Instagram Archives | Trek Marketing

An Instagram How-To if You Own a Pet Business

Posted on November 19, 2019January 27, 2020 by Alex Wilks

If you’re wanting to learn about Instagram marketing through the lens of a confident and balanced digital marketing agency, take some notes while you read through our professional industry suggestions. Everything you post about creates a way to engage with your audience and otherwise seek a connection within your community. So, as a business owner who’s consistently wanting to build meaningful relationships that allow your following to grow, you’ll want your company to bring life to the evolving pet industry, by successfully reaching consumers through the use of your Instagram platform.

How do you effectively use hashtags?

The best way that you can utilize your 30-hashtag limit is by conducting a simple search to see what’s already trending. There are some general pet-related hashtags, such as #dogsofinstagram/#catsofinstagram and #dogoftheday/#catoftheday, however, we recommend routinely looking up what niche hashtags are growing in your community and following them to see what your competitors are posting about. This will ensure that you’re tagging all the right hashtag combinations, while also keeping relevant to your business.

Keep in mind that when it comes to digital marketing for the pet industry, you want your efforts to be noticed, which is why hashtags connected to millions of posts are not the most ideal. Instead, suggest aiming for smaller, more specific ones that target local pet businesses, dog walkers, groomers, pet stores, trainers, and even veterinarians. This will help your posts to be noticed and will also give you some insight into the people who’re also following these smaller, niche hashtags. Because who knows, maybe you can give them a follow and they may become enticed to follow you back?

Follow the right hashtags

While you could crazy following all the popular pet hashtags, this will not necessarily bring your business more traction, not to mention it would be an incredibly time-consuming task. That’s why you need to take a minute to think about who your audience is, what they do, and what they may enjoy. Try searching up some local community events that may interest them, become familiar with the area’s popular dog park, and really discover the vibe of your audience. Knowing what your potential customers are passionate about will help you to formulate content that can build long-lasting relationships with them through your Instagram channel.

What is hashtag engagement?

When a user comments on your Facebook post, you respond promptly or “like” their comment, so, when an Instagram user begins interacting with your account, it’s courteous if you to do the same with theirs. Begin by liking and commenting on their photos and even asking them a genuine question. Don’t force the relationship by pitching your service in a salesy way but instead use this as an opportunity to engage with their content and focus on community building rather than gaining a single follower.

Where should you place your hashtags?

The placement of your industry-related hashtags comes down to preference, intuition and whatever works best for your business. While some people like to jam their hashtags into their post captions, others prefer to comment it down below. The fact remains that it really is your space to find out what style is pleasing to you. Although we do recommend that you tastefully layout your hashtags so that your audience can read and understand your message rather than struggle to see the text through a sea of hashtagged words. After all, when conducting successful digital marketing for the pet industry, the more compelling the written caption, the better.

Did the above information spark some Instagram inspiration? Drop a comment below if you have further questions about Instagram marketing for your business.

Which social media channel will attract your target audience?

Posted on April 23, 2019May 31, 2019 by Alex Wilks

It won’t matter how creative, innovative or aspiring your product or service is if it’s not being marketed to the right target audience. Many business owners make the mistake of taking over their own marketing efforts when they first start out. Although they should never feel discouraged to learn and grow in their in-house abilities, working with a professional digital marketing team will allow them to persuade and engage with their customers in a receptive way. After all, instead of simply marketing to anyone and everyone, a team in charge of your social media marketing strategy will start their efforts firstly by breaking down your target audience and curving the appeal towards that demographic. So, if you want to get noticed in your industry, you must first work towards identifying which social media channel will attract the right customers for you.

Who uses Facebook?

Facebook still holds onto first place as the most widely used social media platform across the world. With a monthly log in of over 2.23 billion users, 30% of which are aged between 25 through to 34, beginning your social media marketing campaigns on Facebook is always a safe bet. Once you create your business page remember to post regularly, promote your page, engage with your followers and contrive your page layout and content to appeal to your target audience. After all, if you’re hoping for a high level of engagement, your Facebook profile needs to be geared to attract the right shoppers.

Who uses Twitter?

The nice thing about Twitter is that the demographics of its users tend to possess a smaller age gap in comparison to the vast age range of Facebook users. With roughly 326 million people engaging on Twitter monthly, 37% of users are between 18 and 25, while 25% of them are 30 and 49-years-old. This means that young adults make up over 60% of the audience on Twitter. So, if your product or service would appeal to this age range, it might be worth setting up a Twitter account and regularly tweeting to the users compelling them to click.

Who uses Instagram?

Instagram has quickly made its way to one of the most active social media channels worldwide, especially among young women. This photo-sharing, smart-phone app is plentiful within the millennial generation (1982 – 2004) and allows business owners to get a little creative by sharing enticing visuals, using engaging hashtags and taking advantage of the story feature to promote their business. Considering so many people make purchases based on things they see through their Instagram feed, it’s a great way to exploit social media marketing to get your products or services noticed.

What are a few tips to help attract your target audience?

Now that you’ve narrowed down your essential social media platforms you might need a little help reaching out to potential shoppers. The following tips can help you to entice your business’s target audience.

Survey your customers to find out what they like
Determine your audience size do you know how often to post
Find a connection to your audience
Reach out to customers through the use of other social media groups
Tailor your content to appeal to your audience
Balance out your content plan to include something for everyone
Use visual quotes for motivation
Boost your content with promotional posts
Share education content from within your niche

Which social media channel do you use to target your company’s demographic? Tell us in the comments section below.

How do Instagram Influencers Market Brands?

Posted on June 26, 2018September 21, 2021 by Alex Wilks

In a world that revolves around social media, Instagram is one of the newest and most influential platforms that brands are using to engage with consumers. With over 800 million users, Instagram is one of the leading social media platforms, focusing primarily on image-based content.

People are spending more time on social media every day, with an average engagement rate of 3% (compared to 0.5% to 1% for most other social media networks), making Instagram the perfect platform to market your product.

From the unique content available, it’s easy to see that Instagram users like to tell stories. Well, brands like telling stories too.

What are Instagram influencers?

Instagram influencers are Instagram users that have established a high credibility with their audiences. Usually, these influencers showcase some sort of authenticity that attracts followers to their page. People who are Instagram famous are paid by companies to flaunt a brand hashtag as a way to promote their business or service.

Brand hashtags allow you to market your company by building brand awareness and recognition. With hashtags everywhere you look, it becomes very important to find one that works for you if you hope to promote or sell yourself in the social media world.

How does this all tie together?

Brands need to work hard to get noticed, but with the average person being exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day, that can be a challenge.

Yet visual content remains the crucial part of any business’ marketing strategy. Instagram marketing presents an edgy, unique opportunity to represent your brand using creative imagery. Users scroll through their feeds multiple times a day, so it also extends your exposure.

With around 80% of users following a business and the top 50 global brands marketing on Instagram, it is a bandwagon that your company shouldn’t mind jumping on.

If you don’t have the time to manage your own social media, Trek Marketing has trained professionals that can engage with your audience for you.

Do you follow any business Instagram accounts? If so, tell us in the comment section below.

5 types of Instagram ads to consider for your business

Posted on May 8, 2018September 21, 2021 by Alex Wilks

Although you may think that Facebook and Twitter combined are enough to attract and maintain customers, Instagram is another heavy player that helps with social media marketing. Follow these Instagram business tips for advertising to create posts that expand your audience, increase exposure and enhance branding.

Why use Instagram?

Developing your SEO, keywords and text are still effective marketing tools, however, there are certainly times when sharp imagery is better than stamping a post as TL; DR. In September 2017, Instagram reported that they had approximately 800 million active users a month, which means seemingly endless opportunities for your business to reach followers. We live in a vastly visual age, so you need to grab your audience’s attention quickly and keep those target groups coming back as much as possible.

Which ad best relays your message?

Facebook owns Instagram, so once you’ve created your Facebook Business Page, why not also set up an Instagram account so your ad manager can sync both apps? Then you can choose the type of imagery that best reflects your brand.

Photo: Everything is a photo opp these days, so show off products in ways that entice customers. Create snapshots of services that speak to your audience and tap into their desires and wishes. Of additional benefit, caption the images with strong CTAs.
Video: Consider this an expansion of the power of photos. You get 60 seconds to tell a story, but place the product or service within a few seconds, for maximum effect.
Carousel: A series of 5 photos or videos for customers to view, ideal for advertising that requires more than 60 seconds for effective messages. It can also illustrate multiple ways to use a product or service.
Story: These are ads that are only available for 24 hours and are shown between stories by followers. It’s a great tool to use for a limited time or special promotions. It is also based on viewing habits, so users can go right to your website or contact information while watching their favourite content.
Canvas story: Ideal for mobile use, you can create this ad from a Facebook or a custom template.

Why settings matter

It’s important to put thought into the settings for each post or campaign in order to monitor what works and what may need an adjustment. Ask yourself (or your team) which of the following objectives meet your goals:

Video views
Website traffic and conversions
Alluring posts
Mobile app installations and usage
More leads and event attendees

Remember to name each campaign uniquely and just as you increase engagement on Twitter, use branded hashtags and short captions to entice your audience. Although you get 300 characters to say something, the recommended number is between 125-150.

Other settings to note as you build your own analysis for Instagram ads tips include:

Audience and placement: Are you targeting a specific, “custom” audience (based upon interests and sales), or a “lookalike” audience (potential leads that already follow and are similar to other companies)? Filters include age range, region and connections, along with deciding any placement factors, such as categories and devices to include/exclude.
Budget: Instagram ad costs can vary. Depending upon dynamics and typically ranging from less than 50 cents to about $1-$2 per click (approximately $5-$7 per 1,000 visitors). You can choose a daily budget or a lifetime (length of campaign) option, with the ability to change the figure, but not the type of campaign you have just set up.
Bids: Related to budgets, this setting represents maximum monies spent for customer responses. It’s either manual, set by you, or automatic, determined by Facebook analytics.
Start and finish times: Continuously, or for a specific duration.
Delivery optimization: Choose how your campaign reaches viewers, either through impressions (as often as possible), link clicks (to followers most likely to respond), or daily unique reach (once a day).
Delivery speed: Do you prefer your campaign to run at a standard pace, or rapidly at a more accelerated rate?

Are you concerned about correctly getting your message across Instagram? Learn how our social media marketing services can help make it happen!

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