By Catherine Smith
Instagram is one of the most powerful social media platform used by brands all over the world. A major reason why brands and users prefer Instagram over other platforms is that Instagram surely knows how to keep both brands and consumers engaged with each other. To fulfil the growing needs of its users, Instagram frequently releases new tools and features that help people to make the most out of this social media platform.
Recently, Instagram rolled out its latest feature known as Instagram Guides. With the help of Instagram Guides, users can check out the carefully curated interactive content of their favorite brands in one place. Guides allow brands to share their content is a completely new way on Instagram. Instagram created Guides to give users an easy way to discover tips, recommendations and other content from their preferred brands, creators, influencers and organizations.
An Instagram Guide can be compared to a blog post where brands can include photos, videos, galleries and text to illustrate a topic better. To access an Instagram Guide, just visit any Instagram profile and select the new Instagram Guides icon on their page. If an Instagram profile doesn’t have the Guides tab, it means they have not created any guides for their followers yet.
Instagram Guides is a perfect tool for brands who like to present their followers with detailed information. It will not only help you to establish a reliable relationship with your customers but will also help you to educate and inspire your followers. To know how you can include Instagram Guides to your marketing strategy, here are 8 creative ways that you can use to make an Instagram Guide.
1. Collect posts under a theme
Whether you are a small, medium or large brand you must be having multiple products and services to offer. If you are already using Instagram, there are chances that you have already posted pictures and videos of most of your products and services on your Instagram Feed. While these pictures can be scattered in between other posts, you can organise them under your Instagram Guides. Using Instagram Guides you can collect all the posts of similar products under one category. This will make it easier for people to browse your products based on their interests.
2. Highlight your new products
Instagram Guides can be really helpful if you want to create a portfolio of your latest products and developments. Many times users miss to check out the stories of new product launches. To help the audience keep a track of all your latest developments, create a guide based on your new products. If you are working on some other products you can keep the audience engaged by giving them a sneak peek into what they can expect in the coming days.
3. Create a gift guide
Gift guides work best when you want to showcase your products without using pushy marketing tactics. With the Instagram Guides, you can create multiple gifting guides based on any popular or upcoming occasion. For example, if you are selling home accessories then you can create a Mother’s Day gift guide or an anniversary gift guide. It will give your audience an idea about how they can gift your products to their loved ones on different occasions. While creating a gift guide, you can either dedicate it to your product or collaborate with other small businesses and brands and include their collection as well.
4. Compile a list of tips and tricks
The original idea to introduce Instagram Guides was to bring into spotlight useful resources and wellness content. To connect better with their audience brands can create different Guides through which they can either create awareness or educate their followers. For example, the pandemic has badly affected the mental health of several people. To help your followers cope with the COVID-19 related stress you can create an Instagram Guide on “Tips to improve mental health”. Such guides will instantly connect the readers with your brand and they will keep coming back for more resources.
5. Show your brand’s personality
As Instagram Guides act as small blogs, you can use them to tell followers about your company, its principles and ethics. By knowing about the different values of your business, people will get to know your brand’s personality in a better way. For example, if you are a sustainable fashion brand, you can create a guide that highlights your social responsibility. Additionally, you can create guides to celebrate milestones or to appreciate the achievements of your employees.
6. Create how-to guides
To immediately get the attention of your audience you can create how-to or instructional guides based on their preferences. By curating instructional guides you will give your followers helpful information and will inspire them in different ways. For example, if you have launched a new kitchen appliance, you can create a guide about using the product or the different recipes that can be made with your product. This will inspire your followers to purchase your product and include it in their daily cooking
7. Collaborate with influencers
Collaborating with influencers is a great way to increase your number of followers. As influencers already have their followers a simple shout-out can help a brand get noticed. If you are running short of ideas you can get in touch with your local influencers and ask them to create an Instagram Guide that features your brand. Influencers can use their creativity and promote your brand. Moreover, as an influencer’s advice plays a major role in the decision-making process of consumers, collaborating with influencers can also help you to boost your sales.
8. Create a roundup
Brands that very active on Instagram can create a roundup guide for their followers to find everything in one place. Based on your industry you can either create monthly or yearly roundups of trending products. You can also create a guide about your bestselling products or the biggest social media moments of your brand for a month or year. Furthermore, you can also create a guide with all the testimonials and feedback you receive from different customers. This will give potential customers a reason to connect with your brand.
Catherine Smith is an online Marketing Manager at PhD Centre, specialising in PhD thesis writing. She is passionate about researching and writing on various topics, including Education, Marketing, and Technology.
