Social media and email marketing might seem identical in the neon world of digital marketing. Through its bright and engaging photos, Instagram has revolutionized how brands engage with their consumers. In contrast, email marketing is a direct action and conversion monster in its own right. But how do we make up the difference and use Instagram for email marketing? Here are some tips to help you get started.
Understanding the Power of Instagram
Instagram has established itself as one of the most attractive social media platforms with more than a billion active users attracted to its focus on beauty, narrative, and interaction. Brands have grown on Instagram because they’ve been able to show off products, create community, and post behind the scenes videos that their followers enjoy.
What is unique about Instagram is that it connects users emotionally. Using high-impact images, relatable captions, and interactive stories, polls, and IGTV, brands can cultivate a loyal following. The emotional bond can be recreated in email marketing, making the journey relevant to the reader and prompting them to act.
1. Leverage Visual Content
Instagram is all about visual storytelling and so should your email campaigns. Great images, graphic elements and videos are essential to your emails. It’s not just visuals; impactful imagery can skyrocket open and click through rates. By adding action-based features, such as GIFs, you can replicate the scrolling experience of Instagram and make your emails look unique.
Post appealing images or infographics that represent your brand. Visually appealing emails help them connect with their recipients and keep them in check.
2. Craft Engaging Stories
Storytelling is the new craze on Instagram and so can your email marketing. Send stories in your emails that engage your readers emotionally. Here’s how to do it:
First-person Narratives: Provide personal stories about your brand’s history, customers, or employees. These narratives can anthropomorphize your brand and establish rapport with your followers.
Customer Spotlights: Present customer testimonials or success stories. Show how your products or services have improved their life, much like user generated content on Instagram.
Behind-the-Scenes Content: If you would do a behind-the-scenes story on Instagram Stories, do it in your emails. Send exclusive updates or previews of new products to subscribers.
3. Utilize User-Generated Content (UGC)
Instagram marketing is no place for curated content and it’s easy to integrate with your email lists. Have your clients write testimonials about using your products, and highlight them in emails. This approach helps to create community and bolster trust and credibility by sharing real-life use cases for your products or services.
Use a CTA to encourage subscribers to share their experiences for inclusion in subsequent emails. It’s a way to keep your current customers happy and also spread the word to potentially win new customers.
4. Create Exclusive Offers
Instagram sometimes becomes a news and advertising platform. In the same way, your emails should have exclusive deals or coupons that subscribers need to pay for so they don’t feel like they’re being cut off. Promoting these deals in your Instagram stories and feed will encourage followers to subscribe to your mailing list.
This pairing keeps your social and email platforms closer to each other, solidifying your brand proposition and encouraging customers to stick around.
5. Cross-Promote Email Sign-ups on Instagram
Lastly, make sure you’re growing your email list to the maximum by triggering sign-ups from your Instagram feed. Produce videos or graphics to explain why people who sign up for your newsletter will receive exclusive content, news or discounts.
If you “Swipe Up” in stories, then take fans right to your sign up page and make it very simple for them to join your list. By consistently pushing out promotions, you not only expand your audience, but also keep your social media and email work aligned.
6. Optimize for Mobile
Most Instagram users are using the app on their phones, according to new research. This, therefore, makes a campaign that is optimized for mobile viewing one of the major issues of any campaign, especially emails.
So, if you want to engage your audience, format your emails accordingly. If yes, then your emails should scale in response to the resolution of your display and appear responsive on small screens. Invest in quick-loading images and short-text. Just like Instagram users, they should scroll through emails at a glance. Fast loading images and eye-catching calls to action keep readers captivated, and most closely mimic the user experience of Instagram.
7. Test and Refine
Instagram and email marketing are both data-driven, so analytics are an integral element to any successful combined campaign. Your messages’ open, click-through, and conversion rates let you know what is and is not working.
Also, A/B testing is one really cool trick where you’ll try out a new image, message, or CTA to find out what to say and how to tell your audience. Maybe one audience loves glamor-laden imagery and another prefers minimal design and plain text.
You dig into the data, refine your data strategy, and find a way to mould and support subscribers’ constantly changing preferences and needs. Versions will also enhance the delivered emails, allowing the sender to optimize future campaigns for the audiences and achieve better click through and conversion rates.
8. Use a Consistent Voice
Your brand voice is the foundation of your brand. Anywhere, any time, transparency garners reputation and trust. It’s not just the voice of the words, it’s the feel of each and every bit of content.
Your emails should mirror the tone and content of your Instagram account name to create a seamless brand experience. Whether it is an amusing, businesslike or inspirational tone that identifies your brand, it will be engraved in the memories of your followers because of its cross-channel consistency. People open an email and immediately recognize the voice they’ve become accustomed to. Most of the time, they’ll just keep diving deeper and tearing platform barriers away.
Final Thoughts:
When combined with your email marketing campaign, Instagram love can enhance your brand’s outreach and engagement. You can use pictures, stories, and content that’s shared by the public to help you develop an email campaign that speaks directly to your readers and turns them into buyers. If you are using these practices, be willing to try, test, and adapt to your best results. Lastly, pairing Instagram with email marketing can convert both channels into jewel-toned ones, where customers become followers.
