Instagram has 200 million monthly active users. Every day, 60 million photos are uploaded to the web. 57% of users visit Instagram daily, and engagement here is 15 times higher than on Facebook.
Brands with more than 100,000 subscribers doubled their volume by 163% in 2 years (according to research by analytics agency Simply Measured). That said, only 28% of marketers used the site for marketing in 2018.
How to create an Instagram promotion strategy without mistakes and with the greatest effect? Consider the following!
Instagram promotion: everything for millennials
The first step is to analyze your audience. 68% of Instagram users are women, and the majority of the public is under 30 years old. This is the Millennial generation, also called the Peter Pan generation or the “Me Generation.” Researchers identify traits such as: uniqueness, team-oriented, conformity, goal-oriented and at the same time depressed, narcissism, high valuation of the role of wealth, and a sense of “everybody owes me”.
Brands are trying to capture the values of downtrodden and unhappy, but nonetheless driven and eternally young millennials. A list of the ideas and values the companies are calling for can be seen in the satirical video below.
“You are unique. You are special… The point is that you are free. Free from limitations… You dance – on the street, at home, with your eclectic friends. You are purposeful, and you cannot be suppressed.” Which very often does not coincide with reality, but it is a dream of many.
The above is the most general approach. Not all millennials are like that. Not everyone is interested in the values voiced earlier. So it’s worth delving into the analysis and finding answers to questions like these:
- What hashtags the audience is using;
- where they hang out most of the time;
- what other brands customers are interested in;
- Who members of the audience subscribe to.
Read also: “How to define your brand’s audience”
The second step is to define goals. The desired goals vary by business and industry: engaging audiences, increasing brand awareness, increasing conversions. All goals have a different set of metrics for evaluating how well they are being realized.
Next, analyzing competitor content will help you determine what the industry leaders are doing – and what your business is better at than theirs. It’s worth considering parameters such as:
- What is the competitor’s engagement rating;
- whether they respond to comments;
- What kind of content other brands are using;
- what their calls to action are.
The fourth step is to create a content strategy. This is where you need to decide what to post to best showcase the business and achieve your goals. Types of content: photos, videos, Stories or user generated, contests, opinion leader marketing, gallery posts, collaborations.
The next steps are to select tools and track progress. And we’ll look at 6 cases of Instagram promotion strategy from famous brands.
Order Instagram promotion is the KOLORO branding agency. We work with a wide variety of companies, so we know how to strategize for any brand!
Instagram marketing: style and uniqueness
Online fashion store yoox was founded in 2000, and now it is a popular platform for those who love to dress stylishly. The goal of her campaign: to present herself as the best resource for fashionistas. The brand values are fashion and technology.
Yoox was one of the first to use Stories on Instagram. The company created a stylish campaign based on symmetry, colors and unusual montage transitions. They made a video for Instagram with the message “we are a treasure trove for fashion, art and design connoisseurs” and set up targeting for fashionistas and fashionistas 25-44 years old.
Thanks to this campaign, the site quickly captured the attention of fashionistas by presenting itself as a luxury brand. Ad recall increased by 11 points and brand awareness increased by 6 points.
Digital promotion in Instagram: individualism and team spirit
GoPro and Etsy have chosen similar strategies, utilizing the work of ordinary people – extreme sports enthusiasts and creatives respectively.
First Brand (15.3 million subscribers) is the leader in action cameras. The second (1.9 million subscribers) is a marketplace for people doing handmade crafts. Both companies put user-generated content in their feeds. They share videos and photos while posting tags so users “know their heroes.”
The method is simple – and great for inspiring people to share their content made with GoPro or Etsy. A brand’s Instagram account thus gets an inexhaustible source of topics for posts plus user loyalty and likes. After all, people feel good when they are shown in action: we love you! We admire you!
Contact KOLORO agency to order a strategy for Instagram !
Marketing for Instagram: quality and luxury
Rolex’s Instagram stands out for its exceptionally high-quality close-up photos of its products. Incidentally, the heyday of social media has increased the popularity of the brand’s watches – although Rolex did not have its first Facebook page until 2013. The company’s Instagram now has more than 9.5 million followers.
Unmetric site statistics
Rolex puts up posts that fully reflect the aesthetics and quality of its products. The company also mentions famous people who have worn or are wearing their watches in the ads: Tiger Woods, Marlon Brando, Pablo Picasso, Martin Luther King, Robert De Niro. In this way, the watch is like witnessing the lives of celebrities: visionaries, champions, statesmen who change the lives of nations. If you wear a Rolex, then you are a celebrity.
Another nuance: the company listens carefully to its consumers. After analyzing comments on Facebook, marketers found that customers want to know more about the intricacies of manufacturing and brand features. As a result, the company created a series of “Did you know…?” posts.
In them, Rolex explains how the smallest details of the watch are machined, how the colors of the dials and elements are created. This way, consumers recognize the care with which Rolex is made and appreciate their product even more.
Read also: “Through thorns to stars – a strategy for promotion in the European market”
Instagram promotional practices: just about anything complicated
It would seem that the topics of transportation and aviation are of interest only to professionals. But General Electric has racked up nearly 400,000 readers on Instagram.
The company specializes in industry: transportation, construction, and aviation. Her specialization is highly scientific and technological. But the brand appeals even to those who are in no way connected to science. General Electric adds humor and interactivity to its posts, while talking about purely technical things.
You don’t have to be a science and technology genius to sympathize with the company’s values and the employees’ love of what they do. Just about the complicated stuff – that’s their motto.
In the world of marketers, the company is considered a genius in digital promotion. The brand is constantly talking about innovation, new technology and science. The content pitch comes at a mission level – advertising of this nature always attracts attention.
One prime example of their interactive is the #GEInstaWalk contest. The company invited six of the company’s “super fans” to their airplane factory as “second Instagram pilots.” They were given an assignment: write in one sentence why they are the company’s biggest fans. Along with this, GE launched another campaign, announcing a goal: find the next “Brand Instagrammer.”
Users posted more than 4,000 photos to Instagram with the tag #GEInspiredMe. The photo was then posted on Facebook and invited fans to vote for the best ones. The winner received a prize: a trip to Wales with the opportunity to photograph their first-class aircraft factory. The campaign is a beautiful example of brilliant public engagement.
Read also: “Features of content strategy development and implementation in B2B”
Instagram trends: charity
Belgian beer brand Stella Artois kicked off 2018 by promoting their charity partner Water.org. The purchase of a limited edition bottle of Stella Artois Chalice helped provide 5 years of access to clean water to people in developing countries.
The charity’s co-founder Matt Damon has recorded a number of appeals. They also posted short posts on Instagram about Stella Artois Chalice and used the hashtag #GiveThemTimeBack to inspire other brands and individuals to support the initiative.
The company, by the way, continues to post footage of Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Sarah Jessica Parker. The ad tells you how you can help those who lack clean water – just buy a bottle of Stella Artois. The beer brand’s Instagram now has over 153,000 followers.
Moral of the story: you can use any tool to promote on Instagram. But all inspiring success stories have one thing in common – respect and love for people. Brands love their customers and aren’t shy about showing it.
We love our customers! And teach you how to demonstrate warm feelings to your customers. In order to order a strategy for Instagram Call and write to the branding agency KOLORO!
