Instagram is one of the most successful social media websites to ever exist. With all social media platforms facing a downturn in revenue and new users, Instagram is among the few which continues to show excellent growth in the industry. Instagram’s true success lies in its simplicity. It is a simple application with a simple revenue model.
Businesses are lapping up Instagram and it enjoys high popularity between marketers as it stands today. Coming to its advertising model, Instagram makes money off ads. Advertising on Instagram is a major way to raise your brand’s reputation since the amount of visibility a brand gets on Instagram is rarely matched. Marketing is the other end of Instagram’s barrel. Marketing through a brand account on Instagram is a trend that is starting to take off.
Looking for the ways to market on Instagram, I stumbled across Appy Pie’s Instagram Marketing & Optimization Course on its Academy and I have to say that I’m impressed. Appy Pie has managed to simplify Instagram Marketing to a simple hour-long course.
The course is completely free. Let us talk more about this course and the wisdom it reflects.
Types of Instagram Posts
The course tells us about many types of Instagram posts that can help market your brand on the platform. Some of them have been compiled below.
- Influencer Posts: Influencer marketing forms one of the pillars of Instagram marketing. Promoting your brand through influencers gives it an excellent audience. Influencers are a massively successful and very affordable marketing route for businesses.
- Newsjacking: Newsjacking is a new trend and usually involves marketing your brand through trending topics. Businesses like Durex, Wendy’s, etc. are great examples of brands that market through newsjacking. The best part of newsjacking is that its success comes down to the creativity of your marketing team.
- Behind-The-Scenes posts: Behind-the-scenes are offbeat posts that a business posts of its own organization, employees, production line, work culture, etc. BTS posts act as a humanizing factor for your brand which can be used to show off your business in an ‘unofficial’ manner. They humanize a business and its product line.
- Motivational Posts: Motivational posts are the easiest for a business to do. Posting motivational posts on Instagram are a surefire way for your business to market itself.
The course elaborates on more ways to market your brand through Instagram. It strategically lists out various types of marketing posts for Instagram and explains the philosophy behind them in a detailed manner. The course then goes on managing an active Instagram account. You can look at it yourself as you go through the basics of Instagram. This part of the course is for you, the reader to explore. One of the parts I would elaborate on is optimizing your Instagram profile.
Optimizing your own Instagram profile is crucial for the success of your brand on Instagram. Without optimization, you may end up targeting the wrong audiences and miss out on good marketing. Here are some ways in which one can optimize their Instagram profile.
- Use a Business Profile: Instagram provides the ability to have a business profile for marketers and influencers. A business profile on Instagram gives you access to analytics which can help you market yourselves better. Instagram can be hard to track with other tools and a business account removes the need to use 3rd party tools.
- Always Use a Trackable Link: One of the most effective ways to lead people to your website is to use a link and post it in your Instagram profile. Whenever you’re doing that, you must use a trackable link to analyze your traffic conversion correctly. A trackable link will show you exactly how much interaction you have. Instagram isn’t about followers, it’s about optimization.
- Maintaining Quality: Goes without saying, it is important to maintain the quality of your content on Instagram. Quality control is extremely important to keep your audience coming back.
- Account Verification: One of the best optimization tactics on Instagram is to get your account verified. Verification gives your online account credibility. The blue tick is an overpowering advantage over your competitors.
- Mobile-Friendly: If you post a lot of links on your Instagram, make sure to make your posts mobile friendly. Almost 90% of Instagram users are on mobile. Not optimizing for them makes all your strategies worthless.
Instagram Analytics
The course has a separate section related to Instagram Analytics. I would just explain some of its points. Instagram analytics is very underrated. The sheer simplicity of the analytics section speaks volumes for it. What makes Instagram different is the fact that it is not optimized for businesses like other social media. While this may turn off some of you, you must remember that Instagram is a way for people to interact with others and is not a place for businesses to interact with people.
Your business needs to adapt to the ways of this social media to succeed in it. Coming to the analytics, they are enough for what your purpose on your Instagram should be. Simple marketing.
Closing Notes and Review
The course also talks about some of the mistakes people and businesses make while marketing themselves on Instagram. Instagram marketing is a tricky affair and Appy Pie’s new course happens to explain it quite efficiently.
I can’t give Appy Pie’s new marketing course a full 10 but I have to say that the course is pretty good. Businesses are still messing up trying to figure out how to market on Instagram despite the platform being around for nearly a decade.
There is a lot of noise on what makes a successful Instagram strategy and this course captures the bits of the truth of what your strategy should be like. Appy Pie’s blog posts on Instagram combined with this new Instagram course make for a good read and gives proper insight.
Overall, I’d say that the course is a solid 8/10 and must be read by anyone planning to market and advertise on Instagram.
Appy Pie also offers other courses on their academy. Check them out! Good Luck!
