With 2020 being the year of pandemic, businesses are gearing up in 2021 to forget about the losses incurred last year and re-strategize to stay afloat in these challenging times. The corona curse is not yet over and so online businesses need to rethink their Instagram marketing strategies to make sales and earn revenues consistently. It is not only about the survival of the business but also the employees.
According to an article published in the Entrepreneur, relationship-oriented social media marketing is the way to retain your followers. You can acquire new followers provided your business manages to build a healthy relationship with them through social media. You can get more free leads to your product pages’ vis Link in Bio Instagram tool by Linkbook.
Therefore, if you want to make the most out of the latest Instagram marketing trends this year, you are reading the right article. Here are the five essential trends to watch out for in 2021:
- Instagram Stories is still popular
With its inception back in August 2016, this feature of Instagram became extremely popular with the influencers on this platform. Based on the findings of Meltwater, 86.6 percent of Instagrammers post stories, and almost 80 percent of the brands cite that stories had a significant effect when it comes to influencer content about a particular brand. Moreover, approximately 90 percent of Instagram influencers upload content leveraging stories, and another 63 percent mentioning that they will use stories more often in 2021.
Make the most out of Instagram Stories through emoji sliders, polls, and stickers to build more follower engagement. When you manage to garner over 10k followers, you can use the Swipe Up option of Instagram. You can include links for particular stories instead of modifying the links repeatedly in your IG bio to match the ad campaigns you run.
When you gain access to the Swipe Up option, you may promote your content easily as well as boost special promotions. Many brands are doing it and so can you.
- Content is king
No matter what, content is still the king on Instagram. When you have high-definition and stunning brand photos and videos to post, you have won half the battle on social media. You can leverage some of the best content marketing tools to take your Instagram marketing to the next level. Since the year 2019, the trend is the use of genuine and unfiltered content from the influencers as well as brands. This trend will continue in 2021 and beyond.
Your content should be attention-grabbing and must tell an interesting story about your brand. These days, influencers are smart enough to determine whether the content you are posting is genuine or not. You can share photos of a casual pose like the fitness brands do without curating the content too much.
The images you upload on Instagram must be eye-catching and of the best quality. There is no place for mediocrity when it comes to content creation on Instagram. Make your content more relevant to your followers. Once you achieve this, you can look up platforms like Blastup to give your Instagram content the required boost concerning likes and followers.
- Instagram Reels will reign supreme
Instagram Reels let users make and edit short videos of about 15 seconds or so. The feature was incepted in August 2020 and available in over 50 nations. Reels are the best way to create stunning, engrossing content and make the most out of trends, style, and opportunities without the need to use another social platform and build a follower base again.
These days, brands are reaping the benefits out of Reels in several ways. As a beginner, you may not start creating Reels right away. What you can do is study what content is popular on Reels and then plan your content accordingly. You can ease into the process of creating Reels by using informative content. Make sure you create content on topics that you know about and share the same with your followers or targeted audience.
- The Explore Tab is the latest craze
The majority of social media apps have one common goal. It is to ensure that followers stay on the platform for a long time. The same rule holds for Instagram. That is the reason why IG has come up with the Explore Tab feature. You can push interesting not so popular content through the Explore Tab. It has worked for many businesses and so it would work for you as well.
Did you know that over 200 million Instagrammers use this feature daily to find innovative ways to amuse themselves on Instagram? It means that you have a huge audience to target and therefore, use Reels to promote your content. The constant improvement of the Explore Tab has made it simpler to use as well as navigate. Trends indicate that users will spend more time on this feature in 2021.
The Explore Tab comes with shortcuts so that users can quickly access content that piques their interest. Such content could be from travel, IGTV, décor, architecture, style, art, food, and many more. Even when people do not follow your account, you can improve the chances by figuring out the best time to post IG content, use relevant hashtags, include your location to connect to local followers, build engagement with people who comment, and add a call-to-action or CTA for increased engagement.
- IGTV is extremely popular
Besides Reels, IGTV is also trending these days. It is long-form or vertical video content. Instagram has declared to popularize IGTV further with the use of ads on the platform. IGTV content makers will receive almost a similar ad-revenue proportion just like YouTube video makers; Instagram is in a position to compete with YouTube. Did you know that Instagram also has plans to introduce more IGTV features or functionalities with time?
IGTV makers will also have the choice to use video-editing tools to ensure their video content makes its mark on social media.
Conclusion
Build a robust brand presence through Instagram by implementing these trends in 2021. Though Instagram is about influencer marketing, the use of quality content, the best tools, and the knowledge of social media marketing will help you to reach out to your followers and build engagement with them.