Instagram Marketing For Startups: A Brief Guide

Instagram is undoubtedly the largest and most popular photo-sharing platform on the internet. This is the reason why more businesses use it to promote their products. Even small businesses and startups are starting to realize the immense potential of Instagram marketing to promote their products and services. 

Sellers who used the platform in 2021 say that it’s their second-ranking driver of sales and revenue. This is enough reason to entice startups to launch their Instagram marketing campaigns to attract more followers. You might want to check out sites similar to this to know how other startups built their communities of real Instagram followers. 

Here’s a brief guide on how to make the most of Instagram marketing for startups:

1. Aim For A Consistent And Cohesive Theme 

One of the first things you have to know if you’re planning to create an account for your social media marketing campaign is that Instagram posts are like a website. You can use Instagram analytics tools to figure out the kind of audience you want to engage and the themes that appeal to them. 

Think of each Instagram post as individual pages of a website but still connected. This means that you have to make a post look good by itself or even when laid out with others.

Your posts should give the audience a cohesive feel and look like they’re parts of a single message. This should include the tone you use, the colors of your posts, and even your choice of fonts and hashtags.

2. Create Great Instagram Posts

One of the things you should know if you want to build a stellar account for business marketing is that Instagram is a visual platform. It’s a social media platform where you can share eye-catching pictures about your business and your products or services to the rest of the world, or a select audience if that’s what you want.

Your Instagram business account will be at its most potent if you use it to post great pictures and other digital graphics about your company’s products. Instagram is a dynamic global catalog of what people are doing, experiencing, or buying. Hence, you have to produce great visuals for your products because you’ll get the support of most people if they like what they see on your account. This is why businesses allot most of their marketing budget to design, logos, packaging, and appearances. When people see a cold glass of milk tea with the background blurred, they’d most likely click the hashtag or link to order one to try it out themselves.

Here are some tips on how to come up with fab Instagram visuals:

• Use light images instead of dark ones. Light pictures often receive about a quarter more likes than dark-themed pictures and visuals.
• Try to use backgrounds with more space and less clutter. Pictures that give off a more relaxed vibe rather than busy tend to get around 30% more likes than pictures that remind people of their daily hustle and bustle.
• Keep one dominant color in your pictures. These pictures get around 17% more likes than multicolored or kaleidoscope-like pictures.

3. Engage Your Audience

Engage your audience as often and meaningfully as your marketing capability and business operations permit. The one thing that people like to do on Instagram is to showcase pictures of themselves or their business products regardless of where they are or what they’re doing at the moment. So, Instagram is a personal branding without sounding too promotional, and this has worked well for businesses, too. 

You may also engage with other Instagram users by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts as often as you can. This works naturally like a subtle promotions network, with IG users feeling valued when you engage with them. 

You can engage with your audience in the following ways:

• Reply to comments as promptly as you can to keep that engagement going. 
• Post comments in trending comment threads. This would lead more people to click your profile and see your posts.
• Post Instagram stories to pique their curiosity. 
• Run contests or giveaways. These might seem too promotional for some audiences, so ensure that you strategize well for this. Suppose you’re marketing kibble and are selling them at a discounted price with added giveaways for every purchase. You may also mention that a part of the sales will go to the local animal shelter, which may entice more followers to buy from you.
• Post shoutouts to followers who mention your brand or products. 

4. Don’t Sell Too Much 

Use your Instagram account to create lead magnets for your marketing campaign, but don’t use it to do the heavy lifting for your product sales. Instagram is best suited to attract leads and prospective buyers to your website, where you can do the actual selling and take orders for your products. 

For example, you can occasionally post pictures and other visuals of your products without putting the prices or displaying they’re for sale. Make your pitch by adding an anchor text that backlinks to your website where possible buyers can see your products.

An unwritten rule in social media marketing says you should limit your posts that directly or overtly sell your products to around 20%. Then, devote the remaining 80% to creating quality content to engage your followers. This is sometimes called the 20/80 selling rule in social media marketing. The idea here is that you keep your audience hooked on engaging content and subtly lead them to your company website where you can do the selling job. 

Conclusion

Instagram is an excellent way to promote your business and products on the internet without doing hard selling. Thus, use Instagram marketing to attract followers and lead them to your website. To do this, your Instagram should have a consistent and cohesive theme and show eye-catching posts. Likewise, engage your audience by responding to their questions and comments. Furthermore, try to tone down your posts by ensuring there’s not too much selling going on but only leading them to your website instead.