Recently I viewed a webinar about Instagram Marketing in 2016, which featured the exact way to go about paid or unpaid advertising using Instagram. Here are some important points.
Instagram Marketing in 2016
Statistics:
- Instagram is up 200% in organic traffic from 2012
- Only 36% of marketers use instagram
- Audience is primarily 18-49 years of age
How it works:
- Post Regularly once per day, no less
- 5PM on Wednesdays is the highest point of engagement
- Encourage users to go to your profile, engage with with more posts
- Use Hashtags wisely, minimally, and strategically to target audiences effectively
- Interact with users related to your purpose and encourage cross-sharing based on the ties and loyalty built with the community
Tips:
- Host contests and giveaways using images to drive engagement on the post (example: A Gun Store promotes a giveaway for a gun safe if users respond to the photo with a picture of their gun collections, which would be going into the safe presumably, and the best collection wins the safe).
- Work with Influencers (celebrities, content authorities, renowned members of the instagram community) to inadvertently endorse your posts
- Track your growth using links via Bitly, which tracks most of your ad mediums’ statistics
Paid Ads:
- AdRoll is great for retargeting and performance based marketing, & they have a partnership with Instagram
- Advertiser’s name, marketing disclosure, Image links to your landing page, and a built-in Call-To-Action button–These things are the difference between ads and regular posts on instagram [Regular posts can work as an ad medium, but it requires more steps on audience engagement.]
- Remarket manually across multiple devices w/ targeting options almost identical to facebook
- EXAMPLE: UMSL improved marketing conversions 400% in relation to the same campaign ran simultaneously on facebook, and they gained 30% more followers than normal during the campaign
To keep your campaign optimized:
- MOBILE FRIENDLY LANDING PAGE IS MANDATORY, and a clear call-to-action is required
- Keep the creative process aligned with the goals of the product/service we are promoting, and refresh the creative process along the life of the campaign
- Use Hashtag #InstagramMarketing on other mediums than instagram
- Focus more on the people you’re trying to target, not the trends themselves