The Importance of Instagram for Businesses

Instagram is the current king of social media and a major part of our social life nowadays. With over 1.28 billion users worldwide (Statista, 2022), it’s an excellent platform to reach an immense amount of potential customers efficiently Thus, naturally it has become one of the most popular mediums to promote on. With the right strategy and targeting you can effectively increase client engagement and reach potential clients whilst building a community along with boosting sales and other numerous benefits. Since the pandemic, a lot of sports based businesses have had to increase their online presence to keep in maintain and replace physical contact with their clients during the times of lockdowns. Client re-engagement and retention has been the focus for many fitness studios as the world started to emerge from restrictions limiting group sports practice. The best way for many of these businesses has been activity through social media, particularly instagram, as it’s free to post on and has a measurable influence on business if used in the right way.

Here we have outlined 4 crucial reasons on why having a social presence on instagram as a business is so important:

1. Visual-based platform

There’s a wide array of different social media platforms offering different ways to reach the target audience. Instagram is a fully visual platform enabling its users to communicate through visual mediums such as videos, photos, stories etc. It is designed to capture the viewer's attention and make them respond to the visuals being presented to them. You might wonder why specifically instagram in a pool of endless other options. Because it is a stimuli sparking channel, the engagement rates on instagram are 17 times higher than Facebook and 33 times higher than Twitter. (Forrester Research, 2021) Other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are fixated rather on text content as a medium of communication and as the sports industry focuses on wellbeing and ultimately visuals, the ideal way to convey messages is exactly through visual means; photos and videos. Furthermore, 86%of instagram users are 44 and below, meaning the perfect target audience for the fitness and wellness industry. (Datareportal, 2022) Recently, Instagram advertising has expanded tremendously. 60% of Instagram users say they have discovered new products and brands through the platform and the most viewed stories are from businesses. 83% of consumers use Instagram to discover new products or services and brands. Instagram claims that nearly 850 million people can be reached with ads. (Instagram Business, 2022) So, with its own marketplace and integrated ads campaigns you can promote your brand and reach an immense amount of potential customers.

2. Client engagement and reaching potential target audience

As a social media platform, its main function is to connect people and enable communication. Through its use client communication and acquisition has been made incredibly easy and reachable even for the smallest of businesses and budgets. By creating unique and interesting content, the possibility of reaction from the followers and potential customers increases. If your content is intriguing to the end user, it increases the likelihood of sales and engagement. So, as a sports studio the appeal to the consumer can be performed in posts spreading wellness and positivity, home workouts, calls to action for in-studio classes, etc. There’s so much you can provide your clients with to keep them engaged and satisfied; contests, giveaways, polls etc. the options are endless. However, at the end of the day, one of the best ways to increase customer engagement is to interact with them. Stories are a great and easy way to personalize your brand, show it in real time and reach a greater audience. 62% of people admit becoming more interested in a brand or product after seeing the brand’s stories. (Instagram Business, 2022) Also, try to reply to their comments, messages, repost their content as this will ultimately make them feel special and appreciated. Consequently, they will have a desire to be your customers and will communicate with your account regularly.

3. Boosting brand image and sales

If you want to increase your brand awareness and potentially sales, then instagram is the right place to do so. Over the years, IG has become the number one contender in generating sales and increasing profits for the brand. It is vital in nowadays society to use digital platforms as marketing tools, and instagram provides exactly that. You can share visual content such as stories, videos, images to introduce your brand and convey the message to your audience. It has become the focal point of most advertising campaigns. Storytelling has a positive impact on people’s perception of the brand, making it more familiar and friendly. Especially when it comes to sports practice; people are not interested in just buying yoga classes, they also want to be a part of something bigger; the yoga community. Overall, online presence is very important as our natural instinct has become to google everything and double check it on social media. In case your customers and potential clients cannot find you on instagram it could influence their perception of your brand and even worse, send them directly to your competitors. On the other hand, if a customer is satisfied with your service they are more likely to leave a positive comment on a social media post rather than google reviews. This way you can efficiently market and grow your business through word of the mouth.

4. Follow consumer trends

Even if you operate in a niche field, you have to go mainstream sometimes. Instagram can be a very insightful tool to research the market and its changing trends. Nowhere else can we better observe the quickly changing trends than on social media. Things change rapidly and along with that the consumer patterns and preferences. In order to find out what your target consumer wants, it’s important to analyze their needs and wants and that has never been easier. Along with social media come social media influencers that impact the minds of the consumers tremendously. What they do is instantly considered as trendy and desirable, thus following their steps provides a great insight into current and future trends. As well, simply following which posts your clients interact most with, which competitors they like and follow will give you a better understanding of their preferences. Using analytics can give you a good insight on the photos that get the most likes to make you see what attracts your audience the most. Furthermore, you can monitor the number of “profile visits” to see the success of your ig campaigns. You’ll always be able to adjust your strategy accordingly, there’s nothing to lose! To conclude, following trends can help you attract new customers and it shows your engagement with the community.

5. Get feedback and collect data from followers

Communicate with your clientele easily through instant messaging. Whatever their concerns or wishes may be, you can receive and process them instantly. As mentioned above, polls are also a great way to engage with your customers. Getting feedback through stories polls is the easiest way to get into the minds of your followers.

Instagram can be a powerful tool for sales and marketing improvement. It can connect you with numerous potential customers with just a few clicks. Through videos, photos and stories you can show off everything your studio has to offer. It’s easy and effortless, so why not try it!