{"id":663,"date":"2019-12-02T11:49:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T09:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/?p=663"},"modified":"2019-12-02T11:50:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T09:50:24","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/blog\/how-to-use-instagram-to-generate-organic-leads\/","title":{"rendered":"","raw":""},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false,"raw":""},"author":5,"featured_media":665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_nl_post_content":"","_nl_post_name":"","_nl_post_excerpt":"","_nl_post_title":"","_en_post_content":"Are you using Instagram to connect with new prospects? Wondering how to generate leads without using Instagram ads?\r\n\r\n \r\n

Instagram for Lead Generation<\/h2>\r\nInstagram is probably not the platform most people would think of first for lead generation.\r\n\r\nIt works and\u00a0 Instagram is so good at driving high-quality traffic. You don\u2019t get a lot of traffic from Instagram but because users have to first see the content, read the caption, click on the link in the bio, and then get to that destination, they\u2019ve already taken three or four steps to get there\u2014which means they genuinely want to be there.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019re more likely to get a high-quality conversion, which is how you get people to sign up for webinars or registrations, do the downloads, get on your email list, and so on. You get those high-level conversions from a platform like Instagram.\r\n\r\nFrom\u00a0 Stories\u00a0 you can get people to take an action that can drive them off-site.\r\n\r\nIt starts with whatever your funnel looks like. You might be looking for direct sales out of a post in your stories or on your feed. You might be looking to grow an email list or get people to show up at an event. Maybe you\u2019re in a non-profit industry and you\u2019re trying to generate more awareness. You could even use it to grow your podcast listener base. Whatever lead generation is for you, you can absolutely use Instagram to push them there.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n

Optimizing Your Instagram Profile<\/h2>\r\nFirst, your profile has to be set up and maximized for that type of conversion. You have to write Instagram captions that are going to get people to follow through on a call to action. Your content has to get their attention in the feed to get them to even read the caption. And finally, you need to look at metrics and insights within your Instagram content to understand which type of content is actually driving the conversions because high-engagement content may not be high-converting.\r\n

Name and Username<\/h3>\r\nThe name and username are the only searchable criteria on Instagram, which means whatever you put in your bio isn\u2019t actually searchable at the moment (though there are rumors it\u2019s in testing). So if you\u2019re an Instagram expert, you won\u2019t show up in search for \u201cInstagram expert\u201d if it doesn\u2019t say those words in either your name or username.\r\n\r\n\u201cBlogger\u201d is in the first line of Jenn\u2019s bio, and is also the category designation under her name. Jenn built her whole business on being a blogger; that was how she started out. She became the world\u2019s forefront blogger on Instagram marketing. She\u2019s known as a writer so people usually come to her from some sort of written content. Even though she does more video and audio now, she\u2019s still known as an author and blogger first, and then as a speaker and consultant.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nYour \u201cname\u201d can be more than your name, and you can also use emojis. The appearances of some emojis differ slightly between operating systems but they\u2019re essentially the same on both Android and iOS devices. It\u2019s preferable to use emojis to separate words, not necessarily to replace them. If you\u2019re really tight on characters and you can find a clear emoji that replaces a word, go for it, but emojis can be easily misconstrued.\r\n

Instagram Bio<\/h3>\r\nPeople\u2019s bios are often inadequate or inaccurate because they\u2019re written in marketing-speak. They wrote their bios when they first started their accounts, and now they don\u2019t know what\u2019s in there or why.\r\n\r\nThe bio is your 30-second elevator pitch, and it\u2019s usually the first impression when somebody comes to your profile. Most of the people who read your bio are only going to read it the first time they come to your actual account. Once they\u2019re following you, they have no real reason to go back and read it. So the bio should be written for a first-time visitor.\r\n\r\nIt should clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and what\u2019s in it for the viewer who\u2019s reading it. It should also contain some sort of call to action such as an arrow pointing down to your URL. It should give that first-time visitor a really clear message of who you are. Feel free to use emojis and slang, and show your personality and voice\u2014you only have 150 characters to do this so it\u2019s not a lot of space.\r\n\r\nYour bio can be 150 characters. If you generate a long-form paragraph, that\u2019s about five lines of text. But typically, you don\u2019t want a long run-on paragraph; it doesn\u2019t read well, and it\u2019s not visually appealing. Jenn recommends short, individual bullet points with a cute emoji at the start of each line that relates to the content of that bullet point.\r\n\r\nPutting line breaks into your bio can be tricky. Android users have an easy-access return key; it\u2019s a bit more hidden in iOS. You can build your bio in a note on your phone first and then paste it in. The key is that you can\u2019t have a space as the last character. You need to backspace all the way up to the last letter, number, or punctuation mark and then hit return.\r\n\r\nYou also can\u2019t have an emoji as the final character on the line. If you do that, when you hit return, the return doesn\u2019t count. You\u2019ve got to make sure that the last character is either a single punctuation mark or a single character.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nMake sure that the first bullet point is clearly descriptive of your actual business mission. Then add some personality into those subsequent bullets\u2014more of the quirkiness and fun factor that distinguishes your brand.\r\n

Link in Bio<\/h3>\r\nThe URL below your bio is super-important because that\u2019s your one good clickable link anywhere on Instagram. You want this to go exactly where you want visitors to go. You want to send them to an actual destination. We recommend setting up a designated landing page on your own website that is clear of any pop-ups, sidebars, or distractions.\r\n\r\nYou can have three, four, or five specific links there because now you own that traffic, so you can retarget them with ads. You can look at your Google analytics and see where they\u2019re going. This is key when it comes to managing your lead generation because you want to know that users came from Instagram to land on this page.\r\n\r\nWhere did they go from there? Are more people clicking on a webinar registration than on an eBook download? Do you have more people clicking on your course information than you have on your blogs? Having your own landing page allows you to track those metrics of where they\u2019re going and how long they\u2019re staying on your site so you can better target your audience.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Instagram Action Buttons<\/h3>\r\nIf you have a business or creator account, your profile can feature\u00a0Instagram action buttons. Jenn says these are more useful for actual sales than for lead generation.\r\n\r\nCall, Text, Email, and Directions are the four default action buttons. But business profiles now have expanded options including Book Now, Buy Tickets, and others, many of which are linked to third-party tools.\r\n\r\nTo visualize this, if you use Eventbrite to sell tickets and you already have an Eventbrite account, you can link that button through Eventbrite. If someone is looking to buy tickets to your event, they can actually click on the Buy Tickets button directly from your profile, open the Eventbrite page, and complete the sale without ever leaving your Instagram profile.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re using Instagram for list-building or other types of lead generation, you do still have to rely on the \u201clink in bio\u201d call to action and format to get people to that landing page. The action buttons focus more toward direct transactions.\r\n

Instagram Content That Converts<\/h2>\r\n

Instagram Captions<\/h3>\r\nOnce you\u2019ve built your profile, the next place to concentrate on is your post captions because they get users to the link in your bio.\r\n\r\nYour\u00a0Instagram caption\u00a0has to have a really strong opener. When you\u2019re scrolling through Instagram, you see the photo or video, and then you see the username, one or two lines, and \u201c\u2026 more.\u201d The caption is truncated; you\u2019ve got at most two lines of text, including the username. There\u2019s no preview option so you just have to guess from experience where that caption will cut off.\r\n\r\nIf your first sentence is some rambling randomness that makes no sense and isn\u2019t motivating for visitors, they\u2019re not going to click \u201c\u2026 more\u201d to read your caption\u2014which means they\u2019ll never see your call to action. And that\u2019s why you really want a really strong opening. Whether it\u2019s five words or 20 words, you need to capture their attention right off the bat.\r\n\r\nThink of that first sentence like a great blog post title, a great email header, or something that\u2019s really going to get them to click. Use emojis and capital letters, draw their attention, make a bold statement, ask a question, something that makes them click \u201c\u2026 more.\u201d Now they\u2019ll read the caption.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nWithin the caption, have some sort of call to action such as asking them to click on the link in your bio. You can put some emojis around it, put in capital letters, or make it stand out so people see that very clear call to action.\r\n\r\nInstagram doesn\u2019t provide analytics on how many people click \u201c\u2026 more,\u201d but the algorithm does recognize it as a positive action and it helps your content rank better. It\u2019s an engagement metric but we don\u2019t get to see it. You may have people reading all of your captions but if they don\u2019t like it or leave a comment, you don\u2019t know that they\u2019ve taken any action on it.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s key to know what your content\u2019s purpose is and know who your target audience is.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Do People Look at the Picture First or the Caption?<\/h3>\r\nIt depends on the image and sometimes the source. If you see something from the local news station, even if you don\u2019t get a lot out of the photo, you\u2019re more likely to look at the caption because you know it\u2019s a news story and you want to see if it\u2019s relevant to you. But then there are some people whom you follow for their pretty pictures, and you may not even care about the caption because you just want the pretty pictures.\r\n\r\nSimilarly, you need to know what the purpose of your content is so you can train your audience to do what you want. If they\u2019re not used to you writing good captions or having calls to action, you have to start training them slowly by using shorter captions. Don\u2019t use long ones. Don\u2019t put a call to action in every single post. Start out with something witty, some entertainment value, to capture their attention and encourage them to click \u201c\u2026 more.\u201d Give it at least 3\u20134 weeks to build this up. As people get used to it, then they click more frequently and you can start doing more calls to action.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Attention-Grabbing Instagram Content<\/h3>\r\nHow do we get their attention? That\u2019s the hardest part. People are scrolling through a busy Instagram feed and it\u2019s constantly moving. You need your content to stop their scroll.\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to content, we just want to get people\u2019s attention. Maybe that means bold colors; maybe it\u2019s minimalist design. If you have a really busy photo with a lot of colors and distractions, it\u2019s easier to scroll past that. If you have a very muted, white and gray background with a beautiful pop of yellow color, it\u2019s going to stand out on the feed and visually capture attention.\r\n

Words on Images<\/h3>\r\nOn Facebook we\u2019ve been told\u2014at least on ads\u2014not to use too much text on images, although there appears to be no such guideline on Instagram.\r\n\r\nYou still can\u2019t have text covering more than 20% of images in ads because Instagram uses Facebook\u2019s advertising tools. But in terms of organic content, there appears to be no negative impact, aside from the fact that most people on Instagram don\u2019t want to see words on images. They want pretty pictures and they want videos; they want something visually appealing.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re taking a graphic with a banner and a whole bunch of text and a date and a time and directions and all these things, that\u2019s probably going to fail on Instagram because it\u2019s way too cluttered and busy, and it just doesn\u2019t look Instagram-worthy. That\u2019s not what people want to see on the platform.\r\n

Instagram Image Carousels<\/h3>\r\nBefore, people didn\u2019t really understand the whole concept of swiping left and right, and it was confusing. But now Instagram has actually started to re-show carousels if they\u2019re ignored the first time they appear in someone\u2019s feed.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nWhen there are two or more images or videos in a post, if you don\u2019t respond to the first image when you see it in your feed\u2014meaning you don\u2019t click \u201c\u2026 more,\u201d and you scroll past it\u2014Instagram will now show it to you again. Instagram\u2019s algorithm chooses which of the subsequent images to show you based on your personal algorithmic interaction so it looks like a different post.\r\n\r\nThis creates greater chances for exposure; if people don\u2019t like your first image, you get to show it to them again. It\u2019s almost like a little split test. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn\u2019t currently show us the analytics on which images perform best.\r\n\r\nJenn used to recommend putting a little arrow in there for people who missed the dots below a multi-image post to indicate that there was more to see, but at this point, she says enough people know how it works and can swipe on their own. People used to put \u201cSwipe Right\u201d in their captions, but now that just uses up valuable caption real estate. If they do swipe, though, if they\u2019re in any way navigating through those images, even if they don\u2019t like it or leave a comment, the algorithm is ranking that content for them.\r\n

Instagram Video<\/h3>\r\nVideos and photos are treated exactly the same by Instagram\u2019s algorithm.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s up to your audience. Certain podcasters or other people whose audiences are built around video and audio content are more likely to have better results. Videos can be up to a minute long so you can put a call to action in there, and explain what the lead magnet is, why they\u2019d want to sign up, or what they\u2019re going to get out of coming to the event, etc.\r\n\r\nNow we\u2019ve also got\u00a0IGTV<\/a>, which is a huge component of tying into lead generation. IGTV videos get a 1-minute preview in the feed. When the preview is over, viewers can go over to IGTV if they want to keep watching.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nEven if you don\u2019t have a Swipe Up link on stories, anybody can put a link in the caption of an IGTV video. You can use up to 30 hashtags on your IGTV videos in the description, and you can put any link on any account on IGTV. But it won\u2019t show up until they switch over to IGTV, so they have to follow through.\r\n\r\nYou have to make that first minute of your IGTV video really good and compelling to get them to go over to IGTV and watch through. But once they\u2019re there, you could keep them for a minute and a half, a minute and 15 seconds; they only have to watch a few more seconds once they get to IGTV. And, now on IGTV, they\u2019ve got a clickable link in the description for your call to action that says, \u201cMake sure you open the description of this video and click on the link.\u201d\r\n\r\nTo clarify: the caption that shows up on the Instagram preview will be the caption from the IGTV video. The link just isn\u2019t clickable on the preview; it becomes clickable once they\u2019re watching over on the IGTV tab.\r\n

Image Shape\/Size<\/h3>\r\nSquare images or vertical images with a 4:3 ratio are great for taking up as much of the screen as possible. Horizontal landscape videos and images aren\u2019t good because you lose that real estate on the top and bottom. Square images maximize the real estate as it\u2019s built for the platform. Vertical 4:3\u2014think portrait mode, slightly taller than wide\u2014gets a little more real estate in the feed and is thus more likely to capture attention. You have more space to scroll past. It\u2019s more time for them to stop and take action on that image.\r\n

Instagram Stories<\/h3>\r\nA story sequence can absolutely lead people to your website\u2014however, you need to get them there. If you don\u2019t have the Swipe Up link, then at the end of your sequence, you can say \u201cClick on the link in my bio\u201d and tag your handle. This way, users don\u2019t have to go back out to your profile; they can just click the hyperlink in your story.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Instagram Insights<\/h2>\r\nIf you have a business or\u00a0creator profile\u00a0(not a personal profile), click the three-line button menu in the top corner, then click on Insights to see your data and analytics.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nThe very first tab is Content, which will show you your feed posts with Stories below. Click See All on the Content tab to open up all of your archived content that you\u2019ve ever uploaded to Instagram since becoming a business profile. You can now sort how you view this content. At the very top, it defaults to a particular sort such as, \u201cShowing all content for engagement in the last one year.\u201d You can choose to filter it by content type and then sort based on engagement, likes, follows, comments, clicks, websites, or other options.\r\n\r\nIf you search by engagement, it will sort to show you your most engaged posts.\r\n\r\nYou can identify patterns\u2014maybe every time you include your dog in the photo, you get crazy good engagement. But when you change that metric to sort for top-performing posts based on clicks for the last year, maybe you\u2019ll see that your top click-generating posts contain a photo of you, not your dog.\r\n\r\nThe key thing to look at if you\u2019re going for lead generation is website clicks\u2014you want to know what\u2019s driving conversions, not just engagement. Of course you want the high-engaging posts because that keeps your content relevant and high in the feed so when you do a conversion-based post, it will be seen. If everything is conversion-based, then you\u2019re going to lose interest and reach. But you want to know, in terms of conversions, what\u2019s more likely to drive those results, capture their attention, and actually get them to take that next step.\r\n\r\nWhen you\u2019re doing a post where you want people to take action on something, look at the metrics to ensure you\u2019re creating the right type of content and the right types of captions. Do some A\/B testing. If you\u2019re running a contest or a campaign for a certain time period, try different captions and look at your metrics to find out which drove more clicks\u2014the first sentence, the caption length, the call to action\u2014you can now look at these stats. The next time you run a campaign, you can start to isolate what\u2019s going to drive better results.\r\n

Discovery of the Week<\/h2>\r\nInstagram has announced a brand-new app called Threads. It\u2019s a dedicated camera-based app from Instagram and a stand-alone for direct messages with your close friends. Threads is designed for privacy and speed, and for doing photos, video messages, and even stories with your Instagram close friends list. There is no public feed. It\u2019s all private chat.\r\n\r\n\"ALT\"\r\n\r\nThreads is almost like Facebook Messenger for Instagram. The reason it\u2019s called Threads is that you reply back and forth to stories on a conversation thread. You can turn on notifications for this app and leave them off on the Instagram app, so if you only want to get notified of a certain chat thread inside of Instagram with certain people, you can do that.\r\n\r\nThreads leaves all of your DMs in the native Instagram app as well; this just adds an extra level. You can go over to this app instead of Instagram proper (and potentially get distracted by stories or the feed or the search) and just jump into direct messages only. You can also go to all of your DMs in this app, not just those designated as \u201cclose friends.\u201d Just go to the settings and tap the triple-line hamburger menu and all of your DMs show up right there, too.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s got a few extra bells and whistles like statuses and different threads, but overall, it\u2019s very simple and streamlined. If you don\u2019t want to get bogged down by all of the other aspects of your Instagram life, but want to go back and forth quickly and easily and even allow notifications for DMs, you can do that with this app.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nSource<\/em><\/a>","_en_post_name":"how-to-use-instagram-to-generate-organic-leads","_en_post_excerpt":"","_en_post_title":"How to Use Instagram to Generate Organic Leads","edit_language":"nl","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,15],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-social-media","tag-marketing","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephyrgroup.eu\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}