Around 58% of the world, or 4.55 billion people, were actively using social media by the end of 2021. Furthermore, out of the internet users aged 16 to 24, nearly three-quarters agree to turn to social media to research products. It’s no wonder that digital marketing strategies have increasingly been focusing on this particular channel.
In this article, we will explore the use of Instagram by businesses and the potential the platform has for social media marketing. If you are a business aiming to grow your presence on Instagram and boost your sales there, this article is for you.
The Statistics
Instagram is backed by staggering statistics that show the potential it has to support both large and small businesses:
- Statistica says that Instagram will reach 1.2 billion users by 2023
- According to Facebook, Instagram helps 80% of people buy a product or service.
- According to Instagram’s statistics, 90% of people its users follow a business
- Two in three people surveyed say that Instagram enables easy interactions with brands
- Half of its users display a greater interest in a brand when they see it for the first time on Instagram.
Behind the Statistics
To successfully leverage a platform’s potential, understanding the reasons behind its success is necessary.
The Design
More often than not, marketing is about visuals, and Instagram was amongst the first platforms to entirely center its interface around pictures. One of the primary reasons behind Instagram’s success as a platform for businesses is its visual-centric design: every feed on the platform is defined by pictures. It is extremely convenient for users to go through a compact catalog that defines a brand’s products, theme, and values without having to read lengthy text.
The classic three-column organization set by default makes the feed compact. Instagram Stories are played separately and can be grouped and displayed as Highlights under particular thumbnails, letting you compile reviews without them disturbing the main imagery of your page.
The design ensures that users do not have to scroll infinitely and wait for irrelevant snippets of information to load just to look around: they can choose which thumbnail interests them and then access its details through a single tap.
It Tells Stories
Instagram enables users to engage with the human behind a business. Especially true for small businesses, Instagram puts a face to brands, giving it the capability to turn shopping into a personal experience. It allows businesses to tell their unique story, effectively capturing the attention of consumers and creating a potential for engagement.
Given the nature of the platform, it’s interesting how such stories do not have to be told through static pictures. Instead, they can be told through the use of text in captions or through the use of IG stories if you do not want them to disrupt the ongoing color theme of your feed. This lets you choose whether you want to keep the focus on them or not.
Furthermore, the storytelling aspect goes beyond sharing the tale of the creation of your brand. Whether it’s appreciative messages or catchy pictures with your products, you can easily showcase past customers’ success stories by reposting what they share about your products, letting your followers know how your brand has been performing and evolving over time.
Facilitates Engagement
Engaging with brands is extremely convenient on Instagram. Posts can be written in sufficient detail, unlike Twitter. One does not have to install a separate application to send messages, unlike Facebook. The messages do not disappear after a set period of time, unlike Snapchat. The status of messages can be checked, unlike emails.
The inbuilt features of Instagram further facilitate engagement. For example, replying to Instagram Stories through preset reactions is extremely simple. This feature is especially appreciable for small businesses. As a result, they can expect decent engagement rates when they opt to put out new products and showcase creation stories. Furthermore, within IG stories, collecting feedback through polls becomes an easy process. Asking for such feedback further lets consumers know that you consider their opinions seriously.
This ease of engagement and effortless catalog scrolling combine to make Instagram a tool that not only facilitates brands, but also empowers consumers.
Lets You Find a Like-Minded Community
Shopping is not impersonal anymore. Instagram’s own algorithms identify patterns in activities, hashtags, and geotags to drive users to you and you to them. As a result, like-minded communities with similar tastes start to coagulate. The community-building aspect has consequences far beyond the profit-centered idea of finding the right target audience: coupled with the ease of story-telling, it allows for effective connection-building, making it a personal experience for both business owners and consumers.
Lets You Relay Information in Real Time
The Instagram Live feature is a convenient tool for exchanging real-time information. For example, suppose you have been building up consumers’ anticipation over an upcoming product release. In that case, you can host an IG Live session for the release itself, showing your products and their features, getting feedback, and gauging reaction live. This is another feature of the platform that facilitates engagement and lets consumers become a part of your story.
Has Easy Boosting Options
On the technical side of things, boosting a post on Instagram is an uncomplicated experience. Businesses do not need any third-party application to expand the reach of their posts; Instagram does it for them at a reasonable fee. Furthermore, its algorithms ensure that the users your posts reach are interested in the category of content you produce, making it an uncumbersome experience for both you and consumers.
Drives Traffic to You Easily
Within the process of boosting a post, Instagram asks you about the call to action you want to make. Whether it’s to visit your profile or direct them to your website, if consumers are interested in your post, the chances are that they will do what the Call to Action asks them to do.
Endnote
Not only is Instagram’s success as a digital marketing channel unparalleled, but it can be backed up by logical arguments that ensure that it will stay a convenient platform for businesses to use. You can further enlist an Instagram growth service to help you grow. If you own a business, consider investing more time, effort, and capital in maintaining your presence on the platform.
