Social media is an ever-growing market, which is why when using newer ones like Instagram you should make good use of Instagram marketing tools. I know what you’re thinking: Instagram? Why Instagram? When it comes to social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are usually the ones that jump to the forefront of your mind, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Their well-known platforms can boost your traffic and your own personal business, absolutely, but Instagram is a hidden gem hidden gem with one of the biggest and fastest growing social media platforms since its release.
That’s right—a site used for the seemingly simple task of posting photos for mass consumption is also quickly climbing the charts as a successful way to put your name on the board and promote your brand to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Here, I’ll explain the best tips and tricks in using Instagram marketing tools to optimize your success and create curiosity for your business.
Instagram Marketing Tools and The CLICK Technique
Before we get into the intricacies of harnessing the powerful juggernaut that is Instagram and Instagram marketing tools, allow us first to revisit The CLICK Technique. The CLICK Technique is my proven five step plan your small business needs for success. It’s free, it’s easy, and it only takes a week to implement this surefire system into your work space.
Each letter in the word “CLICK” stands for a tool we use in order to push forward with our progress, and in this case, Instagram marketing tools fall under the first ‘C’: curiosity. Before your business can truly take off, you need to figure out how to bridge that gap between yourself and your potential consumers, and that’s where curiosity comes in!
Gauge their interests, catch their attention, and pique their curiosity—whatever it takes to get them to click on your site. For example, using social media as a platform to gain visibility is all about getting their attention and making them curious about what you’re offering, as well as making sure they know about what you can do for them that other companies and businesses cannot.
Nothing reaches out to a mass audience quicker and more effectively than social media, and Instagram isn’t any different. Using hash tags, comments, and likes, you can get your own devoted following, just like that (you can’t see me, but I’m snapping my fingers). Take it from entrepreneur Austin Godsey, the CMO and co-owner of the app Instafame.
In his interview, he shares a truck load of good information in terms of how to successfully use Instagram and Instagram marketing tools for business related content, how to get the attention of potential clients, how to turn those Instagram comments into business deals, and the best ways to propel yourself forward in a fast-paced and ever-changing technological world.
A 5-Step Process To Boost Your Instagram Marketing Tools
Step 1: Add Instafame to Your List of Instagram Marketing Tools
First, Austin talks to us about the industry he created—Instafame. Instafame is an Instagram marketing platform that, to this day, serves to over 1,000 clients around the world. The way Instafame works is that it automates your engagement by first going out and targeting certain niches and audiences based on your preferences and, second, keeping those actions running 24/7, allowing you to boost and gain attention even in your sleep.
It allows you to be an influencer, giving you the space and time to focus on your brand and become your own CEO from the very start, as well as automating your traffic and your followers. For the price of just over a dollar a day, you can get started with your own account that promotes your brand by engaging constantly with the target audience you choose. It also tracks its own analytics and has a number of unreleased features, such as saving your Instagram stories to your device—allowing you to log the things you do every day to keep forever. If you ask me, that function alone is worth the roughly $40/month deal that Austin promotes!
Step 2: Solidify Your Brand
Second, Austin speaks to the idea of perception and having a very clear idea of what you’re looking for and the direction you want to be going in. Instagram accounts can often be a mishmash of things that people enjoy, and though that’s good for personal use, it doesn’t send a clear message of your business to potential clients.
In that respect, you need to make sure your account and your page clearly line up with a singular thought, whether it be health and wellness, or just entrepreneurship in general. Once you find out who you are, you can focus more time on who you’re trying to target. On top of that, you want to make sure the things you’re posting are of the highest quality they can be, as well as posting at least one to three times a day.
Though Instagram is an application we use on our phones, the photos we post there don’t have to suffer from low quality. In Austin’s words, “Instagram is like a magazine.” We flip through, and the things that are the most aesthetically pleasing tend to catch our eye. Instagram is no exception to this rule, and Austin encourages us to make sure we’re using all available resources to make sure the accounts we’re using to generate traffic meet these top notch quality requirements. (You don’t need to get too worried, either—Austin himself says his iPhone 7 camera gets the job done!)
Step 3: Emulate the Best of the Best
Thirdly, we want to make sure we’re emulating the best of the best, and standing out among a crowd of viral and potentially viral content is key in utilizing these Instagram marketing tools. Though it may seem unorthodox, Austin says the best advice his mentor gave him was to ‘lie, cheat, and steal’.
At first glance, it seems fishy at best, but upon explanation, Austin makes it clear what we need to truly do to improve our Instagram marketing tools. First, we must ‘lie’ to ourselves: we need to talk ourselves up, and we need to believe that we’re successful even when we’re not. Giving yourself that peptalk can help your self-esteem, and once you believe it fully, you can truly achieve your end goals.
Next, we need to ‘cheat’ ourselves out of the little opportunities and things that derail us from the big picture. And, lastly, we need to ‘steal’ inspiration from the shoulders of giants. We don’t want to actually steal content from other people, but taking ideas, putting a creative spin on them, and making them your own is how people push forward and innovate themselves. On a competitive platform like Instagram, individuality is important.
Step 4: Deliver an Irresistible Offer
Fourth, we want to reach out to our audience and give them an offer they can’t refuse, hoping that they’ll give us their business. Things work a little differently on Instagram than they would on Facebook, and Austin swears by giveaways.
Posting a creative and relevant image with a caption that promises free and useful content to the first five or so people who choose to ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on the photo is an instant and surefire way to make your numbers—and the numbers of those who’re initially interested—take off.
Austin also speaks to the technique he’s developed over the years of implementing a large amount of value to what he posts and following it through with a ‘call to action’. The giveaways are a perfect example of this idea in motion—the value of what he’s offering in the photos he’s posting and the content he’s creating is giving the audience a ‘call to action’, in terms of their participation in ‘liking’ and ‘commenting’ on the post to receive what he’s giving. An 80% value and 20% call to action split is what he recommends.
Step 5: Create Your Own Content With Your Smartphone
Lastly, Austin encourages people to stop watching content and start producing their own. With the way smartphones work nowadays, they offer us a 24/7 chance to be in the world of social media, liking and commenting on a variety of things from other creators.
We’re spending our time making them famous and successful, he says, while denying ourselves the same privilege. Stepping outside of that zone and being the creator instead of the viewer is the best and easiest step in order to climb the ladder in the world of social media advertising, and using these Instagram marketing tools together, Austin has found his success in just four years.
It’s foolproof, it’s smart, and it’s relevant—there’s not a single reason why you can’t achieve the same things. Your success is achievable and completely within your control, and using these Instagram marketing tools is just the beginning to a self-funded career. So, what’re you waiting for?
