4 Tips to Boost Customer Engagement Through Instagram
Word of mouth is perhaps the best channel of marketing and on social media, word of mouth spreads like wild fire. In this light, Social media is a benefactor for car buyers and car sellers alike. Car buyers get firsthand information or experience about the vehicle they’re willing to buy and car sellers can in turn use this as a marketing tool.
Instagram, a relatively new social media platform, has become very popular among millennials. As of April 2017, Instagram currently has over 700 million monthly active users. To put this into perspective, that’s over double the monthly active users of Twitter and three times as much for monthly active users on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Hence, if your marketing strategy doesn’t include Instagram, now is the right time to leverage this marketing medium. But, Instagram is tough cookie to crack. Just when you think that you have realized the best technique, Instagram brings a new update and takes you back to square one. Below are the tips given by car advertising firms that can help you make the best use of Instagram.
1. Post engaging content
Many auto dealers make the mistake of branding or marketing only their products or services. But, we learn from the biggest and most successful dealer advertising companies is that every business needs a story to tell. Instagram can be very helpful in this direction. By posting relevant and engaging content, you can focus on building a brand and not just selling products or services. Post under-generated content, owner selfies with their new cars, can be a great way to attract the right followers.
2. Use the right Hashtags
It’s a proven fact that, posts that include hashtags get over 12% more interaction. Using the right hashtags will bring in the customer searching with those keywords included in your hashtags and land on your posts. The trick is to use intentional and relevant hashtags. Using branded hashtags is another way to boost your UGC campaigns. Branded hashtags are unique to your business or brand. But, they don’t have to necessarily include your company’s name, you can work with car advertising firms and get creative with your hashtags.
3. Post consistently and interact with your followers
To boost engagement, regular and consistent posts are needed. Posting consistent and posting relevant and engaging content every time is probably the first step towards creating a meaningful follower engagement. Your followers will notice that you are not just posting something when it is feasible but you are also using Instagram to converse and interact. Simple actions like commenting “thank you for shopping with us” after a customer posts using your hashtag can go a long way in fostering close ties with your followers.
4. Make Instagram a part of your sales process
After you have sold a car, encourage the buyer to post a photo with his new car, tag your dealership and include all the hashtags that go with it. In order to ensure that your dealership’s location can be tagged, check whether the location is included as a location on Instagram. If not, you can create a custom location by seeking help from dealer advertising companies. Having a location tag allows users to views all posts that include your tag and direct those users to your insta account or dealership.
Instagram can be a confusing territory to navigate as an entrepreneur, but at the end of the day, it is a powerful tool supported by many automotive digital agencies. For promoting your dealership as a brand, the aim should be to have 500 dedicated followers than having 10k followers who simply scroll through your post.
