In this day and age, it can be difficult to make your business’ Instagram account stand out in comparison to your competitors in the surrounding area. Here are 4 ways that you can improve your current Instagram marketing strategy to ensure you’re boosting your brand awareness.

Instagram is an important platform for your business to use; it allows you to easily show potential customers what your business can offer them. However, marketing your brand improperly on Instagram can quickly become a death sentence for your business since people can easily take one look at your posts and decide you’re not the right fit for them. If your Instagram marketing strategy is too generic, you won’t be able to grow your online brand beyond the occasional “like” on your posts. Here are 4 ways that you can improve your Instagram marketing strategy so that you gain more brand awareness.

Create Personalized Hashtags For Your Brand

Using the right hashtags is an essential step in your Instagram marketing strategy, but it’s tough to differentiate your brand if you use the same generic hashtags that your competitors use.

When you are promoting campaigns for your business, use branded hashtags instead. An example would be using #YourBizSummer19Sale rather than just tagging your post with #Sale. This is a simple and refreshing way of making your business stand out among a sea of hashtags on Instagram. In addition, it will make it easier for you to track your specific campaigns and see which one is gaining a larger following than another. Overall, using this technique will greatly improve the hashtag aspect of your Instagram marketing strategy.

Engage Your Followers With Occasional Contests Or Polls

Often times, there are people who passively follow Instagram accounts– they scroll through their feed and if they are intrigued by your post, they’ll stop scrolling to “like” it and quickly move on. If you want your followers to actively comment and interact with your Instagram account, this is an exceptional way to improve your Instagram marketing strategy.

Create contests for your followers by asking them to comment funny captions for certain posts and let the winning comment earn a small discount at your store (or some other prize you’re willing to give out). You could also involve your dedicated followers in polls on your Instagram story, asking them about which aspects of your business/brand they like or dislike.

Add Pictures Of Your Employees And Customers

This is one of the most important steps that should be included in your Instagram marketing strategy. It’s easier for potential customers to trust your business with their needs if you feel familiar to them and if they see you’ve successfully helped other customers as well.

When customers are researching similar businesses in the area, they’ll most likely pick one that has an Instagram account featuring happy employees or customers, rather than the Instagram account that only has pictures of their products/services.

Include Videos Showcasing Your Brand’s Offerings

Instagram provides more than just a platform to post pictures. People are more likely to stop and actively analyze your posts if it’s in video format rather than being a still image. Not only do videos quickly grab people’s attention on Instagram, but they also allow you to easily showcase your unique offerings!

If you are a business that makes handcrafted products, create a video showing the people and the process you go through when crafting your products. If you provide a service, you can still use videos to catch people’s attention– you’ll just have to be creative about how you do it!

Remember that you’re not confined to using videos for individual posts; if videos don’t gel with your Instagram account’s theme, you can create stories or utilize the IGTV features instead!

Having the best Instagram marketing strategy will help you stand out, and it will allow you to really connect with your followers/customers. At South Street & Co., we are dedicated to helping your business reach the right audience on social media. If your business is in need of further social media assistance, contact us today!