While Instagram allows its users to post videos, they can only be a maximum of 60 seconds long. It can be difficult to connect with your audience in such a short amount of time, but with the right strategies you can maximize your views, and in turn increase sales.
Up until recently, only larger companies were able to advertise on Instagram using the “sponsored” feature. This is a marketing tool that companies have to pay for, but it allows your post to pop up as an ad on users’ feed, even if they are not following you. Instagram recently opened up this feature to all businesses, big or small. By using this strategy, McDonald’s was able to reach a larger audience and they saw improvements in their ad recalls. In a success story that featured the restaurant, Instagram revealed that after two months of posting sponsored ads, their brand favorability had increased four points and there was a four-point lift in message association between McDonald’s and summer.” Continuing, “Additionally, the two-phase campaign achieved a 47-point lift in ad recall– one of the highest
Nielsen Brand Effect results seen to date globally.”
One of the best strategies to reach the largest amount of people is implementing hashtags in your posts. When Instagram users search the hashtag, your posts will populate and they can either follow you or watch your video. The key is using a hashtag that won’t populate millions of posts, because then it will become increasingly difficult for people to find your video. Forbes says to use less popular hashtags, yet highly relevant hashtags. By driving more traffic to your account, that allows you to reach the maximum amount of people. This is a great way to increase sales because you are increasing awareness about what you are selling. If you have a product that is going to take six months to market, hashtags are a great way to keep people engaged. Your followers, or any Instagram user, can search the hashtag to keep learning about your product and monitor its release.
Photo courtesy of Short Stack
Another helpful tactic for getting traffic on your posts is scheduling your videos at the right time. There are many apps that will tell you when the majority of your followers are active, and this will allow more people to learn about you or your product. Crowdfire is a free app that gives you the best times to post on Instagram. It syncs your social media account to the app, and when you schedule a post you can either choose the time yourself or select “best time.” Choosing this option will be the most effective marketing strategy because the post will go out when most of your followers are on Instagram. Crowdfire also allows you to choose ideas, themes, or values of your company; and it creates hashtags that follow these ideas. The main goal is to help you reach as many people as possible because when your viewers increase, your chances of getting more sales will also increase.
Although Instagram limits how long your videos can be, that doesn’t mean your sales have to be limited. With the right hashtags, scheduling apps, and by sponsoring your own posts, you can increase how many people see your video. The more viewers you have, the more people will learn about your product and want to buy it.
Resources:
