Recently, Instagram has emerged as an invaluable platform for businesses looking to promote their products and services. Boasting over 1 billion active users worldwide, Instagram offers businesses that target younger demographics an extensive audience to target. Here, we will delve into Instagram marketing in more depth; its benefits, best practices for businesses and current trends will all be discussed further in depth.

Why Use Instagram for Marketing?

Instagram provides businesses with several advantages, including:

Instagram Has an Engaged Audience: With more than one billion active users on Instagram, its audience is unfathomably vast giving businesses access to an unreachable base from which they can promote their products or services to a range of demographics

Instagram provides businesses that produce visually-appealing content with an invaluable visual medium to showcase it on. This is particularly relevant to physical product sales businesses that can showcase their offerings effectively using this medium.

Instagram boasts high levels of engagement, with users spending an average of 28 minutes each day on the platform - making it an ideal platform for businesses looking to interact with their target market and build relationships with prospective clients.

Best Practices for Instagram Marketing

In order to optimize Instagram marketing, businesses should adopt several best practices - these may include the following.

Establish clear goals: Businesses should set clear goals when approaching Instagram marketing, such as increasing brand recognition or driving sales or engaging potential customers.

Produce high-quality visual content: Instagram is a visual platform, so quality visual content creation is crucial to its success. Businesses should invest in developing eye-catching pieces that resonate with their target audiences.

Utilise Instagram Stories: Instagram stories provide a powerful way of engaging with your target audience and telling the tale of your brand story. Businesses should create regular stories that align with their messaging and foster interaction amongst their target market.

Use relevant hashtags: Hashtags make it easier for Instagram users to discover your content, so businesses should take advantage of this by including relevant ones in their posts for maximum reach and engagement.

Consistency: To increase engagement on Instagram, businesses should regularly post to both their feed and stories. Consistency will help build your following and engage your target audience.

Instagram Marketing Trends for 2018

Instagram marketing is constantly advancing, with new trends constantly emerging. Here are some of the latest developments in Instagram marketing:

Influencer marketing: Influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular means of advertising products and services on Instagram, by teaming up with influencers with large followings on the platform to promote them as partners for your brand.

Video content: Video has become a key focus on Instagram, with features like IGTV and Reels providing businesses with new ways to showcase their brands

Instagram Shopping: Businesses using Instagram Shopping can tag products directly in their posts and stories to make it easy for customers to purchase directly through Instagram.

User-Generated Content (UGC): UGC involves sharing user-created content such as photos and videos featuring your products to build engagement and increase brand loyalty. This tactic can help generate buzz around your products while building engagement from existing and potential new customers alike.

Instagram marketing presents businesses with many opportunities for the promotion of their products or services. Instagram's wide reach, dynamic visual medium, and high engagement levels make it the ideal platform to target various demographics within their target market. By adopting best practices such as creating high-quality visual content with relevant hashtags and posting consistently businesses can establish an Instagram presence while building relationships with their target market. As Instagram continues its evolution it is vitally important for businesses to stay abreast of any updates that arise to ensure maximum impact when marketing on Instagram