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
The Ultimate Instagram Marketing Strategy Guide in 2021
After Facebook, Instagram is the second most accessed network with users browsing for an average of 53 minutes per day.
Instagram marketing in Kenya has gained popularity with many businesses adopting it as a marketing tool to help increase sales and brand awareness.
According to research, about 59% of Instagram’s active users visit the site daily and spend at least 7 hours per week browsing and interacting with friends and brands.
Instagram can help you increase your brand awareness through the use of captivating images, videos and shopping features. Instagram’s biggest advantage is that it is visual in nature: through videos and images.
I know it can be a little intimidating at first but with this guide hopefully, you can find your way around it and increase your brand awareness and sales.
Before you dive into any social media no matter how well it works for other businesses, it is important to establish a strategy that will keep you focused on your goals and your audience.
How to build your Instagram Marketing Strategy
Set your goals
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you need to answer exactly why you want to be on Instagram. Do you want to generate leads, build a community or increase your brand awareness?
Setting goals will help you determine the content that you will have on the platform, how much money to spend, the time you will spend on the platform and the returns that you will get from the platform.
As a business, you can use Instagram to post and sell your products to your customers. You can create an Instagram shop to display the different products that you sell from which your customer can shop directly or add the items to their wishlist.
Some other businesses use Instagram to showcase their products or services without directly selling, while other use the platform to build brand awareness by posting fun visuals, quotes, gifs among others.
Each brand’s goals are different so be sure to determine your Instagram goals.
Determine your target audience
Who do you want to reach on Instagram, if you have any social media or marketing strategy you can draw from it to keep your efforts consistent. From this, you can know the type of content that they would want to see depending on their age, location, income, pain points and interests.
Having this information prevents you from shooting in the dark and wasting a lot of time trying to figure it out.
When you know who your target audience is, you can create content that is curated to fit their needs which will make it easier to sell to them.
Competitive analysis
It’s good to check what other businesses in your industry are doing on the gram. If you know your top competitors search for their accounts and see what they are posting and the posts that are getting more engagements. If you don’t know who they are use your industry keywords to search for them.
Conduct an audit of their accounts and check on the type of images they are using, their captions, frequency of posting, their hashtags and how they are growing.
Don’t forget to check out the opportunities that they are missing out on. With this information, you can know how to strategize on your content and make your business stand out.
Content calendar
If you are in business I know you are on other social media channels and keeping up with all of them can be a bit overwhelming at times.
That’s why having a content calendar is important. A content calendar can help you plan your Instagram posts groom the image you will use, captions, hashtags and the time you will post.
Take time to create your content calendar and update it either weekly or monthly depending with your industry. There are also some scheduling tools that can help you schedule your posts in advance so that you are not overwhelmed eg, Hootsuite and Sprout Social which are free.
Consistent brand
Try to maintain a consistent brand aesthetic on your Instagram. Try to keep up with your brand colours and values.
Brand aesthetic means that someone can see your picture in their feed and instantly know it’s you without seeing your name.
You can do this by using the same background, lighting, font type or even the same filter. The thing is whatever you choose to go with use it consistently.
Grow your Instagram follower base
We saved the best for last. Growing your Instagram account takes time and energy and you might be tempted to buy followers but DON’T. Why? Purchasing followers won’t drive engagement and Instagram will automatically delete those followers.
How to increase your Instagram followers
Username – Make sure your username is searchable and recognizable. If people can’t find you they can’t follow you. Optimize your profile with your information including who you are and what you do.
Posting– Once your profile is optimized start posting. If your account is new populate your feed with at least 10 to 15 high-quality posts before you start engaging with people because if people visit your profile and it’s empty they will most likely not follow you.
Following– Start following other accounts that interest you or are similar to what you do. Look for businesses in your area or influencers who might be interested in your products or services.
Interact– This is the most natural way of drawing attention to your account without appearing spammy. After you follow people interact with their comment by commenting on their posts or even leaving a like. By doing this, other people might check out your account and follow you.
Collaborate– Invite influencers to share your accounts or collaborate with similar accounts.
Instagram marketing in Kenya has gained traction with many businesses preferring it as their platform of focus compared to Facebook. If you are looking to take your business on Instagram, it could help you in making sales and increasing your brand awareness.
We hope these tips can help you come up with a clear strategy that will help you sell more on Instagram.
Also Read: How to Get Your Instagram Stories Featured on the Explore Tab