Instagram is more than just a tool to make you jealous about your friend’s vacation photos. Although it hurts to see the photos of your travels even while at work, the value of Instagram are far-reaching.
Consider the vast amounts of new products and services you’ve seen on Instagram via advertisements on social media that are paid for or friends tagging brands you’ve never heard of on their posts. Of course social media connects us, but the problem is getting those connections to your most valuable business assets, your customers.
In the same way we recognize that how to manage and maintain the management and operation of an Instagram account can be a challenge. It requires significant time and effort to not only get it to work, but boost sales.
Before you conclude that we don’t have the time or resources, think about this information from an upcoming PowerReviews health and beauty report. We found that 35% of U.S. shoppers between the popular age of 18 to 29 utilize Instagram to research or buy cosmetics and health products.
In certain industries, cutting Instagram out of your buyer’s journey may be a major obstacle to your ability to attract new customers. So to help you get on the right track here are some tips. Here are seven benefits of Instagram that you might not be aware of:
1. More Businesses & Consumers Are joining every day
With over 25 million businesses making use of Instagram to promote their products to their target audience, it’s easy to see why so many people utilize the application to shop. In the age of instant access to retail buyers want visual information that can help them make purchasing choices.
Not just do they need visuals, but consumers want this type of content from individuals like them.
In actual fact it was found that the PowerReviews Ecommerce Snapshot report found 72% of U.S. shoppers search for visuals of the product prior to making a purchase. However only three percent of consumers said they don’t look at visuals prior to buying.
The growing community of Instagram can help retailers and brands to use images to better describe and detail their products. As the number of users increases, shoppers understand that Instagram is an effective source of details about the product and images.
Your target viewers are already waiting to see your post show on their feeds. Not only do you customers anticipate it and expect it, but Instagram has improved their application to be more business-friendly over the last few years by introducing various links, landing pages, and the ability to tag products.
In simple terms, the company gives you less reasons for your business not to join. The customer experience is important to a variety of companies and retailers, which is the reason Instagram continues to promote these features. The benefit of Instagram increases with the number of users it has, so it’s probably time to join or significantly enhance your marketing strategies.
Visit the GOREAD website if you’re looking to add to your Instagram followers.
2. Easy to Target (and easily retarget) Your Audience
We all know that targeting the right people is crucial to the success of your advertising. But how can Instagram assist you in reaching the people you want to reach?
If you’re acquainted in any way using Facebook advertising, then you know the capabilities and options to reach out to your audience. Some of the features for targeting include:
Place: Whether you’re trying to reach out at a whole nation or one specific city, location isn’t any issue.
Demographics: Would you like to make your ads exclusively to 37-year-old women that speak Catalan? Instagram is able to pinpoint language and gender demographics.
Interests: Make your advertisements based on what your audience follows on Instagram and other companies which could be your direct competitors. It is also possible to base your interests on the advertisements they click on and apps they are using.
Behaviors: Determine an advertisement’s customers based on actions they perform on (and off) Instagram and Facebook. You can, for instance, easily retarget potential customers who have visited your website before but never purchased anything.
People who look like you are part of a certain persona that is eager to check out your content (and hopefully buy your products). Therefore, you can tailor your ads to those who are similar to the ones that follow you already or have made purchases on your site.
Instagram also offers automated targeting, giving you an advantage in developing an audience interested in your company. For more details take a look at our Instagram dimensions and dimensions for advertising guide!
Understanding Your Demographics
One of the biggest concerns that businesses face is their demographics, and the places they purchase their goods. For Instagram numerous brands and retailers have attributed it to a “young-person’s” game.
But Pew Research recently found 40% of U.S. adults between 30-49 use Instagram and that an overall 35% of people use the app.
It’s important to not only identify your primary demographics, but provide them the best channels to shop for your products. We already know that younger people are fond of Instagram however, targeting older groups that may be more relevant to your business is crucial.
3. Utilize All the Visual Marketing Features of Instagram
As we said, visual content can help shoppers make purchases with more in-depth details and pictures of the items they’d like to buy. But that doesn’t mean you have to add images and videos of your items each day and declare it a day.
Retailers are getting much smarter to how and where they advertise to shoppers on Instagram. Additionally, brands and retailers are creating more engaging content on the platform because they’re focusing on the correct Instagram dimensions and features that consumers really enjoy.
For example, Overstock relies on Instagram Story ads that seamlessly move users to featured products in a matter of a few seconds.
As part of the process of shifting their brand’s positioning, Overstock created these video advertisements and experienced an 18% increase in the return on investment and a decrease of 20% in cost per click. Engaging content is all about capturing shoppers’ attention prior to them scrolling or tapping to skip your message.
For the best results of your Instagram content, try these tips:
Utilize large fonts. Don’t make it difficult for viewers to understand the message on their mobile devices. But, too much text may result in your advertisement rejected.
It’s not necessary to try out your best Faulkner impersonation. The last thing you want to do is make your pitch more than two or three seconds into your ad. You must give the value proposition immediately.
Avoid over designing Your ad should be to blend in with content posted by users. Sometimes it pays to not make use of overly-designed content.
Set up a clear route to follow: With Instagram shopping, customers are able to test products before transferring to your website. Create seamless and easy paths to limit any second-guessing.
4. Interact with customers where they Spend Their Time
Over 800 million users use Instagram every month and over 500 million are active every day. The time that is spent on Instagram is pretty astonishing and for retailers and brands it is a great way to engage and connect with your followers.
This is evident since around 80percent of Instagram accounts are linked to the same business at least once. The social media platform that is visual is ideal for businesses who don’t wish to be bombarded with sales copy, announcements and other messaging. In contrast, Instagram operates as it is when you are following your followers. If you find content that you like, you are engaged.
The King Arthur Flour does a great job of highlighting content that could be easily confused with a friend or family account. And the most appealing aspect is that it’s not spooking users, but simply blending the content to be discovered.
Instagram discovered 60 percent of users have found a new product through the platform. It’s still the platform to discover new products and products education. Why wouldn’t you use Instagram for the things it’s made for?
5. Build Up User-Generated Content
Content created by users is an integral element of establishing trust in your brand and products. Why? Because people are more trusting of each other more than businesses.
The same Ecommerce Snapshot report found 54% of U.S. consumers between ages 18-29 believed that consumer-generated photos or videos are more useful than the retail or brand video content. And again, younger shoppers aren’t only that are looking for content generated by the user. Nearly half of people between the ages of 30 and 44 were in the same boat.
And on Instagram, it’s not only a mine of user-generated content and it’s easy to produce it from your audience. Brands such as Southwest frequently highlight content that users have created submitted from their loyal customers.
It’s easy to solicit information via hashtags in order to generate content and keep your customers involved. And the best part is you can gather and showcase Instagram user-generated content with the PowerReviews Visual and Social Suite to strengthen your product pages with genuine content from customers.
Give customers a way to look at your product placed in their hands or on customers who are similar to them. Through this, you decrease doubt and boost confidence in the decision-making process.
6. Reveals In-Depth Insights About Your Audience
We’re now aware of how important it is to understand and understand your target customers. In order to understand who they are as well as where they’re from and what they like and dislike, Instagram can help uncover the details.
Being involved in the community online helps to understand what the members are really about. By following the popular hashtags within your industry, you’ll see the topics people are discussing as well as their issues and concerns as well as their happy moments and daily victories.
Second, Instagram gives you vital native information about your community and followers.
Through these Insights will provide you with information about your followers like their gender, age, and location and the times when they’re the most active on social media.
Additionally, Instagram also gives you insights to see your ROI on the platform. If you’ve used the ads manager platform on Facebook and you’re aware of the value of the information that it provides.
For each campaign, it is possible to look at clicks, reach, sales, or conversions, plus the total conversion value. You can also break this into smaller chunks based on factors such as gender or geographical location.
7. Continuously updated marketing features in Ads and Stories
Instagram knows you want to sell more items and raise brand awareness. They know what you want to achieve in order to improve your marketing strategy. The platform gives you the tools needed to succeed.
However, Instagram also knows their users. They know how people purchase items on the internet. In fact 42% women who follow Instagram across the U.S. said they love shopping and would 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 accessible to search, click and buy. The social media platform has developed the shopping and marketing experience as an integral part of their platform, specifically designed to let brands advertise without impede the functionality of the platform.
While at the same time you can also run Instagram Story ads allows you to add links and product tag widows for more information in an instant. The regular updates targeted at companies make it one of the most popular places for retailers and brands to show off their goods.
Since launching this feature, over 90 million accounts are tapping the tags of products to reveal information each month. When ads are displayed in this feed, users can add links that include CTAs such as “Shop Now” in order to convince users to click away from their feed.
How Will You Use These Advantages of Instagram?
Now that you know the benefits of Instagram What will you do with the tips? Rememberthat Instagram is one of the most effective platforms to interact with your audience and communicate with them through images.
In addition, features tailored for business such as profiles for business as well as targeted ad campaigns amazing insights, and shopping buttons within stories and ads in feeds allow you to get maximum value from this platform while boosting the return on investment.