How to Include Instagram in Your Marketing Strategy for B2B Growth
A common misconception is that Instagram is only beneficial for the B2C audience. Not true! In recent years Instagram for B2B has increased in popularity because of its tremendous benefits.
Today, 33% of B2B businesses are using Instagram and in the next year, we will see this number soar.
If your social media strategy only includes channels like LinkedIn you could be missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your business.
Why should your B2B business be on Instagram?
Instagram has over 800 million users who visit at least one business profile daily. With an expanded reach you can nurture your customers from the awareness stage to a signed contract. The huge volume of Instagram users allows a significant opportunity for B2B businesses to market their products without a large investment.
As far as engagement is concerned, Instagram produces 20 times more engagement than LinkedIn for B2B brands, according to TrackMaven. With this increased engagement, you can quickly build trust as you interact with customers.
The sky's the limit for B2B business potential on Instagram. Here’s how you can tap in.
How to use Instagram in your B2B marketing strategy.
Profile
Use your Instagram account profile to your advantage! Within your business account, you will be able to present your company logo, promote your website, and create a short description to show off your value and unique differentiator. Your business profile can be a great tool to drive traffic to your website.
Content
When starting your B2B Instagram strategy you have an opportunity to re-purpose content you already have as well as create new content. Here are some tips and ideas for creating Instagram content:
- Showcase thought leadership- Post snips from blog posts, e-books, white papers, videos, or infographics to let your audience know more about your deep subject expertise. Hint- Use carousel posts for maximum engagement.
- Take advantage of stories- With stories you can tag locations, use polling, highlights, and other interactive features.
- Share team features- Posting quotes or spotlights about your team is a great way to humanize your company.
For more B2B inspiration, feel free to take a look at our Orchid Instagram account.
Hashtags
Using hashtags is a great way to get your content in front of new audiences. To find the right hashtags, take advantage of a hashtag generator, which will let you know the most popular hashtags per topic.
Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per post, but recently, social media experts recommend the “less is more” approach to categorize and recommend posts in suggested content streams. As the great hashtag debate continues, we recommend you test different numbers of hashtags in your posts and see what yields the best engagement from your audience.
Paid Campaigns
With Instagram advertisements, you can target your audience with paid strategies to increase followers and engagement. According to sproutsocial, 32% of B2B buyers notice ads and are positively influenced by them. Instagram offers many different ad options from photo to carousel to stories.
Timing
Posting consistently is key to using social media to grow your B2B business. It’s best to post content at least 2-3 times per week in order to gain momentum. To help keep you on track and organized, you can create a social media calendar to plan Instagram and other social media posts. Here’s a free social media calendar template from Hubspot to get you started.
Metrics and KPIs
Any successful social media strategy includes a set of metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These measurements of performance track how your Instagram account measures up and how your audience is responding to it.
Remember to stick with your social media strategy and don’t get discouraged. It takes time for your social media efforts to grow your business and in the meantime, you’re building relationships with future customers.
For questions about Instagram for the B2B world please reach out to us.