Every day, billions of people log into Instagram. It’s the second most popular social media site around. If your company isn’t taking the time to build brand awareness with this platform, you’re missing out on tons of potential customers.
Not only is Instagram popular, but it’s a visual platform. It makes it easy to attract followers with bright images and pictures. You can also post videos and bring people to your page using hashtags.
These benefits do come with a minor snag. With all the other companies on Instagram, you’ll run into a lot of competition. Standing out from them is easier said than done.
That’s why we’ve got your back. Keep reading to learn how to build brand awareness on Insta and start bringing in the likes and followers.
Pin Down Your Brand Personality
The first step of building a brand is coming up with a personality. You need an identity that your potential followers can latch onto. If you don’t have one, you end up just being another boring corporate company in their eyes.
Being identifiable is what gets customers to your site. The first step of creating a brand image is to make your logo.
Whatever graphic you come up with should be scattered throughout your Instagram page. People need to be able to look at it and immediately think about your company.
Another thing that will allow your business to stick in the mind of a customer is colors. Link your business to three or four different shades. Don’t do any more than that, or you’ll overwhelm your customer’s senses.
The same goes for font faces. Only go with one or two to use on all your graphics. Speaking of graphics, there’s a lot of templates out there you can use.
You can put your own spin on these templates to make them more memorable. It’s also faster to use templates if you’re not a graphic designer by trade.
Make the Most Out of Instagram’s Tools
Instagram isn’t only about posting images to your story. They offer a ton of great tools that will help make company branding so much easier.
Before you create your first post, upgrade to a business account. It’s free and it gives you access to analytics. This tool will show you which one of your posts gets the most attention, so you know what’s working and not working.
Having a business account also allows you to add contact details to your page that potential customers can use to talk with you about your products. You’ll be able to add links to your website and other social media pages.
Attaching a poll to your Instagram stories will allow you to increase user engagement. You can make several 15-second video clips and add text to them. As you can see, your options are pretty much endless.
Decide on a Post Frequency
The key to getting a good following is post frequency. If you’re only active once a month, it’s going to be hard to get people excited about your content. Some Instagram users may even mistakingly think that you’re no longer in business.
On the flip side of this, if you flood your follower’s pages with content, it’s going to get annoying. It has the same vibe as a spam caller.
Frequency isn’t the only thing that you’ve got to worry about. You can post once a day, but if you don’t put up new content at the right time, it’s not going to matter much.
You need to pick a time when your followers are the most active. That analytics tool that we were talking about before can help you with that.
Optimize Your Profile
When you create your business account, you’ll have the chance to fluff up your page a bit. Start with your profile image. Most business owners use their logo for this purpose.
The average size for a profile picture is 110px by 110px. Using an image with a ton of detail isn’t going to come across that well. Once you’ve picked out your profile pic, it’s time to put some thought into your username.
The general rule of thumb here is to keep it as simple as possible. Don’t use a bunch of complex words and symbols that no average user is going to remember.
The last step is to write up your bio. You’ve only got 150 words to capture someone’s attention. Include a short phrase that briefly describes what you do.
Let your potential customers know what business you’re in, for example, retail or food service. Lastly, use hashtags that are relevant to your company.
Team Up With an Influencer
You don’t have a lot of followers on Insta yet, but someone else does. You can use this to your advantage via something known as influencer marketing.
Reach out to an influencer who is relevant in your field of work and ask them to create a post to promote your brand. Most of the time, this team-up involves a short video where the influencer uses your products. If their followers like what they see, they’ll visit your page.
If you can’t afford to pay an influencer, you can use a desktop platform for Windows and Mac to attract new followers and likes.
Be Educational
People don’t like being advertised to. There’s a reason why users download an ad blocker for their web browsers. Instead of trying to be overly persuasive, be educational.
Tell your followers how they can use your products and services. Create posts that demonstrate how your stuff works. When customers know the ins and outs of a product, they’ll keep choosing it instead of trying out a competitor that they don’t understand quite as much.
Attract Your Ideal Customers
Building a brand involves a lot of research. You’ve got to do some digging into your ideal customer demographic. Find out what location your target audience lives in.
What’s the age of the customers that you’re trying to reel in? What are their occupations? What are their needs and goals?
Once you have the answer to all of these questions, you can begin to build a brand voice that attracts your demographic. You’ll have insight into how to craft your content.
Be Consistent
When it comes to bringing in new followers, consistency is the key. You want to post around the same time every day without flooding your client’s social media.
Use the same colors and fonts in all your advertising. If you’re constantly changing things up, it will be difficult for your brand to stick in the minds of your customers.
If you change things up every time you post, it will become exhausting. The last thing you want is to confuse people.
Engage With Your Audience
Customers don’t like to feel as if they’re interacting with a company. They can’t identify with a small business owner. To humanize yourself in the eyes of your followers, you’ve got to engage with them.
Ask your followers to post a picture of themselves using your products accompanied with an appropriate hashtag. Share the images on your page.
If a customer asks you a question, answer it as soon as you can. Get valuable feedback from your customers that you can use to improve. If your followers feel like you’re listening to them, they’ll be more willing to engage with your brand.
Use Hashtags to Your Advantage
The last business branding tip we have for you is to use hashtags to your advantage. If you’re not familiar with what hashtags are, they’re keywords that are relevant to your brand.
When we say relevant, we mean to be specific. Let’s say that you own a restaurant that sells sandwiches. If you use sandwiches or lunch as a hashtag, you’re going to have a lot of competition.
Instead, you’ll use Italian sub or turkey and ham. You only have a certain amount of space that you can set aside for hashtags. Fill it with quality ones.
Build Brand Awareness With Your Instagram Page
With all the people on Instagram, you can’t afford to not use it to build brand awareness. The problem is attracting quality followers.
Nobody will know about you if you use the wrong hashtags. You also have to reach out to your target audience without being overly aggressive with your advertising. People want to work with companies that they can identify with.
We hope that you’re able to use the tips that you’ve read in this article to get more followers. For more tips that will help you navigate your way around Instagram, visit the Social section of our blog.
