Promoting Your Brand Through Instagram

By: Adriana Capano

The Old versus the New

It has become vital for businesses to have an online presence and successfully promote their company within the digital world. The way users consume brands and products continues to drastically change.

In order to effectively promote their brands, businesses have adopted and adapted to the social media marketing approach. Social media marketing is considered a hybrid form of marketing because it not only allows companies to communicate with their potential customers, but also enables consumers to communicate with one another. This creates a sense of trust with current and potential buyers - something they lacked prior.



Related Article: Are You Using Social Media to its Full Potential?

Social Media: Instagram and Why it works

One of the largest social media platforms being used to promote brands online is Instagram. With photos and videos being two preferred forms of content people like sharing online, this makes Instagram an effective way of generating online traffic and bringing in new customers.

Businesses have started taking advantage of the visibility Instagram can provide for their brand, and as a way to establish a sense of loyalty and community. According to Hootsuite, Instagram has approximately 1 billion users worldwide, 500 million of which are daily users. It is an ideal platform to use when trying to garner a greater online following.

What gives Instagram the upper hand in comparison to other social media platforms?

Instagram offers more than just visibility for online content. Realistically, any social media platform has that capability. So what extra tools does Instagram provide to help boost your online presence? Here are 5 ways Instagram could help increase your brand exposure:

Related Article: 5 Ways to Reach Your Patients Through Social Media

1. Advanced Social Media Marketing Options

In 2010, Facebook, purchased Instagram. With analytics features and tools for Facebook and Instagram combined, Instagram is now able to tailor searches with even greater accuracy. You can advertise to users based on their interests, hobbies, age, and location.

Instagram also shares with Facebook the ability to adjust the advertising settings to target audiences who have never visited your site or have never heard of the brand. The introduction of a brand through a targeted ad could encourage online traffic to your page. According to Hootsuite, 60% of users search and discover new products through Instagram and more than half of them will look at a company’s website after seeing their Instagram post.

Another great feature is retargeting. Businesses are now able to promote ads to users who may have visited the site at one point. This helps with keeping your brand top of mind for potential customers.


2. Tracking Online Sales through Instagram Ads and Understanding Likes and Dislikes
With Instagram being managed by Facebook, both sites share the same capabilities when it comes to tracking online sales through their advertising systems. From tracking the number of clicks to the price of every campaign, you can tailor advertisements to be more cost-effective and help drive sales. The greater the online engagement, the greater the potential profit.

By tracking online activity, you can also get a greater sense of what a customer is interested in. Being able to see what accounts they follow or what pages they frequently visit is important to understand the likes and dislikes of your target audience.


3. CTA buttons

Social media marketing is about reaching a larger audience, encouraging engagement and understanding what your target audience wants and needs are. One of the ways which Instagram helps businesses achieve this is through a call to action button. A call to action button (CTA), can enable your company to generate the desired goal you wish to achieve whether that be clicking on a link, sharing your content to other users, visiting your website, buying one of your products or even contacting you directly.

Related Article: How to Craft an Effective CTA


4. Social Influencers

One of the ways that businesses can promote their brand is through social influencers. These are people who have established a larger online following by accumulating a fan base that is attracted to the content they post online, whether it be their lifestyle, clothing, or personal experiences. There is a diverse group of social influencers who could potentially help a company develop an Instagram influencer marketing plan to market and reach your target audience.

Social influencers will usually promote brands using Instagram stories. Studies have shown that the appeal towards Instagram stories is beneficial for both parties because by showing a behind the scenes of their lives, it helps influencers create a more genuine connection between their subscribers. This is a very time-effective method when promoting a brand because an Instagram story can be shared almost instantaneously and these stories will stay on the social influencer’s page for a full 24 hours. Most influencer fan bases will religiously check their page to see the online content they have shared, so this guarantees online traffic to your brand’s site.



Most online users do not want to sit through advertisements, especially ones that are long. Instagram has designed stories to last for about 15 seconds until it cuts in the next piece of content. The duration of the clip is long enough to catch a user’s attention without boring them and making them click out of the influencers profile.


5. Worldwide Access
With over 1 billion Instagram users, 50% of those users will visit business profiles regularly. Instagram can provide a virtual reach to consumers who could be located anywhere worldwide. It can drastically extend your brand’s reach, making it more visible to potential consumers. So if you do not have an Instagram account, do you believe you are reaching your full potential audience? Sign up!

Success Story - Adidas

If you weren’t already convinced by the statistics of how beneficial Instagram can be to establish your online presence, here is a brand that utilized Instagram’s capabilities to drive their online sales.

Adidas has garnered a huge online following on Instagram with a whopping 15 million followers. Their account offers a variety of engaging visual imagery such as photos and videos of products they’re selling. Rather than online engagement, Adidas focuses its posts towards encouraging sales. An interesting fact about their account is that a lot of their online content includes women. This was a smart business tactic because 68% of Instagram users are female. Adidas understands that their greater target demographic is a female audience so they focus their content to that demographic. Caring about the consumer can help increase sales and online traffic to your website. Take notes!

Recap

Social media platforms were introduced to the public initially for users to share their personal experiences with their friends and family. Today it can be utilized as a way to promote brands and products to potential customers worldwide. Take advantage of this cost-effective form of marketing and build your following today! What are you waiting for? To learn more about social media marketing, contact us so we can help formulate a social media strategy catered to your brand.