The number one thing you need to know about influencing your brand on Instagram, is not that you need to have a large following (Shocking right?) In fact, some studies have shown that influencers with a small amount of followers have a higher engagement rate than those with a large following. Now, since followers are not the most important method in drawing attention to your brand, what is?
Influencer Marketing
This is simply a process where you, or an influencer promotes your products, services and overall brand using specific content marketing strategies. A few of them include: Sponsored posts on Instagram, Sponsored social media marketing posts on other social media platforms (Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, etc) and many others.
There are many reasons why people use Influencer Marketing, some for brand awareness, and others to increase conversion rates. For the purpose of this article, Brand Awareness is our main focus. With over 1 billion monthly active users and 500,000 daily active users, one would expect that this should be an easy feat. However, we find that this is not always the case. This article will explore how and what to do to channel the attention of as many users as possible to your brand.
#1 Collaborate With Micro-Influencers
There are different categories of influencers: Micro, Macro and Celebrity influencers. Usually, micro influencers have a small number of following, about 1,000 to 100, 000 dedicated followers. They are often ordinary people who have become quite popular in the industry. As earlier said, these set of influencers have more dedicated followers who tend to interact with their page more often, giving them a higher engagement rate. Partnering with these sets of influencers would be beneficial in drawing attention to your brand because their followers usually trust their recommendations and judgement. Not only that, they come at a cheaper rate than macro-influencers or celebrities who would charge way higher.
#2 Organizing Online Competitions and Giveaway
At the mention of free stuff, a crowd will gather. It’s not rocket science; people just like free things. It doesn’t really matter what it is, you would find a group of people that are interested in winning it. While not encouraging you to turn your brand to a giveaway hub, it delights your followers when you want to give them things for free. To spice it up a little you can add a simple but friendly competition among your followers. It can be as simple as unscrambling letters or cheap questions about what’s happening in the society. To make the most of this marketing style, you may want to partner with a few well-known brands or opinion leaders on Instagram. They can be beneficial in coercing their followers to participate in your giveaway and finding out more about your brand.
#3 Make the Most of Your IG Stories
Because of how quick and easy it is to scan through stories on Instagram, it is one of the most used features of the platform. Make the most use of this feature. Many users use the stories to share real-life experiences as it happens to them, making their followers feel as if they are a part of their lives. It not only endears you to your followers, it keeps them wanting more. Many Instagram Influencers share more about their personal lives on their stories, instead of even the normal post feature. If your brand is one that sells products or services, it would be wise to put up shoppable stickers within your stories or links to your shopping website.
#4 Invite Influencers to Review Your Products and Services
Another great way to maximize the power of other influencers in giving your brand a little push, is to ask them to review your products. You can ask them for a sincere and detailed review on their page so as to be able to educate and attract your target audience on their pages as well as gain the trust of prospective users about the authenticity of your brand. You must however remember to bring your A-game when asking for a review of your products, since you are asking for them to be honest and sincere. You wouldn’t want to appear as subpar would you?
Conclusion
Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to draw attention and point the spotlight at your brand on Instagram. Majority of the Instagram populace is always on the look-out for quality content, endearing content and lots of freebies. As long as your brand is offering these, you sure can’t go wrong in your quest to boost awareness for your brand.
Bio
Cheryl Hearts is a writer and journalist from Boston, Massachusetts. Her passion for writing started at an early age and evolved during the high school years. She enjoyed creating her own stories, so she decided to make writing her career. After earning a degree in Journalism, Cheryl started running her own blog CherylHearts.com where she’s covering topics of great interest to society.
