Often when brands are just starting out on the ‘gram, they have a tendency to bombard their audience with promotional posts. This is a big no-no!
We often tell our clients that using Instagram for business, isn’t about hard-selling your product or service, rather – it is to sell an overall lifestyle. The lifestyle in which your ideal target market is currently adopting, day in and out.
BUT HOW?
First things first, brainstorm a profile of some of your ideal clients. This fake profile will help you to understand their buying habits, needs, wants and general interests. You will also be able to narrow in on their pain points, and set yourself apart from your competitors by offering products or services which cater to finding a solution to these pain points.
Here are some of the things you might include when crafting your profiles:
Name:
Age:
Marital status:
Children:
Education:
Occupation:
Salary:
Location:
Hobbies/ interests:
Stores they shop at:
Pet owner:
Music they listen to:
Eating habits:
The problem do you solve for them:
Other information:
DEFINE YOUR CONTENT PILLARS
Here are the five pillars of content, we like to use when planning Instagram feeds for our clients:
- Educational
- Promotional
- Inspirational
- Motivational
- Personal
The trick to Instagram for business, is to rotate between the aforementioned content types. This will ensure a feed of value, which is selling an overall lifestyle that your target market can relate to, trust and ultimately buy from. You don’t want a feed full of promotion which is only selling product or service as this can look desperate, robotic and inauthentic. Don’t over-do it, instead post a product photo or promotional caption, every few days.
EXAMPLES
Let’s say you’re a skincare brand selling natural, organic skincare which is also handmade. One of your ideal clients within your market might be named Rachel, a 26 year old girl based in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne who is all about ethical and sustainable buying. On the weekends, you’ll normally find her with a yoga mat in one hand and a berry-delicious smoothie in the other. During the week she manages a local pet supplies store and you can bet your life on the fact that she won’t forget to bring her Canvas bags when shopping at her local Woolies or Coles.
As you can see, we’ve started to really paint a picture into Rachel’s lifestyle. We could go further in depth with this profiling, but we’ll let you do some homework on this for your own brand.
Once you have mapped out this profile, you will have a better indication as to what to include within your Instagram content planning. You might find some stock images of ladies doing yoga (motivational / inspirational), of the ingredients within your skincare (educational), you might discuss your own love of animals (personal), or source some Pinterest worthy smoothie bowls / healthy meals to share.
By rotating these types of content along with your promotional posts and product photography, you can see how you will soon start to create a feed which offers immense value. You audience will therefore be more likely to be able to relate to what you’re posting, and will be more inclined to stay a follower, and potentially buy from you in the future.
Need some help managing your content types on Instagram? We’re only one click away!
X Cat
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