Let’s get real.
If you made it here, you are seeking to engage customers on Instagram to increase brand awareness, engagement, loyalty, and conversion rates.
Social media is one of the best ways to market your business and engage with your customers on Instagram specifically. In fact, according to Forrester Research, Instagram generates 58 times more engagement than Facebook and 120 times more engagement than Twitter. And with one billion active monthly users, your business will see significant brand exposure.
However, to keep brand exposure up and successfully win over new customers, you need to engage with people on Instagram. Studies have shown that brands that take the time to engage with their customers see higher conversion rates, increase brand loyalty, and improved customer satisfaction. As Buffer explains, “people don’t use social networks for a one-way experience. They’re seeking connections – with people and with brands.”
But how do you engage customers on Instagram? This article will set you up with the best tips and tricks for successful customer engagement on Instagram.
Use Instagram’s Tools for Business To Engage Customers on Instagram
Instagram has numerous tools for business that help turn your Instagram profile into a business profile. These tools are fantastic for seeing what your followers like, what they interact with most, what types of content they share, and so much more.
If you want to grow your business and engage with customers on Instagram more effectively, Instagram’s tools for business are a great way to do this. By investing in business tools, you can create content your customers want and like to see, thereby increasing engagement, social shares, and conversions.
Post Content Consistently
People engage more easily with brands that have a consistent posting schedule. If you post regularly, at set times of day and on set days of the week, your customers come to know your schedule and come to rely on your consistency. Try eclincher’s Instagram Scheduler tool with a free 14 day trial – it helps schedule posts and stories to Instagram through push-notification and track the performance of your posts.
Posting content consistently greatly increases online engagement and helps maintain brand loyalty. Creating a consistent posting schedule is also a great way to ensure better brand interaction as you can respond regularly to your customers. If people are engaging with your content, you need to be on the front foot with your replies.
Having a consistent posting schedule lets you do this effectively as it ensures you are active on social media at specific times of the day to answer any queries, respond to comments, and just generally interact with your customers.
Engage with Customers on Instagram Content Immediately
Once you have begun rolling out your content schedule, it’s time to engage with your customers. To get as much engagement on your posts as possible, it is important to engage with customers directly before and after you post something new. Not only will this benefit your customers, but it will benefit your brand. A lot of engagement on Instagram posts tells the algorithm that you have shared something interesting, causing the post to appear higher on your followers’ feeds. The higher your posts, the more potential you have of reaching a wider audience.
Engaging with posts directly before and after they are published live will greatly increase your chances of more profile visits and better brand visibility. And of course, the more you interact with your customers online, the more sales and better brand loyalty you will enjoy.
Write Engaging Captions
One of the best ways to increasingly engage with customers on Instagram is by writing better captions. Instagram posts that have engaging captions encourage users to spend more time on your profile. A well-written caption connects with your customers, expresses your personality, and engages your audience.
Effective captions can vary from short and to-the-point to more detailed story-telling captions. You can opt for something thought-provoking or more light-hearted, but whatever type of caption you opt for, always include a call to action! This will encourage users to take an action after reading, such as tagging a friend, sharing, or liking the post. Calls to action are a great way to boost engaging captions and win those extra likes and comments.
Show Your Appreciation to Loyal Customers
Rewarding loyal customers is a great way to show your appreciation for their continued support. People love to feel seen and appreciated, so giving a gift such as a discount code, free product, or public shoutout from your account, is a great way to thank them for their loyalty to your brand.
Showing your appreciation in such a public way is also a great way to engage new and/or potential customers. It shows others how much you value your customers and the loyalty that your brand inspires.
Pretty Baby Hair Accessories achieved this when they launched their giveaway. As you can see, the aim of the post is to show appreciation for their loyal customers by treating one lucky winner to their spring/summer bow collection. The giveaway blog post saw a high level of engagement and a boost in traffic to Instagram.
Post Pictures of Your Team and Yourself
Your customers want to connect with your business and one of the best ways to help them do this is by showing the people behind your brand. Did you know that photos with faces receive 38% more likes than those without? If you aren’t posting pictures of your team or yourself on your business Instagram profile, you should be. Posting photos of real people is one of the most effective ways to boost your online engagement.
You can create ‘meet the team’ posts or share photos shared by your customers (with their permission, of course). Sharing photos of the faces behind your business is one of the best ways to humanize your brand, connect with your customers, and help develop those connections that will foster long-term business success.
Track the Best Time to Post
Still with us?
Ok, we’ve thrown a lot of social media marketing tips for how to engage customers on Instagram. But it’s important to know when your content is at optimal viewing potential.
When are your customers active online? Tracking the best time to post is a great way to increase post engagement. You can find out this information manually by combining Instagram Insights alongside testing posting times and monitoring your data on a spreadsheet.
Or, you can do all of this in moments by using social media analytics tools such as Google Analytics that will tell you the best times to post based on your account data.
By tracking the best time to post, you can hit publish or schedule Instagram posts on content at the moments when most of your customers are browsing their social media profiles. This greatly increases your chances of higher engagement rates, comments, likes, shares, and website visits.
So, if you’re not tracking the best time to post and using that data to your advantage, why not?
There is no better way to reach your audience where they’re at.
Final Words
Brands of all sizes are embracing the marketing potential of Instagram, understanding how to engage with customers on Instagram with bigger audiences than ever before. And now, by following the tips in this article, you can do the same!
If you’re looking for a top-rated social media management tool to help push your brand forward, try eclincher. They offer a free 14-day trial, personal demos, and a killer tool packed with value, and beyond social media mentions and review management to offer some great add-ons like Reputation to go beyond social to improve your web listening footprint.
