This article talks specifically why you should monetize your brand for Instagram advertising and stand out from the millionaire dogs and bikini models. Most companies don’t understand the immense value of Instagram advertising.
Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms on the planet and will continue to entrance casual users for years to come. Knowing this information and understand the basics of Instagram will prepare you to use the platform as the fantastic business building tool that it is.
If you already love Instagram as a business builder, this article might be a bit of a review, but if you’re in the majority of business owners that want to know why you should monetize your profile, this article is for you. The first section is why you should do it and the second is how you should do it.
Right now, there are two general ways to monetize your Instagram account: 1) build your following with hashtags and great content to turn your Instagram into an online traffic booster to maximize buys. 2) How to use Instagram business to turn every post into a shoppable experience. The first one is the going to be the focal point of this article, and the second will be a part of an article to come. Read on to grow your following to get your profile ready to sell your posts. If you jump into selling first you will fail.
Why You Should Monetize Your Instagram
All businesses can benefit from the fast-growing nature of Instagram’s platform. If you have a knack for creating consistently eye-catching visual content you will do very well.
Number 1: It’s Simple
Many companies are starting to enhance their visual content game and Instagram is the best place to do it. Building your following with relevant hashtags will make your profile a magnet for even casual a passerby.
Number 2: It’s Cheap To Advertise
For a mere $15, you can reach over 10,000 people, in a day, with your offer. Even people that just want to have more followers use this tactic to boost their live streams or favorite posts. It’s a super-cheap way to get some traffic to your website or affiliate link, and if you have a large budget, the sky is the limit.
Number 3: Pin Point Your Target Market with Ease
If you’re familiar with the Facebook ad platform, Audience Insights, you know how easy it is to find your target market. Just by making some easy assumptions about your brand’s audience, you can ensure your $15 is spent wisely.
Using analytics, you can find out what kind of posts work best for you clients, and make every post count. The learning curve for Instagram advertising is very low in comparison to Google Adwords or retro print ads.
Number 4: Visual Content Ads Just Work Better
Everybody knows that video works better than plain old text ads. If you add text to an image it will do better, but video combined with text wins every time because humans are sensual beings. That means, they want to be engaged using their eyes and ears. They react to motion and bright colors. This is why movies do better than books, and why Snapchat took the social media world by storm. This is also why Instagram advertising works so well.
Number 5: If your clients love your products, they can be notified every time you post a product.
If you use the Instagram advertising business platform and monetize every post you do, your followers can choose to follow every post, by selecting the “get notifications” setting for your profile.
Hashtags: The Key to Organic Growth on Instagram
One of the best ways grow on Instagram is through utilizing relevant hashtags. It’s easy to find them will tools like Hashtagify, but if you’re old school like me, you can find them with the Instagram search bar.
Instagram search tells you the popularity of your hashtags, by giving you the total amount of posts on each tag. If you’re a new brand (i.e. less than 10,000 followers) focus on the smaller hashtags. Try hashtags anywhere in the realm of 50k-250k posts. This will give your posts more staying power and help you stay close to the top of each search.
Using this method helps me get more followers on auto-pilot, and I’m all about auto-pilot.
Influencer Marketing
Not every business has to create a profile that has a million followers. Many companies are utilizing influencers to advertise their products to their followings instead of creating a following on their own.
What you do is look for people with large followings on Instagram that fit into your brand’s message. An example is if you sell a new line of sweatbands. You could target fitness experts, nutrition coaches, and models to wear and link to your website to sell your products.
The benefit to your company is cheap exposure to possibly millions of people. Many times influencers will do this if you give them your product for free, and others will charge you. Figuring out what is best for you situation is up to you. Pick your influencers wisely.
Keys to Look for in a Good Influencer
Engagement Over Follower Count: They have to have a high amount of engagement with their following. What is more important than followers is the number and quality of comments on each post. Also, you should make sure your influencer responds to questions and tries to continue the conversation. An influencer that doesn’t understand the idea of a relationship will not help you in the long run. In other words, make sure they are social on social media. This goes for you too.
Genuine Interest: They have to share an interest in your brand and actually use and love the product. If they would pay for it then they are a good candidate. If you look at their follower count and say they would be a good candidate because they have 10 million followers you will struggle to make conversions.
Brand Consciousness: It has to be an easy fit brand-wise. It’s not a good idea to match a company that offers financial loans to a bikini model. However, combining a company that makes customizable dog collars with a cute dog with 1 million followers is perfect.
How Dogs Become Millionaires on Instagram: The Optimal Basic Monetization Strategy
The best advice I’ve ever received was “keep it simple stupid,” but I really turned the corner when I read the book, The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy. This book puts into perspective why you need to do the little things to grow whatever you’re trying to grow. This book could a be blueprint for growing businesses, learning a second language, losing weight, and life itself. If you’re interested in growing your business with Instagram, it’s principles will help you know why you need to post every day to grow your business.
Combining a simple strategy with The Compound Effect is the key to Instagram advertising, and is the reason why bikini models and cute dogs become millionaires.
Eye-Catching Content
First, dogs and bikini models are masters of creating visual eye-catching content. They capture the attention because they are inherently beautiful. However, with careful usage of filters, effects, and text they inspire their audience to interact with them. Even if that interaction is a thumbs up or a “nice.” When someone takes the time to put that comment into your post, you can know that you’re on the right track. Now, do what the Instagram corgis do and post 5 times a day for the next three years.
Time Management
The second thing you need to utilize is time. It’s so easy to procrastinate if you force yourself to create high-quality content every day. Your posts should all be done in advance. I mean get yourself some automation software, like Buffer or Hootsuite, and get at least 7 days ahead of yourself.
Instagram Stories
Use the Instagram Story function to post the fun stuff you do daily. This function is what really grows your profile. People want to see you “in-the-raw.” They don’t always want to see polished content, because that makes you look fake in a lot of ways. Are you afraid to show what you’re not good at?
Combining the transparency of stories and polished posts every day will get your customers to enjoy your profile and either buy your products or visit your website. One without the other is not going to help your brand, especially with millennials. They are notorious for looking for brands that enjoy sharing the details of their products. Even if your product has some shortcomings, it still makes your product look better if you highlight them and show people that you’re working on it.
It’s the vulnerability that sells. Bikini models show themselves without makeup many times. Sure they are beautiful without it, but what matters is they aren’t afraid of showing it. That is what truly matters when attracting a large following.
Connect Your Profile With Your Store or Affiliate Links
Instagram advertising is only as good as the link you provide your viewers. This means if you’re using the Instagram advertising platform or using your profile to boost traffic to your website, your link should be persuasive, consistent with your brand, and something people are going to want to watch.
Every profile needs a link to a money making sales funnel if your goal is to monetize your profile. After you decide to sell your own product, then make sure what you’re selling is relevant to the followers you have. If they click on your link as see a bunch of random ads on your site, they will ultimately not follow you anymore and all your hard work will go for a toss.
If you’re selling an affiliate link, please resist the urge to roll the dice and sell a product you don’t use personally. Your clients will know because of how you talk about it. There are way too many bad products out there, and one bad product will crush your following. It’s always a gamble to sell someone else’s products, but with proper vetting, you can minimize the risk.
Take the First Step toward Instagram Advertising
Instagram advertising is the not something you should do right away. You need to get your feet wet with tools I showed you in this article. Get in the habit of posting on your story every day and work your way up to posting 5 times per day with an automator. You can do this on your phone and it takes maybe 10 minutes to understand.
You have to find what works for your clients. Try making 1-minute videos, memes, or just post beautiful pictures. Look at what your competition is doing and copy them. Personalization is everything for Instagram advertising.
It’s not hard to waste your money if you don’t understand what you’re doing with Instagram advertising, but if you focus on what works for your brand and keep it simple you should see your following grow pretty quickly over the course of a few months.
For more information on building your brand with Instagram, check out this article.
