A

Project Report
O
n
Emerging role of Instagram Marketing

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of

Bachelor of Business Administration

.
S.S. JAIN SUBODH P.G. (AUTONOMOUS) COLLEGE, JAIPUR
(2021-22)

SUBMITTED BY SUBMITTED To
Name of the Student : Puneet Saini
Roll No.: 2141153 Faculty Guide
B.B.A. IV Sem. NAME : Dr. Ravi Gupta
DESIGNATION: Assistant Professor

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Report entitled “Emerging Role of Instagram Marketing ” is a
record of project work done independently by Mr. Puneet Saini under my guidance and
supervision and that it has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree,
fellowship or associate ship.

Dr. Ravi Gupta

(Assistant Professor)

S.S. Jain Subodh P.G. (Autonomous)

College Jaipur

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 DECLARATION

I, Puneet Saini student of BBA Sem IV hereby declare that the project work presented in this
report is my own work and has been carried out under the supervision of Dr. Ravi Gupta of S.S
Jain Subodh P.G(Autonomous) College.

This work has not been previously submitted to any other university for any examination.

Puneet Saini

S.S.Jain Subodh P.G.

(Autonomous)College Jaipur

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is not often in life that you get a chance of appreciating and expressing your feelings
in black and white to thank the people who have been a crucial part of your successes,
your accomplishments, and your being what you are today. I take this opportunity to
first of all thank the Faculty at S.S. Jain Subodh P.G.(Autonomous)College, especially
Prof. K.B.Sharma, Principal, and Dr.Priti Gupta, Head, Department of BBA for
inculcating and instilling me the knowledge, learning, will-power, values and the
competitiveness and professionalism required by me as a management student.

I would like to give special thanks to Dr.Ravi Gupta (Faculty Guide) for educating me
silver lining in every dark cloud. His enduring efforts, guidance, patience and
enthusiasm have given a sense of direction and purposefulness to this project and
ultimately made it a success.

I express my sincere and heartiest thanks to everyone who has contributed towards the
successful completion of the Project.

Last but not the least; I would like to thank my family: my parents for supporting me
spiritually throughout my life.

The errors and inconsistencies remain my own.

PUNEET SAINI

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

 Introduction

 Why Instagram marketing is important for business ?

 Strategy for instagram marketing

 How to create instagram business account

 Types of post

 Instagram marketing tips

 Instagram marketing ideas and examples

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 INTRODUCTION

Instagram

Instagram is an American photo and video sharing social networking service

founded in 2010 by Kevin systrom and mike Krieger,and later acquired by
facebook inc.. the app allows users to upload media that can be edited with
filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging .

Post can be shared publicly or with preapproved followers users can browse
others users to add their content to a personal feed.

Instagram is the second most accessed network behind Facebook. The

popular visual-first social medium sees over one billion active monthly users
and 500 million daily Instagram Stories.

Everyone and their dog (literally) is on the social media platform.

“Everyone” includes individuals, pets, and, you guessed it, businesses.

The increase in brands who've developed a presence on the platform has

skyrocketed. Oberlo estimates that 71% of US businesses use Instagram. But
is it worth their time, and should your business also be on the platform? The
answer is yes, and here’s why:

 Instagram sees over one billion active monthly users and 500 million daily
Instagram Stories.

 There are 140 million Instagram users in the U.S.

 Instagram is the second most accessed network behind Facebook. Users

browse for an average of 53 minutes per day.

 About 71% of US businesses use Instagram.

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 Nearly 45% of Instagram’s users are between the ages of 18 and 44.

New Data: Instagram Engagement Report [2022 Version]

 About

90%

of Instagram users follow at least one business

 There are more than

1B

active monthly Instagram users

 More than

83%

of Instagram users have discovered a new product or service on the platform

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 It’s clear that Instagram isn’t just for personal use anymore. It’s now a
global platform that allows brands to humanize their content, recruit new
talent, showcase products, and inspire their audience.

Moreover, Instagram users aren’t just active — they’re engaged. About

59% of the platform’s active users visit the site daily, and spend at least 7
hours per week browsing content and interacting with friends and brands.

Instagram can also help you grow your brand awareness and introduce new
products. Every month, 130 million Instagram users engage with shopping
content. Instagram allows you to promote your brand and product in a friendly,
authentic way without hard selling to your customers.

Even with all these Instagram statistics, you may still be unsure of how to get
started. We know the platform can be a little intimidating at first, and that’s
why we’ve created this guide.

Instagram Marketing

Instagram marketing is a type of social media marketing , which involves

promoting a brand on instagram. This social media platform helps brands
connect with an enormous audience, increase brand awareness, and boost sales

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 Why Instagram marketing is important for business ?

Instagram is the prefect channel to reach an enormous audience – over 1

billion active users monthly . on average , users spend 53 minutes per day on
instagram, which makes this platform the second most visited social network
after facebook.

Instagram facilitates maintaining your relationships with customers and

prospects . people enjoy being connected with brands through this network 90
% of users follow at least one company on instagram.

Instagram’s primary advantage over other social media platforms is its visual
nature. If you have a business that benefits from the design of your product or
if you have a service that has a visibly noticeable end result, Instagram is the
best platform to showcase that content.

Video, imagery, and illustration are all great content fits for this social media
platform, but your marketing strategy will ultimately determine what type of
content to publish and how often to post it. Establishing a strategy before
diving right into a new social media platform, no matter how well it works for
everyone else’s business, will keep you focused on your goals and — most
importantly — your audience.

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 1. Build Brand Awareness

Across different platforms, companies can tell their story, why they provide the services
they offer, and keep audiences updated with customer and employee stories.

If B2B leaders are able to leverage the voice of their employees, they can extend their
brand reach even further. Every employee has a personal network, and each network
has potentially hundreds of contacts. In turn, each of those contacts is connected to
hundreds of other people.

2. Generate Leads

Create meaningful conversations and engagement within their target industry by posting
videos, news, data, and interesting trends. Not only do you build credibility with
potential customers, but these strategies can result in gaining leads.

3. Nurture Leads

Social selling enables sales professionals to build relationships with leads. By

leveraging their thought leadership pieces, social proofing and other content, they can
help potential customers solve problems. In turn, this allows your sales team to build
trust and credibility.

4. Implement Social Listening

Listen to customers and what people are saying about their company. This gives you a
chance to get candid feedback about how others view your brand. It opens a window
into improving the weaker areas of your business while reinforcing aspects that already
resonate with people.

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 5. Measure Marketing Efforts

Social media platforms and management tools enable you to track key performance
metrics (KPIs). You can even assign a monetary value to organic social media
engagement. Earned media value (EMV) offers an idea of how much organic social
engagement and reach would have cost if you paid in ads.

6. Build Brand Authenticity

Engaging on social media gives brands the opportunity to build trust with potential
customers, partners and talent/employees. This is especially true if other people are
promoting your brand or products/services to other people. People are almost three
times as likely to trust advice or recommendations from family and friends than official
brand channels.

7. Drive Thought Leadership

Social media is a great way to learn about the problems and interests of people. In turn,
being on social gives brands an opportunity to drive thought leadership by solving
problems. Create how-to guides, webinars and other content to help people and, in
response, people could trust your brand as their source for guidance.

8. Grow Your Audience

In 2021, 4.48 billion people were using social media. Not only does social give you a
window into the largest addressable market online, but it shows you what actual people
talk about or like. Once you learn how to solve this market’s problems with thought
leadership content, you can build an audience that believes in your brand and products
and services.

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 9. Build a Community

With planning and engagement, you can build an active community around
your brand on social. You can leverage employees and customers alike to
generate immediate Likes and Shares for your content so that it reaches new
audiences.

10. Generate Unique Content at Scale

Social media communities can also be an excellent source of original and

thoughtful content. User-generated content (UGC) and employee-generated
content (EGC) can speak to brands in authentic ways, but they keep your
content publishing pipeline flush with lots of fresh options.

11. Stay Top of Mind With Key People

Spreading thought leadership through social media is a go-to method of

meriting the attention of decision-makers and other top stakeholders. Leverage
webinars, ebooks, one-pagers, podcasts and other content types to solve
problems for other people.

If you want to connect and engage with your future customers, you have to be
where they are. And that’s largely on social media.

12 Stats Showing Why Instagram Marketing Is Important

It’s clear that social platforms are great tools for showcasing employee stories,
the brand’s vision and values, and creating an emotional connection with

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audiences (yes, B2B companies should strike the emotional cord just like B2C
companies do).

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 We see this in the data:

1. 89% of marketers say social media is “Very important”, with 30 percent

saying it’s “Somewhat important” to their overall marketing strategy,
according to Buffer.

2. Youtube accrues more than 1 billion hours of watch time each day.

3. 82% of B2B marketers report using LinkedIn as a means of networking and

making professional connections. They also use Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest.

4. In 2017, 80% of social media B2B leads came from LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)

5. 53% of the world’s population is now active on social media. (We Are
Social)

6. 13 new users are starting to use social media for the first time every second
(Hootsuite).

7. 70% of adults said they trusted recommendations online from friends and
family, but only 15% said they would trust a companies’ official social
media posts (PostBeyond).

8. 91% of B2B buyers actively use social media (IDC).

9. 79% of job applicants use social media to search for employment openings.
However, 86% of applicants use social media for their job search in the first
10 years of their career (Glassdoor).

10.93% of Twitter members say they’re open to letting brands join a

conversation, especially when they provide help (Twitter).

11.90% of Instagram members follow a business or official brand account

(Instagram).

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12.LinkedIn says it has almost 800 million members across 200 countries. North
America makes up around 25% of that population.

Build Your Instagram Marketing Strategy

1. Set your goals for Instagram

2. Determine your Instagram target audience.

3. Conduct a competitive analysis.

4. Configure an editorial calendar

5. Build a consistent brand on Instagram

6. Grow your Instagram follower base.

Many businesses feel pressured to be present on every social media platform

… and they forget about strategy. Don’t make this mistake.

Since Instagram is very different from other popular social sites, it requires

a distinct marketing strategy. Start here to develop your brand’s own unique
style.

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 1. Set your goals for Instagram.

Before you start posting on Instagram, ask yourself (or your team) one thing: Why
are you on Instagram? As popular as the platform is, your answer shouldn't be, "...
because everyone else is." To be successful on Instagram in the long-run, you must
have a set purpose and goals so you can justify your time, energy, and monetary
investment.

There's no right answer here. Maybe you'd like to use your Instagram feed to post
and sell your products to customers, like Anthropologie. (Many ecommerce and
physical products businesses are on Instagram for this reason.)

Whatever the reason, be sure to define your Instagram goals first thing. And, guess
what? Your Instagram can have multiple goals — you can post product images
while also sharing user-generated content (UGC). It's less about the type of posts
you share and more about why you're sharing them. If you know the why, you can
know how to measure your performance and use Instagram Analytics tools.

2. Determine your Instagram target audience.

Determine the audience you want to reach before you begin marketing on

Instagram. If you have other marketing strategies in place, draw from those to keep
your efforts consistent. Don’t forget to consider factors like age, location, gender,
income, interests, motivations, and pain points.

Don’t know where to start? Monitor popular events and interest hashtags related to
your business. See who’s using and engaging with these hashtags and check out
their profiles. You can also take a look at your competitor’s followers. Instagram
makes it easy to define your audience.

3. Conduct a competitive analysis.

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After you determine your Instagram audience, do a competitive analysis to see
what other marketers in your field are posting.

If you already know your top competitors, start by reviewing their Instagram
profiles. If not, search for terms related to your business and industry to find
similar accounts.

Conduct a quick audit of related accounts to see what posts are getting the highest
engagement, what popular hashtags they’re using, what their captions are, how
often they post, and how quickly they’re growing. This information can serve as a
benchmark as you start growing your own account.

While auditing your competitors’ content, take note of any opportunities they
might’ve missed. Adding unique content into the mix will help your business to
stand out from the rest.

4. Configure an editorial calendar.

Creating an editorial calendar can help you save time and manage your Instagram
presence. Fill in your calendar with some Instagram post types and plan your
captions, hashtags, and posting times in advance.

Your editorial calendar is also a great place to record any key events to highlight
on your Instagram account, such as new product launches or special offers. With
an editorial calendar, you can keep an eye out for real-time opportunities instead of
scrambling for last-minute posts.

Manage and plan your Instagram content with our free calendar guide and
template.

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 5. Build a consistent brand on Instagram.

Random or disjointed content confuses your audience and can cause you to lose
followers. To prevent this, maintain a consistent brand aesthetic on your Instagram
account.

Determine what this looks like by thinking about your brand personality. What are
your brand values? How would your customers and employees define your brand?
Are you bold, playful, gritty, or adventurous?

Apartment Therapy's brand personality is bright, clean, and organized, and its
account reflects all three of those traits. Ideally, brand aesthetic helps your brand
become recognizable, meaning someone could see your picture in their feed and
instantly know it’s yours … without seeing the name.

6. Grow your Instagram follower base.

Growing your following takes serious time and energy. You may be tempted
to take the easy way out and buy followers … don’t do this! Purchasing
followers won’t actually drive engagement, which is really what you need to
ensure your posts are being seen. (Also, Instagram's recent API changes will
automatically delete those followers!)

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 Here’s what you can focus on to build a following the right way.

 Make sure your username is recognizable and searchable. If people can’t find
you, they can’t follow you! Fill out your bio. It’s the last thing someone sees
before they make the decision to follow you so be sure to include who you
are and what you do.

 Once your profile is optimized (which we talked about in this section), start
posting. It’s a good idea to populate your feed with ten to 15 high-
quality posts before you really start engaging people. If users visit your
profile and find it empty, they probably won’t follow you.

 Then, start following accounts that interest you and relate to your business.
Think of Instagram like a community and look for other businesses in your
area or influencers who might enjoy your product or service. As you follow
accounts, Instagram will suggest related ones that you can follow, too.

 After you follow an account, interact with their content. This is the most
natural way to draw attention to your own Instagram account without being
spammy. When you follow or interact with an account, the account owner
will get a notification. This could prompt them to check out your account and
start following you. Always appreciate your followers by responding to their
comments and engaging with their content.

 Encourage others to share your content. Invite brand ambassadors to share

your account or collaborate with similar accounts.

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 How to Create an Instagram Business Account

Before we begin, it’s important to note that Instagram is intended for in-the-
moment content. To stay relevant among your audience, you’ll need to invest
the resources required to post regularly.

The best way to keep your followers engaged is to keep your Instagram
profile up-to-date. Below, we’ll dive into how to build and maintain a
successful Instagram profile.

If you don’t have it already, download the Instagram app from the App
Store or Google Play Store. You can view content on Instagram’s website,
but you can’t upload it via your desktop. You’ll need the app for that.

Step 1: Open the Instagram app and click Sign Up With iPhone or Email

When you open the Instagram app, you’ll have two choices for creating an
Instagram account for your business — Log In With Facebook or Sign Up
With Phone or Email. Be sure to sign up with a business email so your
Instagram profile isn’t linked to your personal Facebook account. (Trust us,
you don’t want to do that!)

Step 2: Enter your account details.

Under Full Name, enter your actual business name so your profile is

recognizable to visitors. This name is what’s displayed on your profile; it
isn’t your account username (or handle, for those Twitter folks).

Step 3: Pick a username.

The Username is a name unique to your profile and allows other accounts to

engage with your brand. HubSpot’s username is @HubSpot.

Pick a username that is recognizable and easy to find. If your business name
is taken, try to keep the first part of your business name in your
username. Note: You can update your username later in your account
settings, so don’t worry if you want to change it in the future.
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 Optimizing Your Instagram Account

After you’ve set up the basics of your Instagram account, it’s time to
optimize it. Follow these steps to create a profile people will want to see on
their news feed every day.

Step 4: Choose a profile picture. 

Your profile picture is your first impression on new visitors. For this reason,
keep your image consistent with your branding and visual markers.

Consider using your logo or another familiar image. Instagram profile

pictures are automatically cropped into a circle, so leave room around the
corners of your image.

Step 5: Next up — your Instagram bio. 

Instagram bios have a 150-character maximum, so your goal here is a direct,

concise summary of who you are and why people should follow you. Tell
your audience about your business using a hint of personality. Instagram bios
aren’t searchable, so don’t worry about keywords or hashtags (which we
cover more below).

In your bio, you can encourage users to take a specific action, such as using a
certain hashtag or visiting your website. Your bio is the only place where
you can feature a clickable URL and drive traffic to an external site.

For this reason, it’s common for businesses to update their featured URL to
align with their most recent post. If you decide to add a link, be sure to use a
link shortener like HubSpot's Tracking URL builder or a tool
like Bitly, Goo.gl, or Linktr.ee to keep your profile from looking cluttered.
Tracked URLs also help you better understand the amount of traffic
Instagram is driving to your website.

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 Pro tip: For future edits, click on the Edit Profile button on your profile to
change your photo, name, username, bio, and URL.

Managing Your Instagram Settings

Lastly, let’s review your account settings. In this section, you’ll be able to update
contact information, privacy settings, and more.

Step 6: Adjust your settings.

Click on the three stacked lines in the upper right-hand corner of your profile, then
click on Settings at the bottom of the window. (Under your username, you’ll see a
few links that we’ll cover below.)

Within your settings, you’ll be able to do things like change your password, see
posts you’ve liked, enable notifications, and much more. Here are a few things
you should check out right away.

Manage your story settings — where you can manage who can see and reply to
your Instagram Stories (which we discuss below). We recommend allowing all
your followers to see and reply to your Stories to increase brand engagement.
From your settings, click Privacy > Story to access your Story Controls. (You can
also access this by clicking the gear icon in the top left corner when posting a
story.)

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Switch to a professional account — This allows you to identify
your profile as a business profile. Instagram’s Business Tools feature makes it
easy for users to contact you, provides you with in-depth insights, and allows
you to promote your content. Your business must have a Facebook business
page to switch to an Instagram business profile. From your settings,
click Account > Switch to Professional Account to access these features.

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Switch to a business or creator account — Choose this setting, log
in to Facebook, and allow Instagram to manage your Pages. Select
a Facebook Page to connect to your Instagram profile. (You must be a
Facebook page admin to connect the two platforms.)

Instagram will automatically import relevant information from your

Facebook page for you to edit. You now have an Instagram business profile.
Don’t forget to use the features that come with this type of account like
profile insights.

Private Account — Here you can change your profile from public to
private. Instagram will automatically set your profile to public — we don’t
recommend changing it! As a business, you’ll want users to see your posts
and follow your business without any obstacles. From your settings,
click Privacy > Account Privacy, and make sure that's turned off.

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Comments — This setting allows you to hide comments with certain
keywords or phrases. To do this, you must enter the specific words and
phrases into your Instagram settings and turn on the feature. Receiving
comments is exciting and encouraging, but certain comments may go against
brand values or offend your audience. From your settings,
click Privacy > Comments to update these.

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Adding Additional Instagram Accounts — Add up to five
accounts and switch between them without logging in and out. This feature
also allows you to have multiple people logged into an account at one time.
To add an account, click Add Account at the bottom of your settings. Enter
the username and password of the account you’d like to add. To switch
between accounts, go to your profile and tap your username at the top of the
screen. Choose the account you’d like to switch to.

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Switch to a business or creator account — Choose this setting, log
in to Facebook, and allow Instagram to manage your Pages. Select
a Facebook Page to connect to your Instagram profile. (You must be a
Facebook page admin to connect the two platforms.)

Instagram will automatically import relevant information from your

Facebook page for you to edit. You now have an Instagram business profile.
Don’t forget to use the features that come with this type of account like
profile insights.

Private Account — Here you can change your profile from public to
private. Instagram will automatically set your profile to public — we don’t
recommend changing it! As a business, you’ll want users to see your posts
and follow your business without any obstacles. From your settings,
click Privacy > Account Privacy, and make sure that's turned off.

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 Types of Instagram Posts

Now that you’ve created and optimized your Instagram account, it’s time to
start posting awesome content. Instagram allows you to post several types of
content, including photos, videos, and Stories.

Let’s talk about the different Instagram post types and some best practices
for encouraging engagement.

Images

The most common post on Instagram is an image post. When posting

images, share a variety of photos. Variety will show your brand is diverse
and engage your followers in different ways.

It’s also important to remember that Instagram users are looking for genuine
posts from brands — not blatant advertisements. Try to capture your
company culture with lifestyle shots and behind-the-scenes looks. Avoid
posting too many photos of your product.

Example: Nike’s Instagram includes product photos, but the majority show

real athletes, concerts, and other types of content that promote the Nike
brand personality as a whole.

As you start to explore the platform, you’ll see there are countless kinds of
images you can post to your account. Get creative! Take note of any
concepts or styles you think would work well for your brand.

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Behind-the-Scenes Posts

These posts offer a glimpse into the part of your business that people don’t
normally see. It’s important that they don’t look staged — authenticity is
key!

Example: Aeronaut Brewing Company provided an inside look at its

company culture by showcasing its employees at work..

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Reposts From Employees

Great content can be right in front of you … on your employees’ Instagrams.

(Just be sure to tag or credit the original poster.) Reposting photos from your
employees is an easy way to curate authentic content and humanize your
business. Not only will your audience engage with your brand, but they’ll
also start to “bond” with your employees.

Educational Posts

Educational posts offer snackable tips on how to do or make something. The

photos or videos usually present the instructions in a way that is quick and
easy to follow.

Influencer Posts

Influencer posts use the fame of a celebrity or well-known public figure to

promote your brand. These posts often include a visual of the influencer
using or interacting with your product. One of the main benefits of influencer
posts is gaining the attention of another audience.

Motivational Posts

A motivational post combines a simple visual with an overlaid quote or

uplifting text. These posts encourage your audience and amplify your brand
values. While effective, try to post these sparingly to avoid looking cheesy.
Apps like Quipio and Typic can help you add text to photos in a way that’s
consistent with your brand guidelines.

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 5 Instagram Marketing Tips

 Embrace user-generated content

 Share your Instagram posts on Facebook
 Use stories and highlights
 Collaborate with influencers
 Launch an Instagram shop

Embrace user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is a magic wand for Instagram marketing. It

helps you get images and videos to post without lifting a finger. Better yet,
UGC has a positive effect on Instagram promotion. It drives a 4.5% higher
conversion rate, boosts engagement, improves cost-per-click metrics and
click-through rates for paid advertisements.

The reason is that UGC works similarly to word-of-mouth and social proof.
People believe recommendations from other customers way more than paid
advertising. To get UGC for your account, encourage your audience to share
their photos and videos with your branded hashtag. Repost the best pieces,
but avoid overusing UGC – it works better in combination with original
branded content.

Learn to work with user-generated content from Benefit Cosmetics. The

brand encourages people to use their hashtag, #benefit, to be highlighted on
the brand’s account. For better results, the company not only shares its users’
content but also adds shopping tags to the products used for creating makeup
looks.

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Share your Instagram posts on Facebook

Well, it’s not exactly Instagram marketing, but this tip will help you boost
your overall social media performance. Instagram allows you to share photos
and videos on your Facebook instantly. All you need is to switch on the
Facebook slider in the “Also post to” section while you’re publishing your
content.

This feature is not only convenient and time-saving but also great for your
performance. According to Buzzsumo, images posted on Facebook via
Instagram get 23% more engagement.

GoPro uses this trick to achieve amazing results. In the example below, the
brand posted a new product teaser on Instagram and Facebook
simultaneously. Thus, the company received over 1.5 million views, 13.7
thousand comments, and roughly 260 thousand likes on both channels in
total.

Use stories and highlights

It’s easy to downplay the importance of Instagram Stories as they vanish 24

hours after publication. However, this format is too good for your marketing
to leave it on the table. According to Instagram data, 62% of people said they
have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories.

Stories are a perfect way to create emotional proximity with your customers.
While your feed should be flawless, Stories are best for unpolished lifelike
content, such as backstage views and behind-the-scenes content. They are
also a format for posting detailed product reviews with shopping links. The
cherry on top is you can keep your stories forever. All you have to do is to
add them to a special section on your page, which is called Highlights.

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Topshop provides an excellent example of making the most of Stories and
Highlights. The company uses Stories to garner interest in new items on their
website. At first, the brand announces a discount on their new garments and
then shows some of them. Each story contains a link to the website section
with new clothing.

Collaborate with influencers

79% of marketers consider Instagram the most important channel for their
influencer marketing campaigns. The point in it is that businesses are making
$5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. To create an effective
influencer marketing campaign, stick to several rules:

Choose the influencer whose audience resembles yours. Otherwise, your

marketing efforts will fall flat – people won’t have an interest in your offer.

Check the audience – there should be no bots or fake subscribers. Make sure
followers are engaged with the influencers you work with. To check this, use
special tools, such as trendHERO.

Determine the audience’s feelings about an influencer. Some bloggers with a

huge follower base provoke more hate than love. Promoting through them
won’t get you new subscribers or sales, so check the comment section
carefully.

Dior used influencer marketing to promote their Spring/Summer 21 fashion

show. The brand's choice fell on Jisoo – a Dior ambassador and blogger with
over 20 million followers. Jisoo announced the show in her Stories and went
live several times during the event to share her opinion on it. This tactic not
only attracts an audience but also keeps them engaged with the show.

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Launch an Instagram shop
In 2020, Instagram increased selling opportunities and launched a new format.
The Instagram shop is a separate account section, which resembles a website
storefront. People can get there through their feed or Stories, explore products,
and make purchases without leaving Instagram.

With this tool, businesses can create product catalogs, craft collections, and curate
products into themes that tell their brand story. To set up your shop, follow
instructions on the Instagram website. If you need a dose of inspiration for
arranging your products, look at Etsy's profile. The company not only showcases
some of its best products but also gathers the recently viewed items into a separate
category. This move provides users with easy access to the products they liked.

The tactics listed above have proven their efficiency for improving a brand’s
presence on Instagram, growing a follower base, engaging audiences, and driving
sales. If you're looking for more inspiration, check out this guide to Instagram
marketing for eCommerce brands on Insense blog.

Read on to see some interesting examples of Instagram marketing.

3 Instagram Marketing Ideas and Examples

Instagram marketing is a long journey with a lot of pitfalls and rapidly changing
conditions. Thus, promoting your brand through this platform requires all of your
creativity. To encourage your imagination, take a sneak peek at some techniques
brands successfully use on Instagram.

Starbucks – promotional hashtags

The coffeehouse chain Starbucks knows a little something about promotion

through Instagram hashtags. The company employs user-generated content for

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half of its posts, and it brings amazing results. On average, such publications get
28% higher engagement compared to the company’s standard posts.

To encourage UGC, Starbucks is constantly launching campaigns using a handful

of branded hashtags. The latter helps the company inspire followers and promote
new products. For instance, Starbucks used #icedcaramelmacchiato,
#IcedCoconutMilkMochaMacchiato, and #pinkdrink to market new drinks. People
added these hashtags to almost 500 thousand publications in total.

[7:35 pm, 03/05/2022] Puneet Saini: IMAX – Instagram ads

The entertainment company, IMAX, used a creative approach to market the The
Rise of Skywalker with Instagram ads. The brand turned regular passively viewed
sponsored Stories into an interactive space. For this purpose, IMAX added polling
stickers to its ads; they allowed viewers to choose one of two answers.

The company created three different versions of similar posts, two of which
contain a poll. The polled versions asked viewers whether they would join the
dark side or use the Force for an IMAX ticket. At the end of the ad, people could
tap on the Book Now CTA and buy tickets to the cinema. It turned out that this
version saw a 12-point higher ad recall than their stories without a polling sticker.

Lord&Taylor – Influencer marketing

Though clothing retailer, Lord&Taylor, went out of business, it left us with an

inspirational Instagram campaign. The brand collaborated with 50 fashionistas
and invited them to style the same dress in different ways. The idea behind this
challenge was to make followers puzzle over why their favorite bloggers are
dressed the same way.

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The campaign showed staggering results. The dress from photos sold out by the
end of the weekend. Better yet, Lord&Taylor attracted interest in its Design Lab
collection, which was the real purpose of the campaign.

Instagram marketing can provide outstanding outcomes for your brand

awareness, customer loyalty, sales, and lead acquisition. To amplify your ROI and
nurture leads, combine Instagram promotions with email and messenger
marketing, web push notifications, and SMS. Register with SendPulse to add
these channels to your marketing strategy.

Tips for Making Great Instagram Video Posts

Now that we’ve covered how to share your videos on Instagram, let’s take a
minute to talk about how you can optimize your video posts to get more traction.

Pick an Eye-Catching Cover Photo

In a world where attention is getting more and more scarce, getting your followers
to engage with your videos (especially longer ones) can be pretty difficult. But
one way to improve your chances is to pick a stellar cover photo.

Just like you spend time finding photos that look great in your feed, you need to
invest a good amount of time finding a great cover photo for your video.
Otherwise, all that hard work you put into actually creating your video will go to
waste!

When picking a cover photo, try to find one that captures the overall message of
your video and has the best chance of stopping viewers from scrolling past your
content.

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Don’t Rely on Sound

Instagram videos may auto-play in the feed, but they don’t start playing sound
automatically. In order to hear sound, viewers have to tap on the video.

Since you’re trying to grab people’s attention in the first couple seconds, it’s
important to keep in mind that your videos need to be clearly understood even
without sound!

Because of this, your videos should be as beautiful as the photographs your

followers are used to seeing on your feed. Even if your viewer doesn’t get the
overall effect, you want them to be able to see the storyline of the Instagram video
— even if it’s silent.

Focus on the First Few Seconds of Your Video

With so much else to see on Instagram, it’s important to create video content that
captures people’s attention within the first 3-5 seconds.

By focusing on the first few seconds of your video and making them amazing,
you’re bound to get better completion and engagement rates on your video.

Find a Video Length that Works for Your Audience

Just because your Instagram videos can be 60 seconds in length doesn’t mean they
should be. Like all things social media, it’s difficult to keep your audience
engaged over a longer period.

Try experimenting with different video lengths to find one that works best for
your audience. If you notice better metrics on your videos that are under 30

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seconds, focus on creating shorter video content. If your longer videos outperform
your shorter ones, stick to those.

Use a Third-Party App to Edit Your Instagram Video

There are tons of apps and software that you can use to not only improve the
quality of your videos but also add branding to them, whether it’s your logo, font,
or some other design element.

Instagram Stories for Business

This is where things start to get creative. Since they first arrived on the scene in
2017, Instagram Stories have become an essential part of your Instagram
marketing strategy. In fact, according to The State of Instagram Marketing 2018,
64% of businesses plan to create more Instagram Stories in 2018.

Marketing instagram stories

So what explains Instagram Stories’ huge success? Well, it partly has to do with
the growing popularity of ephemeral video. More and more businesses are seeing
the value in creating short-lived video content, whether it’s fun and lighthearted or
more business-focused.

Here’s how to use Instagram Stories for business:

How Often to Post on Instagram Stories

Unlike the case for regular Instagram posts, Instagram won’t penalize you for
posting too many Instagram Stories — and it all has to do with the ephemeral
nature of Instagram Stories.

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Because Instagram Stories only live for 24 hours (or forever if you share them as
Instagram Stories Highlights), there isn’t much pressure for Instagram to prioritize
some posts over others on a users’ feed. Of course, that doesn’t mean that
Instagram Stories aren’t impacted by the Instagram algorithm… they definitely
are!

It’s just that the frequency that you post doesn’t seem to have much of an impact
on how many people will see your Instagram Stories.

Marketing instagram stories example 2

That being said, if you post tons and tons of stories every day, there’s a good
chance that at least some of your followers will mute your account.

That’s not to say that posting a ton of Instagram Stories is a bad thing. It really
comes down to your content and what your followers expect from you!

Some accounts can get away with posting 10+ stories a day, while others are
better off posting just a few times a week.

Take @wework for example. The international shared workspace company often
posts 10+ stories each day. And it works for them! People love their rich content
and it’s become a part of their brand:

Instagram marketing at we work

While posting multiple times a day works for some accounts, it might not work
for you.

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It can take a lot of time and management to create 10+ Instagram Stories, so if you
think your time is best served elsewhere, it’s probably best to stick to just a few
stories per week!

Plus, if you consistently post a ton of stories, your followers are going to expect
you to continue doing so.

At the end of the day, there’s really no “optimal” frequency for stories, but it’s
good to have enough throughout the week that people look forward to seeing
yours without getting tired of your content.

When to Post on Instagram Stories

When it comes to regular Instagram posts, it’s very important to post when your
followers are most active. But this isn’t the case with Instagram Stories for
business.

Because Instagram Stories live for a maximum of 24 hours (again, that’s only if
they aren’t shared as highlights), when you post a story, your followers have a 24-
hour window to see it at the top of their feeds

Marketing instagram stories

So even if you post a story at a time when most of your followers are asleep,
they’ll still be able to find your story at the top of their feeds when they wake up.

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In other words, don’t stress out too much about posting your Instagram Stories at
optimal times... Unless you’re looking for immediate engagement, in which case
posting when your followers are most active will definitely help.

What to Post on Instagram Stories

Like with regular posts, if you’re using Instagram Stories for business, it’s good to
post a mix of informative, fun, and promotional content.

Instagram Stories is a pretty relaxed place in general, and the quality standards are
a lot lower than they are for regular posts. So don’t be afraid of showing off your
goofier side!

Marketing instagram stories example 4

The great thing about Instagram Stories is that because they’ve created so many
cool tools, the world is really your oyster. You can get as creative as you like!
And the same is true for promotional content on Instagram Stories. It’s easy to
share promotional content that’s also fun and lighthearted.

In any case, it’s super important to keep track of your Instagram Stories analytics
to see what types of content your audience best responds to. As we mentioned
earlier, when your stories get a lot of views and engagement, this signals to the
algorithm that you’re creating high-quality content, so your future Instagram
Stories will appear higher up in your followers’ stories queue.

Marketing instagram stories example 5

So by creating great Instagram Stories content that your followers love, you have
a better chance of getting your future stories seen by more people!

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 Instagram Stories Features That Are Perfect for Businesses

When it comes to using Instagram Stories for business and Instagram marketing,
there are a few features you can make use of to get the most bang for your buck:

#1: Location and Hashtag Stickers

When Instagram first introduced stickers to Instagram Stories in 2017, they were
much more fun than useful.

Since that time, Instagram has added a ton of new functionalities to stickers,
including the ability to see location-based stories on the Explore page, and, most
recently, the ability to search for stories by location and hashtag.

Marketing instagram stories example 6

These feature have made a huge difference for businesses. Whereas at first you
could only share Instagram Stories with your own followers, these new features
make it possible for anyone to see your Instagram Stories!

For example, if you’re posting a story from a restaurant in Atlanta, you can tag the
location with a sticker, and your story might appear in that location’s Instagram
Stories.

Marketing instagram stories example 7

The same is true for hashtag stickers. When a user tags a hashtag in their
Instagram Stories, it will appear on the corresponding hashtag page.

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Marketing instagram stories example 8#2: Clickable Links

Instagram recently rolled out the ability to add links to Instagram Stories and it’s a
pretty big deal. In fact, it’s the first time ever that users can add a link to
Instagram that isn’t the link in their bio!

It goes without saying that the ability to send your followers to specific landing
pages from your stories is extremely useful for Instagram marketing. Whether it’s
a product page or a new blog post, you can use this feature to drive Instagram
traffic to all kinds of relevant landing pages!

Marketing instagram stories example 9

TIP: The “See More” call-to-action that appears on stories with clickable links is
quite small and can easily go unnoticed, so it’s a good idea to call it out using text,
arrows, or some other design feature.

#3: Tag Other Accounts

We all know how effective Instagram contests are for driving engagement and
getting new followers, and with the ability to tag other accounts in Instagram
Stories, there’s yet another way to drive traffic to your contests.

Marketing instagram stories example 11

Tagging other accounts in your stories is also useful if you’re running a takeover
or influencer campaign.

#4: Tag Businesses in Your Sponsored Instagram Stories

Speaking of influencers, Instagram’s new paid partnership feature makes it super

easy to tag businesses in your sponsored Instagram Stories!

Only a handful of celebrities, influencers, and businesses have been given access
to the feature so far, but a larger-scale rollout is expected in the next few months.

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You can learn more about the feature and disclosure in general here.

#5: Polls & Emoji Sliders

Have you ever wanted to survey your Instagram audience about their interests,
likes, dislikes, and more? Well, now you can!

Instagram recently launched new interactive poll stickers on Instagram Stories

which lets you ask questions and see results from your followers as they vote.

Marketing instagram stories example 12

The great thing about poll stickers is that there are so many business uses!

Whether you want to collect feedback on your products, crowdsource ideas, or

simply entertain your followers, poll stickers offer an entirely new way to engage
with your Instagram audience!

Not sure how to use Instagram Stories polls for your business? Check out our post
6 Create Ways to Use Instagram Stories Polls for some inspiration!

#6: Question Stickers

Unlike poll stickers and emoji sliders, both of which allow users to “vote” on
questions that you submit, when you add a question sticker to your Instagram
story, others users submit questions for you to answer.

Marketing instagram stories example 13

Whether you want to collect feedback on your products or crowdsource ideas,
questions stickers offer an entirely new way to engage with your Instagram
audience!

#7: Countdown Stickers

Now when you share a story about an upcoming something (like an in-store sale,
product launch, or event), you can add a sticker that counts down to a date and
time that you set.
Your followers can then subscribe to your countdown event, which will send them
a reminder when the time is up and your countdown is complete!

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Whether you’re looking to promote a sale, event, or something else entirely, the
ability to share a countdown on your stories that your followers can get reminders
about is a great way to generate better results.

#8: GIF Stickers

In 2017, Instagram teamed up with GIPHY to build a library of high-quality GIFs

on Instagram Stories. Now you can add fun, expressive GIF stickers to any photo
or video in your story!

Adding GIFs on Instagram Stories is easy — when you tap to add a sticker to a
photo or video in stories, you’ll now see a new GIF option. Tap it and you’ll find
a library full of hundreds of thousands of moving stickers powered by GIPHY.

Marketing instagram stories example 15

Using this feature in a consistent way can add a ton of personality to your
Instagram Stories and help you build a loyal following. You can get a step-by-step
Instagram tutorial about how to add GIFs to Instagram Stories here.

#9: Instagram Live Video Replays

Prior to a recent update, Instagram Live videos could not be replayed or shared
after the broadcast. And while this “limited viewing” definitely created a sense of
urgency for people to tune-in, there’s a lot of value in being able to share your live
videos post-broadcast. In fact, this new feature could make Instagram Live as big
as Facebook Live!

Marketing instagram stories example 16

Once your Instagram Live video ends, you can share a replay of it. But like other
photos and videos you share to Instagram Stories, live video replays will
disappear after 24 hours.

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