Instagram is unique among social media platforms with its full emphasis on visuals and storytelling. It allows users to express themselves, their communities, and the things they care about through visuals. This paves the way for marketing content, and the platform has slowly become an area for brands to tell their stories. There is often a misconception that only lifestyle, fashion, and beauty brands can benefit from marketing on Instagram. The truth is, all brands can tap into Instagram’s versatile and effective advertising platform to create increased awareness, leads, and sales. With the advanced targeting and wide range of patterns, users, and behaviors, the rise of e-commerce integrated sales funnels, and the ability to build a brand role integrated marketing strategy, Instagram is undoubtedly a strong platform for all brands.
Instagram has become an incredibly powerful marketing tool, with 1 billion people worldwide using it every month. Singaporeans are no strangers to Instagram, with 3.5 million active users in Singapore as of 2018. Instagram’s visual nature and younger demographics make it the perfect platform to promote a brand in Singapore, where traditional advertising methods are becoming less effective.
Benefits of Instagram Marketing
The platform of Instagram itself has created a great shift in the world of marketing. Instagram is becoming a valid channel used to achieve real business objectives around the globe. More than 400 million active users and its recent acquisition by social media giant, Facebook, have resulted in Natalie Silver, Suncorp’s executive manager of digital, saying that Instagram has a desirable and growing audience for brand advertisers. Due to this, studies led by eMarketer have found that most companies and brands are planning to utilize Instagram marketing in 2016. According to Simply Measured, 59% of the world’s top 100 brands are active on Instagram, with 41% of these companies posting at least once a week. With these figures, there is no denying that the benefits of Instagram marketing could help elevate brand presence and influence others to hop on the hype train.
Increased Brand Awareness
Data from Mediakix shows that the average engagement rate of Instagram sponsored posts in 2018 was 3%, reaching a high of 8% for those with smaller followings. With the use of the right influencers, valuable content and a CTA to visit your profile or website, you can build awareness while effectively positioning your brand to the relevant market.
Another more advanced yet effective method for increasing brand awareness is through Instagram’s influencer marketing. An influencer is someone that has the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, or position. This could be a celebrity, or more commonly these days, bloggers and people with a strong social media presence. Find an influencer that is popular with your target audience, and has opinions and style that match your brand. Work with them to create sponsored content that will expose your brand to a wider audience.
A Singapore brand that has successfully increased brand awareness using a branded hashtag is jewellery company By Invite Only. They use #mybiginvite to showcase consumer photos wearing their products, ultimately representing the lifestyle and “invite only” philosophy of their brand.
Then we get to the use of hashtags which makes it easier for people to find your brand. This is because it allows you to make your content more discoverable. Not only can you use popular industry-relevant hashtags, you can create your own branded hashtag that ties back to your company. Encourage your followers to use it so you can track your community and any user-generated content. According to Hootsuite, this will give your customers a clear picture of your brand while reaching a new and targeted audience.
With numerous methods to increase brand awareness through Instagram, the platform has significant potential to yield high returns. A more simple way is the frequent use of your brand’s name in photo captions. Given that captions are not searchable, people cannot find your brand simply by using the search function. However, if they are frequent users of Instagram, consistently seeing your name will make them more inclined to search your brand, in order to see what it is that you do.
One of the most important benefits is the increased brand awareness that comes with using Instagram. Even if people are not familiar with your company, they are much more likely to remember your brand. Implementing an effective Instagram strategy could significantly increase your followers and likers, thereby improving the likelihood of new customers finding you. This will shift the public’s knowledge of your brand to the forefront, and potentially influence their purchasing decisions.
Targeted Advertising
An effective ad is only effective if it’s reaching the right people. What makes Instagram advertising so powerful is its access to specific demographics. Take for example swimwear brand “Triangl”. At the click of an Instagram advertisement, she showed her boyfriend a photo of an attractive male with a surfboard, the exact ad that was targeted for men interested in beach activities and surfing. This ad would have been much more relevant to the brand’s focused demographic than it would have been if randomly shown to Instagram users. By having access to the information, she was able to quickly change the subject’s interest to a personal message between her and her boyfriend. This is just one example of how targeting specific demographics can make an ad much more effective. A more relevant ad leads to higher conversions and higher return on investment. Targeting not only potential customers but also those who already have a connection to the business is a great way to maintain customer loyalty and increase lifetime value.
Instagram has excellent targeting options. There are many marketing features available which allow businesses to reach specific audience segments. With a large number of active users, Instagram advertisers can afford to be picky. In order to reach specific demographics, businesses can choose ad audience between automatic, which is determined by Instagram, local awareness, interests, age, gender, language, and advanced combinations. These options are available for both potential customers and people already engaged with the business. The ability to target specific audiences has never been easier than with Instagram. Instagram’s simple yet effectively detailed targeting is able to help businesses achieve a variety of marketing and business goals.
Enhanced Engagement with Customers
The foundation of all actions on social media is interaction. It’s a place where users can stay in touch with those they know and just as easily start a conversation with a complete stranger. With something as simple as the follow of a profile, a user shows that they are giving a brand or person the attention to see more content from them in the future. A like on a photo is an indication of support or interest, and a comment provides the chance for elaborated feedback or opinions. Instagram offers businesses all of these actions available in response to content posted. This is providing the chance for two levels of engagement: one where businesses and influencers can engage with other users, possessing the hopeful result of turning them into customers; and businesses with their customers. Having the ability to keep up to date with what your customers like and dislike says a lot about being able to provide them with better service and therefore a more effective selling point. All of this builds towards a brand-consumer relationship where increased communication instills higher trust and consumer loyalty.
According to a study, Instagram users are 58 times more likely to comment, like, or share a brand’s post compared to a Facebook user. This is a statistic that speaks volumes in showing how Instagram can provide a more enriched customer-brand engagement. Instagram offers a feature where users can geo-tag the location of where the photo was taken; for a business, this can mean showing where your products are being sold or placed. From there, any user who also geo-tags this location will be able to see the business’ photo that could possibly influence them to visit the store or location. Businesses that are verified on Instagram also have the ability to add links to their Instagram stories, further enabling a call to action for users to engage with their brand’s content.
Strategies for Successful Instagram Marketing
Utilizing influencer marketing: As the old internet adage goes, content is king. Unfortunately, the reality of kingship on the internet has become a bit skewed, with many content creators finding it difficult to get their work noticed. Social media, for instance, is often considered a pay-to-win environment where exposure is dictated largely by ad spend. Despite this, the core ideal that great content deserves recognition still holds true in many cases. With a wide depth of content and a system that promotes discovery, even a newcomer can fight their way to the top if the content is good enough. Enter Instagram, king of content sharing, and an untapped marketing platform for all content creators.
Creating compelling content: Instagram’s popularity has largely been driven by content, and this remains a crucial element in any marketing strategy. Marketers need to understand what resonates best with the target audience, be it quirky photos, how-to videos, or user-generated content. This leads to higher engagement with the brand and helps to establish brand identity. A good example would be yoga apparel brand Lululemon, which posts a variety of athletic photos and healthy living posts. Maintaining a casual and fun approach to the photos, fans of yoga and athletics constantly get content that they enjoy viewing and commenting on – a great method to build a community around a brand.
Creating Compelling Content
A good way to ensure this is by creating a mood board or having a clear guideline on what your brand image and identity is. This way, everyone involved in content creation will be on the same page.
To ensure that you are producing the best content possible, ask yourself these few questions. What is my overall brand image? What kind of personality does my brand have? Who is my target audience? What is the message that my brand wants to convey? Once you have answered these questions, apply your brand image, personality, and message to your content. For example, if your brand is fun, vibrant, and youthful, it’s probably not a good idea to use dark and grungy tones on your content. This may seem like an exaggerated example, but you’d be surprised at how many brands out there put out content that doesn’t reflect their brand image at all. Always stay true to your brand and what it represents. Instagram marketing service Singapore focus on creating visually appealing and engaging content for Instagram.
Creating compelling content refers to the physical visuals and aesthetics of your posts. Good content is what keeps your audience coming back for more. It’s what showcases your brand personality and what sets you apart from your competitors. Although simple to understand, this is often easier said than done. Content must be strategically planned, taking your audience and overall brand image into consideration. One mistake in content can tarnish your brand image and push away consumers.
Utilizing Influencer Marketing
The first step in utilizing influencer marketing on Instagram is to clearly identify the target market and demographic. Given that Singapore is a multi-racial country with a 74.2% literacy rate, it would be beneficial for brands to consider reaching out to micro-influencers, as they have a strong role within niche markets compared to more mainstream macro-influencers. Discovery of such influencers can be done through CROWDT or influence.co, which have detailed social media professional information and are widely used for influencer discovery. Once discovered, brand marketers must contact the influencer and negotiate terms and payment. A recent study found that 73% of brands usually compensate influencers with free products or cash. However, in Singapore, with regards to budget concerns, some micro-influencers may be compensated for as low as $50.
Influencer marketing is a strategy used by brand marketers across the world. Its importance has been brought to light by Instagram, given its image-friendly platform nature and the rise of social media ‘celebrities’. In a recent study, 60% of teens were reported to show a preference for trusting and listening to an influencer compared to a celebrity. In another study, 4 out of 10 Twitter users stated they had purchased an item after seeing an influencer tweet about it.
Leveraging Instagram Stories and Live Videos
Live videos receive notifications to followers the minute they start, and basic statistics show that people are 3 times more likely to watch a live video than a video that is not live. This is, therefore, a great way to engage with your following.
Live Videos are not as common and are a newer feature for Instagram. These videos are in real time, and audiences can interact with the person/brand streaming the video. This is a fantastic method for holding Q&A’s or interviews with influencers, as followers are able to comment and react instantly. These stories can be shown in the Explore bar, meaning that people beyond your following can view your content, increasing brand discovery.
Instagram Stories allow brands to post quick, simple content that appears at the top of followers’ feeds and is available for only 24 hours. This tool is particularly useful for telling a story and leading a narrative, or for posting discounts and deals as a method of advertising. The swipe up feature allows viewers to be directed to another site, which is great for traffic and click-through sales.
Instagram Stories and Live Videos are excellent platforms for driving engagement with your audience and effectively promoting your brand. Both Stories and Live Videos appear on your followers’ feeds, meaning that the chances of your followers seeing your content are even higher. In addition, both platforms allow you to engage with your audience in real time through comments and reactions.
Engaging with the Instagram Community
Engagement can come in many forms, but a surefire way of encouraging it from users is by involving them in the brand’s decision-making processes. An effective way of doing this is by utilizing Instagram polls. Polls are a great tool because they are easy to create, user-friendly, and effective at getting fast feedback from a large number of people. By creating a fun or interesting poll, it is likely to result in users sharing it with their friends and thus increasing the brand’s exposure. This will also help to make users feel appreciated and important to the brand. An example is a local F&B business trying to decide on the next special item to add to their menu. By creating a poll and getting the community to vote, it creates hype and anticipation for the item, which will likely lead to increased sales when it is released.
Instagram is at its core, a social media platform designed for interaction and engagement. What distinguishes it from the rest of the pack is the way it allows its users and brands to engage with the community, creating a personalized experience like no other. Engaging with the community should be seen as a high priority for brands looking to market on Instagram. Users are more likely to follow and engage with brands on Instagram because they want to see the things that happen behind the scenes and get to know the brand’s personality. On top of that, they expect interaction and engagement to be on a more personal level compared to other platforms. This makes Instagram the ideal platform to build brand loyalty. In a study done by Forrester, it was found that Instagram content generates 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter. When considering these statistics and the effectiveness of interaction and engagement on Instagram compared to other platforms, Singapore brands have a lot of potential to tap into.
Measuring and Analyzing Instagram Marketing Success
It has been found in many studies that higher levels of consumer engagement in a brand’s social media page will result in more frequent purchases. This means that the aim for consumers to interact with the brand rather than simply browse can be supported by the tracking of these key metrics. Website traffic referrals can be difficult to track, as photos can’t directly link to a website. However, a clever tactic is sharing product photos and including product page URLs in photo descriptions. A monitoring tool can then record information from that URL to identify the amount of clicks and therefore traffic generated from the Instagram page.
Tracking your program’s success on Instagram is very important. Key metrics are the only way to tell if your strong scheduled program is actually achieving potential results. There are a few key metrics that are important to keep an eye on, and often, tools such as Iconosquare will sort them into easy-to-read graphs and charts. The number of followers and counts of likes on photos are considered the most basic tracking metrics. These figures are also important for potential advertisement progress, as a high reach is unlikely to appear if these figures are rather low. Audience engagement metrics, such as the number of comments, as well as the number of photo tags, are increasingly important.
Tracking Key Metrics
The purpose of this section is clear – when discussing tracking metrics, it is to isolate and identify exactly what marketing tactics are working or not working and using that information to refine strategy. What is great about the breakdown of the content here is that Gaetano discusses both tracking aggregate data – (brand exposure and lead quality) and tracking individual data (assessing specific photo performance). Bearing in mind that if one is not using a business profile, their only real metric is going to be likes and comments on a picture. For brands, the focus when tracking these aggregate metrics should be how company-customer interactions change after marketing initiatives. Gaetano uses the example of a “refined” lead being initiative to write a comment or question on a photo instead of only liking the photo. He states that in having a refined metric for success and knowledge of what success is, a company can increase its return on investment. While it is not specified whether this can be done through a free or paid service, using a CRM to track customer data and seeing what changes in the data post marketing can be important for some larger companies.
Analyzing Audience Insights
Audience insights can be obtained from Instagram Insights. Instagram Insights is a great tool available to all business profiles and even some regular profiles depending on various eligibility. There are some shortcuts the tool offers, which includes seeing an audience’s active times and knowing where they are from based on age, gender, and location. This tool can be accessed by going onto your profile and clicking the graph icon present on the upper right-hand corner of the screen. The graph icon itself represents Instagram insights and analytics and will thus lead you to the tool. However, it is not available for an activity that has already been conducted, but rather a tool to optimize any future posting for the best results. This is very handy as it does provide a direction, which leads to the improvement of results. This is concluded in a moment where marketers had posted a story to promote a new promotion, and the insights had shown that there had only been an approximate 50% viewer rate from a similar viewer demographic. With information like this, it can help in reshaping a future strategy to attempt to fully capture the whole audience, i.e. re-promotion with more detailed story content and a narrow margin of viewer demographics.
Adjusting Strategies for Optimal Results
Instagram marketing poses a great deal of potential when taking into account how “Heavily Engaged” users are, with 70% of users checking Instagram on a daily basis. If your current strategies are not giving the expected results, it may be a simple case of trial and error with how often you post and what time of day you post on. Try running multiple campaigns with the same objective and a variety of content at different times to really understand what works best. An increase in content posting may also provide substance for the variety of Instagram’s video and photo features available for use. Various content will give a greater comparison of what people engage with the most.
Understanding the benefits of each of your marketing strategies, your audience and their expectations should remain a primary focus. Take time to understand the data collected in Facebook insights and compare it with the data from Instagram. If you don’t see much of a change and/or it does not benefit your brand, explore other marketing strategies with a similar approach. If you see a positive change but not in the area you hoped, it may be wise to try and revise that strategy to better fit the needs of your audience. For major changes or for a better understanding of the new heights your audience could take you, consider re-evaluating your current audience with the use of General or Used Defined Audiences in the Facebook Ad System. Keep in mind that re-evaluating an audience often means going back to the drawing board with content to meet the new expectations.