It was Instagram’s chic aesthetic combined with its unique focus on the visual dimension that ultimately saw it come to be recognized as an immensely powerful marketing tool. If you have ever used the site, you will be all too aware of its potential for marketing, simply because you will come across so many examples of Instagram marketing in action. There are Instagram ads and large commercial profiles, but Instagram has also democratized the eCommerce field. To that end, you will notice many ordinary users selling everything from computer hardware to sneakers on Instagram.
WMV Productions, a production company specializing in sales and marketing videos, say that this strong focus on the visual is also that which makes Instagram so suitable for video marketing as well. In fact, Instagram videos are one of the most common means of spreading the word on the site about a product or a service. It all comes to down the centrality of the visual dimension.
Instagram for B2B
However, there is one form of marketing that many believe Instagram is not the most suitable platform for. This is B2B (business to business) marketing. It is well known that B2B marketing operates from some different assumptions and first principles when compared to B2C (business to consumer) marketing. With B2B, marketing is all about targeting other businesses and offering a product or a service to aid with their business operations. Accordingly, it is the product’s usefulness – in a technical sense – and not its immediate attractiveness that is emphasized in the B2B marketing.
It might therefore seem that Instagram is not perfectly suited to this. After all, disseminating large amounts of technical information is not a priority for the majority of Instagram marketing. Accordingly, many think that Instagram is not suited to B2B marketing.To put it differently, many are simply confused about how Instagram can be an effective platform for B2B, which is typically straight down the line, informative, and formal.
Tips for Instagram B2B Marketing
Accordingly, it might be worth setting out some tips regarding how to get the most out of Instagram as a B2B marketer:
Attend to Data
It might be a wise move to enlist third-party survey services and other forms of data analysis on Instagram as this can show just how well a product or service is performing and help you avoid marketing in the wrong way. You need to find the B2B community on Instagram and circumvent the much larger B2C community.
Show Products in Use
You might think that sober product photos, like one, would see on an eCommerce site, would be preferable for B2B marketing. But even in this realm, Instagram’s “aspirational lifestyle” focus comes into play. You should exploit the visual dimension of Instagram by showing your product in use. This is a way to convey their effectiveness to B2B clients and do so in a more Instagram-friendly way.
Communicate With Potential Clients
One of the top reasons for doing this is that, again, it is a way of making Instagram’s unique strengths apply in the B2B world. By posting polls or questions on your Instagram Story, you can solicit information from potential clients, often about quite technical matters that you might not associate with normal Instagram marketing. The B2B community exists on Instagram; you just need to seek them out, and directly asking the right questions is one of the best ways of doing that.
Ultimately, it is indeed true that Instagram is geared more towards flashy B2C marketing, but there is always a way to make its unique attributes work in favor of B2B as well.