9 Instagram Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

The statistics do not lie and Instagram remains to be one of the top platforms where you can market and grow your business. Digital marketing in Instagram is simple. You just have to post photos and videos of your products and services, but while some businesses actually succeed, why do other businesses fail?

This article will explore the most common marketing mistakes that you should avoid in order to effectively market your business in Instagram for profit and self-fulfillment.

Leaving your bio as incomplete.

Your account’s bio is important because it introduces your business to current and prospective followers. While it would appear to be a simple task, there is much more to be considered. The fact is, your bio has to be short, concise, and relevant. You have the option to come up with a really short and effective description of your brand or you can also post a link to your official website.

One of the top brands on Instagram is GoPro. Its bio simply says that it is the official Instagram account of the brand as well as a short description of it that says, “We make the world’s most versatile camera.” To end the short bio, it also inserted a link to its website.

Not responding to your followers.

You could have thousands or even millions of followers online and that should be good enough excuse not to respond to your followers but a good brand would make an effort to. The fact is, Instagram can be a venue for building good and lasting customer relationship. To do so, you have to respond to their queries and comments on your products and services.

Engaging with your followers will also make them feel that you value them as customers and that your company endeavors to deliver only the best service. In fact, if you read your comments, you might also discover some really good ideas that could help grow your business. For instance, you can start using hash tags for likes.

Posting irrelevant or low-quality image.

The quality of the photo or video you post on Instagram says a lot about your brand so make sure you post only photos and videos that are actually related to your business and high-quality. When you post low-quality photos or videos, customers will most likely be turned off and unfollow, which is bad for your brand.

When deciding on which photo or video to post, do not be content with the first one. Try taking multiple photos and choose which among them is the best or perhaps ask other people for their opinion. Remember that every post is important and can make or break your business. You also have to allot time and effort in deciding on a good caption that will best explain your photo and video, of course.

Using improper hashtags or the lack of it.

Hashtags are crucial when you want people who are not current followers to find out about your business. Like your bio, hashtags should be short and relevant. Hashtags can drive traffic to your account especially the popular ones, so do your research and use hashtags that are relevant to your brand so rake in as many followers as possible.

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post but exhausting that number can be detrimental to your brand, too. So when deciding on how many hashtags and which hashtags to actually post, think about what kind of image you would like to paint for your business.

Posting boring and repetitive photos or videos.

You have to consider your Instagram as a whole instead of individual photos and videos. This is why you have to plan ahead to be able to curate it as consistently as possible. This means, your posts have to follow a theme or a schedule. For example, if you started posting in threes, you might want to continue posting in threes for consistency.

Additionally, avoid posting photos or videos that you have already posted before. Make sure that every post is up-to-date and relevant to make your followers feel that your business is growing and continuously innovating.

Not posting regularly for your followers.

You have to be careful with how you define regularly. By regularly, it means not excessively but just frequent enough to establish and maintain your presence on Instagram. When you post on a regular basis, the chances of being remembered by followers are higher and could eventually lead to sales.

Think of times when you were studying and had to constantly repeat a definition in order to memorize it. That works for digital marketing, too. This is why you have to come up with regular posts so that followers will constantly remember your brand.

Posting excessively or not posting at all.

You have to be very careful when you try to post regularly because you might end up over posting, which can cause followers to unfollow you. On the other hand, when you end up not posting any update at all, they will tend to think that you are out of business and will also unfollow. In this case, you have to come up with a reasonable number of posts in a week.

At the end of the day, it boils down to strategy and planning ahead. Before you even start posting, think about the photos and videos you want to post on your Instagram, and think how often you would like to update your account.

Buying followers.

Having a lot of followers can really help grow your business but you have to do it the natural way, which means never buy your followers. Otherwise, you risk losing the integrity of your brand as well as you lose the chance of actually engaging with real followers who can actually provide you with useful suggestions and feedback to improve your products and services.

Besides, you cannot profit from buying followers. In fact, it is a waste of limited resources because these followers will probably not buy from a brand that actually bought them in exchange of a follow. Long story short, buying followers is cheating, and cheaters never win.

Setting your account to private.

Unless it is a personal account, there is no reason for you to setting your professional account to private. The goal is for people to discover you and when you set your Instagram to private, this will only limit your opportunities. Besides, some users feel the need to go through the account first before following but if you set it to private, there will be nothing to check and end up losing potential followers instead.

Additionally, if you set it to private, all those hashtags will be for nothing because your photos will not be visible to users who are not following you. In short, it is counterproductive.

To wrap it up…

These tips may appear very simple at first but these are the little things that can benefit your brand largely so make sure to follow these recommendations.

About author:

Eliza Medley is an expert in internet marketing, blogging, and business writing at the getgoodgrade.com. She is fond of writing about social media tips, education, college life, and web design. Contact her, if you have questions.