Instagram is widely used for marketing purposes, with research consistently placing it as a favorite for marketers and brands. Hubspot’s 2024 Social Media Marketing Report found that 55% of marketers prioritize Instagram activity, making it the top channel for social media marketing in terms of ROI.
Instagram is where consumers go to discover, follow and research brands, so it’s particularly impactful for increasing brand awareness. Hubspot reports that this is the chief goal for Instagram marketing campaigns, along with reaching new audiences.
But Instagram’s very popularity makes it hard to capture consumer attention, whether you’re promoting an unknown brand or even an established one. After all, 55% of marketers is a heck of a lot of people clamoring for eyeballs and taps.
With so much competition for engagement, what can your brand do to succeed in raising awareness on Instagram?
Collaborate With Micro Influencers
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, professionals have a strong preference for working with nano- and micro-influencers rather than macro-influencers and celebrities, with 70% of marketers opting to work with influencers who have smaller audiences.
There's a good reason for this trend: smaller influencers tend to have more committed followings, and are seen as more trusted than celebrities or macro-influencers. They generally have more cohesive and clearly-defined personas, which adds to their aura of authenticity and increases trust.
That’s why the marketing team from Giuliana Prosecco chose to work with micro-influencers to grow awareness of its DOC sparkling wine. The campaign, which they managed using the Popular Pays creator marketing platform by Lightricks, was a noteworthy success, driving an 81% average engagement rate and netting 4.2 million paid and organic impressions.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags might seem like an old-fashioned tactic, but they can be very effective at attracting attention when they are used strategically. For example, SEOM marketing agency used hashtags to nurture a 119% increase in followers for Triumph Building Group’s Instagram account, over the course of six months.
When fleshing out Triumph’s Instagram profile, SEOM added a single hashtag, which it used consistently to direct users to Triumph’s Instagram account.
The agency then created organic content, and seeded it with various hashtags to reach different groups of consumers who use hashtags to find relevant content.
Leverage Video Ads
Consumers still love short-form video, which lies behind the ongoing success of Instagram Reels. Attention spans are short, and video is one of the most engaging ways to tell stories and connect with consumers, so smart marketers are following the trend.
Hubspot notes that short-form video is the content type that’s seen the most growth in 2024. The aforementioned study found that 67% of social media marketers are prioritizing it for investment this year, and 53% are increasing their short-form video output.
Short-form video ads definitely worked well for wellness brand SpoiledChild. The company launched with a series of eye-catching short videos that turned New York City into a “playground of extraordinary sights.” The videos quickly grabbed people’s attention, sparking a 4.4-point increase in brand awareness and reaching 47 million people.
Encourage UGC
User-generated content, or UGC, has always been an excellent way to drive awareness of your brand. People love to see their photos and videos getting attention from a wider circle of viewers. Self-interest encourages contributors to share brand mentions of their UGC, and curiosity keeps them coming back to see how other content compares with their own.
GoPro’s marketing team knows how to leverage this mindset, nurturing an Instagram presence that is almost entirely made up of UGC posts. They tag every person whose content they use, which allows them to tap into the reach of many individuals.
Because they generally limit product posts to pinned posts, users feel that they really care about their followers instead of trying to sell to viewers. Perhaps that’s why they’re at 20.8 million followers (and counting).
Run Giveaways
Everybody loves a freebie, and marketers are turning that to their advantage. Instagram giveaways can be very popular and attract a lot of new followers to your account, as long as you use them strategically.
For example, Jordan Walker, an esthetician in Savannah, GA, carefully leverages giveaways. In one recent contest, she offered a valuable prize that appealed to her target audience, while encouraging people to spread awareness by giving them several ways to win, which translate into several ways to boost her brand.
But she doesn’t allow giveaways to take over her brand image. She also posts a lot of educational and informative content, so that people who might be attracted by the chance of a freebie will stick around for valuable skincare advice.
Instagram Still Presents Golden Opportunities for Brand Awareness
It’s true that Instagram is full of brands and influencers trying to gain views and follows, but that’s just testimony to its power to raise brand awareness. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel; time-honored and familiar tactics can drive highly successful marketing campaigns, as long as they are applied strategically and backed up with valuable content.
