If you’re a B2C company, Instagram marketing should be a priority. It’s the fastest-growing social media platform on the internet with more than a billion active daily users. It also gets more engagement than any other platform.
Whether you’re looking to create a recognized brand, increase your sales, boost website traffic, or become a social influencer, Instagram has what you need to get there. Use this seven-step plan when going into 2019.
- Embrace Automation
The future of Instagram involves many features that can benefit your organization. For example, the platform has recently released a series of filters, emojis, emoji sliders, polls, questionnaires, and more to help both followers and businesses make deeper connections on the platform.
The Instagram algorithm has also updated to prioritize engagement, and the only way you’ll keep up with all of these changes and requirements is through automation. You can use an Instagram bot for real followers as long as you curate a quality strategy for doing so. It’s really the only way that you’ll have time to generate the engagement and posts you need to stay competitive in 2019.
- Use Vertical Video
The latest video platform for mobile users is IGTV, and it’s changing the way viewers consume video content. IGTV is the first far-reaching platform specializing in vertical video playback, and since this filming format is growing so much in popularity, you should prioritize its use when addressing your mobile audience.
Vertical video seems to work better on mobile because it assumes that users are holding their phone upright while scrolling through Instagram. It creates a more seamless experience and keeps them engaged. Brands like Chipoltle and Starbucks have already implemented this form of video on Instagram with rousing success.
“If you’re still not on IGTV, it’s time to hop on the train,” Vlad Callus of Plannable told Adweek. “When thinking about the upcoming trends in Instagram marketing I believe IGTV and Instagram Stories are on the top of the list. IGTV will become the new YouTube in three to five years, and if you’re joining now, you will catch the big wave.”
- Make Room for Instagram Stories
Although the prolific use of Instagram Stories is technically a predicted 2019 trend, if you haven’t already embraced this platform, you’re probably already behind. It’s one of the most important features and it can be used for ads and everyday posts popping up in between the stories of your followers’ friends and family.
“Instagram Stories users will no doubt have already seen ads showing up between their friends’ latest updates,” Spendesk’s Patrick Whatman also told Adweek. “The platform has worked hard to make Stories a key feature—it sits right there at the top of the feed, and you’ll see more links to Stories as you scroll through the feed. Now that users are comfortable with and enjoy using Stories, businesses will inevitably take advantage and use this valuable real estate. We expect to see more ads appearing, and with more targeting. In other words, if you’ve been doing some online shopping, expect to see those same products showing up in your Instagram Stories.”
Work on creating high-quality, beautiful advertisements that will appeal to your target audience and get you more Instagram followers. They’re looking for the best of the best in their daily consumption of Stories, and if you fail to deliver, you risk being passed over completely.
- Let Micro-Brands Lead Your Influencer Campaigns
Influencers on Instagram are typically split into three categories: micro, macro, and mega influencers. Micro influencers are the smallest group with followers ranging from 500 and 10,000 in volume. According to expert predictions for 2019, micro-brands will be taking the lead in influencer marketing.
“I think this mass of micro brands with massively efficient marketing are, in aggregate, having a much bigger impact than anyone thinks,” Scott Belsky wrote in a Medium article. “Using hyper-targeted marketing, just-in-time manufacturing and social media, these brands find and engage their audience wherever they may be.”
Your company likely fits in the mold of micro-influencer, so you can gain traction in the new year networking with other influencers to develop a strategy of mutual growth.
- Allow Shopping Through the Explore Tab
One of the newest and most beneficial features on Instagram is the Explore tab, which shows the most popular posts across the platform, according to the algorithm’s assessment. Within the Explore tab is the new “Shopping” tab, and it’s something you should be using if you want the highest level of visibility and exposure. If followers like what they see, they can make a purchase through the app.
According to John Nash, a chief marketer from Boston, understanding your customer base is vital to successfully selling products in the shopping tab because it creates relevance.
“When customers see a relevant product advertised in their Instagram feed, it will increase the chances they will want to explore the product or brand further — shifting them into a shopping mindset where the option to purchase a product is just a click away,” Nash said to CMSWire.
- Up Your Hashtag Game
Did you know that there are about 95 million photos published on Instagram every single day? With that many photos floating around, the only way you’ll stay competitive in this market is with the use of hashtags.
These useful tags categorize your posts so that followers can organically search for your content and the Instagram algorithm knows how to find your posts.
In order to maintain a strong hashtag strategy, focus on creating relevant and creative hashtags for each post. You should also monitor the best performing hashtags published on sites like Hubspot and Google Trends. Using these popular hashtags in your own posts can help users find you through search.
- Research
Before, during, and after your various campaigns, conduct regular research for your social strategy. Tyler Hanna, marketing strategist, recommends making external research a priority.
“’External research’ refers to research in the natural environment, societal environment, and task environment,” he says. “Those are just fancy terms for saying, ‘The actual physical environment, the cultural environment, and the industry environment.’”
When looking at your social strategy through these lenses, you’ll have an easier time making decisions and defining opportunities to boost your success. You might learn more about your customers, better define your value proposition, run trial with your posts, and learn from your competitors.
There’s no such thing as a perfect Instagram strategy, but if you apply these seven tactics, you’ll be pretty darn close. Your results will be almost immediately evident as your marketing goals climb to new heights.