How To Use Instagram As A Marketing Tool

Let’s talk about how to use Instagram as a marketing tool.

First before we dive into Instagram specifically, I want to share with you what you really need to know about marketing. Next I’m going to break down the different elements of Instagram marketing and how to use them. Lastly I’m going to share with you the number one play for Instagram right now.

What should you understand about marketing, marketing in general.

One, you have to think about how people use social media period. You want to switch away from, I have this thing to sell and instead think about the person who might buy it. One of my good friends, Ben Settle is a very impressive sales copywriter and there’s a couple quotes that he uses that’ll help you with this. He says, “think like the fish, not the fisherman.” Okay so if you’re trying to catch fish, you have to think like them, not think like you who is not the thing you’re trying to catch. Let me give you another one…..maybe that didn’t one didn’t make sense. Let’s try this one, “talk more about their crab grass than your weed killer.”

What do most people do in their marketing? They talk about their weed killer, they talk about their solution. “I have this split pea protein, it’s amazing and delicious.” “I have this Vitamin E ointment” or “this shampoo” or “this juice” or I have fill in the blank. What they really should be talking about is their crab grass – which is their acne, which is their inability to fit into the little black dress, which is their lack of confidence maybe, which is their lack of money and struggle to make money. Think about the person that your thing could help. You don’t have to constantly be marketing this “thing,” whatever that is, whether it’s shampoo or weight loss or whatever and instead, constantly be talking about their problem. What do they struggle with? If you’re selling something around the weight loss niche, instead of rattling off that you have the alpha tachyon old Vitamin E. Most people are thinking…“well who cares,” talk about what to do if you’re eating too much sugar at night, how to avoid nighttime sugar cravings, how to avoid overeating at parties. Talk about their problems. People will never bore about hearing about their problems but they easily bore hearing about your solution. All the it has graphite and it’s just space age polymer plastic and it’s….right? They don’t want to hear that stuff. Most people don’t care until they know that you can help them.

If you assume that every single person on social media is walking around thinking what’s in it for me then you will be a better marketer.

How do you be a better marketer?

First, don’t ever post a video on Instagram or really quite frankly any social media platform without a cover image. This is a very simple tip. It’s very simple but just think about this, someone is scrolling (by the way nowadays people don’t even read the description…they don’t even know the description). They look at what is in this video. If you are uploading videos without a cover image that says what the video is about, then here’s what you’re saying. You’re saying “hey, I know you’re not busy, please take some time out of your schedule to watch this video to see what it’s about.” How ridiculous would that be? That would be similar to….say you have a storefront and you just kind of you stand outside the store and everyone that walks by you say, “hey, you should come into the store, come browse around, come check things out.” They’re like, “what’s in the store?” You’re like, “I don’t know. Go check it out. Just take a couple minutes, just go in there.” No one would do that but that’s exactly what you do when you upload a video with no cover image on Instagram. Take a second. I mean take a couple seconds and create a cover image.

One easy way to do this is I actually use the TikTok interface to make cover images for my Instagram. Now for whatever reason, Instagram doesn’t have (at least currently) they don’t have a simple way to make a cover image that says what it is. I will take the video I’m about to upload to Instagram, go to TikTok (there’s other ways to do it that are in my opinion more complicated, this is really simple) and I upload it to TikTok. Before I post it, I click cover on the bottom. It’s currently on the bottom of the image. It shows you a little highlight, I click it and then it has all these cool little tools. You just drag a little box and then I screen capture that image and I’ll use it over on Instagram. Doesn’t take long, very simple. Now people are walking by they can look up at the store and say “oh it’s for camera parts. I need camera parts, let me go in there.” “Oh, it’s for weight loss,” “oh it’s for making money, oh okay got it.” You’re at least respecting them and their time and telling them here’s what this video roughly is about, click it if you want to watch it. Think more about the person versus the thing you’re trying to sell.

What are the different elements of Instagram?

You have IG TV – these are for longer videos. The same rule applies. If you’re going to do that, I’m not saying not to, we have some that have done really well but IG TV, if you’re going to do it, create a cover image. If you’re fancy schmancy and you use Canva or some other kind of software then you know use that. Whatever works for you is fine but do not upload a video where it’s not clear. I don’t mean in the description, I mean on the image, on the video image it needs to say what am I going to get out of this, why should I watch this, don’t assume they’re going to read the fine print and have their you know bifocals on. Make it on the actual video image.

Then you have regular posts and stories. Now let me tell you about stories. A lot of times people say, “I post a lot of stories and hardly anyone’s seeing them.” Well, who do you think sees your stories? Think about stories as what do you post on your refrigerator at home and who sees that? Do strangers driving by? Are they able to look into your home and see that Susie got an A in spelling on your refrigerator? No, that’s friends and family members, that’s people that already like you, people you invite to your home. They’re like, “oh Susie. Way to go, Susie.” Stories is people that are already following you, already like you and they are the ones seeing your stuff. Strangers are not going to see your stories. Hardly ever, hardly ever. Don’t make that mistake of thinking you’re actually marketing when you’re really just marketing to people that are already connected to you, they probably already know what you do etc.

Okay now the hottest, the hottest piece of Instagram is absolutely no question Instagram reels and we’ll talk about that next.

Before we dive into Instagram reels, do this.

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What’s the number one play on Instagram?

I tipped my hand and I told you the hottest thing on Instagram right now is absolutely Instagram reels. There’s a couple things I want you to be aware of, first of all reposting. Totally cool, totally cool. If you see an especially – maybe emotional video (not thinking about your product) about a canine sleeping by the the gravestone of their owner that passed away and it’s done with real touchy music and it’s really good – but you don’t sell gravestones or dog food. You don’t have to be that scrutinous on what you repost for every single thing. Now I’m not saying just have total random craziness in your Instagram but you don’t have to be so stringent of it. Doesn’t mention weight loss in this one. Who are you selling to, are they human? Are they “I only consume weight loss stuff?” “This isn’t about carbohydrates?” – No, they’re humans, they have emotions and you can post emotional stuff. Reposting is fine. There’s many, many different apps out there that are usually called repost. There’s probably a thousand of them with that same name so I won’t tell which one to use but you can feel that out. Reposting good content is a very smart strategy and specifically reposting reels. Reposting reels.

Now last week, I just got the report yesterday. We made, we have a decent account over there, but this is the most we have ever made through just real bonuses. Instagram, from time to time, they flip the switch to pay you for getting views on your Instagram reels and when they started doing that, we were like okay, Why not? Let’s play the game. Last week, we made 2,500 dollars from just those that viewed our reels. Isn’t that funny? Isn’t that easy? I didn’t sell (I’m sure some people may have bought other things…) but just from Instagram directly, 2,500 bucks just for watching our our videos. How cool is that? I think that’s pretty cool. Don’t be afraid of reposting. You find something emotional that really moves you, think about the person that might be open to buying your product or service. Would they like it too? Are they human? Feel free to repost but Instagram reels are absolutely the key. Same rule, have a cover image, that’s so important.

Now here’s the deal with reels. It’s the wild west and this is true of Facebook reels, it’s true of Instagram reels, it’s true of TikTok. I have multiple Facebook reels that have over a million views and I didn’t pay one dime for them. I also have multiple Facebook reels that have a couple hundred views. Same channel, same time of day, same everything, who the heck knows? I have videos over on TikTok, some that have 200, 300,000 views and I have several that have a couple hundred views. Consistency is the key. You don’t know what’s going to go viral, you don’t know what’s going to work well, you don’t know what’s going to take off and so you have to be consistent. You can not be so worried about the dips. People get so worried about the dips, I used to get 10% more engagement. Don’t worry about it, keep going. Quitting isn’t going to help, quitting isn’t going to improve your engagement or quitting isn’t going to get you out of that slump. Keep posting and it’s okay.

We’ll take that same video – I have a video of me where it’s a health ingredient stickler and I’m eating a chocolate doughnut. If you’ve ever seen it, drop me a comment let me know because a lot of people have seen it and we repost that thing probably once a month, maybe once every other month because it’s one of our most popular videos. We repost our own content over and over. Not every day but every once in a while. Be consistent, that is the name of this game. I don’t know how long we went where we didn’t grow by hardly anything on Instagram but in the last week we’ve grown by 5,000 followers, that’s pretty good. We literally went probably six months with hardly any growth, we would gain some, lose some, gain some, lose some but this last like week we’ve gained like 5,000, that’s pretty cool. Only consistency would have answered that problem, only consistency solved the riddle and it’s the same for you.

Would you like more help with reels?

If you would like more direction on how to really crush it with reels, I mean Instagram reels, Facebook reels, TikTok, click this link, Higdongroup.com/3steplaunch. You will be able to watch a a very thorough training on three secrets to launch your short video empire. This is something we have had thousands of students go through and they just love it. It teaches them exactly what to do and it will help you grow your business. It will help you really utilize the number one marketing strategy that is working better than any other strategy right now. So click the link above, I know you’ll like it.