After covering the two biggest B2B platforms LinkedIn and Facebook, let’s have a look at one that may not seem as relevant for B2B – Instagram!
Many B2B marketers don’t seem to bother to take advantage of Instagram to promote content and to reach their target audience. CMI report shows that only 46% of B2B marketers use organic distribution on Instagram and only 17% use it for paid distribution. There are over 25 million businesses on Instagram.
Although the number of active Instagram users goes up to 1 billion, the B2B Instagram marketing audience is obviously way smaller than the one in LinkedIn or Facebook.
Let’s see what do businesses who have a B2B presence on Instagram tend to do:
- Target your ads on the small business audience (for example, Wix and Shopify can engage with business owner customers)
- Focus on UX content (Adobe can show how its software is used, Revolut can show how simple is their app)
And how to do that? Use realistic pictures or footage of your product. Don’t ever use stock pictures or staged pictures. To get more engagement, your post should include a hook to encourage people to keep reading, and you should consider leaving a question at the end of the post to inspire comments.
Take a look at Slack. The company uses animated content that showcases the app’s features. Slack passed 10 million daily active users in 150 countries.
https://www.instagram.com/slackhq/?utm_source=ig_embed
On Instagram, the account activity of your profile is a must. To grow your account, you should engage with your follower’s content, follow new targeted accounts and engage with them as well. This should be done on a daily basis if you truly want your account to thrive.
Focus on engaging with brands and accounts that relate to your business and get followers organically. Write thoughtful or funny comments under some bigger account profiles in your industry on daily basis, this way your account will become relevant enough eventually.
The big disadvantage for B2B on Instagram is that there is no linking from image captions. However, it is possible from Instagram Stories. If you have over 10,000 followers, you will unlock the “swipe up” feature. This means your users can swipe up from your story to navigate to a link, all without leaving the Instagram app.
Stories are very important to promote your brand and to engage with your audience. Eventually, your loyal customer will begin to share their own stories using your product. This way you will get free promotion and your customer may hope that your company will reshare their story.
Companies that lack their Instagram account or don’t use them properly may miss out on these opportunities. Check how Revolut is resharing the story of a satisfied customer below.
Another great B2B Instagram feature is the “book” option. With the book button on the business page, B2B marketers are able to get way more traction from Instagram.
It depends on how much time you are willing to put into your Instagram page but it is obvious that IG can become more than just your showcase page with enough effort and skill of content production.
You may even showcase your employees, get your customers to add you to their stories, interact with other brands within your industry and last but not least have enough followers that underline your relevance in your field.