Promotion of services in the social network Instagram

Originally created for the posts of well-known artists and photographers, Instagram has become a platform for growing a business. Today almost all the biggest companies in the world use it to promote their services. Instagram is the engine of commerce! In fact, this social network has now become a platform for advertising all kinds of services. Smart advertising on this network can bring in millions, and it does.

Setting up an Instagram account properly is one of the keys to successful promotion!

How to do it, read below:

• Use the name of the brand / company / store in the account name. It must be easy to find and recognise.
• Remember: the main photo is the company logo. Cats / dogs or photos that look personal work against you.
• Fill in all the information fields (description, phone number, address, website). It should be easy for potential clients to find all the information they need.
• Link your Instagram profile with your Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you do not have them, you need to create them).

How do you promote a service on Instagram?

Very easy:

There are several rules for promoting services on Instagram; by following them you will get the result you want from promotion.

First, create a business profile for your company. A business profile has more features than a regular one. For example, statistics on views, reach and much more. That way you will understand how the audience reacts to particular actions.

Second, you need to take the age of the audience into account. According to statistics, the age of people who use Instagram is mostly from 17 to 35, and most of them are women. Will your service or product be interesting to exactly this audience? If so, move on to the next points.

Third, also use paid advertising, but present it vividly. Even the simplest service must have something the audience will remember. That is exactly what will help attract a client and set your service apart from a similar service of another company. We will talk about the types of advertising further on.

Fourth, you run contests and GiveAway. This will let you attract an audience. But it is worth keeping in mind that a certain percentage of followers will disappear after the contest just as they appeared. There is no need to worry, these people were not interested in your service.

4 simple points for posts that will help you increase sales and raise brand awareness:

• The photos must be of good quality і match the topic.
• Take care of SEO-optimised texts for your posts. Use a few keywords consistently that will help people find your service through a search engine and bring a potential client to Instagram.
• Add to the text hashtags. Often a particular service is found exactly through a hashtag.
• Do not neglect the so-called emoji (various smileys), add them to the text, people open instagram to relax and they will simply scroll past dry posts.

What kinds of ads are there on Instagram?

Here is the answer:

There are several types of advertising on Instagram. Among them:

• A click to the website (it creates traffic but is not very convenient for the audience, as it takes more time);
• Carousel ads (the ad text is spread across several photos and carries all the necessary information);
• Video ads (up to 30 seconds long).

The cost of each type of advertising will depend on such factors as, for example, the reach of the target audience, the activity of each of them and in which of the four promotion models it is placed. For example:

• Store;
• Public pages;
• Personal blog;
• Insta landing page

Store - this is one of the most popular types of business profiles on Instagram. An online store on Instagram, where the company itself and its line of work are described, is based on information about the services provided and the products sold. Because of many such factors it is clear to the audience that a particular product is sold in this account, so only people who came here on purpose and are ready to buy follow it. This promotion model is most often used by beauty professionals (manicure, hairstyles), clothing sellers and sellers of other popular mass-market goods.

The second model is - public page. This promotion model is used for more complex products and services. It means creating a profile similar in topic to the product or service being sold. The profile talks about the field where it is used. For example, if you sell building materials, you can create an account where you talk about construction in general and about using a particular material in a particular case. It is important to add links to the main account where this product can be bought to your posts. The followers of this profile are not yet ready for a conscious purchase, they are only studying the field. Your main task is to subtly make a person interested and buy the product or service from exactly you. You will be able to earn from this account only if you place commercial, selling posts or advertising. The main income will still come from the account where people buy, and this one will, so to speak, prepare clients for a future purchase.

Personal blog - an excellent solution for specialists in a specific field: lawyers, psychotherapists, programmers. A personal blog on Instagram is, in essence, an analogue of a live journal, but in a slightly different variation: the texts are shorter and a photo is a must. This promotion model is beneficial for those who have something to tell the public. A lawyer can write a post with specific advice on solving a legal issue, noting that for fuller information you need to book a consultation with them.

An Insta landing page is an excellent option for those who sell inexpensive goods. It is easier to decide to buy a cheap product. That is why a landing page contains the minimum necessary information about the product. This model is also used to advertise a one-off event, master classes and occasions.

All types of advertising and promotion models can be used in one «bundle» (for example, carousel ads + a personal blog) or used all together and everywhere.

Two completely free but most effective ways to attract an audience:

Mass following and mass liking.

Mass following - this is automatic or manual mass following of the profiles of people who are your target audience.

Mass liking - this is also an automatic or manual process of mass liking photos on the accounts of your target audience.

These are some of the most used methods of promoting both business accounts and personal ones. It comes in two forms: automated and manual. Automating promotion means using ready-made programs or resources to inflate follower counts. They work by mass following a large number of accounts similar in topic to your business. After that the program automatically unfollows them.

The most important thing in manual or automated promotion is not to break a few rules:

1. Send no more than 20-80 follow requests per hour. The number of requests depends on how "young" your account is;
2. After 7 000 follows stop the process and turn on unfollowing (by the same rule, no more than 200 unfollows per day);
3. If your account is new, then for the next three or four weeks nothing can be automated.

Breaking these rules risks A BAN of the account. Be careful. There are now plenty of automated programs for this activity, both paid and free. But it is best to trust professionals.