Although it may be painful to see your friends’ vacation photos on Instagram while you’re stuck at work, the platform has many benefits beyond just making us jealous. One significant advantage of Instagram is the ability to discover new products and services through paid ads or by seeing friends tag brands you may not have heard of in their posts. In addition, social media allows us to connect with others, but it can be challenging to use those connections to reach your customers.
Managing an Instagram account can be time-consuming and require effort to be successful and drive sales. However, research shows that 35% of shoppers aged 18-29 use Instagram to research or purchase health and beauty products. For specific industries, not using Instagram could significantly limit your potential to reach new customers.
To help you get started, here are seven benefits of Instagram that you may not be aware of.
1. More Businesses & Consumers Are Joining Every Day
The first and perhaps most exciting benefit is that more and more businesses are joining Instagram every day. In fact, there are over 1 billion active users on the platform! This means that your customers are there—and they’re ready to see what you have to offer.
But Instagram is not just for businesses. It’s also a great place for consumers to get inspired and find new products or services they love. Whether you need help with your social media strategy or want tips on how best to use Instagram for business purposes, our experts will be happy to provide guidance.
2. Easy to Target (and Retarget) Your Audience
Instagram is a visual platform. And because it’s built on sharing, it’s no surprise that Instagram has become one of the best platforms for businesses to find new customers.
The benefits of targeting your audience on Instagram are numerous: You can target audiences based on interests and location, and if you’re using an ad-buying platform, you can even target people who’ve visited your website before.
3. Use All the Visual Marketing Features on Instagram
That’s not all. Instagram provides additional ways to use visual marketing, including:
- Instagram Stories
- Instagram Carousel
- Instagram Polls
- Instagram Hashtags (including the ability to add Facebook-inspired stickers)
- Hashtag Stickers (a new way of adding hashtags)
- Geo-Tags (which allow you to add location information)
4. Engage With Customers Where They Spend Their Time
Brands that use Instagram to engage with customers should focus on posting high-quality, engaging content that provides value to their audience.
One new feature worth considering is Instagram Stories. This feature allows users to post photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours—similar to Snapchat and other social media platforms. Brands can use this feature as another way to connect with customers where they spend their time: by sharing behind-the-scenes photos and videos from events or events in progress (like cooking demos).
5. Build Up User-Generated Content
There are many ways to engage your followers, but one of the most influential and impactful is building user-generated content.
Users trust other users more than brands and influencers, so your community can be an invaluable source of promotional material.
If you want to build up user-generated content and make your brand more personable, try:
- Encouraging people to share their experiences with your brand by setting up a hashtag or giving them exclusive access to products/services through contests or giveaways (i.e., #MyNewHairTool)
- Searching for similar hashtags that might draw attention from another audience (i.e., #LongLocks) and engaging with those users who have used such hashtags
- Using Instagram stories as an opportunity for feedback about what works for followers and how they use it in real-life situations
6. Instagram Reveals In-Depth Insights About Your Audience
Instagram is an excellent tool for creating and analyzing user demographics.
It’s easy to see who your audience is and how they interact with your brand, from the content they like to see, to their favorite posts, to their most frequently used hashtags.
This information can help you tailor future campaigns and marketing strategies so that you are targeting the right people with relevant information.
7. Constantly Updated Marketing Features Within Ads and Stories
If you’re a business that sells products or services, Instagram is the perfect platform for you. In addition to the six benefits of Instagram listed above, there are several other significant advantages available to companies who advertise on Instagram. Each of these features offers a way for your brand to connect with customers in a personal way and ultimately sell more products.
Customer support: You can use live video or direct messages within ads and stories to answer questions from followers about specific products or services.
Promotions: You can create special offers for your audience that encourage them to purchase something from your page as soon as possible (for example: “Buy one item today and get another half off!”).
Shoppable posts: This feature allows people who see one of your photos with an item they like the chance to buy it directly through the app without having to go anywhere else first (e.g., Amazon).
Ads within ads: If someone likes one of their friend’s posts on Instagram, there’s now a tiny banner at the bottom right corner which shows different advertisements based on previous activity/clicks made by users within the past 24 hours so marketers can target users based on what they’ve already looked at before (e.g., if someone buys something then maybe they’ll want something similar).
How Will You Use These Benefits of Instagram?
With these benefits of Instagram, you can make your business more profitable. You can use them to engage with your audience and drive sales.
Here are some ways you can use these benefits:
- Use the statistic about engagement on stories to implement a new strategy for marketing your product or service
- Use the statistic about people liking products in ads to design a new advertising campaign for yourself or your client
Conclusion
Instagram has changed how we market our brands, connect with customers and businesses, and do business online. It’s also constantly evolving with new features—so it’s always important to keep up with these changes. The benefits of Instagram can help any company grow their business by giving them more options for marketing, engagement, and insight into its target audience.
If you are aspiring to up your brand’s Instagram game this 2023, reach out to one of our experts and watch how your brand gets the recognition it deserves!
