Consistent Brand Image
When growing a business or brand on Instagram, you want to be seen as reliable and trustworthy. The first thing to consider is your username. You should strive to have the same username on all social platforms to remove confusion. If your username that you want isn't available on all platforms, you run the risk of customer confusion.
If the Instagram username isn't available, consider adding underscores, periods, or other words alongside it. Keep the same descriptions/ bios throughout all social media. On Instagram you want to make sure that your content isn't different from the content you post elsewhere, you want to give a consistent message. If a potential customer isn't sure of your business, they are less likely to shop from it.
This is why big brands can consistently keep returning customers and gain new ones. But don't let this discourage you, the beginning of every Instagram growth is hard, but if you follow all these tips, you will see increased interaction.
Customer Interaction
When building your brand on Instagram, it can be hard to start from a few followers or absolutely nothing. Interacting and talking to people helps to build a friendly, active, and approachable brand reputation. People usually love when brands or companies respond to them, it makes them feel recognized. Interactions with customers are giving them a boost of dopamine.
You can interact with people by responding to comments, direct messaging, appreciation or welcomes to new followers, and liking back posts of customers that interact with yours. You don’t have to befriend the customer, but make every one of them feel like their number one priority. As you get bigger, it can be hard to keep up, but try to make an effort to respond to customers nevertheless.
Knowing the algorithm
Advertising is one thing, but knowing the platform you advertise on is another. You should be able to understand the basics of the Instagram algorithm. The algorithm for Instagram is changing consistently in its new guidelines and regulations. Algorithms are different, depending on the social media platform, so don't try to apply Facebook marketing to Instagram.
Content and products might just receive a lower reach just because of how you market it, or your entire profile might not get enough attention. As a business owner and starter marketer, this kind of research is essential to do to get the best possible outreach from Instagram, as well as to keep up with Instagram updates.
Having a Target Audience
If you are not targeting the following you want, you may get recognition but not leads. It's important to discover your target audience. Whether its gender or age-based, down to specific locations. Create content that caters to the customers you know would shop from you. When you know your target audience, you can connect with them on a deeper level.
For example:
That doesn't cater to the target audience, which should be makeup enthusiasts in this situation.
Creating Valuable Content
Your content is the most important thing to focus on. Your content is the foundation of your social media page will gain traction and loyal followers on Instagram. What you post needs to be optimized for your model customer and algorithm.
The content should follow the common 80/20 principle, where it is 80% inbound and 20% outbound (aka promotions). Inbound marketing is the best way to create organic reach. It consists of things like e-books, infographics, videos, articles, and informative posts.
Your content should do the following:
This kind of marketing isn't restricted to just education alone, but entertainment. In a sense, you could say that also solves a problem and helps people. This could be most commonly in humor, which is one of the best ways to have more interaction and page-time on your Instagram page.
In the end, it's important to have consistency when you are promoting not just on Instagram, but anywhere. It's the key to success.
