Since its initial launch in 2010, Instagram has been used regularly by millions of users across the world for sharing a wide range of pictures and videos. Instagram further allows users to their pictures or videos both privately and publicly. The users also have option to share their Instagram content through several hugely popular social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr. Instagram was acquired by Facebook in 2012.

The exponential growth rate and four hundred million strong user base of Instagram has created a solid marketing platform for businesses to showcase their products and services. Both large and small businesses use Instagram for marketing for the visual marketing options. Instagram makes it easier for businesses to  promote their products or services by targeting a large and diverse audience. The business can further use high quality pictures and videos to keep the audience engaged and accomplish higher conversion rate.

8 Compelling Reasons Why Small Businesses Must Use Instagram for Marketing

1) Steady Follower Growth

Several studies have highlighted the exponential growth rate of Instagram. According to eMarketer.com, “Instagram continues to prove its mastery of the mobile domain, according to eMarketer’s latest internet usage forecast. This year, 89.4 million Americans will log on to Instagram at least once a month, representing 34.1% of mobile phone users. And by 2017, 51.8% of social network users will use Instagram—surpassing the 50% mark for the first time.”

Likewise, the statistics posted on various websites indicate a steady increase in the Instagram ad budget of various enterprises. According to a report posted on BusinessInsider, “Instagram could be making more money from mobile ads than Google and Twitter in just two years”. Hence, the small business owner can promote their products or services on Instagram by targeting four hundred million users from various countries and regions. They also have several options to keep the users engaged and convert them into customers.

2) Better Engagement

Many studies have highlighted the effectiveness of visual content in keeping users engaged and converting them into customers. Unlike other social networking platforms, Instagram is designed with features to facilitate photo-sharing and video-sharing. Also, it does not require users to describe the images or videos with a specific number of characters. Instagram further allows users to see the image directly without wading through longer lines of text. Small businesses can easily attract and engage users simply by posting visual content on Instagram on a regular basis. They can further take advantage the features provided by Instagram to make their visual content more appealing and impactful.

3) Cater the Massive Popularity of Mobile Apps and Web

A number of surveys have highlighted that most of the internet time of modern users are spent of mobile apps. Likewise, a large percentage of modern consumers nowadays access websites on their smartphones, tablets or phablets. Hence, the small businesses have to explore ways to optimize and deliver visual content for mobile devices. Unlike other social networks, Instagram was originally developed and launched as a mobile app. It is designed with features to optimize user interaction with pictures and videos. The small business owners can take advantage of Instagram to promote their products or services by delivering visual content to users’ mobile devices.

4) Take Advantage of Unique Instagram Features

Instagram further provides a number of features that make it easier for both individual and enterprises users to deliver visual content. For instance, it enhances the appeal of pictures and images by confining them to square shapes. Also, the small business owners can take advantage of tabs like Search and Explore on the Instagram app to promote their products or services more efficiently. They can use the Search tab to monitor the performance of specific visual content across targeted locations. Likewise, the Explore tab helps entrepreneurs to identify relevant content based on trending topics and hashtags, and understand the preferences of targeted consumers.

5) Avail Instagram Ads

Small business owners also have option to avail Instagram ads. The statistics posted on various website depict effectiveness of Instagram ads in comparison to other pay-per-click (PPC) advertising options. The small business owners also have option to generate more revenue by making Instagram ads more personalized and organized. They can further make the Instagram ad campaign more effective by implementing common social media marketing principles. Small businesses should leverage benefits of web analytics. They can analyze user data to accomplish higher conversion rate by delivering the most relevant visual content.

6) Option to Target the Relevant Audience

Instagram allows small business owners to promote their products or service through images, videos and carousals. Each of these options enables marketers to convey the required information to each customer in a fast and efficient way. The marketers can further make the ads more impactful by targeting customers based on a number of criterions like age, gender and location. They can avail these targeting options to deliver visual content and ads only to the relevant content. The targeting options further make the visual content distributed by small businesses more impactful and engaging.

7) Make Ad Blockers Ineffective

A steady increase is being noted in the number of customers using ad blockers to avoid frequent and irrelevant ads. A number of studies have also indicated ad blockers are affecting ad revenues worth billion dollars each year. Hence, the smart business owners and marketers have already started exploring ways to promote their products or services by eliminating the impact of ad blockers. Instagram enables business owners and marketers to spread message about their products or services without relying on ads. They can take simply post appealing pictures and videos on Instagram to spread message about, and promote their products or services by targeting a wider and diverse audience.

8) Take Advantage of User Generated Content

Small businesses can post visual content regularly and avail Instagram ads to promote their businesses. They can further promote their products and services effectively through user generated content. Many studies have highlighted that a large percentage of modern customers trust user generated content more than the visual content and ads delivered by businesses. Small business owners can integrate user generated content and Instagram ads in a number of ways. They can embed user generated content into Instagram ads to encourage customers to promotes products and services. The user generated content will further help small businesses to build a base of loyal customers and enhance the credibility of their brands.

On the whole, the small business owners can use Instagram for achieving common marketing goals – reaching out a wider audience, keep users interested and engaged, and seduce customers by offering discounts, and promote business events. They should make and implement a robust Instagram marketing strategy according to specific marketing goals. Small businesses can also opt to use marketing automation services. They should monitor the Instagram marketing campaigns, web analytics data consistently and optimize to accomplish higher conversion rates.