We’re no strangers to Instagram’s beginnings as a place in the internet where we go to for our daily dose of adorable dog videos, mouth-watering food posts, stalking our celebrity crushes, and of course, for posting our #selfies. 

Up until today, we still use Instagram for these things—but who knew that since rising to popularity more than a decade ago, this social platform will evolve exponentially into one of the top marketing channels we’ll ever have at present time? As of October 2020, a whopping 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business, and with over a billion monthly active users worldwide, it now ranks next to Facebook which has 2.8 billion active users.

This says a lot about Instagram’s promising potential in the digital marketing space, especially since a significant number of its audiences are within the 13- to 34-year-old age bracket. Apart from outstanding audience reach, prospects are also provided with a more visual representation of what you offer—it helps that humans are naturally visual beings—which produces more impact and increases the likelihood of them engaging with your brand.

In this post, we’ll delve deeper into what Instagram marketing is all about, and how you can use it to maximize your brand’s fullest potential.

What is Instagram Marketing?

Instagram marketing is a form of social media marketing that utilizes the photo-sharing platform for raising brand awareness and promoting products and services. For us to understand better how this works, let’s first identify the different ways through which you can market your business on Instagram:

• Posts on your profile, whether photo or video
• Instagram Stories
• Instagram Live
• IGTV
• Paid advertising
• Influencer tie-ups
• Comments

Over the years, Instagram has introduced more features that are powerful enough to reach more audiences and gather more leads for you at a quicker rate. Promoting through Instagram Stories is one of the most strategic ways to take advantage of FOMO because of its limited viewing time—posting IG-story-exclusive deals is a surefire way of having prospects flock to your page and increasing your follower count. Instagram Live is a feature that gives brands the opportunity to interact with their followers in real time; Instagram launched Instagram TV or IGTV in mid-2018 to enable users to post longer videos that are up to a full hour in length.

Setting Up Your Instagram Business Profile

An Instagram business profile has certain features that a personal account doesn’t such as:

• A call to action button
• Creation of shoppable posts
• Instagram analytics
• Instagram ads
• More inbox options

Creating one is a must if your primary goal is to use Instagram for commercial purposes. Here’s how you can set up one of you haven’t yet:

1. Use a business email in signing up for a business profile. Avoid linking it to your personal accounts as much as possible.
2. Key in your account details. Pick a username that’s unique to your brand; if your preferred username is already taken, your brand name should be at the beginning of your handle and must be easily identifiable. Put up a profile picture that bears your logo or any distinguishing feature of your brand.
3. Compose the copy you would put in the bio section of your profile. You may put in your company tagline, a compelling catchphrase, your official hashtags, or anything that will creatively describe your brand.
4. Select your business category. This gives audiences a general idea of what your business is about.
5. Include a clickable link in your bio. Instagram allows only 1 URL to be posted, so you may choose to put in your website link. You may also choose to change the link posted there from time to time, depending on what promotional activities or deals you have at the moment. If you want to put up multiple links for your followers, we suggest using link management platforms like Bitly and Linktree to gather them in one place for easier navigation.
6. Set up your call-to-action buttons and don’t forget to put your contact information. These elements are must-haves in your profile as it is through these that your audiences will be able to reach out to you. 

Understanding The Instagram Algorithm

Now that you have your business profile set up, the natural thing to do next is post away, right? Not just yet! There’s one more thing to make sense of before taking the social media marketing plunge—the Instagram algorithm.

Initially, Instagram adapted a chronological approach in terms of displaying posts on people’s feeds—something that we’re all quite familiar with. However, in 2016, Instagram decided to switch gears and make everything algorithm-based instead, much to the dismay of most users. But this big change was inevitable because as Instagram rapidly became popular, the team behind it had to figure out a more efficient way to better manage the posts that users generate every single day.

Instagram saw the new algorithm as a better method of sorting people’s feeds, and displayed more of the content that the app thinks would appeal most to them. But what exactly does this mean for businesses who use Instagram to market their brands? It could be a bit challenging for businesses to say the least, but there are various factors that influence the algorithm such as:

• Post engagements – posts with the highest number of likes, comments, views, etc. are more likely to appear on people’s feeds because the algorithm recognizes them as “quality content”
• Hashtags – the speed in which a post receives engagement is also a big contributing factor. If your post appears on the “Top Posts” section once you click a hashtag, that means your post is receiving high traction from different users at the same time or within a time period (30 minutes ago, 1 hour ago, etc.). This highlights the importance of post timing—remember, correct timing = getting more engagement quicker = algorithm sees your post as shareable content.  
• The amount of time people spend in viewing your posts – a way to get around this is by creating catchy and compelling captions in your posts, so that people will actually take more time consuming your post’s contents.
• The specific accounts you frequently engage with – the Instagram algorithm catches it when you are paying extra attention to particular accounts. In this case, follower count doesn’t even matter that much – as long as you constantly engage with those accounts, their posts will be on top of your feed. 
• Type of content posted – you’re more likely to see content that are similar to what you’ve previously engaged with. Again, relevance and interest play a key role for the algorithm to identify which posts to show on your feed or on the Explore page.

Crafting An Instagram Business Strategy

Launching a business on Instagram will not be successful if you don’t create a robust marketing strategy to help you achieve your goals. Here are some tips:

Determine who your target audience is. 

In building a community on Instagram, you must first be able to determine who to target—which demographic, what their hobbies and interests are, what kind of content they’re looking for, and even which hashtags relevant to your brand they are using. 

Research on your competitors.

Take a look at your competitors’ followers list to see who might be interested in your brand as well. Formulate a strategy that would bring about organic interactions as much as possible because this would also mean more consistent visibility for your business, as opposed to one-time post engagements.

Also research which hashtags your competitors are using in their posts. This is not to say that you should incorporate these exact same hashtags to your content, rather, study them to gain insights on which generic hashtags they’re using have the highest engagement, then use them along with the ones unique to your brand every time you post something.

Optimize your business profile.

Within literal seconds, your feed is a big deciding factor whether a prospect will engage with your brand or not. Make the most out of it by having a well-curated feed that establishes your branding, displays your aesthetic through your content, and by sharing posts that your target audience will find relatable on a more personal level. 

A helpful tip would be to use social media scheduling tools so that you can plan your content in advance. This is so you have more control over how your feed would turn out prior to posting.

Assess everything.

This includes taking a closer look at everything including all elements of your business profile, quality of content, user engagement, and revenue generated. Evaluating every aspect of your Instagram business strategy will help you identify what your strong and weak points are, if your advertising strategy is working, or if using the platform is still in line with your marketing objectives. Keep in mind that taking a step back is essential before you can go forward for miles!

Instagram Marketing – The New Lifeline for Businesses

The statistical data speak for itself—having a good presence on Instagram will do wonders for your business by building your consumer base, highlighting the best features of your products, and building brand loyalty among your target audience. It has since changed the landscape of eCommerce as it gets incorporated into social media, and will surely do so for years to come as the platform continues to evolve.

Having excellent visual content is vital in successfully executing any marketing campaign. Even if you have a potentially strong strategy laid out, without visual elements, reaching out to your audiences and selling your product would almost be impossible.

But how exactly does visual marketing work, and what are the explanations behind its proven effectiveness in capturing audience attention 100% of the time? Here’s everything you need to know about what visual marketing is and why it’s a powerful must-have in your marketing arsenal.

What is Visual Content Marketing?

We humans have biology to thank for our natural ability to be visual learners—a 2015 study conducted by Marius Manic for the Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov states that more than 90% of the information we process comes mainly from visual receptors.

The research also found out that “most people remember 80% of what they see and only 20% of what they read” (Manic, 2015). With attention spans getting shorter by the minute, it is crucial for businesses to adapt a marketing strategy that focuses on maintaining user engagement by distributing visually appealing, mobile-friendly content.

Visual Marketing is defined as the integration of visual techniques and media such as photos, videos, and graphics into a campaign to raise awareness about a product or service. Visual materials are used to convey a message as a way to elicit response from and connect with audiences. When used correctly, visual content will help establish a unique brand identity to set you apart from competitors, as well as encourage better information processing and recall among consumers.

Types of Visual Content

The visual content you choose to employ in your campaign should be consistent with your branding and persona. Here are its most common types:

• Images

Have you recently created a long, wordy post and noticed that it did not get a lot of traction? Its glaring lack of visual elements is most likely the problem—text-heavy content doesn’t immediately capture the interest of audiences and is usually ignored. 

One thing you can do to resolve this is by breaking up blocks of information and presenting them as compelling images, or by adding relevant and eye-catching illustrations. Keep in mind that no detail is too small when creating or composing an image—pay extra attention to the typeface, colors, contrast, lines, patterns, and all other elements that complete the formula.

There are a lot of tools and suites you can download or purchase for enhancing the quality of your photos. You may opt to use your own images for a more personalized messaging, or obtain the necessary licenses for the ones you’ll source from other creators online.

• Videos

Videos are one of the most widely consumed forms of visual content today—and for good reason. Businesses using videos as product marketing tools have higher chances of increasing their follower count, more so if they create an account or channel solely dedicated to promotional content. Interestingly, videos also have a great deal of purpose in email marketing, as subject lines having the word “video” on them increases open rates by 19%, while drastically lowering unsubscribe rates.

Customers are more inclined to engage with interactive tutorials or explainer videos which contain all the information about a product or service, as opposed to only reading about them and not having a moving representation of the details.

People often tend to be hooked to video content that tell a story and creatively get a point across—videos also have a huge impact on purchase decisions, as they are an incredibly effective medium in targeting human emotions. 

• Memes

Let’s admit it—memes make our everyday lives much more bearable and fun. But apart from this purpose, these humor-captioned images can go beyond entertainment—posting memes related to your business or industry enables you to show your audiences a different side of your branding. 

Timing is very important in choosing which memes to use, and so you must always be up-to-date with the latest social media trends and see what memes are on your followers’ radar at the moment. This ensures that whatever you post will garner more engagement and reactions; with thousands of memes out there, you want to make sure that yours gets noticed, so you’ll need to incorporate the relevant hashtags to your post.

Memes are a fun way of breaking the ice and making your followers laugh, but if done strategically, these could also help your audiences feel a sense of belongingness with your brand.

• Infographics

An infographic is a tool that simplifies complex information for general audiences through the use of graphics combined with descriptions that allow for easier comprehension and recall. These are especially helpful when presenting qualitative concepts, statistics, and other numerical data—infographics are typically centered around bold, colorful designs that make them a visual treat while still being highly informative.

But it goes without saying that the designs should be complementary to your data—a perfect balance of visuals while maintaining the accuracy of your information is key.

Infographics have one of the highest shareability rates on social media platforms, and this says a lot about this medium’s big potential in terms of marketing your brand. If your infographic is promoted well, it could end up being shared on influencer pages and blogging sites with high post reaches, thus boosting your brand’s visibility and generating new leads for you. 

Building An Effective Visual Marketing Strategy

Here’s how you can create a visually-strong marketing campaign.

1) Identify the differentiated value of your business.

The benefit that your customers can get only from your products or services is the value proposition of your business. You need to be able to identify what this is first before anything else follows—this is one of the things that will drive your entire campaign. This would also reflect on the creation and execution of your visual content, as you have to consider how you’re going to address your target market’s pain points and provide them with a positive customer experience.

2) Determine your brand’s strong and weak points.

Take a step back and determine your brand’s strengths and weaknesses, particularly in visual content generation. Do an analysis and check what visual media have been effective in marketing your brand so far and which ones you have to stop using. This way, you can see what’s truly working for your business, and eliminate what could potentially be a waste of resources.

3) Select the right forms of visual media for your business.

Now this may already be a given, but we can’t stress enough how important choosing the ideal visual media for your business is. The reality is that not all of them will be a good fit for your brand—at the end of the day, it all comes down to who your target market is. Once you’ve identified your chosen demographic, you could already plan your next marketing move accordingly. Pick what visuals would resonate most with your audiences and would be instrumental in widening your consumer base. Measure them for key performance indicators and see if all visual elements would deliver your desired results.

Visual Marketing — More Than Meets the Eye

Visuals are important in any marketing strategy as these have the ability to influence consumers’ decisions, evoke feelings from people, and humanize a brand. Visual content marketing is something that all businesses should focus on in order to thrive and be relevant in an ever-changing world.