IN-FEED MARKETING: THE INSTAGRAM GATEWAY
Instagram might be one of the handiest tools to have in promoting your business, especially an eCommerce store. Tune in for why and how you should be using in-feed video marketing to promote your products or services to your audience and potential customers as well. Let’s dig in.
What is in-feed marketing?
In-feed marketing refers to marketable content that users can engage with while never exiting their main feed. By “feed” we mean the scrollable content featured on the home screen, where users interact with content from accounts or hashtags they subscribe to. Typically, this feed is filled with content from brands, hashtags, or influencers they already follow and/or engage with intentionally.
What does in-feed marketing look like?
While this particular type of marketing can be referred to as ‘’simple as posting one photo,’’ the reality is that simplicity does not live behind that photo. Each content piece is carefully curated, with strategic intention to entice users to take some sort of action, from “liking’’ or commenting on a post, to booking a service. What your content looks like has boundless opportunities, however, to spark inspiration, we recommend starting with content like:
Unboxing videos
We’ve linked a few of our favorites in the aforementioned examples.
How does it differ from IG TV?
IG TV houses any and all posted video content that is longer than their allotted feed time of 60 seconds, not including posts that feature multiple video files so long as each video is less than a minute in length. IG TV serves its greater purpose by allowing users to upload videos of great importance that surpass the minute mark, however, it does not fulfill the goals we’d like to achieve today. Stick to IG TV when you’re looking to share general content like interviews or product demonstrations.
What Can it Do for My Business?
Your eCommerce business can benefit greatly from being able to connect products to customers in a few clicks or video plays.
In-feed marketing can create opportunities to engage with old and new followers. Specific to today’s conversation, your eCommerce business can benefit greatly from being able to connect products to customers in a few clicks or video plays. It can raise awareness about the quality of your goods or services, how and where they came from, why you choose to offer what you offer to your customers, and so much more.
In-feed marketing opens doors for users to share your content with the masses. From just the in-feed area alone, a user can “like” your media, comment on it, save the post for later, or share it with a few users or in some cases, a few thousand users. Who knew a tool so seemingly simple as Instagram could wield such power? For our local business readers, you might already be mostly aware of the potential power Instagram has for your brand’s success. It’s the ultimate tool for word-of-mouth marketing, a great way to establish a loyal customer base.
In addition to engaging with customers, in-feed marketing contributes to the time capsule that is your profile page. Using in-feed posts to encourage users to click your profile name or visit your profile to shop more of what’s available gives one more layer of validity in the buyer process. Here, customers can have another look at what you’ve been sharing, what other products you have available, and even comments from fellow customers who enjoy engaging with your brand. Hopefully, this will lead to buyer confidence in your offerings and to eventual purchases. Make sure your posting history is curated as well, with attention to design, overall layout, and content you use like hashtags and location tags.
When and How Can I Get Started?
In theory, you could start in-feed marketing as soon as right now, but that wouldn’t be the most effective way to sustain marketing success, now would it? Make sure you have a marketing plan put in place that addresses your Instagram needs. This plan should answer questions like:
Do we have all the imagery ready?
Are the product or service pages available and optimized?
What are our sales goals for Instagram?
Is there any specific upcoming event or notable opportunity where we can maximize our output with minimal effort?
Next, start planning your postings around any other pre-planned social media or circulating marketing material you have ready to be distributed so that it doesn’t terribly overlap or possibly drown out efforts elsewhere. Most consumers will become frustrated with a brand they like if they see the same content posted on different channels, such as sharing the same styled Memorial Day Special on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on the same day. While it’s okay to talk about the same topic all in one day, it’s important to remember that design changes will need to happen to create variance that stays attractive to users as they scroll along. We like to alternate channels with the same content, meaning the same post gets made once on Monday on Twitter, Tuesday on Instagram, and Facebook on Wednesday.
What Are Some Important Things I Should Remember?
Before we release you to the brave new world of in-feed marketing, here are few more things we think you should remember as you plan and grow:
Tag your products or services in your posts
This is a great way to ensure that customers can directly access your offerings in essentially one click.
Note: In order to enable this feature, your Instagram Business profile with an existing Facebook business page for your brand. Click here to learn more about how to enable this feature.
Remember to include a call to action
This can be anything like what we mentioned earlier i.e. directing users to your profile to peruse your collection, re-sharing your post or engaging in the comments, or visiting the link in your bio to shop. Whatever the action is, your content has to include some sort of call to action, or else the content falls to the wayside.
Use your tools wisely!
Thanks to the purchase of Instagram by Facebook, users can monitor and review analytics for both platforms from the same ad manager. Use this to build your ads both for Facebook and Instagram, thus supplying in-feed marketing on both platforms. These tools are additional resources to the built-in tools that are available for all Business or Creator profiles. Additionally, if you need a platform to keep you posting consistently, we recommend investing in a scheduling tool like Buffer that offers push notifications to publish right from your phone, with all content prepped and ready to go.
Engage & Reshare Often
Your follower base is a major asset to creating content when you need it, and for building a reputable position on Instagram that’s enticing to new users. Take the opportunity to use your follower’s pictures and videos to promote your brand or products.
Follow the rule of thirds
When cultivating images for content postings, it’s important to follow the rule of thirds. This can be achieved by enabling the grid layout either in the Instagram app when taking photos, or on your built-in mobile phone camera. This 3x3 line grid helps users bring important content to the center of the frame, providing a balanced preview of an excellent post. This can also be applied to photos you’ve already taken by cropping the image to fit a more appropriate frame.
Executive Summary
Instagram sometimes feels like an endless frontier of content and noise, and, in a way, it is! Thankfully, that means there are endless possibilities for brands to connect with communities that are in line with their mission. Use your profile to tell a story about your brand, and send a message that’s creative, inviting, and informative. Enjoy testing the waters of in-feed marketing! If you need help getting out of the gate, just reach out and contact us.
