You probably know that Instagram is a powerful lead generation channel.
It might be because you're familiar with the data, or simply because you're an active user on the platform and you know how addictive and influential it is.
Either way, you might already have Instagram included in your arsenal of lead generation tactics.
But you probably aren't getting the fullest potential out of your Instagram lead generation approach.
To be successful with lead generation on Instagram, there's a lot you'll need to keep in mind.
That's why we put together this guide – so you can have a much better chance of getting the lead generation results you want from your Instagram campaign.
It's hard to overstate how valuable Instagram can be for lead generation.
These are just some of the reasons why it's become such an influential channel in the realm of digital marketing:
· Reach. There are more than 2 billion monthly active users on Instagram. These users come in all ages, demographics, and locations, so no matter what your business is or who your business serves, you'll probably find customers on Instagram. Reach is also appealing because it's ridiculously easy to scale up a campaign once you get going. At the upper echelons, you can reach literally millions of people.
· Accessibility. At the same time, Instagram is a relatively accessible platform. In fact, you might already have an Instagram account for yourself or your business, simply because it's so easy to set up and get going. Obviously, running a sophisticated lead generation campaign is more challenging than posting occasional photos on a personal account, but the accessibility dynamic is still there.
· Inexpensiveness. Many people appreciate Instagram lead generation for its inexpensiveness as well. There are literally hundreds of options for lead generation, but some of them are prohibitively expensive unless you already have a massive revenue base. Although Instagram lead generation campaigns can be expensive in some contexts, they can also be free or close to free with the right approach.
· Relevance. In addition to being capable of generating a high quantity of leads, Instagram lead generation lends itself to a high quality of leads. That's because Instagram is a platform designed to connect people to things they're genuinely interested in. With the right inbound approach, you can make sure your content reaches only people who are genuinely interested in it, and you can nurture those leads until they're legitimately ready to purchase your products and services.
· Flexibility. There are countless ways to approach an Instagram lead generation strategy, including both inbound and outbound tactics, and both paid and organic opportunities. You can also pursue media and communications in practically unlimited ways. Because of this, almost any business can take advantage of Instagram and use it in whichever ways are most likely to benefit it.
· Scalability. Similarly, Instagram is extremely scalable, and it's usable to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Owners of even the smallest businesses can make use of Instagram for its inexpensiveness and accessibility, but CMOs of massive organizations with massive budgets can harness the full power of the platform.
With that in mind, let's dig into the mechanics of a successful Instagram lead generation strategy.
Lead generation on Instagram can manifest in many forms. You may use one, some, or all of these methods as part of your lead generation approach.
· Total inbound lead generation. Instagram has tremendous potential as an inbound lead generation platform. Essentially, that means posting content and nurturing leads so that people naturally gravitate to your business/brand. The idea here is to build up an organic following on a primary Instagram account, so that when you post links to your website or landing pages, your loyal followers will gladly click.
· Advertising. Instagram offers a multitude of advertising options. If you're willing to pay for the opportunity, you can put your visuals and copy in front of almost any conceivable demographic. Although this is more expensive than the organic, inbound approach, it's also more reliable in terms of generating leads – and it gives you a massive amount of control over who sees and engages with your content.
· Affiliate linking. Some brands prefer to go the affiliate linking route, working with known influencers and prominent people on the platform to showcase their products and services. There are many options here, but many brands opt for product placement (or something adjacent to it) to introduce their offerings. Generally, affiliate linking style approaches only force you to pay for leads that are actually generated, so it can save you a lot of money compared to advertising.
· Collaborations and partnerships. Another approach is to use collaborations and partnerships to boost the visibility of your brand and its products. Depending on the nature of your brand, this might include working on content with other people in your industry, getting in touch with influencers in your space, or creating innovative experiences with other popular entities on the platform.
If we had to boil down the secret to a successful Instagram lead generation campaign to one factor, it would be ROI optimization. As a marketer, you probably already know that ROI stands for return on investment, and is arguably the most important metric to consider when planning or optimizing a marketing campaign.
ROI is a reflection of how much value a campaign brings to your organization, compared to what it costs. In the context of Instagram, the goal is to drive the greatest number of high-quality leads for the lowest possible cost. Because there are so many different possible approaches to lead generation on Instagram, and because it's not only possible but common for people to waste their time on tactics that don't yield a return, it's critically important to make all your Instagram decisions with the background objective of increasing ROI.
Having a large number of followers is certainly appealing, but is that really what's going to drive value to your organization? Similarly, it might be exciting to partner up with a major influencer in your field, but if that doesn't result in actual quality lead generation, the money and effort necessary to sustain that partnership may not be worth it.
Once you shift your mentality to focus on optimizing for ROI, the entire Instagram lead generation game changes. You'll have a much easier time avoiding and filtering out tactics that don't work, and you can spend all of your time and money on the tactics that do work.
Obviously, this is going to take some time and experimentation to figure out, but it's okay if you don't see tremendous results right away. What's important is that you have a consistent focus and a consistent process that will eventually lead you to better lead generation results.
In the sections that follow, we'll explore some of the most important topics to keep in mind when optimizing for ROI in your Instagram lead generation campaign.
Arguably the most important factor for success in Instagram lead generation is customer research and understanding. You need to understand who your customers are and how they think if you want to appeal to them on this platform. This is true regardless of whether you want to nurture an organic following, advertise to specific demographics, or even collaborate with influencers. Unless you have a truly solid understanding of your target market, you won't be able to create effective messaging.
Make sure to create thorough customer personas long before you create any Instagram content – and potentially before you decide on a high-level strategy.
Similarly, you should do your research on influencers before choosing to partner with them or collaborate with them. Just because an influencer has a large number of followers doesn’t mean they're going to be a good fit for your organization, and just because an influencer works in your field doesn't mean they're a good fit for your brand.
When researching influencers, you need to consider reputation, industry, relevance, reach, and dozens of other factors. Not every influencer is worth working with.
Social media advertising is just one way to use these platforms for lead generation. It's an outbound strategy that requires more investment, but in exchange, you'll get access to tighter controls over which users you reach and practically guaranteed results (since you're often charged based on actual clicks).
However, if you're going to get the fullest value and return on investment from advertising, you need to understand what you're doing. That means reading as much as possible to better understand how these advertising platforms work, but it also means conducting live experiments so you can better gauge how your audience reacts to different kinds of messages on Instagram.
Advertising research and testing should be done on an ongoing basis, as the advertising environment is constantly in flux. You're never going to perfectly understand how to effectively advertise to your Instagram leads and prospects, but you can gradually inch closer to that hypothetical ideal.
Your ground-level tactics are going to change almost constantly, as you test, experiment, and adjust your weight to better results. However, you should always have a consistent high-level direction and vision for your Instagram campaign. What does your brand represent, and how should that be presented to your target audience? What are you trying to achieve, objectively? How would you define success in the context of your Instagram lead generation?
Keep in mind that even the best Instagram lead generation strategy is going to fall apart unless it's backed by good landing pages and best practices for conversion optimization. When you generate meaningful traffic, you need to meet it with highly relevant, informative, optimized landing pages. This is a major, independent topic that we don’t have space to fully explore here.
Lead nurturing is arguably indispensable if you want to get the fullest value from your efforts. Essentially, that means following up with leads and prospects on a periodic basis, so your brand stays top of mind and so you can gradually push indecisive leads to make a decision.
With the purely organic approach, this is fairly straightforward; posting new content and regularly engaging with your fans is typically ample to nurture your leads. However, you'll need to have some sort of plan and process in place if you want to nurture leads generated by other means. For example, if you use advertising to drive leads to a landing page, and you secure the contact information of those visitors, you should consider something like a drip email campaign to continue following up with those people.
Finally, you'll need to find ways to drive up your visibility. Assuming all the core mechanics of your Instagram lead generation strategy are in place, from demographic understanding to landing page optimization, the biggest barrier to improving your results will be the scale of your operations.
So how are you supposed to reach more and more people while maintaining the branding and processes that have led you to success at lower levels of operation?
That partially depends on your brand and its unique approach to Instagram lead generation. However, potential solutions could be cultivating a bigger organic following (via things like link building and digital PR), working with more prominent influencers, or spending a bit more money on ad placements. This can be a tricky business, especially if you're working with a limited budget, but you'll eventually need to find some way to scale up if you want to keep increasing revenue and/or profitability.
We understand that making a lead generation campaign successful on Instagram isn't easy, even if you're familiar with the fundamentals.
That's why we've made a concentrated effort to share our expertise with the people who need it.
On our team, we have expert marketers with a diverse array of experiences in Instagram lead generation – and countless other marketing strategies. Together, we can come up with a plan to make your organization more visible, more attractive, and ultimately more profitable.
If you’re ready to get started, reach out to us today!
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