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
