Does Instagram Marketing Have a Place in B2B? Yes, and Here’s How
A simple mention of the “Instagram” platform often times spawns images of designer clothing, influencers, and blatantly photoshopped images. Generally, Instagram is perceived as a B2C-dominated platform. But can it be used for B2B marketing?
The simple answer is: Definitely!
However, it’s a different ballgame.
Many brands are jumping onboard by using this platform to market their products, utilize influencer accounts, and reach wider audiences. In fact, Instagram has the highest number of active users who follow brands. It also has the highest rate of users who use the platform to research businesses.
Instagram is a fun platform that tends to gear towards younger users. This is an audience that cares about visual aesthetics.
So, where does B2B marketing fit into the world of Instagram?
The truth is that both B2C and B2B organizations can absolutely use this social network to connect with customers and promote their products/services.
Growing an audience of Instagram followers can help your business grow by:
- Reaching new sets of eyes
- Building trust
- Creating meaningful connections that influence conversions.
So, this begs the question – how can B2B companies utilize this platform in order to reap these incredible benefits?
Share Client Success Stories through User-Generated Content
B2B buyers are often looking for content that “proves” a product’s worth or ROI. In this regard, customer testimonials are highly influential.
If you take a look at the content preferences of B2B decision-makers, you will notice that the majority of trust content comes from external parties. This makes customers feel like they have realistic expectations and can make a more informed purchasing decision.
Through Instagram, customer success stories can be shared in a truly authentic way through visual story-telling and user-generated content (UGC).
Customer testimonials, reviews, and case study-type posts can be extremely influential and make for highly engaging content. For example, take a look at Shopify’s Instagram page. The majority of their feed is short video clips of real users sharing their experiences and talking about how the eCommerce platform helped them to launch their own businesses.
UGC like this is highly regarded as trustworthy and genuine, so it can help your business’s reputation, too.
Offer Quickly Consumable Content
Traditional B2B marketing strategies are typically information-heavy. Many companies use a mix of email marketing, blog posts, and long-form content to reach their audience in different ways. Social media is a great way to connect with customers and share quick tips, and encouraging or funny quips in a way that is easier to consume than reading a long blog post.
For instance, Keap (formerly InfusionSoft) uses their Instagram feed to share quick bits of information and advice that are relevant to their audience.
They also incorporate video clips highlighting subjects from their blog, such as “seven tips to increase email open rates” or “why you need a CRM system for your company”. By sharing quick highlights (along with a bit.ly link to promote their own blog content), Keap engages their audience to learn with short videos.
Share Behind-the-Scenes
The internal culture of your business is very important and influential to its success. Businesses with healthier, positive work environments typically report incredible benefits, such as lower employee turnover rates, higher productivity levels, and greater profitability.
But, in addition to internal benefits, a great business culture can also be a powerful marketing tool, too.
When customers know that a company has a great team of employees behind them that love their job, it can help to make your brand more personable and trustworthy. Instagram is a great platform to highlight your business’s culture and let your clients see the people behind the brand.
Most of their content revolves around employee experiences related to the company culture.
Employee advocacy on social channels is incredibly important, considering that consumers are far more likely to trust the opinion of “real people” over brands. By sharing pictures and videos of fun office events and encouraging employees to do the same, your business can give followers a behind-the-scenes look that can influence their perception and sentiment.
Establish a Clear Brand Presence
Visual branding is incredibly important for building recognition with your audience.
Some companies, like McDonald’s and Coca Cola, are instantly recognizable by their colors and font style. Instagram is a great platform for establishing a visual representation of your brand that your audience can recognize and connect with.
There is plenty of room for creativity in this channel. In fact, your marketing team should be encouraged to try out different strategies in order to stand out and grab attention. Although you may want to switch up your content types, be sure that all of your posts create a cohesive brand representation.
Using a similar brand voice or sticking to a consistent color scheme and aesthetic feel can help to create a consistent appearance that establishes brand recognition.
MailChimp does an excellent job of this on their Instagram feed by incorporating creativity in a fun, silly way while still remaining professional. All of their posts include quirky artwork and colorful layouts to highlight the versatility that their platform offers.
They also include their monkey logo throughout the posts so customers instantly make the brand association, even when they are quickly scrolling through their newsfeed.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that social media plays a leading role in the digital marketing world, no matter what type of business organization you run. B2B companies would be wise to use Instagram to promote their brand through visual content that is highly engaging with audiences.
Using Instagram, B2B marketers can leverage core brand values to connect with their audience through authentic, meaningful, and exciting content.
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Latest posts by Taral Patel (see all)
- Does Instagram Marketing Have a Place in B2B? Yes, and Here’s How - October 15, 2019
