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Industry Spotlight

Industry Spotlight: Instagram Insights – too late to the party?
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Last month, the platform launched Stories, last week (August 15), it launched Business Tools, and this week (August 31), it announced users can now zoom in on pictures. It seems like the platform is pushing out updates left, right and centre.

“So? These functions have been around for years on other platforms”, I hear you say. And you’d be right.

In fact, when the Business Tools and insights analysis function launched last week, I was slightly taken aback by the excitement it caused in the marketing industry. Of course, it’s great news and absolutely enables marketers to better target core audiences, but being truthful, as marketers, we should have been frustrated that it took this long – this function should have been around from the start.

With over 200,000 businesses already using Instagram for advertising, it makes me shudder wondering how these adverts managed to create relevant content for its customers, if at all.

So what exactly is Business Tools?

In amongst features such as business profiles, contact buttons and the ability to promote certain posts, Instagram’s new Business toolkit allows brands to gain insights into posts, such as which ones perform better than others and with which demographic.

This analysis is invaluable to brands. With insight, a brand’s reach, frequency rate, success of product discovery and customer loyalty can all be gathered. Knowing which posts work and using data to determine a change in direction (or not) is the critical key to a compelling, engaging and successful platform strategy. 

For Instagram, it couldn’t come soon enough

While insight analysis on Facebook and Twitter has been around for years, it’s difficult to comprehend how brands have managed to create consistent marketing strategies across social platforms until now.

Official figures released in June (2016) revealed the platform now has half a billion registered users, double the amount it had two years ago.

And with more than 300 million people using the service every day, it is vital brands get their strategies right, especially if you’re targeting the 90 per cent of users who are under 35. When stats show that 28% of users under 35 have purchased a product as a direct result of viewing it on the network in the last six months, it’s easy to understand why nailing Instagram is essential. 

In this era of purpose where visual content triumphs over written, and the need for brands to talk with consumers, rather than at them is integral, Instagram, although half a decade old, still offers a fresh approach to help brands tell visual, authentic and transportive stories.

So what’s next for the platform?

It’s taken six years for the platform to get up to speed with its competitors, namely Facebook and Twitter, with its recent introductions, and no doubt there’s stiff competition from the likes of Snapchat and, although in testing, Lifestage.

But on such a roll, and now on par on its biggest competitors, its fair game what comes next.

 

Words by Nina Sawetz, PR and communications consultant

 

As head of Editorial for Bottle, Nina leads PR strategy and comms activity for the agency’s consumer division, and has extensive experience working with brands including Goodyear, Poundland, Interflora, Golden Wonder and AXA PPP healthcare.

 

Nina also runs FuturePR.co looking at ongoing trends and the changing landscape of PR and communications.

 

Contact Nina at nina.sawetz@wearebottle.com, and via Twitter @BottleNina or @FuturePRco.

Industry Spotlight: We caught up with Click Consult at the Internet Marketing Summit
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The Internet Marketing Summit took place on the 9th May 2016 at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel in London and was once again, a huge success. The Summit boasted keynote speakers, senior decision-makers from some of the biggest brands and the most innovative product and service providers in digital marketing for a day of match made face-to-face meetings, educational seminars and networking.

We caught up with Click Consult’s senior business development manager, James Price, to find out why they are back at the event for the 7th time.

So, how are you finding the event so far today?

In terms of today, for myself, it’s actually been really, really positive, the meetings have all been very good, very well-qualified people that actually want to speak to [Click Consult] about their needs for our products and services – it’s always been the case here, it’s why we come here so much. It’s been very, very good and personally I’ve always have a good return on investment from these events.

What do you think of the quality of delegates this year and last? At all events you have attended?

If I could have planned it, I couldn’t have planned it any better to be honest, they all wanted exactly what we’ve got and they’ve all really responded – I suppose some of that is down to our process as well as an agency but they’ve really responded to the conversations that we’ve had and I think there will be a lot of follow-up, more than any other event I’ve done for a while actually.

Have you received any business from attending these events?

Yes – we have definitely had business from Forum Events which is why we come back. We won’t do these things if there’s no ROI, we’re a business and if there’s no ROI then we won’t do it; we certainly make enough to pay for the event and get some profit as well, I mean we’ve got some of our biggest clients from these events.

Have you had any fast turnarounds?

Yes, we’ve had a couple – not many – because how I see these events and how they are marketed; it’s a case of getting to know people and starting a relationship. I mean we have had some pretty quick turnarounds as well, but mostly it’s been good long-term business that we’ve gotten from them.

Do you attend trade shows or exhibitions?

We used to invest heavily into trade shows. It was really good for a number of years, certainly when I first joined the company. But I think the quality has now gone down, I think where we’ve moved to as an agency we tend to deal with brands pretty much exclusively now – and the place we meet brands is here so that’s why we choose to come – it fits our profile as a business.

Do you find this format more effective than a trade show or exhibition?

Absolutely, yes. [Trade shows] were very good when it was a lot easier back in the old days because you would come away with contracts from them and it was that easy. But now you have to immerse yourself into your clients business and become a part of it. And with greatest respect in the world, if you go to a trade show, you meet junior members of staff who don’t have decision-making power; the advantage of these kinds of events is you are meeting decision-makers who actually make the final decision, so it’s a good way to start that relationship and it helps us immerse ourselves into their business and their brand as well.

Will you be back next year?

Yes, I don’t see why not.


Founded in 2003, Click Consult is an award-winning agency specialising in SEO and PPC. For more information on Click Consult and the products and services they provide, please click here.  

The next Internet Marketing Summit will be taking place on 8th May 2017 at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London. To register your interest for this exclusive event, please click here.