Instagram is the most loved social media platform by millennials and other Instagrammers. Instagram is growing in popularity and there are millions of people using Instagram every month. When it comes to marketing, Instagram has found to be effective giving brands a sound reach, awareness, and a solid social media presence.
In the past years, marketers have started earning a bunch from collaborative marketing endeavors using Instagram. Influencer marketing is gaining notoriety and taking social media by storm. Social media marketers started using influencer marketing as it is the greatest way to attract and reach millions of target customers. If you are keen to begin influencer marketing on Instagram, this article will outline the required hacks to rock your marketing strategy.
What exactly is Instagram Influencer Marketing?
When a person drives and builds an extensive group of followers on Instagram, who respect his thoughts or opinions, he becomes an influencer. The number of followers depends on the trust and likeness they have captured among their audience. Influencers have a fabulous social proof and word of mouth tactics to allure their audience. The pool of followers can be as wide as one’s potential to drive.
The evolution of influencer marketing has given a great start for businesses that have been waiting to expand their brand on new channels, startups who want to showcase themselves and individual entrepreneurs who want a huge fan base. Instagram Influencer marketing does nothing but allows a brand to reach out to its potential audience in a way that makes every customer feels more personal and genuine.
Unlike conventional modes of marketing, Instagram influencer marketing goes a long way in building a brand in much less time than you would wonder if you worked this much for it.
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Why is Instagram influencer marketing very effective?
Instagram influencer marketing is very effective in increasing the business bottom line. There are many influencers on Instagram based on your niche and industry with enormous fans. People like influencers for a variety of reasons. Each influencer has own style of enticing their audience may be their killer photos or for their impeccable style. Although people trust and like influencers their effectiveness in building a brand is so efficacious.
Over the past years, with the skyrocketing rise of Instagramers, interest in Instagram influencer marketing has grown by more than 90 times. Marketers are certainly including an influencer marketing campaign in their strategy owing to its effectiveness to drive conversions. By the end of 2019, top brands are willing to invest over $1 billion on Instagram influencer marketing.
Hacking Instagram marketing with influencers made easy
Connect with a Micro-influencer
Connecting with a top influencer of your niche can be a daunting task. This is not something every business can afford to pay. Also, businesses find it hard to find popular influencers however the good news is, there are micro-influencers with whom you can work to drive engagement and get higher conversion rates. Influencers who have followers between 1000 to 1,000,000 are called micro-influencers.
These influencers are considered to be an expert in their respective niche. With a smaller group of people, these influencers connect deeply with their audience. In fact, influencers with a smaller number of generated more engagement than that of influencers with a larger number of followers. The engagement rate tends to decrease with a large number of audiences as there is minimal personal interaction with the influencer. Hence micro-influencer marketing on Instagram is affordable and provides higher engagement and conversion rates.
Be authentic
Once you are working with a dedicated micro-influencer, being authentic with whatever you are selling is the key. Do you see brands showcasing new names for their products? Do you believe it is their product or they have just used their name on it? They have made it very clear by being authentic.
When taking inspiration from top brands on how they market, stick to your brand and only share information that belongs to you. Don’t share posts, images or videos simply to gain followers. Be known for what exactly you do or serve. Honesty is the finest policy to engage millions of people together at one time. The more your potential customers will realize you are real, the more interest they will show toward your Instagram page by liking you and following your brand.
Choose the right influencer
Find the right influencer, not just any influencer. Choosing the right influencer for your niche is vital for the success of your marketing efforts. Investing in an influencer who is not relevant to your niche can break your marketing campaign. The influencer must match with your business objectives and what you are trying to portray through the influencer. The connection between the influencer and your brand should make sense.
Even if the influencer has a large number of followers, your Instagram campaign would go vain if both the parties have different niche interests. Therefore, it is essential that the influencer and your business should go hand-in-hand.
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Check for fake followers
Influencer marketing has also got its downsides. unfortunately, some people impersonate other influencers or simply have a fake profile and followers. It is imperative that you double-check the profile of the influencer before you start investing in them. To know the authenticity of the influencers, double-check the influencer profiles.
Check for the number of followers and the number of following. If the profile has numerous following that the followers then it is an alarming sign that the profile is fake. If the profile bio has outright language errors and is not relevant to the influencer’s niche, you must be careful. Few people just buy followers with no hard work or loyalty and investing in such influencer could be a blunder.
Be active on social media
This is an important hack if you want to maser influencer marketing. Staying active on social media platforms allows you to find the right influencer based on your niche preference. Further, you can increase the conversion rate and the engagement rate of your brand profile by actively commenting on social sites. This can be achieved by liking, commenting and sharing your brand and the influencers post which is a win-win situation for both parties.
Moreover, you get an absolute chance to interact with the influencer of your niche and ask him/her to promote your brand and business. You can definitely build a rapport with the influencer which gives you enormous business opportunities. Consistently follow the influencers page and get connections in no time.
Use influencer testimonials and quotes
Using influencer testimonials is a great strategy to win the game. After all, people definitely will follow the word of mouth of their loved influencers. You can do this by giving a free sample of your product to the influencer and ask them to review or write a testimony. This is an effective way to gain trust amongst your followers and grow your business. There are high chances that the fan base of the influencer will definitely try your product and services based on the positive reviews from the influencer.
Another way is to include the quotes and sayings of the influencers related to your niche. You can share the influencers quotes in your posts and if the influencer likes it, he or she will assuredly reshare the post. This creates engagement and lots of traffic to your website.
Make use of IGTV
The Instagram community has flourished and grown and as a major accomplishment, Instagram has launched IGTV. It is a standalone app where you can watch the videos in full screen and vertical. Here the videos are not limited to one minute by can be uploaded for one hour long. When you follow an influencer on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. This gives a great way for marketers to connect with their followers and upload videos.
The influencers can use IGTV to educate, influence and build relationships with your followers. Here the influencers can post product videos, demo videos, tutorials and answer questions about your product and services. IGTV is a great way for influencers and marketers to create promotional videos. This app is available as a standalone app in the play store and the basic functionality is available within the Instagram app.
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Final words
Instagram influencer marketing can be made easy with the above-said strategies. after you leverage all these strategies, it is essential that you track and measure your marketing efforts. You can use Instagram Analytics to track your brand’s engagement rate, website traffic, and sales. Mark your Instagram profile as a Business Account to get real-time insights of your brand. You can change it from your app account settings. Get detailed reports on your account performance and see how influencer marketing is working for you.
Sound collaboration with the influencers can build your brand’s exposure. Use your brand hashtags, call-to-action-buttons and give freebies to highlight your marketing campaigns. Thus, you can leverage your brand loyalty, drive sales, and master Instagram influencer marketing.
This article is written by Gifty Narkani. Gifty is a Content Writer at Bright Bridge Infotech, an Attorney Marketing Company. She specializes in guest blogging, blog publishing, and social media marketing. She is an avid reader and loves writing impeccable contents pertaining to digital marketing.
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