How to Amplify Your Brand on Instagram - Free Ebooks

How to Amplify Your Brand on Instagram

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Table of Contents PAGE 3 PAGE 4 PAGE 6 PAGE 6 PAGE 6 PAGE 6 PAGE 7 PAGE 7 PAGE 8 PAGE 8 PAGE 10 PAGE 11 PAGE 11 PAGE 13 PAGE 13 PAGE 14 PAGE 18 PAGE 18 PAGE 18 PAGE 18 PAGE 19 PAGE 21 PAGE 21 PAGE 22 PAGE 22

Intro: Instagram Stats to Consider Before You Start: Planning of Your Instagram Strategy Part 1. Setting up your account Create your business username Add a profile picture Don’t underestimate your short bio Link your account to the other social networks, Facebook in particular Use a business profile Part 2. Posting on Instagram Dealing with visuals Videos Post description #hashtags Part 3. Working on Your Image as a Company How often should you post? User generated content Part 4. Instagram ads Photo ad with a call-to-action button Carousel ad Video ad Part 5. Analytics Conclusion Going to Start a Website? Use a Readymade Design From TemplateMonster Sources Images

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Intro: Instagram Stats to Consider

Image source: ClickZ They say a picture is worth a thousand words... In fact, a picture is worth a thousand dollars if we speak about today’s Instagram marketing. The photo-sharing app has evolved through the years to turn into some of the most powerful tools for businesses of all kinds. Have a look at this compilation of Instagram stats from Search Engine Watch and Statista, and you will see that Instagram has a huge potential for your business. Namely, here are a couple of reasons to make Instagram a part of your business strategy: • An average Instagram user spends 21 minutes a day with the platform, • In total, Instagram sees over 3.5 billion likes on a daily basis, • The platform has a non-US audience of about 300 million people, • The platform is expected to exceed 110 million monthly visitors by 2019. While other social media platforms mostly rely on written content, Instagram grants us with the priceless opportunity of conveying the message through visuals. Visual content’s strongest advantage is the ability to overcome all kinds of barriers – language, cross-culture and socio-psychological ones. This results in high engagement rate: Instagram can boast 4% engagement compared to less than 0.1% on Facebook and Twitter. This means Instagram users are far more likely to comment, like, or share your content. As a matter of fact, Instagram users want to connect with brands. Recent surveys by Iconosquare show that 70% of users have looked up a brand on Instagram, and 62% of users follow brands. People follow brands on Instagram for three main reasons: • Because they like the brand, • They search for special offers, promotions and giveaways, • They want to keep up with the latest news about the brand. As you can see, Instagram is an amazing platform that offers you a chance to get a deeper connection with your audience and literally create a positive image of your business. A multi-million international audience truly interested in your brand is waiting for you! The only thing you have to do is create and follow a right strategy – read on, and you will learn how you can do this.

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Before You Start: Planning of Your Instagram Strategy Like any other tool for social media marketing, Instagram requires an elaborate strategy. First things first, estimate your goals: what do you expect from your brand’s presence on Instagram? According to this Instagram review, the three key needs of businesses on the platform are to: • stand out, • get insights, • get more customers. The key to your success on Instagram is approaching your target audience in the right manner and with the right message. Still, you first step is actually targeting your prospects and defining your audience. Who are these people? What do they like? What inspires them? These are the questions that you need to start with. A clear understanding of your clients’ needs takes a lion’s share of your success. Consider using some professional tools like Demographics Pro for thorough research. You can also use this template from Hubspot to define your buyer personas. Defining your customer personas will provide you with the kind of insights that you will need to consider when working on your next steps. This includes deciding on the main theme of your Instagram profile, as well as the content that you’re going to post. As far as content is concerned, you can put an emphasis on your products, let your happy clients be in the spotlight, or enhance your brand by showing off your brand personality. Whatever you choose, ensure that your profile’s concept perfectly conveys your message. On the next page, you will find a couple of examples of companies using these strategies: Product-centric content: Califia Farms uses its highly photogenic product to promote the brand:

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Customer-focused profile: GoPro applies customer-centric approach showing how people all over the world use their cameras to capture the best moments of their lives:

Brand personality: Saturday Night Live posts fun photos and videos of what’s happening behind the scenes:

Finally, you should decide how much time and money you’re going to invest in your Instagram profile. Remember that visual content’s quality is extremely relevant to your Instagram success. However, creativity and awe-inspiring concepts still take the first place. Just don’t forget to balance your objectives with your resources.

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Part 1. Setting up your account

Your Instagram profile allows you to share some information about your brand and drive traffic to your website, so make the most out of it. Setting up your profile on Instagram is easy! Just follow these recommendations:

Create your business username Obviously, your company name works best. Keep it simple and recognizable as far as possible. If your company name is taken, choose one that is instantly associated with your brand.

Add a profile picture Keep in mind that it’s relatively small (150x150 px) and cropped in a circle. The best solution will be to use your logo or a graphic symbol. If your logo has text in it, better use a logomark – in most cases, the text in your profile pic just won’t be readable.

Don’t underestimate your short bio So, you’ve got three fields at your disposal: name, website and bio. Take a closer look at the name field. In case your desired username has been taken, you can still write your company name in this field and your profile will appear in search results. Add a link to your website to drive traffic to it. Now, pay attention to the bio: it is limited to 150 characters, so keep it short, fun, and memorable. You can include your brand slogan or an outline of who you are and what you do as a company. Many businesses tend to drop a unique hashtag to their bio or turn to users with a call to action. Here’s how big brands do it:

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Image credit: Nike, L’Oréal

Link your account to the other social networks, Facebook in particular Make an Instagram tab on your Facebook page to instantly share your Instagram photos with your Facebook audience. And invite your Facebook followers to your Instagram page :)

Use a business profile Good news: the times when businesses on Instagram had basically no insight on how their content was performing are over. The platform has recently introduced a set of tools for businesses that you can use right away! When you’ve created your account, switch it to a business profile and gain access to the awesome business tools. To do it, go to settings and choose the “switch to business profile” option. Note that you’ll need a Facebook business page for that. Such functions will become available within your business profile: • Connect with your Facebook page, • Add your phone number, email and location so that customers can reach you directly from your Instagram profile, • Mention the type of your organization for a better reach, • Get insights about your content’s performance and user engagement, • Work with Instagram ads. We’ll have a closer look at insights and ads a bit later. Now, let’s move on to the most relevant matter: your content.

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Part 2. Posting on Instagram Strategic approach to your Instagram content is key to building a successful profile. Instagram focuses on the visual representation of what’s happening here and now, so you should always keep in mind what your audience is interested in at the moment. Focus on the overall impression you want to create. Do you want your content to inspire, entertain, or inform? What image would you like to create for your brand? Build up your content strategy according to your audience’s needs.

Dealing with visuals As Instagram is primarily a photo (and video) sharing platform, one of the main objectives is making your visual style easily recognizable and engaging. Hiring a pro photographer for this purpose helps a lot, but it’s not necessary. Having a clear vision of your company style, you can create awe-inspiring content yourself! Here are some tips to give you a hand with it: Choose a perfect color scheme and stick to it. Coolors is an awesome tool that you can use to pick a color scheme for your Instagram. Note that single dominant colors generate more likes.

Tiffany and L’Oréal know something about colors.

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Same as colors, composition is crucial to your photos’ success. Don’t forget about the Rule of Thirds and make sure that the key elements stand out. If you are planning to add texts to your photos, ensure that there is enough space for them. Also, choose the fonts that are consistent with your brand. The ones you use at your company’s website will work great. To put it all together, try out Canva, a beginner-friendly yet efficient design tool.

Although not a business profile, Quotes uses fonts right, which results in 2M followers. And L’Oréal is a composition guru. However, even the most beautiful photo can be ruined by poor quality. Take care of it! Use professional photo equipment as far as possible and don’t rely too much on Instagram’s built-in photo editing tools – use more advanced ones, like Photoshop or VSCO.

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Photo processing tools help you create high quality images that really stand out. Image credits: Shore projects and Coca Cola Argentina

Videos Post videos to your account as well. Their duration is limited to 1 minute — not much, but enough to share some info or just make a little fun. Always remember about the quality, lighting and sound. When you’re uploading your video, choose its cover wisely. If your cover is interesting, the number of views will drastically increase.

Frooti and Pepsi rock the Instagram videos! Check out their accounts and see for yourself

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Post description The comments, hashtags and locations you add to your post are as important as the post itself. When writing a post caption, write several drafts and pick up the one you like most. Note that captions cut off in the feed to three or four lines, so front-load the most relevant stuff to spark the users’ interest. Calls-to-action work best if you want to: • Engage your followers into a discussion by asking to share their stories in the comments; • Invite people to tag their friends; • Direct them to the link in your bio. The mood of your captions should fit your brand. Instagram has a light-hearted manner, so try to keep your captions positive and fun! And don’t forget to use Emojis

H&M does post descriptions right.

#hashtags Hashtags may be both helpful and harmful. It’s all about their amount: certainly, using thirty trendy hashtags will get you more likes, but you will seem desperate to your existing followers. That’s why limit yourself to some five or six hashtags. For trending ones, see Instagram suggestions.

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Another option is to create a couple of unique hashtags for your brand and grow their popularity. Small tip: unless hashtags naturally fit into the sentence, place them at the end of your caption.

Here’s an example of how Nike uses its slogan as a brand’s unique hashtag while McDonald’s relies on trending hashtags. In case you’re wondering how exactly you can find trending hashtags, here are the tools that can help you do this: Tagboard, RiteTag, Hashtagify. Smart use of locations is very rewarding. Explore what locations are interesting to your audience and add them to your posts. This basically works the same as hashtags, so the right locations will increase engagement and generate more followers.

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Part 3. Working on Your Image as a Company Your corporate identity is everything. Thousands of people will get acquainted with your company via Instagram, so find a way to keep them interested! No matter what you do as a company, stay friendly and easy-going. Show people that their opinion matters, and interact a lot with Instagram members. Make your followers feel special by offering them exclusive content, discounts and giveaways that you don’t share on other social media. There is an interesting tendency: on Instagram, brands seem to be friendlier and connect with customers on a more personal level. That’s all because of behind-thescenes content, giving the chance to see what’s up inside the company. And Instagram’s new feature, Instagram Stories, is perfect for sharing such type of content! Share what you want, as much as you want, and whenever you want, because your story is independent from your feed. This is a brilliant opportunity to show off your brand personality by posting fun photos and videos of your team and workflow, so get the most out of it!

How often should you post?

Image credit: QuickSprout Posting frequency influences your engagement rate more than you think. To get recognition, post often – it’s vital these days because of the algorithm-based timeline. According to QuickSprout, 1–2 posts a day will be sufficient. Moreover, choose the time for posting wisely: rely on the data about your audience in this question. Their location, time zone and demographic stats are the defining factors if you’re working locally. In case you’re targeting an international audience, the best time to post is 5–6 pm on weekdays, and Mondays show the highest engagement rate.

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User generated content User generated content, or UGC, is the cornerstone of customer-centric approach. Featuring UGC drastically increases your profile’s recognition, engagement and the amount of followers. Note: engaged, active followers. This is a straight, tried-and-true way to amplify your brand and build a deep connection with your followers. What’s more, UGC is becoming the most influential marketing tool of today – so take advantage of it! Benefit from this tactic by sharing other people’s posts on your profile while giving credit to the original creator. Finding UGC on Instagram is a piece of cake! Just go to “Search and Explore” tab and search for the content you need. The app will automatically sort out the top posts and give you useful suggestions. Explore the most popular profiles to find out what inspires your potential audience. When you’ve found some awe-inspiring post, feel free to feature it on your profile (don’t forget to give credit to the author). To understand if it’s really worth sharing, answer these four questions: • Does this fit my niche? • Does this fit my brand? • Is it straightforward and clear? • Does it seem interesting or inspiring to my audience? UGC is the best advertising for your product, and GoPro knows that:

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Hashtags and giveaway contests are efficient ways to increase engagement. See how to make use of them: Create a couple of your brand’s unique hashtags and ask your followers to share their stories or photos under these hashtags. Feature the coolest ones on your profile. This way you’ll get beautiful UGC and gain more recognition at the same time. In case you’re looking for an example, Starbucks is known to use this strategy:

When you’re a newbie to Instagram, hashtags may prove inefficient because you don’t have many followers. At this stage giveaway contests will come to the rescue! Offer giveaways to your audience, and you’ll witness a huge boost of engagement. What users should do to participate is: • follow your account, • tag 1-3 friends in the comments, • share your post using the hashtag.

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This giveaway from Luvo is a great example of doing an Instagram contest. To make your contests even more effective, include voting – users will ask their followers to vote for them, thus spreading the word about your brand. Keep your contests running for 3–7 days, and run them on a relatively regular basis, because every contest does a great job promoting your brand. Another (more costly) way to benefit from UGC is cooperating with influencers (active Instagram users with huge audiences). If an influencer recommends your products and services, their followers will rush to your account! You can contact influencers directly or via services like InstaBrand. Cooperation with them is expensive, but the outcome is extremely rewarding. See how Maybelline does it to promote its products:

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Take a closer look at the sheer number of likes generated by this single post. Thanks to the 376,000 followers of the @karissapukas profile, it has generated a colossal traction.

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Part 4. Instagram ads Ads are an effective paid tool for reaching your objectives. Various advertising solutions with three ad formats will help you drive awareness and increase sales. Even if you’re new to advertising, working with Instagram ads will be easy for you. Set parameters for your target audience, select the best advertising solution, and start your campaign! Learn more about Instagram ads at Instagram for Business. Below, you can find the types of ads available from Instagram:

Photo ad with a call-to-action button

Video ad

Image credit: AdEspresso

Image credit: Itunes (Magic Legion — Age of Heroes)

Carousel ad

Image credit: AdWeek

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Part 5. Analytics Tracking your success is the only way to know what should be improved or changed in your strategy. Let’s see what metrics you should be tracking on Instagram. • Followers: install Followers+ to see who has followed/unfollowed your account. Keep in mind that following thousands of people looks weird, so unfollow users that don’t follow you anymore for a better follower balance. • Mentions and shares: these go alongside on Instagram because you won’t see if somebody shared your content unless they tag you. This data is available in the feedback section. • Likes and comments: do positive or negative opinions prevail? Which of your posts have the most comments and likes? • Reach and impressions. Reach shows the real number of people that have seen your post. Impressions show the potential number of times your content was seen. • Traffic: the number of people drawn to your website via Instagram. With the launch of Instagram business tools, you can track most of these metrics within the app itself. Insights on Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts perform better than others. Learn more about the behavior and demographics of your audience to improve your content according to their needs. Insights feature metrics such as impressions and engagement, top posts, and reach. You’ll also get useful data about your followers: their gender, age and location. Insights become available within 7 days of your business profile’s activity. See what they look like:

Image credit: Later

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Image credit: Later

Image credit: Later Third-party analytic tools shouldn’t be underestimated as well. They may provide you with more in-depth analysis of your performance, so consider trying them out. Here are some to start with: Iconosquare, Union Metrics, Simply Measured.

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Conclusion

Instagram is a wonderful platform to connect with followers and create a positive, appealing image of your brand. Now that you know about the key strategies of Instagram marketing, success is just a matter of time. Thanks for reading and may the #inspo be with you! In case you’re looking for more insights into internet marketing, website development, or online moneymaking, have a look at our other books. We regularly update our library, and we choose new topics based on the questions that are often asked by our readers.

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Sources 23 up-to-date stats and facts about Instagram you need to know (searchenginewatch.com) Instagram 2015 Study – Unleash the Power of Instagram (iconosquare.com) Coming Soon: New Instagram Business Tools (instagram.com) Free Template: Create Buyer Personas for Your Business (hubspot.com) Introducing Instagram Stories (instagram.com) What Are The Best Times to Post on Social Media (quicksprout.com) Advertising on Instagram (instagram.com) 37 Great Instagram Ads Examples To Inspire You (adespresso.com) Instagram’s Creative Mastermind Gives This Advice on How to Make a Good Carousel Ad (adweek.com)

Images Freepik.com Vecteezy.com Instagram.com