Instagram Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

Instagram has now become a go-to social networking website for all kinds of business. It has emerged as a trendy tool for managing different marketing activities. Established businesses like Nike, Durex, etc. are making the best use of the platform. 

The use of Instagram marketing is not restricted to only these multinationals and huge companies. Small businesses are now finding their spaces in these huge networks. They are making the best use of Instagram to increase the reach and promote their business online.

Listed below are some of the useful Instagram marketing tips for small businesses:

Instagram Stories

Instagram has this popular feature of putting up stories that stay for 24-hours on the company's Instagram page. Stories will keep your audience hooked to your page. This way, you will be able to easily promote your business and its offerings. These stories have great potential and are also trending on the internet. 

Use this feature as a tool to give your consumers small insights into your business daily. 

Keep a track on the comments

Comments usually give you insights on what your consumers want. These comments also help you in understanding where you are going wrong or what you could have done better. Monitoring and reading the comments is critical. 

Also, the business must make sure that it addresses all the comments on a particular post. This builds a positive image of the business in the eyes of the existing and potential consumers. 

Monitor the performance

After posting a video or a visual, it is important to keep track of what’s working for you. Tracking audience engagement is a critical step while you are using Instagram to run a campaign or market your products.

A small business can effectively make use of Instagram reporting tools to track the performance of your posts. These figures will give you an insight into what your customers are liking and what strategy is not working for you. This gives you a window of improvement, and also you can now drive your strategies in the direction the consumer wants.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has become a go-to strategy for all kinds of businesses irrespective of how big or small the business is. Several local influencers are dominating the market. These influencers have a huge follower base which a small company can leverage on in exchange for a little money. Brands can get in touch with these influencers and ask them for a video or a static post on their Instagram pages. You can also connect with an influencer to launch an Instagram contest to increase your engagement with your target audience.

Use hashtags

Hashtags are the lifeblood of Instagram. With the use of proper and relevant hashtags, a small business can make the best use of Instagram. Make sure not to use random hashtags. 

A business must use proper hashtags to reach its audience. Also, these businesses can post content related to the trending hashtags on Instagram. Also, using broad hashtags always works. 

Take the video route

Videos are the new Gospels of marketing. Make sure to post more video content on the Instagram page. A small business can easily create videos using video editing software like InVideo. This software is easy to use and is less time-consuming. These videos can also be made on a phone or a laptop. 

With the help of videos, you will be able to connect well with your audience. 

Instagram Ads

Ads are significant when it comes to video generation. However, platforms like Facebook and YouTube are quite expensive in terms of the ad cost involved. Therefore, Instagram becomes a more accessible tool for these small businesses to run ads and promote their products. 

Small businesses can create custom images that can be used in bumper ads or static ads. Instagram also gives you a channel to enhance the aesthetic appeal of these ads.

Repost and Regram

Small businesses support each other. Therefore, it is very important to build a cohesive atmosphere for all small businesses to conduct operations.  A small business can grow its network by reposting relevant content posted by other pages operated by different companies. 

This strategy can give your page the required momentum. You can use different applications to repost. Alternatively, you can also share public posts by different companies on Instagram stories. This has become a really popular way to network with other small and large businesses.

Reach out or target your competitor's followers

People who are following your competitors fall under the category of your direct consumers. These people share a common interest. Therefore, it becomes important for you to target these consumers and build an engagement with these people. 

You can make a list of your direct competitors and study their Instagram pages. You can easily check what your competitors are doing to market their product and how do these pages engage with their competitors. Try with following those people and using similar hashtags. This will increase the visibility of your posts and your Instagram page. 

Organize an Instagram contest

Instagram has been successfully using different contests for product promotions. Small businesses can launch small competitions and giveaways to create a buzz among their followers. Different kinds of the Instagram contest can be organized to increase engagement with your target audience. Some of these contests would include small quizzes, treasure hunts, selfie competitions, etc.

However, you can create a much larger impact by providing your consumers with experience. You can ask them to prepare a video and then publish the best entries on your Instagram page as posts or Instagram stories.

Instagram has now emerged as a very popular and useful tool to promote all kinds of businesses. Therefore, a small business can make the best use of the features that Instagram has to offer. Small businesses can also collaborate with businesses to increase their reach and promote their products to a broader set of audiences and also to gain mass popularity.