If you read our previous Instagram blog post, you’ll already be aware of the statistics. With 75 million daily users hitting the like button up to 2.5 billion times a day, there’s no denying that Instagram is a huge platform. There is a massive potential outreach, full of users that interact regularly and consistently. So, how can you capture this potential audience for your retail business? Fifteen’s Digital Marketing team share some tips.

Be Aware

The most important thing when planning any marketing campaign is to be aware of your target audience. This will allow you to properly plan for all the points below. You need to consider when your followers will be online, what content they will interact well with, their behaviours, demographics, and more. Once you are certain that you know whom you’re marketing to, you can start marketing.

Be Exclusive

Create original content for Instagram. It’s that simple. Not only content that is exclusive from other brands, but also exclusive for you. Nobody wants to see recycled pictures of your products on Instagram, especially if they can just find those same photos on your website. Take interesting photos of your products in use, and behind the scenes photos. Post anything but countless images of your products on a white background.

Be Consistent

We mentioned this one in our Instagram for businesses blog, and it applies here too. Part of developing a good brand is consistency. This can apply to several factors within an on-going Instagram campaign too. Use the same filters consistently, making every picture look like part of a whole. Make sure the tone of the posts is consistent throughout. If your target audience responds well to fun, vibrant posts keep going down that route. If they prefer a more formal, corporate tone, don’t suddenly throw them off with a crazy video.

Be #Reachable

If you’re starting out on Instagram, you won’t have many followers to begin with. How do you find your audience amongst this huge amount of users? Hashtags. Use popular hashtags in your posts to reach out to users, and to find potential followers. Create your own hashtags to encourage people to interact with your brand, and to reach out to their own followers.

Be Conversational

Use hashtags and competitors to find potential customers, and then interact with them. As we quoted in our recent blog about increasing followers on Twitter, users are more likely to interact with you if you engage with them first. Users that interact more frequently are more likely to become a loyal customer. Once you have a loyal customer though, don’t forget about them. Keep the conversation going, listen to your customers, and tailor your posting to what they want to see.

How is this Instagram for retail?

If you’re reading this, and wondering how it all applies specifically to Instagram for retail businesses, the above is how to create a solid, loyal following on Instagram. This is one of the most important things to using Instagram for your brand. Once you have a loyal following, you have more chance of receiving sales from the channel. You just need to guide them towards your website with a well placed URL.