Okay, let’s get this out of the way first:
- No, it’s not too late to join Instagram.
- Yes, even moving companies can make Instagram work for them. It’s not only a preserve of food, lifestyle and travel bloggers and businesses.
Instagram achieved the 1 billion user milestone in 2018, with the US (alongside India) leading the line in terms of active usage, with 140 million active users as of January 2021.
That’s just a little under half of the nation’s entire population, which means there is huge potential for businesses across the board, especially with the platform continuing its roll-out of features targeted at businesses.
Question is, as a moving company looking to tap into the massive potential on Instagram, how do you figure your way around the platform, attract followers and win over customers?
In a nutshell, let’s say it all boils down to your strategy.
Let’s expound this further by outlining some ways you can manage your moving business’s Instagram to get the most out of it in 2021.
Start by Creating a Business Account
If you’re setting up an Instagram account for your moving business, it’s better to use a business account as opposed to a regular one.
An Instagram business account offers more features that you’ll find useful as a business that you won’t enjoy with a normal account, including for example, ads and analytics. A business account also provides different conditions that will let you promote your company on the platform.
As for the actual setup, you’ll need to create a regular profile first (first step) and then convert it into a business profile (second and final step).
Optimize your Business Account
Once you’re done setting up your business account, you need to optimize it to attract followers and generate sales.
This largely involves filling out all the necessary details on the profile – you should have already specified your username and contact deets during the initial setup.
Start with your company name and website, the latter of which can be your homepage URL or special landing page you’re looking to target – for example, “Why Us?”.
Add a bio too, which you should treat as your elevator pitch.
Create a Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve got the basics out of the way, next you need to create your moving business strategy.
What this does is make it easier to aim for a specific result and work towards achieving it. With a marketing strategy in place, it’s also easier to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
So, how do you create a marketing strategy in the first place?
Easy.
- Define your customer persona – Do you have a specific target customer? College moving, for example? Office relocation for businesses? Or maybe it’s geographically targeted like Michigan movers? Chances are you already have this aspect nailed down if you’re already in business. The benefit of defining your customer persona is that it allows you to be specific with your marketing messages, increasing the chances of audience conversion.
- Choose one goal – It’s better to define a single goal and work towards it than aiming for multiple goals per campaign. Worry not, you can always have multiple campaigns over the course of a calendar year. A goal could be anything like increasing brand awareness (hence focus on getting more brand impressions) or boosting revenue (focus on traffic and generating more sales).
- Develop a posting schedule – With the target customer-defined and campaign goals noted down, the rest is about creating a posting schedule. Here is a study that can guide you towards that end. For the best time to post on Instagram, check out this simple guide.
Conclusion
The rest will involve rolling up your sleeves and getting active on Instagram. That could be through regular posting (leverage Instagram Photos, Videos, and Stories appropriately), paid promotion, and/or working with influencers.
As a moving business, analyzing your success on Instagram should also be part of the package. This will let you know how your marketing efforts are faring and what needs to be tweaked.
