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In record time, Instagram has been able to absolutely explode into one of the most popular and frequently visited social media networks on the planet.
Even before being purchased by Facebook, Instagram had close to 1 billion users logging into it social media network every single month – with hundreds and hundreds of millions of users logging in every single day.
On top of that, Instagram was able to cultivate a truly active social media platform in a way that many of the other social media services haven’t been able to. People continue to log into Facebook, but aren’t anywhere near as active on the platform as they used to be.
For every individual photograph posted to Facebook, for example, about 9000 likes will land – compared to 52,000 likes and 315 comments on Instagram for the EXACT same image.
We’re talking about game changing stuff here, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising in the digital world today.
Honestly, you’d have to be at least a little bit crazy not to leverage everything that Instagram has to offer as far as marketing and advertising opportunities are concerned.
Instagram is the key to numerous online marketing empires, and it can be an effective tool to help you build your business and the financial future you’ve always dreamed of as well.
At the same time, you have to be really smart and really savvy about how you go about making the most of Instagram.
Because it is so deceptively simple to get started with it can also lure people into being kind of lazy with they are Instagram marketing and the strategies that they leverage – and that’s not somewhere that you want to find yourself or your business.
Use the inside information we’ve been able to put together for you below to not only jumpstart your Instagram marketing but to also build the kind of business and brand on this social media site that will set you up for unbelievable success moving forward.
Ready to dive right in?
Let’s get right to it!
Know EXACTLY who you are marketing to
This is the number one step that the overwhelming majority of people getting ready to market on Instagram stumble with or ignore completely, and it is the final nail in their coffin before they even get started.
You just cannot have any real success whatsoever with online marketing without first understanding exactly what’s happening in your market, what your ideal prospect is interested in most, and the kinds of content that they really gravitate to.
For starters, you have to get crystal clear about who your ideal prospect really is…
Sure, this isn’t quite as “sexy” as leveraging the latest Instagram marketing tactic du jour, but it is the heart and soul of a proven marketing approach and the only way that you are going to be able to hit the ground running with your new Instagram efforts.
A lot of otherwise smart and savvy business owners and marketers are going to try and create the business of their dreams or a brand that really resonates with what they are most interested in.
This is especially deadly for business owners and entrepreneurs that are trying to “scratch their own itch” and feel like they are the best customer for their products or services.
These are the kinds of business owners and entrepreneurs that are going to color all of their marketing and advertising according to what they would be most attracted to, as opposed to what the majority of their market is interested in.
Do not make this same mistake.
Instead, create a customer profile that is as detailed as humanly possible about whom your perfect prospect is.
Break down their age, their interests outside of your products and services, the hobbies that they most enjoy, the income that they are likely to pull down, their marital status, and absolutely everything else you can come up with to really zero in on EXACTLY who they are.
Then and only then will you be able to create the kind of Instagram content (and other pieces of marketing content, for that matter) that will really resonate with them as a core individual.
This is when you’re able to turn up the heat, this is when you’re able to knock your marketing out of the park, and this is when you have an almost unfair competitive advantage over your competitors.
Speaking of your competitors…
You absolutely MUST check your competition
It is absolutely impossible for you to have any measure of success on Instagram whatsoever without first understanding what the lay of the land is like and what your competitors are doing right now that you have to do better.
Unless you are inventing a brand-new product or service that the world has never seen before (unlikely but possible) the odds are pretty good that there are at least a handful of other companies and businesses selling exactly what you have to offer – and they already have a head start on Instagram!
Instead of letting this discourage you, the important thing for you to understand is that you now have an almost invisible head start over your competitors (and that head start is all their fault).
You see, by paying attention to the content that they publish on Instagram for say 30 days or so you are going to be able to steal inside information from these competitors without them even realizing that they are doing the heavy lifting for you when it comes to your Instagram marketing.
You are going to have the opportunity to watch the kinds of content that they publish, find out which kinds of content gets the most engagement from your target market, and which kinds of content are kind of met with no real reaction whatsoever.
On top of that, you are also going to be to measure the frequency with which these competitors market and figure out whether or not this has an impact on engagement levels.
Some businesses are able to hit it right out of the park with daily or weekly posts, but if your competitor is publishing content on a weekly basis, you may be able to squeeze right in and capture a larger section of market share just by ramping up the speed in which you put out new content.
You’re also going to be able to tell how they are using Instagram as a piece of the larger marketing puzzle (something that we are really going to touch on in just a moment).
This is where the real savvy marketers are able to turn Instagram traffic into floods of cold hard cash, and something that you are going to have to master as quickly as humanly possible as well.
More importantly than that though, is that by paying attention to your competition you are also going to be able to find new partners that may help you skyrocket your success right out of the gate.
By looking at your competitors, finding the kind of content that they are interested in sharing (that your market is most interested in as well), and then offering to provide some of that content to them in exchange for a “mention” you can piggyback off of the following that they have already developed and jumpstart your success as well.
It’s really all about finding leverage points and squeezing every single drop out of every Instagram post you make. You cannot just throw content on Instagram (or any other social media platform, for that matter) in a willy-nilly kind of fashion and expect to have any real success whatsoever. It just isn’t going to happen that way.
Spying on your competition will give you tremendous insight into what they are doing successfully (so you can model the same) and what they are doing unsuccessfully so you can avoid that pitfall and pivot it into a competitive advantage. It really doesn’t get much better than that!
Consistency is king on Instagram
When you are serious about building up a brand with Instagram posts (and almost essential in business today), you have to fall in love with consistency, regardless of how rebellious or irreverent your brand is.
Think about this…
Each and every single day, every human being in America is bombarded with literally thousands and thousands of pieces of advertising – just like almost everyone else around the planet.
There is so much “noise” out there that we can hardly pay attention to half of that, even if we are really interested in whatever it is that we are encountering.
To cut through all of this noise with more “signal” – to reach out and connect with your prospects on Instagram – you have to reach out to them effectively, consistently, and reliably.
One study suggests that Instagram marketing is really only “impactful” and influential after seven separate interactions with your Instagram account or content.
You have to make sure that every single piece of Instagram content you publish is integrated with your brand so that it is immediately recognizable as YOU!
You also have to make sure that you post your content on a regular and consistent basis so that your market can come to expect new posts from you at a particular point in time.
Think about how difficult it would be for you to follow up with your favorite TV show if it was on Wednesday one week, Sunday the next, Thursday the week after that, and then went on a three week hiatus until it returned on Monday night and then Tuesday night right afterwards.
Sure, you may be able to capture the attention of some “channel flippers” on Instagram with this kind of shotgun style approach to marketing, but you’re never going to be able to build up the kind of consistent and engaged following that you would have been able to if you had avoided that willy-nilly style and instead stuck to an obvious schedule (like posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for example).
All of the biggest companies on the planet have and stick religiously to marketing calendars for this exact reason.
Not only does it allow them to plan out their marketing and their content releases months in advance (giving them the ability to really fine tune each piece of marketing/content so that it fits seamlessly into their overall marketing push), but it also allows them to communicate consistently with their followers in a way that everyone understands and relates to.
This kind of consistency creates a real relationship and affinity with your market and your followers that just isn’t going to exist otherwise. It can be rather difficult to come up with content on a regular basis like this, but that’s what the content partnerships mentioned above are for.
Trust me, building out that content calendar is essential if you’re going to systemize your business and have any real chance at tremendous success in Instagram marketing today.
Instagram should be a part of your overall marketing puzzle
The last thing to really touch on here is the value and importance of making sure that Instagram is just a small part of your marketing and advertising machine – an essential part for sure, but definitely not the only part of your marketing or advertising responsible for the “heavy lifting” of turning complete strangers into fanatical returning customers.
Too many people try to have Instagram do all of the heavy lifting for them never to realize that number one Instagram wasn’t established to do all of that heavy lifting, and number two the results they get from using Instagram as an “entry point” into a fine-tuned marketing funnel would provide them with much better results (and cost a lot less as well).
Think of Instagram content – each and every single image you post – as a headline that is designed primarily to capture the attention of your perfect prospect and then move them quickly deeper and deeper into your social media accounts, your marketing funnels, and eventually your shopping cart.
A picture is definitely worth 1000 words (that cannot be debated), but you also aren’t going to be able to sell products and services directly from your Instagram account alone.
By using Instagram as the entry point into your funnel, you’re able to capture the attention and interest of your perfect prospects while pushing them deeper and deeper into other web properties you all.
By capturing their contact information or getting them to engage with you on other social media platforms, you increase the strength of the relationship.
This is definitely going to transfer into better influence and a higher opportunity of converting them into a paying customer – and that’s the bread and butter of turning social media into marketing and advertising power.
Closing thoughts
At the end of the day, success on Instagram is a lot easier than most people make it out to be.
Yes, you have to be smart about how you use these tools and about how you implement each Instagram image you post (at least as far as how it fits into your overall marketing machine).
With a little bit of focus and some strategic thinking, you shouldn’t have any trouble whatsoever catapulting yourself to the top of your market faster than you ever would have thought possible before.
Arm yourself with all of the inside information we have been able to share with you above, and you’ll have no trouble whatsoever really hitting the ground running.
Instagram makes it really easy to succeed (especially when you spy on your competitors and use their best content strategies against them), and once you understand exactly who your perfect prospect is and what they want from your Instagram account most, it becomes almost effortless to succeed.
Fold Instagram into your marketing machine as seamlessly and efficiently as possible, and the sky is the limit as far as your success is concerned!
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