If you want to launch a product, connect with new customers, or build your brand’s reputation, an Instagram marketing campaign could help you achieve your goal—as long as you set yourself up for success. In this post, we’ll introduce you to different types of Instagram marketing campaign.
There are several broad categories of Instagram marketing campaign, each optimized for different targets and tactics. Here are some of the most common, to provide you an idea of where to begin planning.
1. Awareness campaign
During an awareness campaign, you’re pushing hard to extend the visibility of your company, product, or service. For emerging brands, or those attempting to connect with new followers, this could be an Instagram marketing campaign to showcase what’s distinct, exciting and exceptional about your brand.
Because Instagram is a platform where users want to discover and follow brands (80 % follow at least one firm), it’s a natural platform for your awareness campaign. Getting your content in front of Instagram customers is valuable: 75 % of users take action after seeing a brand’s post, like visiting their site.
2. Cause campaign
Younger consumers (the ones who dominate Instagram) care about more than just what a firm sells. They care about the ethics and social responsibility of the brands they help.
A cause campaign is a method to champion your brand values. For example, you can promote an awareness day or event, or partner with charitable organizations. Dove’s #DoveWithoutCruelty campaign highlights the company’s commitment to keeping away from animal testing in partnership with PETA and influencers who promote ethical beauty.
A cause campaign can build trust and loyalty from viewers that share your values and engages socially-conscious customers.
3. Sale or promotion
Running a sale with an Instagram-specific promotion is a frequent tactic of brands. It rewards engaged followers and encourages them to visit your account for sales and low-cost codes. Now that you could shop directly from Instagram, it’s even simpler for users to act on a special sale.
Certain holidays and times of year are good for running a sale—after all, nobody really grows out of the back-to-school fever. However, Instagram is also an amazing place to run a flash sale using a promo code that’s only applicable for a short period of time. It could be a powerful method to drive pre-sales before a product launch or move inventory to make method for new items.
4. Instagram contests
Contests are large on Instagram because they’re hugely effective at driving engagement. You could set guidelines for an entry that help your campaign targets. For instance, asking customers to tag a friend to enter is a chance to achieve new followers. Asking them to enter through a form permits you to develop your email list.
5. Product launch
When you’re launching exciting new services or products, you may want a campaign to go along with it. This builds anticipation and excitement around your launch and gives you a chance to show off the different advantages and qualities of your new product.
For instance, Montreal-based retailer Frank & Oak developed an Instagram marketing campaign to advertise their #StylePlan subscription box.
Their campaign posts highlight the worth and convenience of the subscription, share looks from both their men’s and women’s lines, and suggest that customers can purchase it for themselves or as a gift.
6. User-generated content campaign
In user-generated content (UGC) campaigns, you’re encouraging followers and customers to share posts that include your merchandise, utilizing a specific hashtag to tie the campaign together.
A UGC campaign not only promotes awareness of your brand via the hashtag, it additionally gives you content that you could use on your own channels. A major incentive for participation by customers is the hope that brands will repost their images.
These campaigns all have different targets and strategies, however, each of them is concentrated on getting a buyer to take a specific action in a fixed period of time.
Awareness or user-generated content campaigns may not seem like things you should put a deadline on, however, the messaging and tactics that you’re utilizing will get stale when you keep them around too long. Finally, your viewers will stop responding.
You may also mix elements from these campaigns (for example, combining a contest with a user-generated content marketing campaign). For example, fitness app Aaptiv combines a contest with user-generated content with their #5KYourWay campaign: