If you are a brand looking to increase your brand reach and boost customer engagement quickly, there can be nothing better than reputation management software. You not only get immediate access to a large pool of potential customers but also have the opportunity of boosting your brand reputation and drive sales. It is well established that customers tend to distrust conventional paid-for advertising and rely more on influencers for authentic endorsements even though they are aware that the influencers receive remuneration for their promotional efforts. With Instagram influencer marketing proving to be a goldmine, an overwhelming number of businesses globally are increasingly using it to increase brand awareness, engage customers to build brand loyalty, and drive sales. Some highly effective Instagram influencer marketing campaigns tips for brands:
Collaborate with Micro-Influencers
While all brands dream of getting instant access to millions of their target audience by tying up with a macro-influencer, the problem is that they tend to be more expensive than what any brand can generally afford. For example, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, according to the BBC, charges more than $1 million per Instagram post. Also, despite their large sphere of influence, the rate of engagement of many macro-influencers is less than impressive. It is for this reason that many brands now prefer to work with micro-influencers that have followers in the band of 1,000, 1,00,000. Typically, they are not celebrities but are followed for their skill or domain expertise in a particular niche. Because they have a smaller number of followers, their engagement is higher, typically close to seven times more than macro-influencer. More importantly, micro-influencers are far more affordable even if they are no longer satisfied to work for product samples and other freebies.
Hold Contests and Distribute Giveaways
It is no secret that people love to participate in contests, win stuff, and be recognized by their peers. Holding contests and giving away free stuff is a very effective way of engaging with customers, driving traffic to the website, and even discovering new potential customers. Influencers love to engage in these kinds of tactics because it boosts their engagement levels, allows effective brand promotion, and at the same time, boosts their level of influence. Even though contests are deliberately made very easy to participate and win, giving away freebies, in addition, helps to encourage those who may have participated but not won. To create a buzz around the content, brands can buy likes for Instagram for a nominal amount from a social media marketing agency.
Provide an Exclusive Offer
By collaborating with influencers, you can encourage customers to visit your website or e-commerce platform and buy your product. To boost the number of conversions, brands can have a separate URL reserved for the influencer or even a promo code that entitles the customer to some benefit like an outright discount on the purchase price, an extended warranty, free shipping, or even a gift against every purchase. Since most followers consider influencers credible, they are more willing to listen and abide by their suggestions and endorsements. If you are using several influencers at the same time to promote the same product, it will help to give them different promo codes or URLs so that you can figure out which of the influencer performed better.
Ask the Influencer to Add Your Website Link in the Bio
Instagram is a very effective social media network for generating traffic to the website. When you engage an influencer to promote your brand, you can have your website URL included in the bio section of the influencer’s Instagram account. Since the website link in the bio section is usually clicked by the influencer’s followers to know more about them, it can be a valuable technique to generating traffic to your website. The link can lead to a landing page on your website that is specially designed to make the visitor convert.
Use Instagram Stories Strategically
Influencers can not only deliver extra brand traction through their posts on Instagram but also use Instagram Stories strategically to promote the brand they are endorsing. Influencers can share their experiences in a way that makes their followers feel special and privileged. The fact that Instagram Stories have a life of only 24 hours adds to their allure, and people who are keen to follow influencers will make it a point not to miss the Stories. Another significant advantage of using Stories is that Instagram allows them to be made shoppable. You can direct the interested customers to different product pages of your online catalog and encourage them to buy directly. Stories posted by influencers are more effective in eliciting emotional responses by customers and act to build better brand loyalty.
Use Hashtag Brand Promotions
Collaborating with influencers for increasing brand awareness and recognition with a specially-developed hashtag can be very productive. Influencers can ask their followers to post photos on a specific brand or product-related subject along with the unique hashtag. The greater number of users who share content using the hashtag, the more they come to know about the brand. It has a spillover effect with the followers of the followers also coming to know of the hashtag program. Influencers can boost the level of participation by getting the brand to sponsor some attractive giveaways that will make it doubly attractive for users to participate. The influencer should also use the same hashtag in all the sponsored posts so that the followers come to know of it and are encouraged to use it in their posts.
Conclusion
There is no end to the innovation brands can execute in their influencer marketing programs on Instagram. The visual nature of the network makes it very easy for brands to come up with engaging posts that grip the imagination of the users. Influencers who understand the pulse of their followers can help brands come up with effective ideas on how to make their association more productive. Brands can use concepts like live-streaming featuring the influencers demonstrating the products or conducting an exclusive preview for their users. Additionally, they can take users behind the scenes of the brand to give users an idea of what it takes for a business to present a brand to them.
