Instagram marketing trends that advertisers and businesses need to know

In less than a decade since its launch in 2010, Instagram has enjoyed tremendous growth, with the platform recently reaching 1 billion active monthly users, becoming an attractive platform for brands eager to exploit it to reach customers, interested audiences, and categories relevant to their business. However, the past year has not been all positive for the photo- and video-based social network, like many major social platforms in 2018, as the platform suffered from accusations that it helped Russian propaganda and fake news spread around the world. In response, the company modified its guidelines to avoid further criticism, which helped it get out of the circle of severe criticism, unlike the parent company, which is still suffering from this attack until now and which admits to more violations of user data.

But while Instagram may not be as caught up in controversy as its owner, there are still things to know before marketing on the platform. Here we will discuss the most prominent marketing trends on the platform that marketers and advertisers need to know, and they are essential on the famous application.

Topic Contents Toggle Collaboration with micro-influencers Video

Augmented Reality Commerce and Dealmaking on Instagram Collaborating with Micro Influencers Influencers dominate Instagram, but scandals around purchased or fake followers have raised doubts about the viability of influencer marketing on the platform. The network has increased security measures to purge the site of fake followers, and in addition, influencers now have to better optimize brand-sponsored content in order to improve transparency. Despite these concerns, research has shown that the popularity of influencer marketing has not been negatively affected. Instead, the trend has simply changed, with brands increasingly turning to networks of micro-influencers. They believe that micro-influencers with loyal followers and a small niche can get better results than collaborating with celebrities and large accounts.

But not all companies and brands are convinced of this trend, as there are many marketers who believe that it is better to cooperate with celebrities in the targeted fields rather than working with small influencers. For emerging brands and marketers with big budgets, working with up-and-coming and small influencers is good for them. Video If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Snapchat should feel reassured by the incredible success of launching Instagram Stories since 2016, which signals the platform's entry into video territory.

After a slow start, it has now become one of the most popular aspects of the platform and recently achieved 400 million daily users, which is more than Snapchat users in general. Beloved by teens and young adults, the accessible Stories interface exposes viewers to a wide range of content before they choose to settle on one that catches their attention. There is a current trend from Facebook services to insert ads between Stories and gain the attention of marketers. Moreover, with specialized features such as polls, contests, and the ability to see the number of views your story has received, Stories are an excellent way to measure community engagement and gain consumer insight.

Instagram allows third parties to create branded stickers that can be attached to consumer stories, and following a thoughtful strategy with audience engagement at the core can increase your brand's exposure. By default, Stories only last for 24 hours in their account feed, but users now have the option to save specific Stories to the Highlights tab. Brands are finding a new lease of life by moving their content to social media and have found that stories work particularly well through this transition.

On the other hand, video on the platform is not limited to stories only, but also includes posts that are published directly on accounts and appear to visitors to personal pages and followers in the feed. You can take advantage of the high capabilities of video to create viral clips that spread on and off Instagram quickly and are widely shared by the public, indirectly promoting your brand. Of course, we should not forget the IGTV service, which is the latest video product from Instagram. It is a service that competes with YouTube for video, but it focuses on videos designed for mobile phones since they are not available for desktop and browsers.

Although most accounts will only be able to upload 10-minute videos, others will have the opportunity to upload up to an hour of content. Furthermore, the vertical video format is similarly beneficial for brands looking to increase engagement. Not only does this format improve the viewer's experience of viewing video content on mobile, but because the video takes up the entire screen, it avoids distractions and gains the viewer's full attention. Augmented Reality Another way brands can leverage the Instagram social network is by using filters and effects built into augmented reality.

We've seen celebrities use these filters to promote their businesses, including Ariana Grande for her 2018 album "Sweetener," Rihanna for her Clara Lionel Foundation, and Kylie Jenner for her Kylie Cosmetics products. The success of these filters and effects has led brands like Adidas and Gucci to take notice, and follow suit in launching their own products. Trade and Make Deals on Instagram Versus other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Instagram's visual capabilities fit easily into the world of online shopping.

With brands like Weekday and Asos steadily increasing their engagement on Instagram, it was only a matter of time before they started actively advertising their products via the platform. This is currently achieved by promoting products on the brand feed as well as via Stories. These Stories feature the products and include a call to action, a “swipe”, which then redirects the viewer to the product for sale in their online store. However, in the US, Instagram has taken a step forward in retail by trialling a Checkout feature for several brands that allows users to actually purchase products through the Instagram app, rather than redirecting them to the brand's website.

This feature simplifies the purchasing experience for users while attracting brands as they look to attract more buyers directly. This feature will allow brands and companies to sell directly on Instagram without the need to bring those interested as visitors to the brand’s website first, and for the consumer, this step reduces the number of clicks he will have to make to purchase a product. The good side for consumers and brands in such a feature is that reliable Instagram can play an intermediary role between consumers and brands, which means that it will provide consumers with a refund of what they spent in the event that they do not obtain the high-quality service or product. On the other hand, the purchasing feature will spare them from entering their information manually every time, while only the most important data will be shared with those companies.

It is expected that the Checkout feature will be expanded to be available in more countries around the world, including the Middle East and North Africa. #Instagram Marketing #Micro Influencers #Instagram #Instagram Celebrities