Published on April 7th, 2017 | by Guest

5 Instagram Marketing Predictions 2017

Instagram has recorded a steep rise in its popularity since the last couple of years. Apart from being a socializing platform where you can share images and videos with your friends, Instagram has also emerged as a hub for marketing as the majority of prominent organizations have embedded Instagram marketing into their mainstream marketing strategy.

The growth of Instagram has been evident. The number of active users present on Instagram was around 400 million in 2015 whereas it stands at around 600 million currently.

Since a lot related to Instagram has been changing and emerging, here are the five top predictions for Instagram marketing in 2017

Instagram will be more generous towards marketers

As discussed above, Instagram has already become a hub for marketers. They find it cheap and effective to approach audience via Instagram hence Instagram marketing is a large industry now. Instagram Business Tools were recently unveiled, aimed at assisting Instagram marketers with their marketing strategies. Even though third-party tools were being utilized by marketers, Instagram’s own tools would probably be more accurate and reliable.

The introduction of Instagram Business Tools clearly portrayed the social networking giant’s intentions of supporting and assisting marketers, using Instagram to promote their products/services.

Subsequently, it can be concluded that Instagram is willing to accommodate marketers and we can expect improvements and addition of new features in Instagram Business tools.

It is highly likely that Instagram will extend their suite of tools, aiding marketers to a greater extent.

Marketers could drive additional sales using Instagram

The trend of online shopping is rapidly growing. It’s obvious; people in this era would prefer shopping from the comfort of their couch and sweatpants rather than visiting shopping arcades. Subsequently, businesses could expect Instagram to play an even bigger role in driving sales.

As per studies conducted by go-gulf, around 79% of Internet users have liked the brand page of at least one business and about 78% internet users admitted that their purchasing decisions are influenced by social media posts. These figures certainly look promising and indicate that it is high time to drive sales via social media, Instagram to be precise.

In 2017, you can expect an increased number of businesses to introduce ‘shoppable feeds’ over Instagram.

Shoppable feeds basically enable customers to shop via your Instagram brand page. Third-party tools can be used to embed featured products into Instagram galleries. Subsequently, customers would be able to explore and shop products directly through Instagram, eliminating the need for accessing browser unnecessarily.

Instagram may completely eliminate the need for third-party tools by introducing their own version.

Reportedly, Instagram has also been testing shoppable product tags. These tags will lead customers straight to landing pages to place orders, once clicked upon. If rolled out, this feature is destined to be a game-changer.

Instagram Insights and User Experience will be uplifted

It is obviously expected, isn’t it? Instagram is definitely working behind the curtains to improve the user experience, but the question is, to what extent?

In 2017, Instagram is highly likely to tweak and upgrade the user interface but the possibility of a facelift cannot be flouted. Instagram already provides a user-friendly UI, but it seems as it is still somewhat ‘too classic’. Instagram may actually make the UI a bit more ‘fancy’. Moreover, it is fairly obvious that Instagram will improve the integration of Instagram live/Instagram stories into the app. Both of these new additions seem somewhat stranded. It can be expected that Instagram would let the users save Instagram stories and Instagram stories would be equipped with more features.

Instagram is currently providing insights to businesses including impressions, engagement and reach. As Instagram is determined to aid marketers, the chances of Instagram improving their analytics’ accuracy are relatively high.

Apart from the technical tweaks, Instagram will also make the experience simpler and better for businesses.

Greater utilization of artificial promotion

The use of third-party tools in Instagram marketing is growing. Businesses tend to utilize the services provided by these tools, to stimulate their growth.

The introduction of marketing tools that provide Instagram followers, likes, and views, has made it easier for infant-brand pages to emerge as credible profiles. Tools such as Vibbi provide Instagram followers, likes and views at reasonable rates. Hence businesses may move away from ‘organic’ methods of growth.

Enhanced Instagram Algorithms

2017 will bring improvements in Instagram’s algorithm, which will provide users with better and more relevant suggestions. Instagram currently suggests a very limited number of users. Instagram is likely to improve their algorithms to utilize the user data in a more effective manner and provide additional and relevant suggestions.

This would give marketers another Instagram marketing dimension to exploit. Marketers would utilize techniques to get their posts higher on the feed.

Tags: 2017, instagram, marketing, predictions