Today, small business owners and large companies alike use social media platforms to drive business. Whether you’re a small coffee shop looking to attract coffee enthusiasts or a large corporation looking to market new product lines to the masses, social media platforms offer a great way to engage with customers quickly.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer some benefits over traditional marketing channels like television and print media. First, many business owners sell products directly through Facebook and Instagram, efficiently running their entire business on the platform. Second, many businesses use the service to prospect new customers and clients by offering exclusive promotions and discounts. Finally, these platforms provide a direct communication channel to customers who want to express their product satisfaction or lack thereof.
While not all businesses are successful in attracting new customers through social media platforms, many are: Nearly 80% of all Instagram accounts follow a business, which is indicative of the following you can build for your company. As a social media content manager for a business of any size, it can be difficult to determine the best marketing strategy to use. Here are several steps that you can take to grow your business quickly on Instagram.
1. Know your customers
One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make on Instagram is failing to define their customer base clearly. Content managers will release new posts without explicitly targeting a group of users on Instagram, which is counterproductive for driving new business. If you don’t know the general identity of your most common customers, you can’t produce content that’s effective in improving sales performance.
First, you have to create a persona for your most common customer. Determine the age demographic, geographic area, and preferences of the consumers that purchase your products. Find out what their habits are, what communities they’re a part of, and which other brands they like. By doing so, you can begin to produce content that’s highly targeted for the type of Instagram user that actually buys your products.
Of course, defining the best audience for your posts is not an easy thing to do on your own. However, there are some supplemental services you can use to help. Instagram analytics tools that allow you to analyze your post history to determine the best users to target. They provide statistics on your user engagement and help you to define your best followers. Many of these services are free and allow you to guide your marketing strategy with data.
2. Offer exclusive promotions
The best way to drive sales directly on Instagram is to offer platform-exclusive promotions and sale opportunities. For instance, if you’re a bookstore looking to clear out holiday inventory, make a post on Instagram with a promotional code that your followers can use at the store. Similarly, publish about sales that are happening online or build anticipation for a holiday clearance event.
You can also use Instagram stories to your advantage. Post about new items on a daily basis. Make videos about products that are coming out soon, and use the linking tool to drive traffic to your website or online store.
You can use stories to direct people to your account on Instagram or on other social media platforms if there’s a specific post you want to boost. By offering promotions, you can set expectations for your followers that will bring them back to your page with consistency.
3. Be social
Being active on Instagram and frequently interacting with followers and potential customers is an essential component of driving business. Building brand recognition by increasing exposure to your content can be immensely helpful in the long-term growth of your business. By determining what communities and influencers your most frequent customers follow, you can target which posts to like and comment on and which accounts to track.
As a social media content manager, it can be difficult to remain active on Instagram all the time. Some businesses hire some marketing interns or content managers to create a brand presence on the platform. However, you can use services like SocialDrift to automate your activity on Instagram. SocialDrift will use artificial intelligence to determine the audience that you should be connecting with on the platform.
It will automatically create a marketing strategy for you and execute it even when you’re unavailable. According to Hackernoon, this Instagram automation tool will like relevant posts and engage with users 24 hours a day. By using bots like SocialDrift, you can drive business through engagement with your customers quickly and affordable.
4. Post quality content consistently
At the end of the day, if you’re not posting quality content, Instagram users will stop following you even if they like your product. Invest in hiring a quality photographer, graphic designer, musician or content producer that can manage the content you put on social media. Supporters of your brand will appreciate the content you put out, and potential customers will be attracted to your page if they see quality posts.
Similarly, consistency is essential. While you shouldn’t bombard your followers with 3 posts every hour, you should post at least once a day to keep your followers interested and engaged. If you use a color scheme in your photos or an intro segment on your videos, followers will begin to recognize your content and look forward to it being posted. Building a brand image through consistent and quality content is a great way to drive business through Instagram.
