How Instagram Creates Growth for Brands
Unlike other major social
media channels though, Instagram’s well-rounded platform is perfect for brands.
As a highly visual platform with a large user-base, Instagram offers a number
of unique features that maximize brand reach and engagement. Although many
brands do not yet have a presence on Instagram – only 23 percent according to a
recent study – they should quickly begin to consider including Instagram as a
part of their social marketing strategy.
A. Consumers Love the Platform.
For brands working toward a
presence on the channels where consumers engage most, it’s clear that Instagram
should be part of their social strategy. Instagram has a definitive
understanding of what its users enjoy most, and, in 2014, brands on Instagram
experienced an average of 278 percent growth in followers.
With the average Instagram
user spending 21 minutes on the platform per day, brands can amplify their
consumer reach by linking with the channel’s liberal editing options and
strategic features. For example, the industries listed below have the most to
gain by adding Instagram to their repertoire:
As an industry whose products
and sales rely heavily on aesthetic appeal, retail brands can use Instagram’s
many photo-editing tools (filters, cropping, etc.) to elevate the visual appeal
of their products. Cosmetics and apparel brands, whose products directly
enhance a user’s physical appearance, could particularly strengthen their
social media strategies by incorporating Instagram into their strategy, a
channel that totes ‘visual’ as its biggest strength.
Hotel brands can use
Instagram to highlight their venues’ most exciting and attractive
accommodations, appealing to potential guests by developing a profile that
emphasizes an intended type of experience. Hotel brands can also use Instagram
to feature the environment (natural beauty, urban excitement, local events) of
where their guests will be staying. By sharing environmental and accommodation
images, hotel brands can help consumers imagine the experience they’ll receive.
Our eyes are often bigger
than our stomachs, and Instagram can help restaurants capitalize on a wide
range of consumer cravings. Using well-timed photo sharing tactics, restaurant
brands can tantalize user’s taste buds and push them to indulge with purchases.
Also, because photos from professional-grade cameras can be uploaded to the
platform, restaurants can truly showcase just how good their food looks.
Instagram has a number of
unique marketing tools and strategies—Instameets, video ads, global
networks—that make it the perfect fit for brands. In particular, Instagram’s
new carousel ads will help brands, no matter the industry, connect consumers
with exciting purchasing options.
These ads, much like a
carousel, circle through sequentially branded photo streams that tell branded
stories. Following larger industry endeavors of structuring big data to tell
big stories, carousel ads offer users with compelling, meaningful content that
captures the power of a multi-page print ad on a mobile device. The stream of
images will lead to clickable URLs, encouraging users to immediately engage
with the pictures and purchase the product that they like most.
Some brands have already
started utilizing Instagram, and those not yet on the platform are missing out
on opportunities to replicate, and compete with how competitors are reaching
consumers. While channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, are the
bread-and-butter of social marketing strategies, Instagram has yet to achieve a
similar reception. However, for brands hoping to increase consumer engagement,
a well-rounded social presence is key. This presence should include Instagram.
Adding an Instagram profile
to any brand’s social media strategy is simple. Unlike a personal Instagram
account though, every photo added should be centered on furthering the brand’s
largest and most profitable objectives. Here are three tips for maximizing the
effectiveness of a brand’s Instagram presence:
Creating a hashtag specific
to the brand is a great way to build a community of followers who can track and
interact with one another. This shared solidarity around a product allows
customers to find added value in the brand. For example, Nike, Instagram’s most
popular brand, has used #nike to develop a global community of like-minded
runners. Using Instagram’s marketing tools, Nike experienced an audience lift
to more than 12 million followers.
The footwear manufacturing
company has also found great success by allowing its followers to tell the
brand’s story. Users post pictures of Nike products in context—on runs—linking
the brand with its real-world applications. This user-centric story is often
more powerful than any a brand could create.
Rather that adapting to the
platform itself, Instagram allows brands to create a presence that is unique to
particular branding. Levi’s, for example, focused on well-crafted photos to
underscore the high-quality of its jeans (read the case study here). Similarly,
Ben & Jerry’s found success by posting exciting, whimsical pictures to
mirror the brand’s own fun personality. Through Instagram, Levi’s reached 7.4
million U.S. people and Ben and Jerry’s saw a 33-point increase in ad recall.
Although simple, giveaways
and contests are a practical way to excite and reward loyal followers. For
large-scale brands, these smaller moments are also great for connecting more
personally with individual consumers.
Just as other aspects of a
marketing campaign further a brand’s goals, social media should be a responsive
asset to any multi-channel strategy. Instagram provides brands with a deeply
personalized means of tackling 21st century marketing trends.
As user and engagement rates
increase, brands will have more and more reasons to establish an Instagram
presence. When a picture could be worth much more than a thousand words, the
number of brands on Instagram is likely to increase exponentially, and fast.
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