Instagram is a traffic behemoth. There’s really no other way to describe this traffic
platform. After all, it has more than one billion active users.
Just how active are these users? Well, we’re talking about five hundred million
people interacting with their accounts every single day. That is huge.
Whether you’re viewing traffic in terms of page views, ad clicks, or what not,
Instagram has a lot of potential. If you have not tapped into this amazing traffic
resource, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
In fact, it’s worse than that. It’s only a matter of time before your competitors
leave you completely in the dust. It doesn’t matter how solid your online store
brand has become, it’s only a matter of time until your competitors destroy you
thanks to their solid Instagram persona.
You need to get in there. You need to tap into Instagram so you can gain or
maintain a competitive advantage. With that said, too many people who try to
market on Instagram flat out fail.
They really do.
They don’t get the results that they’re looking for and eventually, they quit. As we
all know, the only way to lose at something is to quit. That’s the only way you can
fail.
Unfortunately, if you don’t play the Instagram marketing game the right way or
you have no idea, then the chances of you failing are quite high. Here are just ten
of the many reasons why most Instagram marketing campaigns fail.
You can’t look at Instagram as some sort of one-time-big-time traffic source. You
can’t just go in there with a big budget, buy up as many ads as possible, and just
come in with both guns blazing. It doesn’t work that way.
For you to truly benefit on Instagram, you have to run a campaign. Optimize it.
Then, run another campaign until you get the results you’re looking for.
The key here is to run free and paid campaigns on a slow and low basis. In other
words, you’re just experimenting. You’re just trying to figure out what will work.
It’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall. You keep throwing from different angles
and in different ways until you find something that works. At that point, you then
scale up. That’s when you spend real money.
Unfortunately, if you go in there with a one-time-big-time kind of mindset, things
are probably not going to work out unless of course, you already know what kind
of ad campaign would work well with Instagram.
Most companies don’t have this strategic advantage. They’re coming in completely
blind. It is very dangerous to come in with too much money with a tremendous
amount of impatience. You have to be patient. You have to attack this on a
piecemeal basis.
I’m a very big Instagram marketer as well as a user. I love using Instagram. In fact,
I’m one of those stereotypical Instagram users who check their IG updates every
couple of hours.
From my perspective as a consumer, I can see why a lot of Instagram marketing
campaigns fail. Many of these marketers would buy a good-looking ad on
Instagram.
However, when you click on the link associated with that picture, it takes you to a
page you know nothing about. A lot of these campaigns take you to a sales page.
This is a serious problem because people are thinking at the back of their heads,
“What is this company about? How will I benefit from this company? How does this
company and its products and services address my situation?”
There are lots of unanswered questions. People who clicked-through may not
have been fully convinced yet, but unfortunately, they are dumped on a sales
page.
They don’t know what to do. When consumers get confused, they can be relied on
to click the back button or not do anything. In other words, they’re not going to
buy. They’re not going to convert.
This is why promoting direct conversion links usually leads to failure. You have to
qualify your prospect. You have to answer their questions. You have to build trust
in their eyes.
A lot of accounts on Instagram get paid a lot of money. These are regular people
like you and me who created Instagram accounts. Advertisers cannot give them
enough money. Why?
They’ve developed very loyal fans. These accounts may post pictures of luxury
watches. Who do you think would want to buy advertising space or ad mentions in
their posts? That’s right. Luxury time-piece brands.
Regardless of the niche, there are sure to be influencers who command top dollar.
Now, this may sound awesome and everything, but the problem is there are lots
of unscrupulous business people out there making up fake influencer accounts.
These are accounts that are just intended to get advertising revenue. To make
matters worse, they also have fake followers.
Let me tell you. If you were to spend $20 on a shoutout to these accounts, you
might as well just take that $20 bill and burn it. You’ll get the exact same result.
You’ll get a whole lot of nothing.
Last time I checked, software bots on Instagram, Facebook, or other social media
platforms do not have credit cards. This is why a lot of advertisers, such as
yourself, have been turned off by influencers.
In fact, they’ve swung to the other extreme. They are so turned off that they would
not pay for a shout out from an influencer. This really is too bad.
People who think this way are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sure,
there are lots of unscrupulous influencers out there. A lot of them are simply out
to make money.
However, there are also perfectly legitimate ones. These are the ones who can
actually drive traffic that converts. Your job is to pay attention to certain signals
that indicate and influencer is the real deal.
It really is quite ironic. The lot of marketers go on social media and instantly turn
these platforms into one-way conversations.
I’m telling you, you’re not being social when you are interacting with somebody in
a way where you’re the only one doing the talking. That’s not much of a social
experience.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly how too many people define “social media
marketing”. They’re being antisocial. It is no surprise that people who market this
way on Instagram, fail again and again. How can they not?
They’re being antisocial. They don’t engage in outreach. They don’t comment on
their fans’ comments on their content. In many cases, they don’t even
acknowledge their fans.
It’s as if they’re just dumping content on Instagram and moving on. Well, let me
tell you. With everything else being equal, as a consumer of Instagram’s services, I
would rather follow somebody who makes me feel like I matter.
It doesn’t take much effort to like a follower’s comments. It doesn’t take much
effort to share a follower’s posts or indicate some sort of interest in the fact that
they, themselves are interesting.
It is no surprise that a lot of people who try to market on Instagram don’t attract
much of a following. How can they? They only talk to themselves. It’s obvious that
all they care about is money.
You have to be social. This goes a long way in producing a very human persona. At
the end of the day, fans on Instagram are looking for real flesh and blood human
beings they can follow and identify with.
They’re looking for somebody to be loyal to. You’re not going to be building much
loyalty if you can’t even be bothered to engage with your followers’ comments and
content.
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