Does your B2B brand have a solid Instagram strategy? For too long, the misconception that Instagram is not a profitable marketing channel for B2B has been prevalent. The truth is, Instagram is a B2B goldmine. Given the social network’s immense popularity (roughly a billion monthly active users!), Instagram presents B2B businesses with an opportunity to reach their target audience without spending a large amount of money on paid advertising.
‘Wait’, you say, ‘as a B2B company my target audience is probably not even on Instagram’. Wrong. A billion monthly users, remember? Moreover, 60% of Instagram users fall between the ages of 18 and 29. Over half of all millennials are active on the app. Why should you care? Because millennials make up 40% of the workforce in most average companies, and in 10 years, it is estimated that over 70% of the workforce will be made up of millennials.
In the article below we gathered a few essential strategies and tools for building a B2B Instagram strategy, as well as examples of companies that are doing it right.
Benefits of Instagram for B2B
Besides being the place where your target audience is hanging out, Instagram has a few unique qualities B2B businesses can benefit from:
- Visual and video content increases engagement
One of the benefits of engagement is that you’re able to build trust as you interact with your customers. - Instagram ads are the best for brand awareness
- Increases traffic to your website (Tip: use the link in bio to promote your home page or product page. more on that later.)
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Examples of B2B Companies That Nail Their Instagram Strategy
Litmus
Litmus’s strategy is to provide value for its followers by posting informational content. But how does their team manage to keep this type of content relevant to Instagram’s platform? Mainly by using carousels.
The post below, for example, packs a ton of value into a 1:1 square. In just nine tiles, they share 18 tips on subject line composition, including prompts from experts. It basically functions as a mini blog post. Breaking down complex topics into bite-size portions without sacrificing quality is not easy, but pulling it off can be a huge win for B2B marketers (another plus is that carousel posts drive a higher engagement rate than standard posts).
The main takeaway from Litmus is that brands can leverage Instagram to position themselves as an authority in their field, as long as they stay creative and keep it relevant to the platform.
ZenDesk
Instagram provides a great opportunity to ‘humanize’ your brand. Faced with a broad range of options, buyers will often gravitate toward brands they view as reliable and trustworthy. At the end of the day, B2B is really just people selling to people on behalf of organizations and brands.
Previously, ZenDesk did it mainly by sharing their corporate culture, i.e posting images of their employees having fun together at the office, celebrating new employees, etc. Recently, the company veered in a slightly different direction. While the idea is similar, ZenDesk now focuses on user-generated content, mainly short-form video, joking about corporate life.
Instagram also allows you to show everyday glimpses of life at your company through Stories, adding a personal touch and promoting transparency.
MailChimp
At its core, Instagram is a photo-sharing app, and its users value artistic content. The team at MailChimp understands this and embraces whimsical designs to captivate audiences.
Using the Impact of visual content helps MailChimp to stand out from the crowd of “dry” businesses, and grab the attention of users who wouldn’t necessarily be interested otherwise. In other words, A fun and creative design may be the thing that pushes a new follower to learn more about your business.
Tips for Building the Right Instagram Strategy for Your Business
1. Define your goals and audiences
Defining your goals and target audiences is the first step in creating any kind of marketing strategy, and it’s no different for B2B Instagram marketing. Instagram could do more for your brand than just increase awareness. You could, for example, focus on conversions and experiment with methods of driving more site traffic.
Different goals require different courses of action so it’s important to define what you’re aiming for. Next, make your goals solid by establishing metric-driven, measurable KPIs.
2. Get involved in your niche
Just like in any other social media channel, it’s not enough to only post your own content. Make yourself seen by joining the wider conversation. That means engaging with your community when they comment on your images and videos, taking the time to browse your followers’ accounts, leaving friendly comments, and even engaging with other brands in your sphere.
Building a community can only be done through communication, and the more you engage with others, the more likely they are to engage with you.
3. Make the most out of your link in bio
Instagram allows you to type up to 150 characters in your bio, including a link. You can share links in Stories too, but they’re still not allowed in captions. Your bio is the place to promote your latest blog post or a landing page.
You can also use tools like Linktree to create a custom page with up to five different links. Other tools, like SproutLink let you create a webpage that mimics an Instagram feed so people can access links that relate to specific posts.
Making the most out of the link in bio option is critical if you want to drive traffic and conversions through Instagram.
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4. Leverage on Reels
While it’s easy to pass-off short-form video platforms as mainly a Gen Z terrain, the fact is that millennials make up a wide audience and are the fastest-growing demographic on these platforms.
Creating Reels isn’t as complicated as it may seem at first, and it’s arguably the best way to deliver more information in a short amount of time, reach new audiences and generate leads. If your company has already established a following on Instagram, this is a chance to engage them in a new type of content that may drive them further down the sales cycle. It’s not just about creating brand awareness – incorporating short-form videos in your marketing strategy has proved to drive sales and ultimately increase ROI.
A few ways to use Reels:
- Let your product shine – With Reels you can present the features and value of your product or service in a fun and digestible way.
- Share testimonials – Customer reviews are everything, especially if you sell a SaaS product, where the decision-making process is longer and more complex. Sharing customer testimonials on Reels can help build trust in your potential buyers, especially considering that the video format creates a more ‘human’ and accessible impression.
- Make meaningful connections and build a community – Marketing and corporate culture can feel very impersonal when done wrong. As we mentioned Reels are inherently more human than static images and stories and it gives you the opportunity to create out-of-the-box, authentic and fun videos.
The nature of Reels makes it the perfect platform to share behind-the-scenes content, and introduce the actual people behind your product or service. A few ideas to get you started:
– Day in the life – make short videos on what a typical day at your company looks like.
– Business profiles – Pick a different employee each time and share some interesting facts on them and their role.
– Bloopers – Let people show the funny side of your brand
5. Stay up to date on trends
One of the biggest challenges of B2B marketing is that it is often perceived as, well, boring. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As we already mentioned, Reels are the platform to loosen up and let your creativity shine. Cultural moments, memes, trending topics, and sounds – all of those generate engagement. Keeping up with these trends and creating timely content can do a lot for making your brand stand out and be memorable.
Although such trends and topics can present opportunities for fun or social commentary, they can also present risks. Hopping on trends tends to be more difficult for B2B companies than it is for B2C companies who thrive on often casual relationships with their customers. Before you jump into the day’s hottest trend, you have to consider a few factors:
- How your audience generally feels about this topic,
- Whether its relevant to them
- Whether it aligns with your brand values and voice
6. Look at the right metrics
While exposure and engagement are definitely working in your favor, remember that vanity metrics don’t tell the whole story. An increase in clicks and likes is great, but you can’t be sure the right people are showing interest in your content. At the end of the day, your goal is to generate and convert leads.
People commenting, sharing, and saving your posts, new followers from your niche, and traffic from your link in bio all provide a better indication of how well you’re performing and how much attention you’re getting.
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Final Thoughts
It’s time to let go of the notion that Instagram is only suited, or even better suited for B2C brands, and start making the most of this incredibly powerful network. Instagram’s user base is mostly made up of millennials, who are currently the largest working generation.
Moreover, the app’s diverse content platforms support discovery and delight users across all stages of the customer journey, increasing your brand loyalty.
So your target audience is there, and the platform itself provides plenty of advantages. These are definitely reasons enough to start working on your B2B Instagram marketing strategy. If you have any questions that were not answered in this article, we’re happy to answer them.
