing is a digital marketing agency. This brand sells various services to its clients. To make their audience engage with their brand on a personal level, they are sharing a back story on this post.

The story should be easy to understand and delivered in an interesting way that appeals to different kinds of people, including those who aren’t familiar with your industry or products yet.

Write A Bio:

Writing an Instagram bio can feel like a daunting task when you think about how many people will read it, but your bio is essential to creating a successful profile on Instagram.

Not only your Instagram bio is the place to make a great first impression, but it is also a place to appeal directly to your target audience and showcase your brand voice.

When you have a clear idea of why you’re using Instagram, it becomes easier to write a bio that communicates who you are, what you do, and why people should follow you.

You have 150 characters in your bio. To make it outstanding, try adding the following:

1. Include a call-to-action (CTA) if possible
2. Write short copy that’s easy for followers to read
3. Be authentic and transparent with your brand voice
4. Include relevant keywords to your industry
5. Use hashtags

Here is an example of a Content Marketing Institute Instagram bio:

As you see, the Content Marketing Institute community made it clear in just a few words who they are, what they do, and what benefit you will get from paying a visit to the site.

Write Great Captions:

One of the best ways to get more comments on Instagram is to write a good caption. Captions can be up to 2,200 characters long and include emojis and 30 hashtags. That’s a lot of space to work with!

However, writing a good Instagram caption can be challenging and tricky. After all, your followers are bombarded with posts from friends and family every day, so how can you make them stop and pay attention to what you have to say?

Here is a trick you can use to write an outstanding caption:

The first thing to consider when writing a caption is your audience. Who is going to read this caption? The caption should be catered towards them and what they will find interesting.

Here is a great example of @Whole30recipes:

Take a look at the caption. It explains almost everything about the image you need to know. For example, it shares the ingredients and uses a convincing tone that makes you want to try this recipe out.

This is the amount of information that you should include in your caption section to engage your existing and new audiences.

Use Eye-Catching Images:

Some of the best Instagram accounts are those that use eye-catching images. This is especially true for accounts that post regularly and have a large following. Posts with images stand out from the crowd and attract more attention than those without them.

It’s because, before anything else, the audience will be looking at the image. And in that first split second, they decide whether they want to continue reading (scrolling) or move on.

To stop people from scrolling and get them to read your text and take action on it, you will need some attention-grabbing images that describe the business you are running.

Let’s take a look at an example:

Here is an excellent example of all that I mentioned above. Travel & Food blog uses outstanding images describing the purpose of their Instagram blog. You don’t need to read any captions to understand that.

Use Related Hashtags:

Another easy way to increase Instagram’s audience is by using related hashtags.

Hashtags are used on Instagram to search for content and are critical to growing your account. In fact, posts with hashtags receive 12.6% more engagement than those without them.

Hashtags are words or phrases that describe a post. And since Instagram is a visually-driven platform, it makes sense that visual content like photos and videos would be categorized by hashtags.

By using relevant hashtags on your posts, you can reach new people who don’t follow you on Instagram yet but are interested in seeing content like yours.

The example of @dunkindonutsperu makes it easier to comprehend:

Here are some effective ways to use hashtags for your business:

Related hashtags: Use hashtags that relate directly to your niche and expertise.

Specific hashtags: Be as clear as possible when using hashtags, especially if you’re in a crowded niche.

Branching out with geographical and lifestyle-based hashtags: Using these can help you reach new audiences by making your brand more relatable to people who aren’t already familiar with what you do.

Try looking at top Instagram blogs in your niche and see what kind of hashtags they use more often.

Geotag In Posts:

One of the things Instagram does, which is so great for travelers and photographers, is to allow you to Geotag your Instagram posts. Using geotags on Instagram is a great way to gain followers.

Because people are interested in what’s going on around them, they may search for posts in their area, and if you’re posting them, they will be able to see your content. This helps increase engagement with your content.

If you are on Instagram to help users find your business or brand, geotagging is also a great way!

Here is a great example by @GloriaJeans to look at:

Gloria Jeans is an international coffee shop. Here in this post, you see they are using location tags to help visitors know where they can benefit from this fantastic offer!

How to geotag your Instagram post?

Step 1: On Instagram, click on the filter icon below the caption field. When you do, you will notice an option to add your location. Tap “Add Location” and type in the name of the area you want to geotag with.

Step 2: When choosing a location, make sure it is associated with your content. For example, if you post a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge, then tag that specific landmark or place.

Step 3: Once you save your image and post it, your Instagram followers can now see exactly where you are when they view your photos in their feeds.

Keep Your Audience Engaged:

Followers are important, but engagement is even more valuable. If you want people to take action on your posts, whether buying something or commenting on your content, you need to make sure they’re paying attention and are engaged with what you’re posting.

The best way to do this is by creating relevant and timely content. For example, if your brand is launching a new product, share the news immediately so that your followers will be notified. 

@MINISO is doing a great job over here:

Get creative with your posts, and keep them fresh so that followers continue seeing value in what you have to say.

Another excellent way for brands to engage with their followers is through contests and giveaways.

Use Instagram Stories:

Instagram Stories are a way to share moments from your day in a slideshow format that disappears after 24 hours. They’re great for sharing short, quick moments of your life, such as what you’re doing or where you are.

You can use the Instagram story feature to enhance and add value to the content you wrote on Instagram. So, if you have recently published a post, it’s a good idea to share some key takeaways or behind-the-scenes footage of the piece being created as part of your Instagram story.

Here are three ways to create stories for your Instagram blog:

1. Share The Main Points Of Your Post
2. Create A Q&A Session
3. Test Content Ideas

Build Relationships With Other Users:

Building an Instagram following takes time and dedication, but just like any other social network, it can be a great place to connect with people in your niche and build relationships with other users.

Here are some ways you can use to connect with users:

Follow people in your industry: 

This is a good way to build relationships on Instagram. Go ahead and follow people who are doing the same thing as you. If they don’t follow you back, that’s okay; it’s nothing personal!

Once they receive your follow request, they’ll likely visit your page and see what your account is all about. If they like what they see, they’ll probably follow you back.

Comment on others’ posts:

Commenting on others’ posts is an easy way to get noticed and show them that you care about their content. 

Make sure your comment isn’t generic and will stand out amongst the rest. For example, “Love this” or “Awesome photo” won’t help much.

Like other people’s photos:

Liking photos might seem like a simple task, but it can make a big difference in building relationships on Instagram. By leaving likes, you give them a reason to notice you and visit your account.

Conclusion

If I have not disclosed the fact already, there are many avenues above that you can take advantage of to market your business on Instagram. 

Hopefully, you got some insights from the tips above to help you further your Instagram marketing tactics.

The post How To Build An Instagram Business Marketing Strategy appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Content Marketing doesn’t have to be hard, there are so many free resources out there to help you. Here are 6 tips to saving yourself time on content creation this week!

Blog Highlight: https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/content-marketing-tips-to-save-time/

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights.

https://www.digitalmarketer.com/

The post 6 Content Marketing Tips That Will Save You Time [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

We’re excited to announce the new hiring of a new President and General Manager for DigitalMarketer, Mark de Grasse. Here founder Ryan Deiss introduces Mark and explains what the position means for the organization.

Mark de Grasse is a business strategist focused on integrated, genuine approaches to marketing and management. Mark has been working in content development since the mid-2000’s, creating tens of thousands of articles, graphics, videos, and podcasts over the years. 

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights. https://www.digitalmarketer.com/

The post DigitalMarketer Welcomes New President [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

Don’t let your content dreams be dreams. You can tap into traffic and conversions, get qualified leads, and grow your business. All you need is the right set of tools to help you make your content look top-notch and the analytics to keep it answering your customer’s questions.

Blog Highlight: https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/top-9-content-marketing-tools-of-2021/

WHAT IS DIGITALMARKETER:

DigitalMarketer is the premier online community for digital marketing professionals. It’s a place where you can learn how to market like a pro, connect with industry experts, and get the strategies and tools you need to grow and scale your business to new heights. https://www.digitalmarketer.com/

Related DigitalMarketer Course: https://www.digitalmarketer.com/lp/content-marketing-mastery/

The post The Top 4 Content Marketing Tools [VIDEO] appeared first on DigitalMarketer.