Instagram isn’t just a means to get jealous of your pal’s vacation pictures. Even though it can be a pain to view these photos even while at work, the value of Instagram are numerous.
Just think about the massive quantities of brand new products and services you’ve likely discovered on Instagram by way of paid social media ads or even friends tagging brands that you’ve not heard of in their posts. Of course social media connects us, but what’s difficult is making those connections available to your business’s most important assets, your customers.
However we are aware that the process of creating, managing and maintaining the management and operation of an Instagram account is difficult. It takes significant time and attention to make it work, but boost sales.
Before you say-we just don’t have the resources-consider this information from an upcoming PowerReviews beauty and health report. We found 35% of U.S. shoppers between the sought-after age of 18-29, utilize Instagram to research or buy beauty and health products.
For certain industries, leaving Instagram off of the buyer’s journey may be a major obstacle to your ability to attract new customers. In order to get you on the right track We’ve got some tips. Here are seven benefits of Instagram that you might not have realized:
1. More Consumers and Businesses Are joining every day
With more than 25 million companies currently using Instagram to promote their products to their intended audience it’s easy to understand why people are using the app to shop. In today’s instant-access retail world buyers want visual information to assist them in their buying decision.
Not just do they need visuals, but also consumers want this type of content from individuals like them.
In reality, in the PowerReviews Ecommerce Snapshot report found 72% of U.S. shoppers search for visuals of the product before purchasing. On the flip side, a menial third of buyers stated they have never looked for images before buying.
The growing network of Instagram helps retailers and brands to use images to better describe and detail their products. As the number of users increases, shoppers understand that Instagram can be an excellent source of details on products and pictures.
That means your target viewers are already waiting to see your posts show on their feeds. Not only do you customers want it they expect it, but Instagram has made their app more business-friendly in the past few years with various linking, landing pages creation and the ability to tag products.
Simply put, Instagram offers fewer reasons to your business to join. The customer experience is important to a variety of brands and retailers, which is the reason Instagram continues to push these features. The benefit of Instagram grows with the growing number of its users, so it just might be the right time to join or increase your marketing strategy.
2. It is easy to target (and easily retarget) Your Audience
We understand that targeting the right audience is key in the success of your advertisements. But how can Instagram aid you in reaching your target audience?
If you’re comfortable to some degree with Facebook advertising, then you know the capabilities and options to reach your target audience. Some of the targeting features include:
Location: Whether you’re looking to target to the entire country or just one city, location isn’t a problem.
Demographics: Are you looking to send your ads only to 37-year-old ladies who are fluent in Catalan? Instagram will pinpoint the language as well as gender demographics.
Interests: Build your ads on what your followers follow on Instagram, including other businesses that could be your direct competition. It is also possible to base your interests on the ads they click as well as apps they utilize.
Behaviors: Determine an advertisement’s viewers based on the actions they engage in on (and off) Instagram and Facebook. For instance, you can easily be able to retarget customers who have visited your site in the past , but have not yet purchased anything.
Lookalike audiences: Your followers belong to a particular persona who is eager to read your posts (and possibly purchase your products). This means that you can target ads to people that are like those that already follow you or have bought from your website.
Instagram can also provide automated targeting, giving you an advantage in developing an audience that might be interested in your company. To find out more look into our Instagram dimensions and advertising dimensions guide!
Understanding Your Demographics
One of the biggest questions that businesses ask is about their core demographics and where they shop. For Instagram several brands and retailers attribute it to a young-person’s game.
However, Pew Research recently found 40% of U.S. adults between 30-49 use Instagram and that an overall 35% of people utilize the app.
It’s important to not only identify your primary demographics but also give them the appropriate channels to shop for your products. We already know that younger generations like Instagram however, targeting older age groups that could be more relevant to your business is crucial.
3. Utilize All the Visual Marketing Features on Instagram
As we said, visual content can help shoppers buy with more details and images of what they want to buy. However, that doesn’t mean you need to upload images and videos of your items each day and call it a day.
Retailers are becoming much more savvy about how and where they promote their products to customers on Instagram. Furthermore, retailers and brands are creating more engaging content for Instagram because they’re focusing on the correct Instagram sizes and features that consumers really enjoy.
For example, Overstock relies on Instagram Story ads to effortlessly move customers to the featured items in a matter of a few seconds.
As part of the process of redesigning their brand, Overstock created these video ads . They saw an increase of 18% in return on ad spend and a decrease of 20% in the cost per click. Creating engaging content is about making sure that you grab the attention of your customers prior to them scrolling or tapping over your advertisement.
To get the most out of your Instagram posts, consider these suggestions:
Make sure you don’t hinder viewers to understand your message on their mobile devices. However, using too much text could result in having your ad rejected.
Don’t waste time: There’s no need to do a Faulkner imitation. The one thing you don’t want to do is to make your pitch 2 or 3 seconds into the advertisement. You must give the value prop right away.
Avoid over-designing Your advert should be to blend with user content. Sometimes it pays to use content that is not designed well.
Make sure you have a clear pathway for users to follow. Instagram shopping, shoppers can review products before moving to your site. Create smooth and simple paths to stop any second-guessing.
Visit the GOREAD website if you’re looking to add to your Instagram followers.
4. Connect with Customers Wherever They Spend Their Time
More than 800 million people use Instagram each month, and more than 500 million log on every day. The amount of time spent on Instagram is quite impressive and for retailers and brands this is an opportunity to interact and build relationships with your customers.
This is telling because approximately the majority of Instagram accounts are linked to at least one business. The social media platform that is visual is ideal for companies that don’t want to receive a constant stream of announcements, sales messages, and other types of messages. Instead, Instagram operates as it does when you follow your friends. If you come across visual content that you like, you are engaged.
King Arthur Flour does a great job at highlighting visual content which could easily be confused with a friend or family account. And the most appealing aspect is that it’s not fooling users, it’s simply blending the content that is to be found.
Instagram discovered it was 60% its users have found new products through the platform. It’s the platform for discovery as well as new products education. Why not utilize Instagram for what it’s intended to be used for?
5. Develop User-Generated Content
User-generated content is an important element of establishing trust in your products and brand. Why? Because people are more trusting of each other more than businesses.
It is also true that the Ecommerce Snapshot report found 54 percent of U.S. consumers between ages 18-29 believed that consumer-generated photos as well as videos had more value than retail or brand visual content. Also, younger consumers aren’t only searching for content created by users. About half of those between the ages 30-44 believed the same.
On Instagram, it’s not only a gold mine of content created by users, but it’s easy to make it from your fans. Brands such as Southwest frequently highlight content that users have created submitted from their loyal customers.
It’s simple to ask for information via hashtags in order to build up content and keep your customers involved. And the best part is you can collect and show Instagram user-generated content through the PowerReviews Visual and Social Suite to enhance your pages with genuine content from customers.
Offer customers the opportunity to look at your product on the shelves of or on people who are like them. This will help decrease doubt and boost confidence in their path to purchase.
6. Reveals In-Depth Insights About Your Audience
We’ve learned how important it is to comprehend and know your audience. And to know who they are who they are, where they’re located and what they like and dislike, Instagram can help uncover the details.
In the first place, getting involved in the online community can help you understand what people are about. By following the popular hashtags within your field, you’ll discover what people are talking about as well as their issues and concerns in addition to their happy moments and daily triumphs.
The second reason is that Instagram is a great native insight into your audience and followers.
With these insights, you’ll find information about your followers such as their gender, their age, where they reside and the time of day they’re most active online.
Additionally, Instagram also gives you insight into your ROI using the platform. If you’ve ever tried the ads manager on Facebook you’ll be aware of the value of the data it offers.
For every campaign, you’ll be able to examine the reach, clicks, sales, or conversions and the total value of conversion. You can also break it into smaller chunks based on factors such as gender or geographic location.
7. Always updated Marketing Features in Stories and Ads
Instagram knows that you’re trying to increase sales of your products and increase brand awareness. They know what you want to achieve in order to enhance your marketing strategy, and the platform gives you the tools to succeed.
In addition, Instagram also knows their users. They understand how people spend money online. In fact 42% women who follow Instagram in the U.S. said they love to shop and consider it something they enjoy doing as a pastime.
It’s the reason why major retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods does stellar work on Instagram to make it easy to browse, click and purchase. The social platform created shopping and marketing experiences as an integral component of their platform specifically to allow brands to advertise without obstructing the process of the platform.
At the same time, running Instagram Story ads allows you to include links and tag widows to learn more in an instant. The constant updates tailored toward business makes it one of the most popular places for retailers and brands to showcase their products.
Since the feature was launched, more than 90 million people have been tapping on product tags to reveal details every month. With ads that appear in your feeds, it is possible to add URLs that have CTAs like “Shop Now” to encourage users to click away from their feed.
What are the best ways to make use of these Pros and Cons of Instagram?
If you’ve learned some of the advantages of Instagram, what will you do with these tips? Rememberthat Instagram is one of the most engaging platforms to interact with your audience and build relationships through visual content.
In addition, features tailored for business like profiles for businesses, targeted ad campaigns, extremely detailed information and shopping buttons within stories as well as in-feed ads can help you get maximum value from this platform , while increasing the return on investment.
