Build Your Brand With Instagram

Discover some of the easiest ways to build your business or blog brand using Instagram to convert followers into purchasers.

Build an email list by converting Instagram followers into subscribers

Instagram itself is a powerful and proven platform to capture the attention of literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of people – but converting your followers into paying customers is a tough task, especially if you aren’t sure of how to take all of your Instagram traffic and converted into web traffic and customers that you can actively market to from here on out.

Thankfully though, converting your Instagram followers into an email subscriber list is one of the easiest processes you could go through as a savvy online marketer today. By getting hold of your prospect’s email information you can market to them as often as you like at next to no expense whatsoever – and converting them into paying customers from there becomes almost effortless.

Let’s dig a little bit deeper into everything you need to know to convert Instagram followers into an email list ASAP!

Use the right bait

The easiest way to get your Instagram followers juiced up about joining an email subscription list for your business is to simply offer them some kind of “bait” that they are going to be really, really excited about.

Oftentimes this can be something as simple as exclusive content nowhere else available, but from time to time you have to actually create free content (a book, course, or video series) or even give a discount or free products/services away to entice people to enter and give you their email information.

Really think about the bait that you all for, though. You don’t want to try and “lowball” your followers, as it will send the wrong message that you don’t really care about them other than as potential prospects. Make your bait valuable and you’ll get the kind of reaction that you are after – and that incentive (no matter how costly to you up front) will almost always pay off big time later down the line.

Fulfill your “bait” only after they give you their email on a landing page

A landing page is a simple single page website that you create specifically for your email list, a clear, concise, and tight little page that does one thing and one thing only – collects email information from your Instagram followers. Make sure that this is the first hoop your followers have to jump through before they get hands on the bait that you have to offer. Once you capture that email information you will be able to plug it into your email marketing software, fire up your auto responders, and really rock and roll from there!

Producing “shareable images”

Instagram has quite literally taken over the social media world, with more than a billion people interacting with Instagram each and every single month – many of them spending hours and hours on Instagram each and every single week.

You absolutely MUST take advantage of everything that Instagram marketing leverage has to offer, but that means creating shareable images and content on Instagram that not only build you up as an attractive follow on the platform but also really resonates with your target market and gets them to engage and share your content more frequently.

Here are some tips and tricks to help you do exactly that!

Shoot your images on a professional camera

Sure, Instagram makes it really easy to create amazing posts on this social media platform directly from your iPhone or Android device, but when it comes to creating really compelling images that are going to drive the engagement on your profile you’ll want to shoot them with heavy duty professional cameras and edit them just like the experts do.

From time to time (and depending upon the kind of “brand voice” you’re looking to create) more amateur photos shot directly from your smart phone can often times be effective as well, but if you really want your images to stand apart from the rest of the pack you have to go the extra mile to create those visually stunning images to begin with.

Spend time on your captions

A lot of folks kind of waste the captions that they have the opportunity to create on Instagram, and that’s a major rookie mistake you don’t ever want to make when looking to squeeze every drop of advertising leverage out of this platform.

The captions that you add to your posts are going to tell the story of the image. Now, you don’t necessarily have to hire professional copywriters to write these captions (though it can be advantageous to do so), but you definitely want to make sure that your captions spark interest, engage directly with your followers, and (ideally) push them deeper and deeper into your Instagram content or your marketing funnel.

The hashtags you use are going to be useful in getting new followers to your content, any tags that you use are going to help drive effective marketing partnerships, and any links that you include should be used to boost your business by getting people actively engaged part of your marketing funnel.

Use Shout Outs to Reach Out to Influencers

According to Pew Internet report, over 4.2 billion posts get liked, and over 95 million pictures are shared in just less than 24 hours. From these numbers, it is evident that this platform offers a quite significant opportunity for one to share his/her message.

Shoutouts are the most efficient way of getting your brand noticed by users who are interested in what you are offering. By sharing your content with influencers, you are giving their followers a chance to connect with your brand.

Shoutouts are easy and powerful. However, they are not bulletproof. If you want to ensure that you market yourself effectively, first you need to make sure that you stand out. Thus to help you increase your noise ratio and make your brand stand out, below are three steps that you should consider first;

Step 1: Create Desirable Content

If your ultimate aim is to find new followers, first you need to come up with a page that users want to follow. Instagram users prefer feeds with visually appealing and interesting content. Even though your ultimate goal is to market, Instagram is not a place for a hard pitch. Rather you will want to come up with feeds full of images that correctly captures your brand culture. This is an opportunity for you to build a lasting relationship with potential clients. You could frame the product line in an artistic way or keep it simple.

Step 2: Find a Brand Ambassador

Once your page is set up, you are ready to get some exposure. Normally brands establish themselves on Instagram first before they start looking for shoutouts. When looking for an influencer, the brands will search for one with whom their customers follow then they manually reach out to the influencer to find out if he/she would be interested in promoting their business. Look for influencers who promote the kind of lifestyle your brand represents.

Step 3: Engage Your Users

Getting a few shoutouts implies that you have gained some following on your page. When your message is fresh in the user’s mind, they get enthusiastic and look forward to interacting with you. To make the most out of this, it is essential to keep the users engaged. Perhaps one of the ways to do this is by sharing their content or watching out for related hashtags.

If someone has posted a photo in which he/she is using your product, showcase it on your page. Making followers part of the brand helps in building a reciprocal relationship. Also, respond to posted comments and questions, this will show the followers that their efforts are valued.

If you are just getting started with Instagram marketing, all you need are three things, good content, real people and engagement and you are set!

Schedule Your Posts

When it comes to driving traffic and building up a following on social media – especially when you’re talking about Instagram – you absolutely MUST schedule the posts that you publish right down to the day and minute that they go live or you could end up wasting a tremendous amount of time, effort, and valuable content without even realizing it.

Sure, there are some people on social media that are able to enjoy a tremendous amount of success posting things willy-nilly to Instagram and other platforms. But these folks are lucky, and no successful business is built on the back of luck over the long-term.

Here are some of the biggest benefits of creating a content calendar and scheduling your posts so that your Instagram followers will not just actually see them but also be motivated to engage with your content as well!

People are more active on social media at different times

According to industrywide research, the very best day to post new content to Instagram is a Tuesday around 4:00 PM in your local time, though you can usually get away with posting content on any afternoon between Tuesday and Thursday without getting a significant dip in your social media engagement.

The weekends seem like they would be the best time to start posting content – after all, that’s when everyone has the most of “free time” on their hands – but nothing could be further from the truth. Most of these folks are out busy doing something interesting and engaging (rather than sitting mindlessly at their desks in school or at the office), which is why you need to really hit the timing of your posts perfectly.

Scheduled content guarantees you never miss important dates

Another huge advantage of scheduling your content – especially months in advance like big businesses will – is that you never have to worry about getting caught by surprise by major dates (like Valentine’s Day or Black Friday, for example) and then have to cobble together a social media post and campaign that isn’t going to be anywhere near as effective as it could have been or should have been.

As a general rule, you’ll want to look at a calendar of all the major upcoming dates, holidays, and industry milestones that you absolutely MUST hit and then build content for those pieces as early as you can.

Get them stored, loaded, and ready to deploy at the right time, but get them sorted as early as possible so that you can focus on spontaneous content published according to your posting guidelines later. This keeps you flexible without missing out on major opportunities.

We use Tailwind to schedule our Instagram posts. You can try it for free with this link.

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