Whether you already have a social media marketing strategy in place or are looking for ways to make the most out of popular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, there’s no denying their potential as advertisement channels. One of the best examples out there is Instagram, which, according to Tech Jury, hosts over 1 billion users, with over 500 million daily stories uploads as of 2019.
Given its content-first nature, Instagram has the potential of growing not only your global follower base but also the email list you use to reach out to potential leads. However, making the most out of Instagram is all about using its features as efficiently as possible – which is what we are here to discuss today. That being said, let’s take a look at how to grow your email list with Instagram going forward in order to improve your brand’s email marketing.
The Advantages of Using Instagram for Email List Growth
Before we explore the different ways in which Instagram can facilitate your email list’s growth, let’s talk about the platform itself and why it’s so important in 2020. Instagram is a globally-successful social media platform, used by B2C and B2B users alike to not only interact with their social circles but also provide updates on current news and topics.
Successful businesses and international companies around the world already use Instagram not only for email marketing facilitation but also for day-to-day outreach, brand positioning, and to maintain their competitive industry placement. Failing to position your brand on Instagram (and Facebook and Twitter along the way) is a mistake in today’s day and age.
With so many stakeholders and young generations using social media as a primary source of information and social interaction, your brand can successfully find its niche and grow in terms of email marketing, lead generation and revenue growth respectively. Most importantly, some of the key advantages of using Instagram for your email list’s growth include but are not limited to:
- Higher brand visibility, engagement and industry awareness
- Visual-first marketing (emphasis on photos and videos, not plain text)
- Instagram is the epicenter of hashtags, allowing content and brands to go viral
- Successful use of hashtags coincides with global SEO, further increasing brand reach
- Cost-efficient marketing due to the nature of Instagram as an open social media platform
Growing your Email List with Instagram
1. Utilize your Bio
One of the first steps on your way to increase email list growth for your brand is to utilize the bio section on your brand’s page. The bio section is typically reserved for contact information and basic introductory greetings, making it the perfect place for your conversion link placement.
Simply state what the link is meant to do in the bio and cap the writing off with a small “thank you” note for the reader. While the bio section won’t be the first place anyone looks for your links or brand information, it will definitely bolster the odds of growing your email list in a nonintrusive way.
2. CTA via Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories can also be utilized for your benefit when it comes to email marketing preparation. Simply put, Stories allows you to publish content and place it front and center for anyone who follows your brand via their profile.
That way, any story which they click on can introduce a different call to action, clever sales pitch, and promotional material for your email marketing benefit. Stories can also be used to boost ongoing sales, time-limited offers, exclusive discounts alongside the email list conversion incentive, offering additional value to followers.
3. Offer Freebies for Signups
A good way to incentivize conversions via your Instagram page is to offer free content for signups that happen on Instagram exclusively. Depending on your brand’s portfolio, freebies can include anything from free resources (such as fonts or graphics for design pages, for example) or even sales codes and affiliate link discount coupons for e-commerce websites.
While the free content in itself shouldn’t be the main reason for their conversion, it will provide a much-needed incentive for people to see that you are willing to extend an olive branch to them up front. This will give followers an extra reason to pitch in on your email marketing campaign and start receiving relevant content from yours truly down the line.
4. Gain Leads through Events
Events are a great way to bolster your email marketing through Instagram in a short period. Quizzes, giveaways, surveys and other forms of interactivity can be used alongside a subscription prompt to incentivize conversion.
In addition, you will learn a lot about how your followers feel in regard to your brand through the feedback, answers and comments you receive during said events. While the cost of items or gifts you send out as rewards for Instagram events should be taken into account, their cost will be minuscule compared to the variety of benefits these events can bring to your brand.
5. Ask for Social Circle Referrals
Just like other social media platforms on the market, Instagram can be used to make your content viral via follower shares, hashtags and referrals. You can incentivize content sharing by introducing reward incentives for followers which will ensure that people share your marketing links to their social circles.
Another way to go about it on Instagram is to introduce campaign-specific hashtags that can be shared by your followers alongside user-generated content or your conversion link embedded in the shared text. That way, your content’s reach will expand drastically and ensure that the email marketing campaign you are ramping up toward has more addresses to work with.
6. Develop a Newsletter Content Cycle
Once you have collected enough email addresses to start your campaign successfully, you should double-check them for validity. While not a rule, some users will undoubtedly have typos in their addresses or simply use secondary or inactive addresses for the Instagram campaign. This is why email validation is a good final step before you start your email content cycle and deliver on your promises of quality content to the followers.
Even though you have their addresses in your email list, nothing will stop individual users from unsubscribing or flagging your content as spam if they are unsatisfied with what you offer. Make good on your intentions and reach out to them with relevant content and exclusive offers on a scheduled basis without resorting to spam or unintentional abuse. This will ensure that your brand is seen as trustworthy and worth following, but most importantly, worth subscribing to for original email marketing content.
In Conclusion
Even though email might not be the first thing that pops into your mind when brainstorming which channels to use in your marketing efforts, keep in mind that people still use email on a daily basis. Social media channels, project management platforms and messaging apps are, while popular, still secondary to email when it comes to personal and professional correspondence.
Thus, email marketing, bolstered by Instagram, can effectively transform the way you communicate with your followers and deliver relevant content to their doorstep. Find creative ways to embed subscription links and incentives into your Instagram content and the subsequent email marketing efforts will undoubtedly perform much better than you initially hoped for.