Show

Present photos of customers using your product or service on Instagram.

Tell

Use photo progressions and montages to relate company success stories.

Connect

Increase engagement and sales by leveraging Instagram’s authenticity.

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Using Instagram to Market Can Bring Your Products Into Focus for Customers

Pictures are worth a thousand words, and their messages are processed faster than words by viewers. The takeaway? Your company should use Instagram for B2B or B2C marketing. By bringing together visuals and visitors, Instagram has become a top marketing tool. In 2014, Instagram had 300 million active monthly users, making it an ideal way to engage with many, many customers.

LEVERAGE THE MANY BENEFITS OF INSTAGRAM TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Instagram delivers benefits not obtainable elsewhere. Among the most compelling is its authenticity. When B2B or B2C customers view images in your ad, brochure or flyer, they realize the images are promotional. But when they see a real person using your product in a real photo, they are much more likely to be convinced of the product’s qualities. Posting photos on Instagram of real people using your products in their actual context can be highly persuasive.

We turn our lens on the booming social media network Instagram, exploring its potential as a marketing tool in reaching B2B and B2C audiences.

Having grown very popular with companies, Instagram has launched an “Instagram for Business” blog, offering tips for using the network more effectively as a business-building tool.

PLACE VISUAL INTEREST AT THE TOP OF YOUR PRIORITY LIST

Instagram provides companies with great opportunities to be creative and build visual interest in their offerings. Avoid simply focusing on your product. Post candid, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your team at work, at play or engaged in community service. Create photo montages and successions conveying a sense of your product or service in use. Shoot the best photos possible, use filters and apps to enhance them and post daily to keep visual interest high.

These suggestions only hint at how to use Instagram effectively in marketing. For additional steps that bring success into focus, read on.

• Use, but don’t overuse, carefully-written hashtags on photos to build interest and traffic. Hashtags are best used in moderation.
• Be consistent but non-intrusive with posts, aiming for three to ten posts weekly. In a successful Instagram campaign for its Scotchy Scotch Scotch ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s managed posts so viewers only saw images three times on average. The campaign increased consumer awareness 17 percent.
• Establish consistent themes for your Instagram campaign, enabling you to post various images but still have viewers associate them with your brand.
• Provide prizes like gift cards for those most often sharing your company’s Instagram images.
• Greatly expand your audience and cultivate a following by sharing Instagram photos on other social media sites from Facebook to Twitter

Read The Ultimate Instagram Marketing Guide: How to Gain Followers and Grow a Successful Business on Instagram, by Rick Riley.

Your goal is to engage with customers on Instagram. A great way to do that is by asking questions of those viewing your posts. Questions like “Would you find this product useful?” help spark exchanges with prospects.

Email or call us at 708-246-4211 to learn how to utilize Instagram to successfully market your products and services to B2B or B2C audiences.