The impact of instagram on the population is pretty evident when you look at the active user numbers. According to Statista, the active monthly users across the world for Instagram is over two billion people. Instagram is visual media, a simple social media platform that showcases pictures and short videos. Brands have adapted to this as a means to post pictures about their products and services.
Unlike other forms of marketing, social media platforms like Instagram make it easier and cost effective to run a marketing campaign. Based on the budget you have, you can customize your target audience reach to get the most conversion with a small amount. And the best part about the Instagram campaign is that you can track the performance of your campaign in real-time and edit it based on the analytics.
Instagram Features for eCommerce
Instagram started out as a social media platform for people to share photos but now has grown into a dominant marketing medium for eCommerce. The business accounts on Instagram provides your business with more analytical capabilities that you can use to learn about your target audiences and create marketing content to reflect on their interests.
Shoppable posts from Instagram enable the users to make a purchase directly through Instagram without having to leave the page. These posts have very high conversion rates. The introduction of stories, a 24 hr. limited viewing content, sends a tone of urgency to the users so that they take desired action before the time runs out.
Impact of Instagram on Small Businesses
The biggest benefactor from Instagram are the small businesses. Unlike big businesses with a vast amount of marketing budget, small businesses with limited marketing budgets can easily use instagram to advertise. There is the obvious competition from bigger businesses, but with the help of Instagram the public are aware and support local small businesses over the huge corporations.
While using Instagram to market, small businesses can set a radius around a location they want to advertise. This helps them target only the people around the vicinity to engage with a local business. With the right strategy, you can consistently grow your followers, increase brand awareness and drive sales.
Impact of Instagram Influencer
The popularity and the impact of Instagram on the public gave birth to a new kind of marketing: Influencer marketing. More and more brands are hopping on the bandwagon of influencers to promote their products. Instagram users with a large following and who can influence their followers with a purchasing decision are known as Instagram Influencers.
Brands collaborate with influencers to increase awareness about their product and in turn convert it to sales. Influencers have their own brand identity and your business should choose an influencer who reflects your branding. Choosing influencers will backfire sometimes, like in the case of Bud Light, the top selling beer brand that went from number one to the worst downfall because of the influencer choice.
Finding the Right Influencer
Nowadays everyone you find on Instagram claims to be an influencer. But as a business owner, you have to filter the fake ones from the real ones. Once you find the influencers that reflect on your brand tone, the next thing to do is have a transparent communication about the marketing strategy and pricings.
There are plenty of online tools to find the engagement rates of influencers. Before you finalize on the influencer, check the engagement rate of your influencer. Influencers who have more than 3% engagement rate are considered good, anything below this rate will give you a lesser ROI for the influencer campaign.
Creating Influencer Campaigns
Now that you have zeroed in on the influencer that you want to be the face of the brand. Next step is to create an influencer campaign idea. Some influencers have their own marketing team to help you with creating campaign ideas, but it’s always good to research beforehand. Search for what is trending on Instagram and craft a campaign around it in order to reach a higher number of people.
Influencers are people and it is wise to create campaigns that do not have any socio-economic context attached with them. Content spreads quickly on social media and making a wrong move might cause you huge setbacks. Once the campaign is live, keep a close track of the campaign using Instagram business analytical tools.
Measuring ROI on Influencer Campaign
It is evident from the fact that more and more businesses are adopting influencer marketing to increase their sales. However, it’s not easy to measure the ROI on influencer marketing. There are various factors to consider including the cost of partnering with the influencer, the reach and engagement of their posts, and the resulting sales and conversions.
In order to measure an accurate ROI, you need to establish clear goals and metrics for the influencer campaign. Once the campaign is live you have to keep a track and analyze data on engagement and conversions, then you have to compare these conversions with the cost of the campaign to get your ROI.
Impact of Instagram on Visual Storytelling
As mentioned earlier Instagram is a social media that enables its user to upload photos and the visual storytelling is the strong suite to gain followers on this platform. It is proven that an average human brain processes visuals faster than texts. Incorporating strong visuals for your brand while using Instagram advertising will have more impact on the viewers in comparison to texts.
Strong visuals along with a shoppable post feature opens the gateway for more users to engage an Instagram post and lead to a sale or to take a desired action. Creating visually engaging content should be the higher priority for brands willing to succeed on Instagram. With the right analytical data, you can craft a memorable visual for your target audience.
Creating Visually Appealing Content
The secret ingredient for a captivating and engaging post on Instagram is its visuals. Instagram is a visual media and as a business profile, you have to create visually appealing content. If you are selling a product, make sure you uploaded a series of professional images of the products. Take the pictures in multiple angles and post them as a carousel post for the users.
If your business focuses on the service sector, create posts with typographies that reflect your brand. Don’t overcrowd a post with texts. You can always explain more in depth on the body copy of the post. Before you post anything, run it by a small focus group to get opinions and feedback on them.
User-Generated Content
The impact of Instagram on the livelihood and the influence on the purchasing decision of the consumer can become a double edged sword for a brand or a product. As long as your business is honest and sells reliable products or services, user-generated praise worthy content on Instagram will increase your sales drastically.
But if your brand or product turns out to be faulty and the consumers go on social media about it, then be prepared for a low to no sales unless or until you rectify it. Instagram gave power to the consumer and now their opinion can be collectively shared. As a brand, you have to be active on social media to address these user-generated contents.
Measuring the Success of Visual Storytelling
If you are a business owner who wants to increase the engagement and conversion rates from your Instagram account, then you just can’t sit and relax hoping one day your business post will be popular. You have to actively monitor the performance of your posts. Using Instagram’s analytics you can measure various metrics such as engagement rates, reach and conversion rates.
With a clear understanding of the insights you get from the analytics, you can craft your visual content on the basis of previous contents that received higher engagements. Play around with creating and combining different elements from various posts to keep a steady growth of followers.
Instagram Advertising for eCommerce: Is it Worth the Investment?
It is without a doubt that Instagram has grown to be a powerful social media that influences billions of people everyday. More people spend time on Instagram and discover brands and products they could have never come across otherwise. The visual nature of Instagram aligns with brands that are selling products and hence it is a platform worth investing on.
The capability of Instagram to reach your posts to your desired target audience with an affordable pricing is something no business owner can miss. The costs that you spend on other forms of marketing in comparison to the conversion rates that Instagram brings to the table is a testament to effective marketing.
Different Types of Instagram Ads
There are quite a few different ways your business can advertise on Instagram. Photo ads are the most common ones in which you post a static photo about your product or services with a body copy. Next we have video ads, here you can post short videos promoting your product/services. Create these videos in portrait mode for mobile viewing.
Carousel ads are just a combination of multiple photo ads where the viewer can swipe up to 10 posts under a single post space. Besides running ads, you can also post stories that disappear within 24 hours to announce any deals or offers that run only for a day or two.
Creating Effective Instagram Ads
The Impact of Instagram can only be felt if you create effective ads that capture the attention of your target audience. Before you start crafting your ad, you have to research the interests of your target audience. Once you know what captures their attention, you can create visually relevant content along with a descriptive body copy that helps your viewers to know more about what the post entails.
Be consistent with your Instagram postings. Don’t always post one type of content, utilize videos, carousels, stories etc. to liven up your brand image. Finally, measure user engagement and interactions on every post that you post so that you get to know what resonates best with your target audience.
Measuring ROI on Instagram Ads
Measuring the ROI on Instagram requires an in depth analysis on the date that the analytical tool provides once you run an ad via Instagram. You can calculate the ROI by collecting metrics of engagement rates, impressions and the overall reach of the particular ad. Even with these data, the actual sales number might be hard to translate these metrics into actual sales figures.
The budget that was used on ads could greatly vary depending on if the content was created in-house or not, if it increased or reduced your followers, and the overall positive or negative interactions it received. Here is a guide that will help you with ROI calculation for Instagram ads.
Impact of Instagram on the Future of eCommerce
It is an undeniable fact that the world is becoming more digital with each passing day. The most exciting and high converting feature is social commerce. With these features, users can shop for products directly through Instagram. This will make brand websites more obsolete in the coming days.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) has penetrated every sector of industry and it won’t be surprising if it starts to influence customers soon. With AR and VR customers will have a chance to try on different products before making a purchase. Personalization will also see a huge improvement and this will narrow and send advertising materials that are highly focused on the viewers.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
AR and VR technology lets you create and live in a world that doesn’t exist. This escapism has reflected on consumers and brands to explore it more. In the current version of Instagram, you can use AR and VR filters on camera to identify the surroundings in order to apply various effects.
Brands have successfully used these filters to create their own versions of filters for users to use. AR and VR filters increase customer loyalty by means of sharing the content over to their followers. With more advancements in this technology, users might be able to do more that they can do right now.
Standalone eCommerce Store
What started out as a photo-sharing app for the people, Instagram has grown to become a powerhouse of advertising medium for brands. The visual nature of this medium has helped brands showcase their products and services in a clear way. And the viewers can make a purchase directly through Instagram without the need to switch to an ecommerce store.
This feature will change the whole eCommerce landscape and how consumers will perceive online shopping. It is a trend to keep a close watch on. Brands should be in a position to adapt to the changing landscape of eCommerce shopping trends among consumers.
How to Stay Ahead
If your business wants to stay ahead of the curve, it is vital to adapt to the changes quickly. Social media platforms like Instagram always keep introducing new features via updates. As a business owner you have to keep an eye out on these features and try them out for your brands.
Whatever the new features maybe, never lose the quality of the content that you post. If a certain feature doesn’t reflect on the brand image, find alternative ways on how to incorporate these features. You can use influencers or brand partnership etc. to exploit the full potential of Instagram and stay ahead of the game.
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