Guide to Insta Marketing | The African Exponent.

1. Connect With Your Followers & Audience

Instagram can help you drastically improve your reach, which isn’t surprising because average engagement on the platform is between 2% and 7%. Not only that, but your engagement rate can increase to over 10% by simply using one hashtag. That number skyrockets to more than 50% when you tag your location, which is something all local businesses should be doing.

There are lots of types of content you can publish on Instagram. Experiment with a few to find out what works and what doesn’t get more ideas to grow your account at Blastup. A few ideas you can try include:

. Post Product and service-related images

. Show followers what you do behind the scenes, such as who is behind your company

. Offer discounts, do giveaways and run contests

. Promote different posts to see which ones garner the most engagement and spread the most awareness

. Direct message your targeted market with coupon codes

2. Use Hashtags

You can spread the word about your business beyond your followers. You can do this by using hashtags, which you can include up to 30 per post. You can also include up to 10 hashtags for Stories.

You don’t want to use the same hashtags repeatedly. Just make sure you use relevant hashtags. This is how you’ll get the most benefits from hashtags.

Are you new to using hashtags? Don’t worry because everything is straightforward. A lot of users use hashtag tools to help them find what’s popular within their specific industry.

3. Use Stories

Stories is still a pretty new feature on Instagram. They’re short video clips that your followers can watch. This provides them with a unique user experience.

For example, if you’re a microbrewery, then you could post to your Stories of you making a brand new product. Your followers will be intrigued. In turn, they may end up going to your tap room to try your new product.

One of the best things about Instagram Stories is they allow you to interact with your audience, as well as let you show your personality. You can use location tagging, hashtags and mentions in your Instagram Stories. You can even add polls, questions and GIFs to name a few. You will come off as more approachable and authentic by using Instagram Stories.

4. Influencers

Influencers are those who leverage their following on social media with the purpose of boosting sales, attracting business or achieving other goals. You can use influencers to help you boost your marketing efforts. It’s a good idea to become familiar with how using influencers work because this will give you a better idea of how you can incorporate them into your current marketing strategy.

Influencers can be assets to your business. There are a number of websites that help brands connect with influencers. Another option you can do is reach out to influencers and offer them free services, products and so forth. This will increase the chances of them wanting to work with you.

Even if you’re pretty new to Instagram, you should still consider using influencer marketing, which is a multi-billion dollar industry. Not only that, but in one survey, it was revealed that over 80 percent of companies saw a return on their investment with influencer marketing, when compared to traditional marketing avenues.

5. Take The Time To Know Your Followers

Eventually you’ll start generating comments on your posts, especially as your following grows. Make sure you respond to your comments, and give sincere replies to those who give you any kind of meaningful feedback. This will make your company seem more real and more approachable.

You should remove any kind of hateful comments or comments that can cause discontent or discord. However, you don’t have to respond to every single comment that is left for you. Do your best to respond to the most genuine and authentic comments.

Make sure you check your notifications regularly to see if anyone has commented about you in a post or uploaded an image that you’re tagged in or has written a review via their personal page. This will give you the chance to create relationships with customers or potential new customers. In turn, you could enjoy more business and/or your following list will continue to grow because more awareness was spread about your brand.