Buyers At The Wrong End Of Instagram Marketing

Where will you find over 1 billion monthly active users, 95 million pictures posted each day and 1.6 billion daily ‘likes’ shared? Instagram.

Since its meteoric rise after inception in 2010, Instagram has grown into the decisive platform for photo sharing. Instagram delivers 60-fold higher click through per follower than Facebook and 150-fold higher click through per follower than Twitter. If you’re looking for unprecedented ROI from a marketing campaign, it’s time to pursue Instagram marketing and get genuine followers to build your brand.

Instagram has emerged to be one of the most efficient social media network’s in marketing. In fact a new term has debuted on this niche called ‘Social commerce’.

In 2010, when this photo sharing app was launched, none would have perceived that in six short years the platform would capture more than 700 million monthly active users. The photo and video sharing App’s growth has been prolific, with the number of users doubling over the past two years.

Instagram has proved to be an influential marketing platform with over eight million registered businesses having already created accounts. While 48.8% of US brands have been using this social media platform for their marketing campaigns, the statistic is anticipated to reach 70.7% according to Hootsuite.

Being a marketer in today’s exceedingly competitive business environment you perceive that creating an audience base is your first priority. And you’ll appreciate the fact that you gain a huge advantage by piggybacking on a humungous user base as on Instagram. This of course would be the priority for any brand whatever the size. However established your firm is you have a long way to scale as you build your brand on a platform that continues to thrive.

Buyers Caveat 

There has been a plethora of instances of deception via Instagram marketing in India. A profile can only be traced back to an URL or an email address. This makes it rudimentary for businesses with dishonest intent to get away with it.

In one such instance, a user while browsing through his Instagram feed chanced upon a good deal for a wireless earphone. As he wanted to procure one he was glad to find a JBL make for Rs.1999/-. So he ordered for it online from within Instagram itself. Again while he was going through his feed he found the same make (JBL) for Rs.1600/- on another website, he thanked his stars and went back to the site from where he had earlier ordered and cancelled that order. Now he ordered from this website and set it on Cash-On-Delivery. As he continued browsing, he chanced upon Apple Earpods for Rs.5000/-. He realized this would be best of all deals and ordered for a set. He presumed to dispose the JBL earphones online.

After a couple of days the JBL earphones delivery was intimated to him. He collected the package, paid the cash and when he opened the package to his utter shock he found an old wrist-watch in it. By then the delivery person had left. On reaching the delivery person by phone, there was no recourse to his predicament. As he couldn’t reach the sender right away, he reached out to the transporter (eKart) and reached the transporter’s office within a couple of hours. He requested the manager to take back the package and return his money. After some discussion the manager relented. But as a parting shot, informed him that such incidents were on the rise.

The next day he was informed regarding the Apple earpods delivery schedule, he messaged them asking how come they are selling it at such a lower price. The seller communicated saying, since they procure it from abroad and bring it without paying tax they can afford to dispose it at a lower cost. He refused the product, wary from his earlier experience. After a couple of days while he was browsing Instagram he found that the product priced at Rs.3000/-.

Some folks may conclude it’s a one off incident. But with thousands now registering on Instagram to conduct business, its high time Instagram took steps to cover such loopholes.

Benefits of Instagram marketing

Boosting brand visibility 

Marketing works through visibility, if your brand is not conspicuous to your target audience you’re not doing what counts. There are over a billion Instagram users and, close to 95 million pictures being shared daily, your brand will benefit greatly on such a medium.

By posting creative and engaging content, you can easily increase the number of brand mentions and ensure your audience notice your brand. Many smaller firms have taken on the Goliaths in their domains by leveraging Instagram marketing to promote their brands and surpassed the influence of the older established pecking order.

Better engagement 

The power to engage with customers is the proverbial Holy Grail for any marketing tool. You may have the wherewithal to launch an overtly expensive marketing campaign, but without considerable levels of engagement you cannot meet your business objectives and the ROI will be lost in translation.

Forrester Research after a survey has declared Instagram to be the king-maker of social engagement. Instagram produces a 60-fold engagement per follower compared to Facebook and 150-fold engagement per follower compared to Twitter.

For a healthy ROI from your marketing campaigns get onto the Instagram marketing bandwagon and get genuine Instagram followers who will help build your brand.

Visual marketing 

One of the most effective and an imperative medium is the visual medium. If your brand is focusing on text and not visual content, then you are digging your own grave. There are diverse marketing and advertising techniques with very many gurus and followers to each of them that spoils you for choice.

A picture is worth a thousand words, that’s why Instagram is garnering audience by hordes and growing to be an effective marketing tool.

Getting the right content in puts you ahead of the pack by creating opportunities for your target audience to lap it up and to share. Pictures and videos are the bulk of internet traffic. With the populace starved for time – Instagram hit the right spot whereby all you need is a couple of minutes to catch up with your feed and you can share your content with the world. Video is an incredibly effective marketing tool (Youtube’s success proves the point) that should form a large part of your marketing ensemble.

SEO 

Search engine optimisation is the fundamental principle of any marketing campaign. If you’re not ranking among the top results on the search engine results pages (SERPs), you just don’t exist and your target audience will not be acquainted regarding your endeavours.

No-one outside of Google really knows what impact social media has on SEO, but there’s enough evidence to suggest it plays a role in rankings so it would be unwise to ignore this angle if you’re serious about SERPs.

Easy marketing 

Enhancing your user base can be tough, but it’s a marvellous experience trying. Everyone on your staff should be involved in creating content, be it videos or photos. The content becomes effective when it is supported by all and involves everyone.

If want your followers to share your content, which they will be motivated to do if it adds value without being excessively promotional.

Consumers are more intent on viewing authentic content because they’re already overwhelmed by TV ads and social media incursions. By telling your story through Instagram in a manner that adds value to your followers’ time, you’ll be treated as authentic which this will generate increased traffic and engagement.

Also Read: Online FMCG Marketing will create Unicorns

Consistency 

Instagram delivers a customer-rich and customer-centric platform to engage with your target audience. Firstly you have to build a strong following, which takes concerted effort and creativity.

Then formulate a strategy before you start in order to identify the techniques to use, the theme of your posts, the objectives you want to achieve and the type of content you want to share.

Maintain a consistent schedule for posting which you should adhere to. Consistency is a crucial feature of most successful Instagram marketing campaigns. It’s also advisable to be consistent with your timing, look, ideal and goal of your posts.