Instagram is the most popular social media platform for marketing by a long shot: it is estimated that over 90% influencers make it their preferred choice. It seems that the format of the site lends itself to marketing in a way that other sites do not.
Broad based advertising has given way to content marketing and influencer campaigns that enable brands to reach highly targeted audiences quickly and to drive a high level of engagement with those audiences and thus more sales. Engagement rates on Instagram are at least double than that on any other social media site.
Instagram marketing removes the distance between the brand and the user because customers are pitched a product by a trusted source, the influencer, that is regarded as an authentic voice that will tell the truth about it. It is more like a recommendation from a friend than an explicit sales pitch. This results in much higher conversion rates than are achieved through other marketing techniques and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional marketing campaign.
Instagram marketing can be a great option for small businesses without a huge marketing budget for this reason. They can use micro (and even nano) influencers (who have a smaller following than major Instagram influencers) for a relatively small amount of outlay. A micro influencer is someone who has between 10 and 100 thousand followers while a nano influencer has several thousand followers. This marketing technique is still effective because even though the audience is small it is highly engaged and targeted to a specific product or niche activity. Micro influencers have a significant, though not huge, following and make up almost a third of all influencers on Instagram.
When undertaking an Instagram marketing campaign the first step is to find influencers that suit the brand and product. Remember that while major influencers have millions of followers their level of engagement is much less than smaller influencers. Finding influencers that fit well with a brand and that have high engagement is key. Checking their content is another necessary step in making sure they fit the brand. Smaller influencers are not expensive and may offer to post in return for sample products though these days influencers are becoming more professional and will demand suitable recompense for their efforts. Software is available online that maintains directories of influencers that are available for campaigns in given categories and niches.