It’s no secret that there’s a secret sauce to marketing on Instagram. Almost all successful eCommerce brands (large and small) value their brand on Instagram by acquiring (and maintaining) a large base of followers who share, like, and “buy into” their photos. Acquiring followers on Instagram is a small scientific discipline as well since roughly 30% of Instagram users are domestic and 70% are international. This means you’re more likely to attract a global following if you play your cards right.
But that’s just the beginning. Marketing on Instagram is also about spontaneity, passion, and, for a lack of a better word, inception. It’s about finding people who’re interested in what you’re building and sharing that passion with others they care about. While our own Instagram account has not been a core marketing focus, we do have many partners who give their Instagram account tons of love and devotion. To them, it’s their lifeline in reaching customers (and their friends) who absolutely live and breathe their product.
We started tapping into Instagram’s suggestions algorithm and sourced an immense amount of outreach and partnership-building opportunities a few weeks ago. The more conversations we had with Instagram partners, the more we felt something was amiss. Oftentimes we would chat on Instagram through comments, other times through direct messages, and when things got out of hand we resorted to emails. We discussed these usage patterns with Reamaze users that were marketing their products on Instagram, and we knew there was something we could help with. In the same way that we’ve been helping businesses manage their social conversations on Facebook and Twitter we could help bring a little more sanity to the chatter in Instagram.
It made perfect sense. For businesses that see Instagram as the holy grail of marketing and user acquisition, customer service through Instagram was a must, Converting a “definitely interested” follower into a paying customer was just one comment away. Now, we’ve read our fair share of content articles about Instagram monetization like this but have never tried it ourselves. Suppose you did end up selling $4000 worth of neckties (or a necktie equivalent) in one day, we believe good customer service will ensure another $4000 the next day. And the next day. After all, it’s just their brand and reputation on the line isn’t it?
The point is, good customer service is just as much your brand as what you’re selling. Being able to deliver good customer service at the right place and at the right time is so essential to a brand that it’s often the first thing brands forget. When done right, customer service is, by far, one of the most important value-building operations in a business.
Instagram is still a growing phenomenon and we’re excited to follow its direction of growth in terms of marketing and customer outreach capabilities. If you have an Instagram account and would like to experience how customer service can be done through an instagram-integrated platform, we welcome you to try out our app. If not, we strongly suggest trying Instagram as a marketing engine for user acquisition and monetization. Or, simply follow us for fun and pretty (at least we think so) pictures 