Three Most Important Rules for Instagram Marketing

Three Most Important Rules for Instagram Marketing

Whether your audience is a specialized business or a general consumer, successfully marketing on Instagram is a delicate balance of many factors. Social media users are so particular about how advertisements are presented to them, and one bad marketing choice can leave a sour taste in their mouth. But if you follow these three guidelines, you can avoid being ignored and boost your sales.

Rule #1: Post at the right time.

The biggest thing that aggravates a customer is posting too much or too little. If you post too much, many people will become annoyed and hit the "unfollow" button pretty quickly. On the flip side, if you don't post enough, they won't think your account is worth the while. A happy medium is posting three times a week.  

Rule #2: Make your content especially unique and noteworthy.

Just like in regular marketing, Instagram content must match the demographic. But the added challenge on Instagram is trying to keep the customer's attention in a world where everything is so fleeting. Take, for example, the #CATmageddon campaign on Instagram a few months ago. Instead of being just another anti-smoking campaign, it took an internet trend--cat videos--and used that to catch the viewer's eye. Instagram is set up in a way that you only have a fraction of a second until the viewer scrolls past your post. To be successful, your advertisement must somehow stand out from all the other noise on the screen.

Rule #3: Take advantage of the caption.

There are two ways that your captions can help your post. First, the caption should be memorable and spark positive discussion in the comments section. Then, include ample hashtags to make your post visible to a wide variety of searches. The best example of this is the Internet phenomenon Rhett and Link (@rhettandlink). After each post, they include a witty caption including around ten hashtags, which makes their content visible to people who don't even follow them.

Being successful on Instagram is a delicate balance of timing, content, and humor, but it is very rewarding if done well. Marketing on social media is not that different from traditional platforms; if you know how to capture your audience's attention, you will be successful.

For more help about how to maximize your social media presence, contact us.