As marketing has become more digital, many companies are turning to social media platforms to promote and sell their products or services. One strategy that has started to become popular over recent years is Instagram influencer marketing. This has been proven to grow a follower base, increase brand awareness, and drive sales. Due to the rise of Instagram influencer marketing, many people who have successful Instagram pages are turning to it to make some money and increase the reputation of their page. However, because this technique has become so popular, there is now a lot of competition within this sector.
If you are planning to become an Instagram influencer marketer, here are some creative marketing tips to help you stand out from the crowd and become successful in this field.
Research the Company
Before you agree to work with anyone, research the company you will be promoting and working alongside. This is to ensure you both have the same values, interests, and audience. If you work with a company to promote a brand you are not interested in or you do not agree with, it will affect the quality of your advertisements and how much your audience engages with the post or the product. It could also reflect badly on you, especially if you are pushing to sell a product that is not good quality, is against your moral or social values, and/or does not work the way it claims.
Know Your Audience
To work well with any company that approaches you and find success as an Instagram influencer, you need to know everything about your audience and what they want from you and your page. For example, if most of your followers enjoy your videos about cruelty-free makeup and products, then you should not work with a brand that continues to test on animals, as this will go against you and your audience’s values. To learn more about your followers, create posts and polls to gather information about them and what they would like to see from your Instagram page.
Tailor Your Content
Doing your research into the company you are planning to collaborate with and knowing your audience are both vital to tailoring your content to work for both parties. Even if you and the brand’s audience are similar, there will be some differences that you will need to present in your promotional posts. This is so your audience is made aware of the overall feel of the brand, and to convert those that are already aware of the product. By reviewing the content the company posts, you can analyze the way that they word things and how they engage with and convert their audience.
Write Meaningful Captions
Research shows that Instagram users want more out of the influencers they follow. This includes an attractive post, plus a long and meaningful caption. Captions are a great way to start a conversation and form strong and significant connections with the Instagram community. They are also the perfect opportunity to provide inspiration and value to your audience. One of the most creative ways to write a caption is to do it in the form of microblogging. This is exactly how it sounds (a mini blog post); it has proven to be extremely effective and can lead to a higher rate of engagement.
Use Trendy Hashtags
Incorporating random or popular hashtags into the captions of your posts used to be extremely popular. However, as time has gone on, not everyone is on the hashtag bandwagon. Even though people use it less, it does not mean that you should avoid them as an Instagram influencer. By using popular and trendy hashtags, you make your posts more discoverable. This is especially important when you are trying to promote a brand because it will bring in their target audience as well as a new audience, and it has the power to increase brand awareness.
Try Color Schemes
Trying out a color scheme for your promotional posts on your Instagram page is a great way to make your page and post stand out, and it will make you more approachable to potential collaborators and followers. For example, if you are promoting a brand with a baby blue logo on your post, you should make your clothing, makeup, and room color match with the brand’s color scheme. When this is done correctly, it will make the post extremely eye-catching for top fans and scrollers, and it will show the company you collaborate with how dedicated and passionate you are about their product.
Record Your Reviews
If you have been working with a business for some time, have built a good relationship with them, and your posts have increased the number of followers and sales they have had, they may send you a freebie or an exclusive product as a gift. In order to stay in their good books and look truly passionate about their brand, you should tell your followers what you have received and document your experience with this new, free and/or exclusive item. Recording and posting your reviews is a great way to increase audience engagement, as it gives viewers a real-life experience with a new product.
Build Strong Relationships
Building strong relationships with the business you collaborate with, plus their target audience and your followers, is vital for success as an Instagram influencer marketer. While engagement and follower growth rate are important, influencers should do their best to focus on the quality of the community that they are creating with their audience. Basically, striking a balance between breadth and depth is crucial. Breadth will increase the size of your audience, while depth will make your audience trust you, which will improve your relationship with the brand creators.
Becoming a successful Instagram influencer marketer will require a lot of time, research, patience, and dedication. You need to be creative without neglecting the brand or your audience. If you don’t, you’ll get lost in the crowd of social media influencers that already exist and will fail to thrive.