Digital marketing has evolved over the last decade to become one of the most powerful tools in brand development and awareness.

Whether you are an online eCommerce business, a brick-and-mortar store, or whether you dabble in both, digital marketing has created a platform for you to reach new and unique audiences.

Instagram as an Additional Income Channel: Ways on How to Leverage It

Although there are various branches to digital marketing like organic search, content, paid ads, email, etc., one of the most utilized channels is social media marketing.

Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram top the digital marketing channels, with others like TikTok and Snapchat being used less frequently.

Let’s explore Instagram in more detail. We are going to unpack how you can use the platform to reach new audiences, heighten conversions and scale your business.

We will unpack not only what steps you need to follow to grow your following, but how you can fully use it to heighten your conversion rate.

Automate as Much as Possible

Let’s face it, social media marketing can actually be incredibly resource-intensive. Regular posts can take a long time to create and post with the right assets.

If you are posting across various platforms, that can also take a huge chunk of time from your day.

So, look at automating as much of it as possible. Luckily for you, there are a ton of different platforms that allow you to manage multi-channel platforms, and post uniform content across each.

You are also able to schedule Instagram posts ahead of time to ensure that there is regular content going out at all times for your brand. You can copy this content and ensure that it is being duplicated across all platforms to broaden your reach.

Make sure with Instagram, however, that you focus specifically on the quality of the image.

Being a more visual platform than Facebook, the image will need to be carefully planned ahead of time to really capture interest in your messaging and campaign.

These tools also allow you to measure and monitor the success of the campaigns. You are provided with reports and metrics on the reach, click-throughs and should you be using the shoppable feeds – conversion rates.

Having complete oversight and management of Instagram is incredibly useful to plan future campaigns.

Pre-Plan Your Content

When they say that content is king, they really mean it. Our advice to you is to pre-plan your content in advance. Whether it be a month in advance or planning for the next few months, ascertain which campaigns you will be launching and map your platforms around that.

Remember, Instagram is a more visual platform, so make sure you include video content and high-quality lifestyle images in your content plan.

Pre-planning in advance allows you the time to plan and shoot the content for distribution.

Keep the rule of thumb in mind when it comes to content. Make sure it is educational, informative, entertaining, and empowering.

If your audience is not going to walk away with something from the content that you are distributing, don’t post it. You will need to gain people’s trust before you convert them to customers.

Frequent content on Instagram keeps your customers at the forefront of your mind. So, use as many of the different features that Instagram offers you, from the stories to regular posts and promotions.

The more you push your content, the further your reach. Keep in mind that every single fan is different, they engage with different posts, so experiment with as much as possible and track the success until you start getting a clear view of what works.

Partner with Influencers

Instagram is the perfect channel to create content together with other partners like influencers and hiring models in a brand ambassador agency. But, before you start thinking of macro-influencers like Kylie Jenner or the big-budget affiliates, take it closer to home.

Micro-influencers are a great way of reaching new audiences that, if you pick your influencer wisely, are your direct target audience.

Micro-influencers have a few thousand fans, but all of the fans have actually followed them as they are interested in the content that they are sharing. So, if you choose someone who is in your industry, you will be able to reach people who would be organically interested in your products and services.

Say, you are a finance or insurance provider. It is a tricky topic to market, especially on Instagram. So, look for locally well-known people in related fields.

Finance gurus or car enthusiasts could be great examples of possible influencers who will be able to share educated and knowledgeable posts with your branding to their followers.

Micro-influencers usually put a lot more thought and effort into their posts and spend more time engaging with their audience.

This is great news for you as they can become firm brand advocates for you and heighten conversion rates as well.

Create a Shoppable Feed

This is a great new feature on Instagram and allows your followers to buy directly from the platform. This means that you can tag products directly onto the Instagram feed for your follower to buy within seconds from your site.

You are finally able to add multiple links into one image for your customer to click on, rather than just providing a link in the bio.

If you are a furniture retailer, for example,  high-quality images of staged living areas can be directly shopped from by your customers. Fashion outlets too can spend more on shoots for Instagram posts as your customer can buy directly from it.

It is easy to set up shoppable feeds. You simply need to do the following:

• Open business Instagram and Facebook accounts and link them;
• Sync your platform partner (for example Shopify);
• Add products onto your Facebook shop;
• Enable Instagram shopping through the business settings and get it approved;
• Start posting and tagging your products on Instagram posts as well as stories.

You can be as creative as you like with Instagram. From stories to image posts or engaging video content, make sure that you create a brand identity and stick to it!

Last Thoughts

In wrapping up, it is important to keep in mind that social media, like Instagram, is an important touchpoint in your customer journey. Many of your customers might be discovering your brand on Instagram, or even visiting to find out more about you and your products.

Frequent, brand-aligned posts will not only create a sense of trust with your potential customers, but you can almost use it as an interactive magazine to display your offerings.

Keep your post content simple and to the point, with relevant hashtags for you to appear on organic searches on the platform.

You can also tag in other parties to extend your reach even more, like your influencers, for example. Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing on Instagram too. It can be a highly trendy platform, so keep up with what your target audience is responding to.