Just as we consume media and technology differently as it evolves, businesses must change how they advertise and share their content. Today, consumers want to know that they are working with experts in their industry who can provide engaging, valuable content and products — in fact, they expect it. Content marketing focuses on building relationships with customers through frequent online engagement.
Engagement on Instagram refers to the numerous ways customers can interact with your content — such as likes, comments, direct messages, saves, and shares. Publishing engaging content strengthens trust and loyalty between your brand and customers. When your brand has strong engagement, your customers are more likely to have a strong enough connection with your brand to make a purchase.
5 tips to increase your Instagram engagement
There are countless ways to increase engagement on Instagram. Let’s take a look at five effective tactics:
Post consistently: Consistency in marketing is key to your success. You want to stay top of mind with your customers. The more consistent you are with publishing content, the more exposure your potential customers have to your brand, the more credible your business becomes to them, and ultimately, the more likely you are to reach your goals.
Building your presence on Instagram will take detailed planning and consistent marketing efforts to generate leads and increase sales. Stay organized by planning your next month's marketing on Instagram. Answer these questions while planning: How often do you want to post? What content do you want to share? What is the caption going to say? What questions do your customers have that you could address? What Instagram features do you want to use? When are you going to create your content? Who is assigned these responsibilities?
Communicate directly with customers: Effective online marketing initiates conversations with followers because it builds relationships and gives you direction on what your customers want to know. Ask creative, conversation-sparking questions for your customers to respond to. Share your authentic self, introduce other team members, express your passion, and showcase how existing customers benefit from your work.
The best practice is to check for comments and direct messages daily. The more active you are with replying to people, the more control you have over conversations about your business online. Also, it increases the chance that a broader audience will see your interaction with that customer. Keep your replies respectful, uplifting, and thoughtful to show your customers that you value their thoughts, questions, and concerns.
Call-To-Actions (CTAs): A call-to-action is when you ask your followers a direct question or prompt them to take a specific action. These are typically found at the end of a caption to encourage more engagement. The trick is to make sure that your questions are genuine so they don’t backfire on you. For example, if you post a selfie and ask what everyone’s favorite ice cream flavor is — it probably won’t work. However, if you are an electrician that did work in an ice cream shop, you could share your story and ask a related follow-up question, like, “What is your favorite ice cream?” Followers are more likely to comment on relevant CTAs. Another way to use CTAs is to encourage followers to click on the link in your Instagram bio to sign up, learn more, or buy your products.
Instagram Reels: Reels are fun, short videos that you can create with music, visual effects, sound effects, and special editing tools to engage viewers. Instagram used to only upload photos, videos, and stories, but to stay competitive with other social media platforms, Instagram has made Reels the new focus. Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, noted that “Reels is the primary driver of engagement growth”. Social media users have a short attention span, so getting to the point with short, engaging reels has proven to increase viewer engagement.
Instagram Reels give you great opportunities for visibility because they align well with Instagram’s algorithms. This means users interested in similar content videos to yours will soon find your Reels. You can find Reels by scrolling through your Instagram feed, visiting the ‘Explore’ page, and searching with hashtags or audio. Your Reels can also be shared, increasing your visibility. Reels will permanently stay on Instagram as long as you don’t delete them, unlike Instagram stories that disappear if you don’t save them to your profile.
Instagram story stickers: When you add a picture or video to your Instagram Story or Reel, you can include stickers to add graphic elements to your post. Some stickers are animated, some share links or your geographic location, and others help followers interact directly with the post. Stickers make your stories more interesting and invite engagement from your followers.
There are various ways to use stickers to your marketing advantage. Question stickers allow you to ask your customers questions directly. Poll stickers can help you see what products your customers like the most. Countdown stickers can advertise an upcoming sale. Stickers are easy to use and very effective. Instagram announced that “polling stickers have increased 3-second video views in 9 of 10 beta campaigns.” Keep track of what stickers drive the most engagement for your business. Also, study and adopt what your competitors are doing to drive engagement.
