Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms for businesses to use to grow their business. It is also one of the most highly downloaded apps in the App Store for people to use. In the past, Instagram was just a platform that you could include in your marketing strategy if you had a business, that was targeted towards young people or if you were in the creative industry. It was more focused on these areas, but over the last five or so years we have seen Instagram boom and now it has become an app that nearly every business needs to be on. If you’re not on Instagram, then you’re really missing out on capitalising on the potential of your market share.
So the question you’re asking then is, Amy what should our Instagram strategy be? What should we actually be doing on Instagram? There are so many features, updates, and different things that you should be doing on Instagram but what is actually the task that I should be spending my time on to help me grow my Instagram account and generate more sales for my business.
Well lucky you came to the right place! Because this is the place where we strip back marketing strategies, we make things simple and easy for you to understand and actionable for you in the real-life business world. Because we can’t all afford to be living on Instagram 24/7 and we run a small business. You already have to do so many things as a small business owner, you have to wear all the hats, being a full-time social media manager is not realistic when you’re a small business owner. So let’s chat about what your Instagram strategy can look like, so that you can get the best from the time that you’re spending on the app for your business. Keeping in mind that this is more for small businesses people who are just starting out and have time to invest in the platform, not so much established businesses that have more budget to outsource some of their social media marketing where they can be doing more on the app.
Let’s start with the purpose of Instagram.
Many people get confused with what the purpose of Instagram is, some people think that the purpose of Instagram is selling. This means that you have an Instagram business page and you post photos of your new products or your services on a regular basis trying to sell them to your audience over and over and over again, only ever selling, never connecting. And that might have given you a clue, that the purpose of Instagram is to connect. Social media, the name gives it away a little bit, that’s social media platforms are for being social. They’re not called selling media. If you want to sell you can go to Google ads, Facebook ads, your newspaper, radio print, and there is a range of platforms and strategies that have been designed with the sole intention of selling. But social media is not at its core, a sales platform. At its core it’s a platform to connect with other humans, to bring people together, to help people, to make people feel less alone. So how does that work with your business then? Why do we even use Instagram if the purpose of it is not to sell when we run businesses and we want to sell more of our products or services? Well, I’ll tell you why. We use Instagram because it enables us to build the know, like and trust factor that we need with our audience today so that we can sell. It is very hard to cut through the clutter in today’s world of advertising. There is so much advertising happening everywhere we go and everywhere we look. We listen and consumers have learned to tune this out and won’t connect anymore with traditional advertising strategies. This is where social media comes into play. Using Instagram allows us to connect with our audience on a deeper level, to start building that know, like and trust factor so that when we are ready to sell to them they are already loyal to us, they already trust us and when they’re ready to buy they can jump and buy because we have spent the time building a strong foundation with our audience.
So yes you do sell on Instagram, but not in the traditional way that you might think of when you think of selling. For example, if you want a product-based business your audience wants to see more than just you posting new products that are for sale each day. They want to learn about the behind-the-scenes of the company, they want to know about what goes into the making of the products, or the packing of the products, they want to know about the business owner and your personality, and the dog you have and that you like going to the beach. People are curious and they crave connection. So if you’re an Instagram the way you set your business and your brand apart from all of the businesses in the same industry is you focus on connection rather than selling.
Your Instagram Strategy
Your Instagram strategy needs to follow the format of the sales funnel. This is the buying process that consumers go through on a regular basis and your job is to get them moving down this funnel to convert. I have attached the funnel below and I will go through each stage and how that relates to your Instagram strategy.
Awareness: Shareable – ReelsThis is the stage where you use Instagram Reels to attract a new and fresh audience. Reels have the potential to go viral and can reach a wider range of people than other tools on Instagram.
Interest: Provide Value – Stories
You can use Instagram stories to connect with your audience on a personal level. Showing them the behind-the-scenes of your business. Helping them to get to know you and building that know, like and trust factor. Post your stories once a day in a big chunk with lots of polls and engagement stickers within the stories to keep your audience engaged and to help with your engagement rate.
Consideration: Educate – Posts & IGTV
Posts are a great way to educate. Break down topics that you are the expert in and educate your audience on these said topics. You can also use Instagram TV to go more in-depth with training on specific topics that your audience has been requesting.
Conversion: Good Offer – Ads & Posts
You can use Facebook ads to drive sales for your business, especially if you are a product-based business. You can also run specific sales for your business and share these on your feed with posts. I generally remove sales posts after the sale has ended so that people don’t get confused though.
Your Week of Content:
2x Posts per week
3x Reels per week on the alternative days
Daily story, but you can set aside time in your calendar to do this in one big chunk, rather than having to be on your Instagram stories all-day
1x IGTV per week if you are a service-based business and video is your main form of content. Otherwise, you might only do 1x IGTV per month
10 minutes of daily intentional engagement
Instagram doesn’t have to be hard and overwhelming. We can use it to our advantage to grow our business when we are strategic with how it falls in line with the rest of our strategy.
Let me know if your Instagram strategy is like this?