By Christina Rytter, Founder & Trusted Communications Advisor
Instagram as B2B social media is growing at a rapid speed in all Scandinavian markets and the platform has some quite strong business solutions to support your brand building and direct lead generation to support sales. Get my Top 8 tips on how to improve your marketing effort on Instagram:
1. Understand your audience
You gotta understand your Scandinavian audience. That’s key to success on Instagram. Scandinavians from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland are similar – but not the same!
2. Talk with them, not at them
Ask you Scandinavian audience questions. Always give a quick answer to questions and clearly communicate what you do. That’s a big key on Instagram.
3. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags are Instagram’s signposts. Use relevant hashtags, but not too many so it doesn’t look messy and get confusing for your audience. Analyse and test your hashtags, to find out which ones create the best impact for you and your company. Remember to brand your hashtags.
4. Know when to post
It’s vital for the amount of engagement on your Instagram posts, that you post at the right time. Instagram engagement peaks mid-day and mid-week, similar to the other major social networks. Wednesday at 11 a.m. is the overall best day to post to Instagram – followed by Friday at 10-11 a.m. The most consistent engagement is from Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday; go enjoy your day off – few will read your posts anyway 😉. Different industries also can peak a bit more on different times.
5. Create beautiful visuals
Instagram is a very visual platform. So to make it work to your advantage, you need to give your posts a distinctive look with tailored appeal to your Scandinavian target groups. Our vision trumps all other senses. Research has shown that when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. Visual branding plays a huge role in not only attracting your clients and stakeholders – but also in making you and your company memorable and creating a positive perception in the minds of your key audience.
6. Add Calls-to-action
When you add Calls-to-action in your posts you get more direct pay-off on your work and have concrete KPIs to measure. When you create an Instagram Business Profile you get the possibility to ad different buttons on your profile besides of working with direct links in your Bio. Use emojis like arrows, hand pointing or the star to direct you audience towards the link. Also, it works well to insert a call-to-action text in your visuals directing people into what they should do next. You can ask them to buy your product, visit your website or get in touch with you.
The key is to be creative, so people take action. Test new versions to see which one engages your audience the most.
7. Tell Stories
On Instagram the best brand storytelling involves telling snackable, visual micro-stories that tie into your brand’s values and purpose. On Instagram it’s the people and the brands who tell the most interesting stories that build the massive audiences. When you use Instagram for a personal account develop a strong brand presence that shows, what you are passionate about in life.
8. Work with influencers
Adding Instagram influencer marketing into your overall SoMe-strategy can help to increase your brand awareness, grow your followers and thereby drive new leads and sales. Influencer marketing can be quite effective. It removes the barriers of traditional advertising when customers are introduced to your brand from a trusted source. When an influencer recommends your product or service on their channels, it comes across as a trusted recommendation from a friend. Therefore, it can have a huge impact on your brand awareness and sales support.