Instagram is one of the most popular social networks with a global community of 1 billion users, and it will continue its growth as brands capitalize on its current boom.
Lately, Instagram has been giving a lot of love to marketers, offering new features to increase their brand awareness, improve their relationships and interactions with their audiences, increase conversions, and drive customer happiness.
Brands that are appropriately responsive to this trend and changes in the platform are taking advantage of the growth of Instagram marketing. Are you one of them?
Here are 5 Instagram marketing trends that will change the game in 2019. Make sure you know how to leverage these to drive YOUR growth.
1. IGTV: one of the biggest game changers
Unlike regular videos that are limited to one minute and Stories that are short videos that disappear after 24 hours, IGTV is a new Instagram feature that allows long-form, vertical videos of up to an hour long that will not disappear. The new IGTV channel gives brands the opportunity to post extended video content to inspire, educate and entertain their audiences in a different way. You can create a video series, share news, introduce new products and much more. This is an excellent way to engage with your followers.Tasty and Spotify have made some very successful uses of IGTV that illustrate the potential of this platform:
2. Instagram Stories: humanizing brands
Stories have emerged to allow 400 million Instagrammers every day, including brands, to express themselves and share content more naturally and casually.Being a video that disappears in 24 hours, it creates a sense of urgency, making them a must-see. Whether you use it to show the company’s behind-the-scenes or sneak peeks, to place polls and ask opinions to the audience, or share appealing content, time-sensitive offers, and new products, Instagram Stories is rapidly becoming a vital component of any Instagram marketing strategy.
Let’s see how brands like Macy’s and, MAC Cosmetics are using Stories:
3. Instagram Story Highlights: turning Stories into static content
Many brands and influencers think that ‘Instagram is the new blog’ because, besides its many features, you can organize your brand’s various content into permanent collections by topic.
Stories disappear in 24 hours, but now they can be saved in your profile to turn them into static content in the form of “Story Highlights.” Many brands are taking advantage of this hot feature to create permanent collections, themes or categories in their Instagram profiles.
This is how brands like Hubspot are using their Story Highlights:
4. Instagram Stories Ads: low-cost and effective advertising
With the current boom in Instagram Stories, it’s no wonder that they’ll be a major marketing channel in 2019.
Advertising on Instagram Stories is an excellent way to communicate with your audience even if they’re not already following you. Stories ads allow you to place full-screen images between slides of other people’s Stories.
Since this type of advertising is relatively new, this is a great time to start testing what works best for your brand. Remember that when people watch Stories, they expect to see regular content from their family and friends- polished marketing material can be jarringly different and provoke a negative reaction if they disrupt the feel of a Story someone is swiping through, so use less produced images and videos and aim for an aesthetic closer to people’s personal ‘Grams.
See how The New York Times and TGI Friday’s utilizes stories to deliver promotional content:
5. Instagram Shoppable Posts: another game changer
Instagram has introduced a ton of direct shopping features, making this platform even more attractive for eCommerce and businesses: link in bio, swipe up (which you can find on stories), sponsored ads and now, Shoppable posts.
Shoppable posts are direct links to your products tagged in your organic posts. This allows brands to use Instagram for their complete sales funnel, from ads generating awareness to a conversion, all without leaving the Instagram app.
Urban Outfitters and American Eagle have been making great use of Shoppable posts:
Instagram is becoming more and more attractive to consumers and businesses. Don’t be left behind by this emerging avenue of consumer and audience engagement.
Are you prepared to take advantage of these 2019 Instagram trends? If you want guidance and support for your Instagram or social media strategy, contact us. As you can see, we’re passionate about marketing.
Sources:
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-trends-for-every-marketer/https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-tv/https://blog.planable.io/instagram-trends/
https://www.adweek.com/digital/5-instagram-marketing-trends-we-will-see-in-2019/https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-use-instagram-stories/
https://later.com/blog/future-instagram-marketing/https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-live/
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