The secrets behind businesses’ Instagram success

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms for businesses nowadays. If your target group is present on this platform, you should probably be also present, and share your content. Instagram stories and reels are one of the best ways to keep up your customers’ attention and arise their interest in your product or service. It is also a great tool, to get feedback from them, promote your activities, and reach out to more and more potential customers. 

How to get started with IG business marketing?

Use of Instagram stories and reels in tourism business 

If your target group can be found on Instagram, it is important to be present and be active on this platform. Creating stories on a daily basis is one of the best ways to keep up the customers’ attention. It is important though not to post too much, to avoid being “spammy”, because you might lose followers. A couple of stories or reels every day would probably work well, and when there is an event coming up, it’s okay to post more frequently.  

If you manage a business Instagram profile, you want to create professional but captivating content. Here are some tips that might help you:) 

Generally moving images and videos are more captivating than photos, so those are the best to post. But if you post images, only post good-quality ones, and always post them vertically, not horizontally, because that is how people will watch them on their phone.  

As for videos, they shouldn’t be too long, because people might lose their attention. A 30-60 second video should work fine, depending on what kind of content you are creating. It is also important to keep up customers’ attention, by using video editing tools, such as Capcut, putting background music, etc.  

When creating content with a business profile, you can see some feedback from your customers. If they like or comment on your content, give some reaction to them, so they don’t feel like you are ignoring them. Also, try to include a CTA (Call to action) in your posts, that makes people react on them, such as polls, questionnaires, or just an emoji slide. People love to click, and it also gives you feedback for free! 

A good way to make professional content is if you choose a design that fits your profile, and you stick to it. Use the same font, the same design, you can also put your logo in the corner. Also, using relevant hashtags and tags can also help you to reach out to more people. 

Target group

Target group depends on the company itself and who they are trying to target because not every company will have the same target group. Airbnb has a target group meant for younger travellers and families. And if we look at statistics, around 59% of Instagram users are between ages 18-29 and 33% are between ages 30-49. Also, in the unlikely case that a company has no ideas what their target group is they can straight up ask their followers their age. 

Type of content

The content itself always depends on the company itself and the marketing strategy that they have implemented. Stories and reels are a great way for companies to be able to quickly show something because at most they will not even take up a minute of your time to view. As an example, Airbnb centers their stories and reels through a storytelling. They will mainly show videos of unique destinations where their customers have stayed all while giving them credit for it. 

Communication

Instagram reels and stories are a great tool for communication with followers. Polls and Questionnaires are also a great form of communication between the company and followers. These two forms of communication allow for mass feedback / interaction with the entire community and not just certain individuals that comment on the story. The emoji slider is another great tool to get quick reaction / feedback for a certain product or idea. 

 

Here are some examples of good IG marketing: 

Saigon Noodle Bar is very active on Instagram, it is even their main channel of communication. They regularly post stories, often interactive ones (see picture below), share reels and information about the menu almost daily!

Moreover, they are very active in customer communication on Instagram, they repost customer posts, react to them and to direct messages or comments.

Europa-Park (theme park in Germany) uses high quality videos in stories, interactive stories which create excitement for the park’s opening (open during summer season), and keeps the followers updated on new constructions, events, attractions in the park. They are using the “highlights” on Instagram as well to advertise their different services separately (e.g. on-rides (especially nice for fans who want to have a pre-experience of a rollercoaster or keep their excitement for their next visit alive), the Halloween theme in the park, quizzes, or their new water park “Rulantica”).
Recently there has also been announced the construction of a new rollercoaster on Instagram, which made the fans super excited! See photo! 

They also use the “call to action” tool quite a lot, e.g. in the photo below by saying “book your tickets now”.

Safartica uses, similarly to Saigon Noodle Bar, the repost tool I stories. Moreover, their use of high quality pictures supports their authenticity, as well as their choice of bright colours looks inviting to customers! 

 

What do we think?

Generally, Instagram marketing can give a nice visual touch to a business, especially in tourism. If you see something in form of a post, it makes you want to see it with your own eyes! 

However, we see a small gap between “good marketing” and “annoying spam”. Let’s say a company has far too many stories or does not include questionnaires or polls in them, it is not very attention-getting and might even lead to an “unfollow”.  

A positive thing about Instagram reels is that they are, in opposition to stories, something you watch if you want to; in other words: you can skip them. They also work perfectly as “mini-vlogs”, which is especially nice for a tourism company like for instance Safartica. 

Another impression that came up is that, depending on how active an individual is on Instagram, it might or might not be the first place to get to know businesses. Someone, who uses Instagram only to a limited extent for example would probably find the business in real life first, and afterwards get interested in following their Instagram page. 

 

Learn how to create your Instagram business account now! 

 

Have you personally made reels and stories before? Did you find our blog helpful? Write your opinion in the comments😊