Tips to improve your Instagram marketing strategy
No social media strategy is complete without Instagram marketing. If your business is not active on Instagram or other social media platforms then your competitors definitely are.
The thing is, having an Instagram profile does not necessarily translate to sales you need to have a strategy to help you get the best out of it. Instagram marketing in Kenya can help your increase your brand awareness, increase sales and build a community.
These tips will help you improve your Instagram marketing strategy today.
Optimize your profile
First impression matters. When someone visits your Instagram account what is the first thing they see?
Your profile should communicate who you are and what you do from your bio, profile picture to your recent posts.
Consider using your logo as your profile picture because its is more recognizable than a picture of your products. You can as well include your website URL on your bio for people to visit your website because you can’t link your website on your posts.
Post regularly
Your Instagram account needs to be updated regularly. You just can’t be posting once a month and expect to grow your account.
You might consider having a content calendar that will help you in coming up with content and scheduling them in advance using free scheduling tools like Hootsuite.
You might consider posting one post per day if you want your brand to be fresh in the minds of your followers. Also if you have lots of content that you want to share each day, it’s better to add it to your Instagram story than flooding your followers feed which might be perceived as annoying.
Don’t be too ‘salesy’
The aim of your Instagram account is to ultimately drive sales but that doesn’t mean all your posts should be product promotion.
As we have always said, people don’t want to be sold to all the time, therefore mix up your content. Throw in some funny images, educate people on your products, motivate your followers, have some giveaways so long as it doesn’t stray too far from your brand image.
46% of users say they will unfollow a brand on social media if it posts promotions too frequently. Keep your posts short and to the point and keep off from using all caps in your posts if not necessary.
Use Insta Story
You can add videos and images to your Insta stories. You can add multiple images or videos a day without having to populate the timeline of your followers. If you have an Instagram shop you can even tag a product and people can view it on your shop.
Go Live
Instagram has a live broadcast and users love it.
As a business take this to your advantage and use it to connect with your audience in real-time. Don’t forget to comment on your followers’ comments while you are at it this will help you increase your engagement metrics.
You could use a live stream to introduce a new product, demonstrate the usage of a product, introduce your team or even have a QnA segment.
Partner with influencers
We know that 82% of people are likely to follow recommendations made by micro-influencers. And 94% of consumers believe these influencers are highly knowledgeable.
Influencers can help you promote your products, brand and services in an effective way. Influencers are a good way of helping with brand awareness and also getting you more sales. Most Influencers charge less compared to celebrities.
In Kenya, some influencers charge from as low as Ksh 1,000 to advertise on their Insta stories or their posts.
You can as well send them free products and then they can mention you on their videos.
Captions and Hashtags
Imagine if you post a product image without a caption, what do you want people to do?
Captions are as important as the images and videos in your posts and hashtags are definitely necessary.
You can use a branded hashtag or a popular hashtag to give you more reach.
Invest in Ads
The easiest way to reach people who don’t know you or follow your account is through the use of paid ads.
You can use ads to reach more people through Instagram targeting by age, location, interest among others. This can help you increase your brand awareness and get you more sales. You can run ads with as low as ksh.200 per day. Though it won’t get you as much results it will still be something.
Run Contests and giveaways
Contest and giveaways are the most effective ways of getting more people to follow your page as well as get more engagement. The tweak is that you need to know how to do it to effectively get a good response and also what you are giving away.
From the contest, you can make more than what you gave away. You can as well ask your followers to upload a picture and tag your brand this will expose your company to the people who follow the user’s account.
From this contest, the page will get more traction as well as more followers. It’s the easiest way of increasing brand following and brand awareness within a short period of time.
Shoppable posts
If you’re an e-commerce brand then you need to take advantage of this feature. You can sell your products directly through Instagram and you tag the products on your stories and posts. From the post, you can tag a product from which people will see the product name, price and a link to purchase.
Repost your products
If you post a product just once and never post it again, chances are people might have missed it or forgotten about it.
The first time they see your product, they may not have a reason to buy it. But if they see it more than once, it may start to pique their interest.
According to a study from Sprout Social, more than 60% of people need to see something on social media between two and four times before they buy it.
Don’t use the same image four times, have a strategy around it from the first post. You can use images as well as videos.
Remember posting the same product multiple times can increase the chances of people buying it.
Respond to comments and messages
In this day and time, you need to respond to people’s comments and messages no matter how tedious and time-consuming it is otherwise it will boil down to negative reviews.
People appreciate when they ask a question and they get a response. Responding to comments shows users that you value customer services. Even if it’s negative feedback, respond to it in a courteous and professional manner without defending yourself. Customer’s reviews can build or break your business and you need to tread carefully.
If you can’t respond to the comments or messages hire someone to do it for you otherwise it may tamper with your brand reputation.
Hopefully, these tips can help you with your Instagram marketing in Kenya and help you get more sales.
Also Read: The Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide in 2021
Instagram marketing in Kenya
Instagram is growing fast with over 3M users in Kenya with youths being the majority users. It is fast catching up with Facebook which has the highest number of users in Kenya.
Knowing how to conduct Instagram marketing in Kenya is important for any business. Below are some of the important ways you can market your business on Instagram.
How to successfully conduct Instagram marketing
Identify your audience
You must always know the audience for your products and services. This will include monitoring what your target audience is following and creating strategies that match them so as to capture their attention. Creates posts that can generate a conversation with your audience to get their opinion of your brand. You can also use social media tools that will tell you what your consumers are saying about your brand.
Clearly defined Bio
Your bio is about giving a clear picture of your business with one image and 150 characters describing the brand. It is not just your name, website URL and username that present your brand.
Let your bio be clear, brief and captivating to draw the audience attention. Use a call to action to make people click on your link. Choose a captivating image that will draw peoples attention to want to know more about your brand
Fixed Theme
Use a clearly defined theme on your profile that will give your page a consistent look so that when your audience see your images they know it is you. You can do this by using similar colours in your images or a specific subject matter. For example, Safaricom’s theme is green . whenever you see an image made by Safaricom you can never fail to know it is them. This branding will help you get more attention when you make a marketing campaign because people can easily identify you.
Achievable Goals
A good marketing strategy must always have defined goals which are achievable and can be monitored during a campaign. This will always help you to plan ahead and measure your success.
Analytics
The best way to measure your goals is through analytics. There are a couple of analytic tools that you can use to see the progress of your campaign. Instagram has an inbuild analytic tool called Instagram insight, with this you can be able to see the engagement on your post, the number of likes, comments and follower rates among others. With this, you can know how each post is performing and the changes you can make.
Consistent Posting
Consistency is key for Instagram marketing. Ensure you be consistent with posting information on your page so as to keep your followers engaged. You can schedule newsfeed in advance so that you don’t miss any posting to ensure consistency. If you don’t have enough content to post, do not just post anything or you will be compromising your brand.
Use strong Hashtags
Hashtags make your posts searchable. For you to stay on top, you need to use a combination of branded hashtags and trending hashtags. Always start with the trending hashtags in your industry this is because most people will be searching for that. This will help you attract more people to your page.
Share posts that are related to the trending hashtags so as to attract more people. Most of the businesses promote their Instagram marketing in Kenya using the trending hashtags to attract more people on their Instagram page.
How to Get Your Instagram Stories Featured on the Explore Tab
Instagram right now has more than one billion monthly active users therefore, if you want to get a higher level of visibility, you should be thinking on how to get your Instagram stories on the Explore tab.
Instagram is fast growing in Kenya as a preferred social media platform and has around 3M users. It’s fast catching up with Facebook which has the highest number of social media users.
How the Instagram Explore Tab Works
Instagram Explore page works by using the Instagram algorithm to learn about your behavior on the app, particularly what you like and engage with the most.
When you click on your Explore Page and click on another person’s explore page, you will notice that the results are completely different because the explore page is tailored to meet your activity.
Instagram Explore page recommends tons of suggestions of similar content that you might like, but you don’t already follow. This is why getting on this page is important.
Time Your Posts
In Instagram the best performing posts are the ones getting instant viral reaction. This therefore requires you to know the best time to post.
Research shows that the best time to post content on Instagram is at 5 pm since people are getting off from work. When you get a higher engagement level Instagram will recognize it as of importance and put you on the Explore tab.
Use Instagram Analytics
To know if you’re on the Explore Page, head to your Instagram feed and tap the View Insights button underneath your post. From here, you can swipe up to gain more metrics around your post performance.
The Explore page is compiled based on the user activity, so you should be regularly analyzing your Instagram Analytics to figure out whether you’re hitting the necessary niche for you to be featured.
Make Your Brand Aesthetic Consistent
Make your brand consistent whenever you’re posting on Instagram, this includes the style, colour and tone to increase your Instagram success.
Use Video Content to Stand Out
In the Explore tab, the video plays automatically when you scroll over. The chances of a user stopping to view your video is more likely than a static post.
Through people interacting to your video, you’re likely to gain more viewership hence appearing on the Explore tab.
You can create videos from:
- Adding motion to your still images
- Adding an animated element to a still image
- Adding a moving background to a still image
- Shoot boomerangs or Create GIF Loop Photos from Still Images
Instagram is fast growing in Kenya, and is one of the the most popular social media platforms among the youth.
To find out how to grow our business using Instagram, click here.
Want to scale your business with Instagram?
Have you ever done business with Instagram, or have an active Instagram account for your business?
WATCH OUT for some insane 💣#valuebombs 🔥 below on how to Scale Your Business using Instagram
Its one of the fastest growing social media networks, see below;
Below you will discover the top 6 tips for building a successful IG account organically that drives leads and customers to your business.
Instagram is an engine⚙️ that has several moving parts and these tips you are about to get will help you ignite it and get you results very quickly.
1. Market Research
You have to understand your audience and what attracts them as a consumer.
No one gets super excited when they see your products FOR JUST $9.99, BUY RIGHT NOW!!!! That simply doesn’t happen. Research what your audience likes the most and what they would like to see (don’t forget you have to think as the buyer, not the seller). Find what other pages are doing and analyze what is getting good engagement and what is not, find what you can improve to outwork those pages in order to stand out and separate yourself from the averages.
2. Post with Purpose😉
You have to create/curate content with purpose. Create/Use content that is engaging that drives people to like and comment and be more curious about your brand, content that they can relate to (by using market research). When you already found what your audience like compile a list of the best performing posts and have that list of content ready to cover one month of posting, that way you will only post the best of the best and it will guarantee you success. (repeat every month)
3. Consistency
If you did your homework in market research you probably noticed that every successful post consistent content, you will never have the results that you want if you put minimum work to get by. For creators at least once a day and for curators 3 times a day (Let me know in the comments if you want me to address posting optimization in another article). Also if you have the money and posting it’s a bit of a headache, you can always hire someone that knows his stuff to do it for you.
4. Captions
Instagram is a free platform, they make money by showing you ads so the more time you spend in the platform the more money they make that’s why if you can make your audience stay on the platform longer they are going to reward you with more exposure. Captions are a good way of keeping the attention of your audience, ask questions that encourage people to answer, humans like to give opinions about topics (and they also like to be heard so always try to reply your comments if they are more than 100 comments at least like those comments) Good examples of questions you can ask are:
.Where are you all from?
Comment your own country and flag!
.Can you relate?
.What’s your favorite emoji?
Comment your favorite emoji below.
.Rate this shot/object from 1-10
.Do you have a friend that love doing this?
Tag a friend that would love to do this/sucks at doing this
.Describe yourself with 5 emoji
The most unique one wins!
.Left vs Right?
Real vs Fake?
.What friend would you take to this destination?
Tag a friend you are taking to this destination
These are good general examples of captions that trigger people to give their opinions, obviously, you want to make them specifically for your brand. If you are in the dog niche you would say something like this: “Rate the level of cuteness form 1 to 10” or if you are in the travel niche you could say: “Tag a friend you are taking to this amazing hotel in Joberg, South Africa”.
5. Hashtags #
This tool allows you to get exposure if you use them the correct way. Don’t put general hashtags like #love, do your research! A mistake it’s commonly made by beginners even big pages is not using relevant hashtags if you post a picture of a cute dog, don’t put #kiss or #instabeauty, it’s better to put 5 relevant niche specific hashtags than 25 crazy ones. Also the number of hashtags is important, a lot of people say that you have to use all of the 30 “hashtags per post” and other say that IG doesn’t like that and it’s better to use only 5, I honestly think a mix of both theories is the best way to go 10-15 hashtags will be the right spot for me.
6. Networking🌐
Instagram is a social media platform, how are you going to succeed in it without being social, it doesn’t make sense right?. Did you know that if an account likes your content a percentage of his followers have a chance to see your post? So if a 30k account likes your post that will be much more powerful than a 500 account. You need to network with big pages, but how can you do that? GIVE VALUE first and then ask. Start with accounts with 5k to 10k and work your way up (You can also start with 100k accounts). Utilize these clever words that someone used to get me in his Dm group. You would say: “Hey I love your content and the way you are you projecting the image of your brand, I’m starting a Dm group with 100k+ highly active accounts in the same niche, Would you like to join” Now you are giving value to them they only have to say yes and they are going be with other 100k accounts, you message 40 accounts, only 10 say yes, you add them and BUM! You have a Dm group with 100k+ accounts.
With this 6 tips you are going to get a lot of exposure it’s in your hands to convert that traffic into sales and customers. You will have sales organically by having the link in your bio but you can also use more creative ways. So how do you get them to buy your product? STORIES and LIVES are the best way to get sales. You can literally ask them if they would like this product and later with PIN stories you can see the people that said yes and send them a Dm with the offer simple. Plz, make your story “a story” don’t just put BUY NOW!! With a picture of the product! Make a video using the product and ask them an engaging question.
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Instagram for Business in Kenya is catching up real fast, don’t be left behind.
By you commenting helps the next person after you to see it on their FB feed 😊😄
So share the love and don’t be greedy 😜