How to Generate B2B Leads with Instagram Marketing

The concept of Instagram marketing, its benefits, and conveniences are not unknown to the mass public. Instagram marketing refers to marketing initiatives and tactics that are carried out on the social media platform, Instagram. With a massive number of Instagrammers, going over one billion monthly active users, nearly five hundred million daily active users, and an average of the ‘like’ button on Instagram being used 4.2 billion times per day, it has immense potential to reach audiences from diverse demographic backgrounds with differing needs and preferences while getting a good amount of engagement and responses.

Instagram in today’s time is a marketing powerhouse that generates more than satisfactory results. According to statistics, 90 percent of user accounts follow a business on Instagram, over two hundred million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily and 60% of Instagram users say they discover new products or services on the platform. Additionally, it has proven to have top-notch performance as 65% of top-performing posts on Instagram feature a brand and Instagram’s potential advertising reach is 849.3 million users.

Additionally, Instagram is known to have a range of business-specific features, such as analytics, tracking engagement, swipe-up story links, and the ability to have a store section in your feed to display your products. This has to be possible with almost 25 million companies using the platform to promote their brand. 

B2B and Instagram Marketing

Despite the immense efficiency of this exuberant marketing method, there exists a widely popular misconception of it being effective with just B2C marketers. However, it has been a great driving force for B2B marketing strategies. Most modern B2B buyers are known to be millennials who are much more likely to be using Instagram and most definitely for product discovery too since they are aware of the range of options available and so help them find the business they want to work with. 

And so B2Bs can greatly benefit from using Instagram marketing. This is also because it becomes easier to spy on competitors not just locally but internationally too, you would be able to track and analyze their initiative and what is proving to be successful or unsuccessful for them in order to modify your strategies accordingly. And of course, the core goal of any business is to get sales to be able to increase sales and improve profitability. There again, Instagram is a great tool with more than one-third of Instagram users have used the app to make a purchase for a product online. This is indicative of the pre-set mindset of the viewer of having the desire to purchase something. 

Now that it is understood that Instagram marketing can indubitably help the Business-to-Business model, it would also help to understand how to implement strategies to generate B2B leads with Instagram marketing. And so, we have put together a few methods for you to use to enhance your marketing activities, ensuring immense success. 

1. Understanding and knowing your destination

Before carrying out any type of plan or initiative, it is always a good idea and much more efficient to set goals that you would like to achieve through the implementation of the specific plan. Once you have this down, you can then plan strategies accordingly. 

Instagram is an extensive tool but not knowing how to use it to your advantage and posting without reason that does not help lead you to your desired goal would be characterized by ineffective marketing plans. It is crucially important to understand the end goal well enough in order to work on how to get there. If your goal is to generate more leads, it is important that you make your content catchy and incorporate call-to-action in order to attract users. And for most B2B brands, what is important to employ is updates on what is going on and what’s new at HQ. A well-thought-out and interactive feed can help you greatly to connect to all kinds of stakeholders.

2. Creating and setting up a Business Profile

While setting up your business account, it would be greatly helpful to create a business profile. Not only does this let you access Instagram’s analytics tools and get statistics on the number of views, impressions, and reach of your posts but it also helps your customers have a more fruitful experience.

Since B2B does revolve around communication amongst businesses, contact details are a must. With Instagram, it is also possible for your customers to simply tap the ‘contact’ button to reach you and gather any details that they may require. The business profile also allows you to reach more customers, advertise better, boost your posts and interaction, and also keep you connected on other platforms.

3. Your Instagram Bio Link as your business card

Your Instagram bio is the small space for introduction available on your profile page. It is one of the first things that your customers interact with and so needs to be captivating enough to encourage them to keep scrolling through your feed. And with Instagram’s features, your bio can also have a link included that redirects the users to another platform or wherever desired, this also shows that they are interested in discovering more about the business and its products.

 And as previously stated, 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile daily, having a link in your bio can be a great lead generation tool with a good number of leads considering the potential visits. 

Your bio link is most essentially like a clickable business card that helps visitors learn more about your business and its operations without wasting too much time and so proving to be immensely effective for B2B. 

4. Make contacting you easy and convenient

As briefly discussed before, communication is an essential part of B2B activities and most definitely needs to be used to carry out successful B2B operations. It is important for all succeeding steps to be easily available for the interested B2B buyer to move forward. If the B2B buyer has discovered your product and it has gaged their interest, they need to know how to proceed, and so various contact options should always be available so that they are able to reach you the fastest with ease. 

This can also be beneficial because when it comes to making B2B buying decisions, multiple individuals engage in the processes, translating to it being a time-consuming task. Adding various contact options like directions, phone numbers, and email address helps your followers to choose the best way to contact you and discuss prices or collaboration opportunities.

B2B purchasing choices are in many cases more costly and hard to make, so it is no big surprise that your potential clients need to pose inquiries about your product. At the point when you give contact choices, Instagrammers get a way to reach you directly and you have a chance to produce B2B leads.

5. Let your Followers know about your B2B business

When you get the notice of your target group you really need to demonstrate to your followers that your product can assist their organizations with getting to a higher level. The simplest method for doing it is to enlighten followers on your B2B business.

The method used in sharing data about your business on Instagram doesn’t matter much. Getting your supporters intrigued and invested is what’s most important. Like every purchase, be it online or offline, customers look for authenticity and so do B2B buyers. Therefore, it is important to build authentic relationships with your customers to build trust and improve credibility. 

Taking clients in the background is one of the most mind-blowing ways of putting a human face on your organization and making that association. Furthermore, it’s also essential to participate in conversations and to like and reply to comments. The greater involvement, the better. B2B purchasers are genuine individuals who need to feel valued and catered to.

6. Instagram Stories for the win

Instagram Stories are immensely popular amongst all kinds of users. They are used to promote products, conduct campaigns, showcase work culture or business operations, and much more so that the viewers are fascinated and have the urge to participate. It is known that businesses create ⅓ of the most-viewed Instagram Stories, reflecting the amount of Instagram users who are interested in business-related activities. For B2B companies, this is a great opportunity to reach your target audience and achieve your business goals. There are of course many features such as a swipe-up link that takes your interested viewers to a landing page and stories can be also saved as highlights for viewers to discover later. 

According to statistics, “500 million people use Instagram stories on a daily basis and 68% of people become more interested in a brand or product after viewing an Instagram story.” This clearly shows how Instagram stories can be used as a gigantic platform to be seen and noticed.

7. Instagram Lead Generation Ads to the rescue

A fast and convenient way of generating B2B leads is through using ads. Instagram Ads are a way for brands to promote on the web and showcase their innovative side with pictures, recordings, and other visual components. 

Instagram lead generation ads help you reach your target audience while also collecting valuable and relevant information that can help you interest them more effectively. Instagram lead generation ads can help you collect phone numbers so that you can contact interested viewers in the near future, draw out an email list for reference when required to carry out more activities and more such information that you can gather. Lead generation ads are an effective way to help ensure that your initiatives are actually getting leads.

8. Brand Ambassadors and Influencers, your Allies 

Even in these changing times, word-of-mouth advertising remains superior. Positive reviews from other companies that have been your customers can be a great driving force for new customers wanting to purchase your products. Not just reviews, but the social media world has also given birth to the era of influencers.

Influencer marketing is taking over the entire marketing world. In simple terms, it refers to endorsements and product placements by influencers, social media users with a large following and ability to influence the public opinion to an extent. 

Finding the perfect influencer or brand ambassador is also important as the success of the endorsement is largely dependent on their following and the response they get from their following and so it is important for them to have a certain kind of reputation to be convincing. 

Conclusion 

It is no doubt that Instagram offers an array of benefits with its remarkable features. From increasing brand visibility and engagement, powerful business profile features, the ability to promote your posts, include call to action buttons, gain insights, to building a community and making your brand relatable, Instagram has all sorts of tricks under its sleeve. It would be disastrous to not take advantage of these countless features and for that we encourage you to commence your journey now.