Whether you’re running a new startup, a small business, or even working for a large corporation, you need to use social media marketing to your advantage. Social media marketing can help significantly expand your reach to attract new customers and boost your sales. While Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin are all important platforms, Instagram is one of the best platforms for marketing your business.

Instagram attracts over a billion people every month who browse the platform for all kinds of engaging visual content. Your brand can utilize this to draw people in and bring your products or services to the attention of tons of users. However, if you want to promote your brand with Instagram, you need to use the best marketing methods. Here are 5 powerful strategies to market your business with Instagram.

1. Post Product Images And Demonstrations

Instagram is one of the best social media platforms for photos and videos, so you’ll want to utilize this in your Instagram marketing strategy. One of the best ways to catch peoples’ attention is to post high-quality images of your products. Make sure your images are bright, inviting, and show your products at their best.

Keep in mind that a simple image of your product might not do much. However, you can make your posts more eye-catching by showing your products in action. For instance, if you’re selling sportswear, show people wearing your products while training. If you’re selling smartphone cases, show people holding phones with some of your most popular cases applied.

You can even take things a step further by posting videos including your products. Even if you’re not selling physical products, you can create short videos to show how people use your digital services, apps, or whatever else you’re selling. The great thing about posting product images and demonstrations on your page is that you can link viewers directly to your products in the description.

2. Include Hashtags And Follow More People

When you make a post on Instagram, it’ll be seen by all your followers when they open the app to check the latest posts on their feed. With that said, if you’re still working on building a following, your posts might not be seen by many people. Fortunately, you can expand your reach by using relevant hashtags.

You should find the most popular hashtags related to your products and include them in all of your posts. Don’t worry about using too many hashtags – most people include tens of hashtags in every post. These hashtags help people find the kind of content they’re looking for, which means you’re more likely to attract your target customers.

To expand your reach more, you should also follow anyone who might be interested in your products. For instance, if you’re selling fitness equipment, follow anyone who makes posts using hashtags like #fitness, #healthylife, #nutrition, and any other relevant hashtags. When you follow people, they’re likely to follow back or at least check out your page and see what you have to offer.

3. Reach Out To Instagram Influencers

One of the quickest and most impactful ways to bring your products or services to the attention of tons of new people is to work with Instagram influencers. Instagram influencers are people with a large audience of loyal followers. These people regularly promote products, services, and brands to their followers in exchange for payment.

When you create posts about your products on your brand’s Instagram page, it only goes out to people who are already aware of your brand. When influencers post about your brand, their legions of loyal followers will suddenly become interested in your products and might even buy from you. You can even provide each influencer with a coupon code to post, giving each new customer a discount.

The best approach is to find the kind of influencers that your target customers follow. For instance, if you’re selling beauty products, you might want to reach out to makeup artists with large followings. If you’re selling pet products, you might even want to reach out to Instagram pages that people have made for their dogs. Offer them a fair price to promote your products with a link to your online store and you’ll make sales fast.

4. Post Fun How-To Videos

Another smart way to promote your brand via Instagram is to post fun how-to videos for your products or services. Although posting pictures and videos of your products can go so far, it helps to give your followers insight on how your products can apply to them and how they can use them.

There are many ways to apply this to your business. For example, if you’re selling web hosting services, you could post videos showing how easy it is to set up a website via your service or how customers can quickly add WordPress to their site. If you’re selling kitchen equipment, show short recipe videos with people using your products.

Remember that most people only watch short videos on Instagram, so keep your videos short but sweet. You should also make multiple Instagram videos showing the various applications of your products or services and showing how different kinds of people can use them. Remember to include a call to action in your video descriptions to encourage people to buy your products.

5. Run An Instagram Contest

One of the fastest ways to gain new followers and customers is to run an Instagram contest. This usually involves offering a prize such as free products from your business or $500 to spend at your business. Either way, the winner will become familiar with your products and could become a customer for life.

You can run an Instagram contest using SweepWidget or Shortstack. The best way to do this is to tell people to follow your Instagram page and share your post to enter. Not only will this gain you more followers, but they’ll share your post with all of their followers resulting in you bringing your brand to the attention of tons of people.

Although issuing a prize will cost you, you’ll gain tons of new customers in the process. Even those who don’t win will become aware of your products when they follow your page and see your content. This will result in tons of new people being drawn to your product pages and becoming customers.

With so many monthly active users, Instagram is one of the best social media marketing platforms for your business. You can post all kinds of visual content here and use it to attract tons of new customers to your company. No matter what kind of business you’re running, use these five powerful strategies to your advantage to boost your sales.