Are you ready to level up your Instagram game? Look no further. This comprehensive guide, featuring eight inspiring examples, will help you refine your Instagram marketing strategy and boost your brand’s visibility.
Today’s digital landscape demands an active and engaging social media presence, and Instagram’s visual-centric platform offers a unique opportunity for creative branding and customer engagement. From hosting Instagram giveaways to leveraging influencer power, these strategies have proven effective in driving growth and enhancing customer interaction.
Whether you are a small business owner, a budding influencer, or a marketing professional in a large corporation, Instagram is a powerful tool in your arsenal. The question is, are you maximizing its potential?
With over a billion monthly active users, the platform is an ideal space for businesses to connect with consumers, enhance brand awareness, and increase sales. But in an increasingly crowded market, a solid Instagram marketing strategy is key.
In this blog post, we will explore eight different Instagram strategies that have proven successful for various brands. We’ll delve into the hows and whys of each strategy, illustrating their effectiveness with real-life examples. By the end of this post, you’ll have a wealth of actionable insights to inform your own Instagram marketing strategy.
Ready to dive in? Let’s explore these inspiring examples and take your Instagram marketing strategy to new heights.
Host an Instagram Giveaway or Contest
An Instagram contest is a great way to get people interested in your brand and the products you sell. Hosting an Instagram Giveaway can be one of the best ways to make sure that your followers are engaged and excited about your account.
For example, if you’re hosting a giveaway for a popular product, it is likely that your followers will share their experiences with their friends and family on social media. As a result, you’ll see enhanced brand awareness and increased sales.
If you’re hosting a giveaway or contest on Instagram, here are some tips to help you create a successful promotion:
- Choose your prize wisely. The prize should be something that will appeal to your target audience.
- Make sure your prize is relevant to the theme of your contest. Also, the giveaway should be easy to ship, if applicable.
- Choose a reasonable deadline.
- Use hashtags when posting about the contest. This will increase the visibility of your post and allow others to discover it through search results.
Use Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to enhance your reach and generate extra profit without investing extra resources. What’s more, affiliate marketers often have existing relationships with potential customers that are likely to be interested in your products. So, this is a WIN-WIN-WIN strategy that offers benefits for you, your affiliate, and customers alike. When you have an affiliate program, you can get new customers without having to do any of the legwork yourself. It doesn’t come as a surprise then that it’s used by 80% of businesses.
The advantages of starting an affiliate program are:
- The cost of running an affiliate program is low and the setup is simple.
- You don’t need any technical knowledge or experience to set it up and run it.
- It’s easy to recruit affiliates who will promote your product on their websites and social media accounts.
- You don’t have to worry about customer service issues – all sales are handled at the merchant’s end of the transaction.
Affiliates can help with the hard work of promoting your products or services. They’ll put in the time and effort to spread the word about your brand, driving more traffic to your website. The most common affiliate program is Pay-per-Sale. It’s performance-based and pays affiliates after closing a deal. The affiliate commission can vary significantly across products and industries, ranging between 3% and 70% of the sale price.
Finding the right affiliates that can promote and sell your product could be challenging. To attract potential affiliates, create an announcement of your program. You can set it up as a paid ad and target the users that will see it. To be able to identify the one that is most effective for your product, you have to narrow your search by specifying your niche using Instagram Insights.
In the example below, the for-profit social enterprise Alison has shared their affiliate program announcement specifying their target audience and the steps to take to become part of their program.
To increase the efficiency of your effort, use appropriate hashtags. This will make your program more easily discovered by influencers looking for affiliate marketing opportunities.
Let an Employee or Influencer Takeover
Opting for an Instagram Stories takeover will help diversify your content while ensuring consistency of posting. You can take over your Instagram to an influencer, employee, or even a partnering business.
Influencer marketing, for example, is a powerful way to gain exposure and increase brand awareness. With $5.78 earned for every US dollar invested, it’s a great way to use Instagram to boost your profits. An influencer can promote your brand through their Instagram account and drive traffic back to your site or landing page. They can also do it from your account.
Also, this strategy works great with businesses swapping stories. Take a look at the example below, where the Il Salviatino hotel in Florence took over the Instagram Stories of @travelandleisure.
Another option is to turn your eyes to your team and have them create an Instagram story. The Shona Project has established the consistent practice of letting their employees take over their Instagram under the “Welcome to our team!” initiative.
To encourage more followers to view and interact with your guest-hosted story content, make sure to announce the turnover in advance.
Set Up a Marketing Campaign with a Partner
You may be surprised by the great potential of partnering with other brands. Reach out to a business offering products that would go perfectly with yours and discuss the opportunity. Also, pick up a date or an occasion that can be particularly relevant to your campaign.
An excellent example is provided by Ryobi Tools USA and Pelican Professional. They have come up with a Father’s Day giveaway, featuring a Lawn Mower Kit, a Bluetooth Speaker, and a Wheeled Elite Cooler as an award. Just within an hour after its launch, the campaign received more than 2k likes and more than 20 participants.
This strategy involves finding a potential partner with a similar customer profile so both brands can benefit from the partnership by gaining an additional quality following. Set prize eligibility conditions and ask users that enter the event to perform certain actions, such as like the post, follow both partners, tag other users, etc.
Do you want to further enhance the impact of your campaign? Launch it as a cross-platform campaign and run it simultaneously on other Meta social platforms like Facebook. Take a look at our comprehensive step-by-step guide to setting up a Facebook giveaway and get some useful tips and inspiring ideas.
Give and Ask for Instagram Shoutouts
An Instagram shoutout is when another user posts an image or video and mentions your username in the caption or comments section (starting with @). This allows their followers and viewers to click on the shoutout and go straight to your profile page without having to search for you first.
Shoutouts are a great way to gain exposure. In the following example, the creator @lesleyannemurphy mentions the Electrolit USA, encouraging users to visit its page.
This strategy is particularly beneficial for new businesses. You can ask for a shoutout in a DM (direct message) and offer to return the favor by giving a shoutout, too.
Repost Viral Content from Other Brands and from Your Audience
Reposting other brands’ content has become a great way for businesses to diversify their content and gain more exposure on Instagram.
Reposting other brands’ content can help you gain new followers and build relationships with companies that are relevant to your business.
Share content posted by different brands weekly or monthly. This will give you more variety in the types of content that get shared in your profile. Just make sure to select posts that are likely to grab your followers’ attention and remember to credit the original poster.
Use Paid Instagram Ads
Paid ads on Instagram can be a great way to get your content in front of new eyes and drive action from new people who don’t yet follow your brand on social media. You can use them to promote your campaigns and sales or to increase your website or landing page traffic.
Image Source: carsmagnetfr
Paid Instagram ads give you access to various targeting options such as location and interests, which can help you reach out to specific audience segments. You can choose to target people based on their age, gender, and location or even use hashtags related specifically to your industry with paid Instagram ads. So, it’s easy to focus your campaign on a specific type of customer and ensure cost-effectiveness.
The platform supports short and long-form ad content. Using Instagram In-Stream video ads (formerly IGTV Ads), you can engage long-form video fans. Such videos can be up to 60 seconds, with a 15-second preview.
Use Stories and Instagram Live to Post Teasers for New Products and/or Services
The platform provides an excellent way to spread the word about your new product launch, evoking excitement and enthusiasm among your audiences. You can go Live and let potential customers see and feel the product and answer their questions in real-time. You can use a photo, carousel, or video and add an enticing product description.
Man Arden offers a great example of drumming up excitement around their new product and boosting engagement by including a quiz and the opportunity to win a prize.
Note that you shouldn’t tell everything about your upcoming product at once but rather tease the audience by sharing some new detail every two-three days or every week, for example. You can even combine that with a discount code, coupon, or gift card for the first person to claim it. This will help you keep your prospects warm and create a fear of missing out.
Final Thoughts on Instagram Marketing Strategy
The possibilities for Instagram marketing are vast and varied, offering exciting opportunities for brands of all sizes. But remember, the most effective Instagram marketing strategy is one that resonates with your unique audience and aligns with your brand values. Therefore, it’s crucial to remain authentic, engage genuinely with your followers, and continuously experiment to find what works best for your brand.
In conclusion, Instagram, with its focus on visual storytelling, is a potent tool for businesses. It’s a platform where creativity, authenticity, and strategic planning collide, creating endless possibilities for brand growth and customer engagement. We hope the strategies and examples provided in this post inspire you to think outside the box, elevate your Instagram marketing game, and ultimately, achieve your business goals.
Remember, Instagram is not just about selling; it’s about building relationships. So, keep exploring, keep engaging, and keep sharing your brand’s unique story. Happy Instagramming!
