Welcome to the latest and very easy to apply Instagram Marketing Training, designed to take you by the hand and walk you through the process of getting the most out of Instagram.
We are so excited to have you here, and we know this will be very helpful for you. This exclusive training will take you by the hand and show you step-by-step, topic by topic, and tool by tool, what you really need to know in order to dominate Instagram Marketing the easiest way possible, using the most effective tools and in the shortest time ever.
What Instagram is all about
Instagram is a popular application for sharing photos and videos with friends and through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This application is meant for Tablets and smartphones. Compared to other social networks, Instagram is relatively simple and very user friendly. It focuses exclusively on sharing and editing pictures using different filters. You can also share short 30-second videos.
As of now, you cannot download or use this application on your personal computer, although you can check it from any computer by going to www.instagram.com.
Where did Instagram come from?
Instagram was created in San Francisco, California, in the United States, in October 2010, by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. For the first time, sharing photos could be done instantly, with no cables, flash drives or software, making this application an instant success from the very beginning, reaching over 1 million registered users in December of that same year.
The application started to get the attention of web giants Twitter, Facebook and Google. Facebook bought Instagram in April of 2012, for one billion dollars. The name comes from the curious combination of "instant camera" and "telegram". In the beginning, this application was iPhone Exclusive, but due to its popularity, it expanded to the Android ecosystem.
Instagram currently has 300 million registered users.
How can your offline business benefit from Instagram?
Because there are plenty of social networks used for doing business, some people wonder how choosing Instagram can help their business. Many experts in the field have an answer for this question, and most of them agree on one key point: the success of any business starts when its founders use all of their creativity to drive the growth of the business. That's when this wonderful application comes in handy.
Instagram offers many benefits for your business. Using this application, you can display photos or short videos to let people know about your business, its activities, its creation process, its staff, products, and so on. By doing that, your customers will become more familiar with your business. It is important to always keep your business information up to date. This shows dedication and seriousness. Keep your business account separate from your personal account.
Include a link to your site in your bio, because this is the only place in which Instagram allows for it. A consistent name will provide better recognition for your brand, as well as a picture that can help define the activities you perform as a business. Also, add a clear description in the profile.
Carefully following these tips could help give a boost to your business.
How can you benefit from Instagram as an Independent Professional?
Today, in this global society and surrounded by its great amount of information, it is possible for anyone to take their business to the next level. That's where the importance of social networks and applications that serve as tools to perform or engage customers in any activity comes into play.
Many freelancers are looking to increase their income, and Instagram seems to be the best option for achieving that. Thanks to this application, you can determine whether your followers are connecting with your brand in a positive way. You can make use of your imagination to upload photos and make them available only through Instagram.
You can also use hashtags to increase your number of fans, thus establishing your business as a leading brand. You can use geolocation, so they can find your shop easily. Nothing’s better than to make your business information easily available for your followers.
Promoting products with creative and professional photos has always been essential for selling goods online. 67% of consumers consider detailed images, product information or even other customers’ reviews, valuable resources when deciding on a purchase. Instagram’s platform is powerful for this.
All of these leads, when properly implemented, can help any freelancer develop creative control over their business activities and increase revenue.
How can you make money with Instagram with online marketing?
With Instagram, there many ways to make money, you just have to organize your ideas and implement certain strategies. First, have a targeted audience. Extensive studies show that women are 10% more likely than men to show support for a brand and are 17% more likely to act on social media. Men are less interested in buying directly on social networks.
Rates of social media activity for men and women are 33% vs. 30%, respectively. The most active users on social networks are women, and 55% of Instagram users are women. Instagram is so popular that it has become the ideal social environment for turning followers into actual buyers.
All of this points out that for getting better benefits, it is very important to connect with the emotional side of people, and Instagram connects with emotion. For that reason, creativity should be aimed at people’s emotions, thus moving your audience through sensitivity.
This data reflects the importance of Instagram and why it is considered the best application for selling. Instagram audiences of examined brands grew 17.7% during the last half of 2015. This shows that each year, the number of followers increased at an amazing rate, compared with a 1.9% growth in Facebook audiences over the same period.
Instagram is being used much more frequently to establish brands and better connect with potential customers.
Why you should definitely use Instagram for your Business today
Instagram is an amazing tool that can help your business stay in touch. Below, are some amazing benefits, as well as some shocking facts that will help you get the most out of Instagram on behalf of your business.
Visual marketing
As an exclusively visual application, Instagram has managed to grow by almost 150 million users. This is faster than Facebook´s and Twitter´s growth. This is the reason why Instagram is chosen to do something very novel, because it is visual merchandising.
There is a saying. "A picture is worth a thousand words." Creative people, must not pass up this development and make use of it. Knowing that the picture can do the work for us, means the less work we have to do.
The strategic use of hashtags
Like Twitter, you can label or create a hashtag to unify photos by a theme, settings, etc. It is important to note that anyone can read what is published with a hashtag whether that person follows you on Instagram or not. That way, you can significantly increase exposure of a post to new users who like a particular label, comment on your photos and can even start to follow you.
More diffusion is generated to your photos. It may be more likely to achieve objectives, because this well-implemented strategy will provide many benefits and will be noticed when looking at your bank account.
Emotional connection
All photos, good or bad have the same reaction of emotional intensity. Photos transmit emotional responses. You can easily use posts to cause powerful emotions in your audience in order to produce the effects you want. If you want people to connect with you and your purposes, use images that provoke the desire to participate and contribute to the cause. If you want to celebrate an event or achievement with your audience, use messages that stimulate those emotions.
The use of emotional connections through your messages dramatically increases their commitment and helps achieve goals. You can never overlook the fact that Instagram always connects with emotions.
Directing traffic to your website
One of the most important things we all want is more visits to our websites. If you want to drive visitors from Instagram, it is important to make sure you post a link to your website. This is the only way you can put an active hyperlink on Instagram. The mention of a website or a call to action (CTA) is a flag, a button, or some kind of graphic or text on a website designed to prompt a user to click on it and continue through a funnel conversion.
It's fun
One of the best things about Instagram is that it's just fun. Messages make you laugh and you reach the point of making any picture that is impressive go viral. You can appreciate and see the beauty in the simplest things. Instagram has changed the mindset of content marketing, because when you're having fun creating your content, you don't watch the clock.
Take this application to the fullest. This will be the first step to further develop your skills and reach more people. When Instagram creators thought of this application, it was designed to provide entertainment.
To connect with clients
Many think that Facebook and Twitter rule the social media market when it comes to connecting with fans. However, Instagram generates 120 times more followers than Twitter (as reported by Forrester Research).
Instagram is the perfect platform to connect with customers, listen to their feedback, and build relationships through conversations. You can share a photo of a new product and ask people to write what they think of it. Something that will bear fruit in time is to offer new project developments and see if customers have any interest in visiting you. Instagram has that effect. It will help you maintain more direct contact with your followers.
Reaching new audiences
There are many cases where you use other applications with in a circle of friends, and you don't understand why your ads are always being discussed by the same people, and your label or hash tag are very rarely positioned as a trend.
For Instagram, the gold medal comes when your ads reach new audiences. Photographs, images with some memorable phrase or even a short video will always generate interest in more people. This application makes your ads become a trend on Instagram. For this reason, a large majority of users confirm that Instagram will connect and reach new audiences.
Feed your other marketing channels
The content created in Instagram can be easily shared across all of your different marketing channels. Just simply enable Instagram to share your photos automatically on Facebook and Twitter. Even if you do not want to share your photos on different networks, you can save your photo to the Camera Roll on your phone and access it when you are ready to publish. The content sharing on Instagram can also be used in marketing campaigns.
Generating sales
Creating professional images to promote any product and highlight a service has never been so easy and affordable. Thanks to visual platforms such as Instagram, such promotions can provide more sales than other applications of this type. A report on e-commerce platform Shopify found that the average selling price on Instagram is $65, compared with $55 and $46 for Facebook and Twitter.
Always be clear and seek creative ways to showcase your products. Let your pictures speak for themselves, because creativity is the main source of growth.
Incorporating photos of your followers
Instagram allows you to incorporate photos into your page. With this option, you can show pictures of your brand and product by incorporating your followers on Instagram. Make sure you tell them you are using their pictures, so they feel appreciated. Ask for permission to use them. The goal is to encourage or impress your audience by showing that you offer a product or brand high in quality.
This way you will see many more followers sharing photos and using what you promote. Your followers will be involved and surely grateful for that gesture.
Shocking Facts
· There are over 300 million active Instagram users, and 70% of those are outside of the U.S.
· 20% of web users are also active Instagram users.
· 90% of Instagram users are under the age of 35.
· Focusing purely on the top 25 most engaging brands, the average post engagement rate is 3.31% on Instagram, compared to 0.07% on Twitter.
· Furthermore, average profile interactions were 19M on Instagram vs. 502K on Twitter.
· Peak interactions on Instagram is between 8 and 9PM. 30% of publications are done during the week-end.
· On Instagram, 53% of posts have at least one hashtag. 20% have more than 6 hashtags.
· 76% of Instagramers declare that receiving likes encourages them to publish more. 65% of users would feel flattered or honored if a brand liked one of their posts.
· A photo posted on Instagram generates 60 times more commitment than content on Facebook, according to Forrester Research.
· Instagram will bring in $595 million in mobile ad revenues worldwide this year, and $2.81 billion by 2017
· Instagram’s per-follower engagement rate for top brands is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter.
· Marketers investing 40+ hours per week on social media are 42 percent more focused on Instagram than those investing 6 or fewer hours a week.
· 60% of professionally marketed Instagram videos receive over 250 interactions, compared to 49% for Instagram pictures.
· Just 42% of teens use Instagram predominantly on a mobile device.
· 70% of Instagram users log in at least once a day. 35% check Instagram multiple times per day.
· Only 23% of Instagram users utilize the direct messaging feature.
· Instagram photos featuring faces get 32% more likes.
· Users post 1,000 comments every second and like posts 1.2 billion times a day. It’s simply more evidence of the kind of activity your brand is looking for.
Top Instagram Marketing Tools and Services
Iconosquare
Iconosquare is an online web-based tool for Instagram formerly known as statigram. It offers a simple and fast way to share large amounts of content and interact with it and provides you with up to date detailed information about your account and your Followers. Some of the advantages offered by this application are:
· Statistics: it allows you to measure the popularity of your posts and contests, growth of your follower base and its participation on your posts.
· Promoting: it promotes your Instagram publications on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a software company focused on helping other companies manage and monitor their social media presence under one platform, which is used to create plans for those companies’ growth on social networks. It is one of the most complex social network management web sites on the internet, and it's of great help for monitoring your Instagram content.
Some of its features include: exclusive Inbox for Instagram or any other social network, real time Brand monitoring (publications), comprehensive reports, multi-profile management tools (up to 30 profiles), and others.
The do’s you have to apply
Some of the things that you can implement when using this powerful tool to grow your business are the following:
Regularly publish business matters with a small sample of personal photos
Your company has just launched a new product, take a picture and share it with your followers. You can also promote a contest in which your followers post pictures of themselves using this product, share pictures of the company’s parties and gatherings, introduce expert staff members, etc.
A photo of the conference table filled with lattes in the morning, an honest goodbye letter accompanied by a picture when an employee leaves; this kind of stuff will help create a connection between staff and fans, making fans feel part of a larger family.
Create a complete biography in your account
Include the full name of your company, a concise description of the name’s conception, a link to your website and a profile picture that clearly identifies with your brand within your profile. These are the fundamental elements of an Instagram profile.
These detailed descriptions will make your brand an interesting site for visitors, and they will also help your visitors locate the kind of content and publications they are after. You will save time and earn followers that really identify with your profile. The more detailed the information is, the better the posting position will be.
Start conversations with customers around subjects
Many companies use Instagram to interact with their customers by posting photos of things unrelated to their products. For example, publishing photos of a personal event or staff member's pet or hobby, is an easy and fun way for people to find that sweet spot between personal matters and business without having to first connect to a specific product.
This would greatly help to strengthen the customer's perception of the company and make it feel more human. It will show many of its facets, such as teamwork, fellowship and good personal relationships. Remember, Instagram connects with emotions.
Showcase your products in beautiful surroundings
When showing a product on Instagram, remember that you are using it as a venue to make money with your products. For this reason, do your best to create a great product publication. If your product is big and consequently takes up lots of space in pictures, locate a good photographer to get its best profile. Pictures of your products will be one of the major selling points in your publications.
The don’ts you have to avoid
As useful and as popular as Instagram is, there is a chance of having some problems when not used properly. Incorrectly using it may have consequences that can be dangerous for your business or simply make your customers feel uncomfortable. Here, I show you the things you should not do:
Don’t post low-quality pictures
While it is true that this is a purely visual application, it does not mean that any low quality picture should be published. Users will just pass them by or make negative comments. It also does not mean that you need to hire a professional photographer, or that you have to rent a cutting edge photography studio. You have to try to take good care of your pics and use the filters offered in-app to help yourself and your product.
Remember that this will help you keep good comments coming and getting more likes.
Don’t Spam
Always be genuine, authentic, always be yourself and don’t ask people to always follow your posts. To be successful on Instagram, you need to be genuine, to interact with like-minded people that are interested in you for who you are. This way, you can keep a smooth and uncompromised profile.
Too much activity over a short-term period can make Instagram think that you are a Spambot; a fake profile that operates automatically, risking being banned. Instagram is serious about taking steps against this kind of behavior. Remember, people just want to have fun.
Don’t post pictures that do not belong to you
This is likely one of the most important rules to follow on this social network. If there are pictures that you really like, comment on them or share them with the people you follow. Don’t steal their work or download pictures from the internet to later upload as yours.
You are not only stealing somebody else’s work; you are also making yourself a liar in front of others. If you are caught, you risk losing access to your account. The best thing about this application is that it allows you to be authentic and discover the levels that your imagination can reach.
Using somebody else’s work as your own is a bad idea.
Don’t post too often
It is not necessary to follow a fixed schedule or even to post every day. It is more important to share beautiful and appealing pictures along with useful and entertaining details.
Shocking Instagram Marketing Case Studies
Bloom & Wild
Bloom & Wild is an online flower delivery service. Objective: to promote themselves and expand their profit margin using Instagram.
Strategy: They used the Power Editor tool to put their ads on Instagram. They tested the popularity of some advertising images by sending them to a mailing list, and the one voted as the most popular was used for their marketing campaign. Then, they expanded their initial investment.
Results: By putting ads on Instagram, Bloom & Wild saw bouquet orders increase 62%, and got to see new customers make positive comments on their profile and order bouquets through the store.
Burt’s Bees
Burt’s Bees is a company specializing in offering completely natural personal care products. Objective: to promote their latest “Lip Crayon” line of products by means of Instagram ads. Their main goal was to increase ad awareness and recall in their beauty products community.
Strategy: They knew they could find a growing beauty product community on Instagram, so they focused on the 18 to 24-year-old female demographic in the United States. They showed the ads for their products and kept up with their “Delight your Lips” slogan.
Results: Burt’s saw a 5-point increase in product awareness and a 16-point increase in ad recall.
