Instagram for Insta-Marketing

My first post on this blog was about the company Sugar Bear Hair and the online celebrities they use to promote their product. I spoke a bit about the influence that these Instagram famous people have, but now I want to expand on why Instagram is an ideal e-marketing platform.

Popularity
Instagram is ideal because almost everyone has it. It is a fun app which people use to search for photos for inspiration, connect with friends, expand their network, and just share photos.
All companies with visual elements (anything that can be photographed, really) should have an Instagram account. Through the use of hashtags, users can easily locate you as well as similar content.

Accessibility
A huge facet (and positive point) about e-marketing is that your audience is more available. Everyone always has their phone in hand, which makes advertising a lot easier. Marketing products to an already aware audience makes the job much easier. I have personally accidentally enjoyed advertisements because I was scrolling through my timeline on Instagram and my attention was on the pictures.

Influence
Like I mentioned previously, influence is a huge factor for marketing products. There are many gatekeepers on Instagram that exist as mini-celebrities. These people are not always necessarily endorsing a product openly (such as the Kardashians posting ads for Fit Tea, for example) but they do display a certain aesthetic that their audience follows them for. This is an easy way for companies to extend their reach to a target market they can already be sure will be interested in their product. Companies can then choose to either pay the online influencer to promote their product (through a post), or send the influencer samples of their product and have them post photos of it with the company mentioned in the caption.

Here is an example of both kinds of advertisements:

As you can see, the photo on the left gently tells users where the clothes come from by listing the brands through a tag.
The photo on the right however, uses clear advertising language in its caption and is a more obvious form of advertising.

Marketers are taking advantage of the e-marketing aspect of Instagram by including ads on their site.
When companies began rolling out their ad campaigns, however, many users swore they would leave. Instagram worked with its advertisers (as well as its internal team) in order to create algorithms that would match user interests with relevant ads.

This combination proved successful, because while ads were still not the preferred content for users, ads more similar to their interests resonated better with Instagram users.