Instagram Is An Essential Ingredient In Your Marketing Recipe

Last week I wrote about “Hot Digital Marketing Trends in 2021” and Pinterest received much accolade. I would like to continue writing about an image platform and in this blog I will be addressing the benefits of Instagram marketing. Instagram hasn’t been with us all that long either. It was launched by Kevin Systrom in 2010 and added 25K users in one day. Facebook acquired the company only two years later. It is hard to believe what we did before Instagram, right? Let’s take closer look at Instagram marketing.

First, there’s still plenty of growth for Instagram and the platform is not yet saturated. At the end of 2020, Instagram reach the 1 billion users globally mark and the platform is still growing. Growth forecast had to be updated as the graph below shows:

When thinking about what social media platform to incorporate into your marketing strategy you need to research the demographic to ensure optimized targeting. Men slightly outnumber women in the <34 year-old age group but women outnumber men among users 35 and up. The sweet spot age group demographic is 25-34. Below is good visual for Instagram’s demographic (source: Statista 2021):

Obviously, you need to know your marketing goal, e.g. awareness or sales. Make sure you have all your ducks lined up before investing your precious marketing dollars. Here’s a cheat sheet you can check out from Hootsuite.

What are some of the benefits of advertising on Instagram?

1. You can reach the audience you want with Instagram’s targeting options like interests, behaviors or location
2. You can build a following for your brand
3. You can promote shoppable posts as ads
4. You can leverage influencer marketing on Instagram

Instagram is not only for major brands. Ads are easy to create and if you have a Shopify store you can also integrate your Shopify products with your Instagram business account. Here’s a quick guide on how this works: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-sales-channels/facebook/instagram/adding-instagram-shopping.

New trends are also on the horizon and brands need to be ready to embrace the upcoming Instagram trends. Last year in August Instagram introduced Reels (probably response to TikTok’s popularity). They are short 15 sec. videos. Since content can be fun and engaging it’s a way for brands to also increase sales. Here’s a tip: Research what trends are popular on TikTok and then apply that strategy to your Instagram Reels. Cause marketing will continue to grow and become more important for brands especially in a post-pandemic world. Also last year, Instagram launched a social fundraising feature. Take note brands! Digital activism will not go away so jump on that bandwagon (authentically obviously)! In last week’s blog I pointed out that social media has pivoted from discovery to more purchase intent thus brands should take advantage of Instagram’s shoppable posts. Other Instagram trends to watch out for are long-form videos and AR (augmented reality). Read our blog “Augmented Reality Is Becoming The New Reality” to dive deeper into AR.   

Take advantage of the power of Instagram marketing. You don’t need to have a large budget to start. Test the waters first and if something sticks you can always build on that. If you liked this post please leave a comment below. If you have any questions about 4Elements Digital contact us here. Spring has arrived and the pandemic seems to be phasing out. Finally! It has been quite ride for sure. Be good to each other and never stop learning. Cheers!

Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash