Instagram Advertising

Instagram is by far my favorite social media platform, not just for its clean design, but also its photographic and creative aesthetic. From a marketing perspective, I really think the platform is going to take off like a rocket in the next few years. Recent news helps to solidify this.

Instagram now has more than 8 million users with a business profile, with the greatest amount originating from the UK, US, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia. In the past year, Instagram has grown its advertiser base to more than 1 million monthly active advertisers, doubling the number in the past six months. What is so great about these numbers is that the majority of these are small businesses in which almost 13% are using Instagram to host their engagements with customers and market themselves at the same time.

One of these small businesses is SpearmintLOVE, a website selling infant and toddler clothing and accessories. Founder and CEO Shari Lott said:

“Instagram gave us a chance to grow the business. From the beginning it was a community of fellow mums to help get the word out, then it was buyers tagging us in photos of products they think we’d like for the shop, to increasing sales through adverts that reach people who were interested but had yet to buy.”

Instagram is an easy tool for businesses to advertise themselves. Companies can create an ad from a business profile in as little as four taps. In the case of SpearmintLOVE, their marketing journey started as an online community of moms discussing the topic of baby products and spreading the word. From this it turned into an opportunity for an online store to buy and sell. This method of community first, sales second is Instagram’s niche.

It is important to remember that Instagram is used prominently as a mobile platform, unlike Pinterest and Facebook that can be used on a desktop as well. With the promotional advertisements fitting so seamlessly within your mobile feed, Instagram has become a prime place for native advertising. 80 per cent of Instagrammers currently follow at least one business. In Retrospect,many times I don’t realize the promotional content I am following is promotional. It is the one place I actually enjoy looking at advertisements because it doesn’t scream WE WANT YOUR MONEY. Instead, it feels like the business prefers my brand loyalty and engagement.

This is obviously working for the mobile marketing teams of these companies because in the last month, over 120 million Instagrammers visited a website, received directions, called, emailed or direct-messaged to learn about the business they found on Instagram. Good quality mobile content will lead to high click through rates, subscriptions and sales just by giving the consumer what they want, a brand worth loving.

Marketing yourself on Instagram is becoming more dynamic with the ability to book a service with a business directly from their profile. It also offers businesses more insights on stories, posts saved and multi-post images, so that they have a better understanding of who their followers are.

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#digitalmarketing #socialmedia #Instagram #marketing