Instagram’s round the clock visibility and convenience makes it one of the sought-after apps of today by both individuals and businesses alike. And the competition there is super tight. Now while it’s important to know the essential Instagram marketing strategies for your business, remember that everyone’s out with the biggest tricks up their sleeves, so merely publishing content is rarely going to cut it these days!
Today we’re sharing the latest and most important INSTAGRAM UPDATES you can include in your 2019 strategy, and also some future updates to watch out for later in the year!
IG’s Augmented Reality Filters
People love interactive content! Launched late last year, Instagram now allows 3rd parties (businesses and personalities) to create augmented reality (AR) filters that boost brand awareness. Powered by Spark AR Studio, these branded filters overlay the photos or videos that you publish on your Instagram Stories. Consider these filters as branded content that freely advertises and promotes a brand on the platform. Since its launch, personalities and brands alike have flocked to try it for themselves, adding their creative twists to the whole augmented reality package. Kylie Cosmetics, for example, published a series of AR filters for Kylie’s Lip Kits. This enabled users to “try” different lipstick shades before finalising a purchase.
Kylie Jenner’s IG Live launch of Kylie’s Lip Kits filter
(Photo from When In Manila)
Instagram Shopping
Facebook set the trail with Marketplace, but Instagram has since followed suit and now has a shopping feature on its platform! Before, businesses only had to rely on Instagram’s capacity to just publish photos of their products that lead users back to their website. But lo and behold—the photo-sharing platform now has a Shopping feature that lets followers buy products directly from Instagram! Instagram’s mobile shopfront makes shopping seamless; from product discovery to final purchase, they got you covered. It also includes a ‘Save’ option that lets users bookmark products and revisits them at a later time. This Shopping feature is also embedded within Stories in the form of “shoppable stickers”. Businesses can share a product from their catalog to their Stories and add shoppable stickers before publishing, which redirects viewers to product details on their Instagram shopping catalog.
IG’s Shopping feature includes the price of the item pictured
“Shoppable stickers” on Instagram Stories redirects to a brand’s shopping catalog
IGTV and Vertical Videos
TV has been repackaged for mobile and in our previous article, we’ve counted ways to improve digital marketing using the IG Live option embedded into the IG Stories feature. But aside from that, you now have an option to share snippets of your IGTV previews on your followers’ feeds! This redirects them to your full IGTV video. With this update, you’re no longer encumbered to release just a minute-long video on IG, but can now publish up to one hour long videos, therefore promoting your products and services longer! The potential for growth is endless, and creators and businesses alike are already maximising this update in their own creative ways! Some hosts live Q&A sessions, do flash sales, host interviews, cover brand events, and promote the newest product releases through IGTV.
Influencer Authentication
Neil Patel dished on the newest climate surrounding influencer marketing, especially taking notice of the supposed “death” of this strategy. While he insisted that it’s not ‘dead’, he swore that its future is uncertain, and for good reason. Another Instagram update—Influencer Authentication—ensures that while many would contest its effectivity around this time, the $2.38 B expected spending on influencer marketing for 2019 is still worth the updates! IG’s Influencer Authentication portal lets influencers submit their accounts for approval to finally get that elusive blue badge. If you plan to collaborate with influencers, the blue badge leads you to authentic accounts with an organic following. This ensures that any influencer-collaboration would reach as many and as organic an audience as possible.
Sample IG authenticated brands and personalities from falcon.io
LAUNCHING SOON
Aside from trends that have already been rolled out, keep your eyes open to the following Instagram updates set to be introduced soon:
IG’s Direct Messaging for Web
Currently, only IG’s mobile version has the direct message option. DMs on IG’s desktop view, however, is already in the works. The direct messaging update for the desktop will help businesses respond quickly to customer queries and feedback. This way, customers get to pose their questions without leaving the Instagram platform. This may in turn shorten the decision-making period during purchases. This also gives businesses the power to walk customers through anything and helps finalise the purchase.
Donation Stickers
Soon there’ll be an additional Instagram feature that will allow people to make donations directly from IG. This cause-based add-on will enable users to start fundraisers for the nonprofit of their choice.
Conclusion
We’ll be seeing more Instagram updates in the future as more and more people pour into Instagram. You can’t always hashtag yourself into success with Instagram. Understand the newest features and be willing to get clever to pull your brand up from the tight competition!
Don’t let these updates just pass you by! Employ a team of Instagram Marketing experts and see how you could include these updates into your own strategy for 2019!
