Is it just me or are you tired of having to use Instagram to market your business? That’s what I thought. While the algorithm might not be changing as often as it seems like it is. At the end of the day, it leaves you feeling like you’ve been communicating with a robot.
I’m not by any means saying that you’ve got to completely ditch social media altogether (but if you want to, go for it ;D). Because while social is very annoying more times than not—it can be a great way to build virtual relationships in your business. Which can lead to things like referrals and collaborations. BUT—if you ever want to create a scalable and sustainable business, that’s another story.
Instagram SHOULD NEVER BE more than a supplemental source to your marketing strategy.
Which is why in this blog, I’m going to go over why you shouldn’t rely on Instagram to market your business.
Why You Shouldn’t Rely on Instagram for Marketing Your Business
The Algorithm
Need I say more? It seems like every day Instagram is pushing to be more like TikTok. But the problem with that is that TikTok is technically an entertainment platform vs Instagram is (or at least was) a social platform. But since Instagram seems to have forgotten that—video content is being pushed more and more.
Now don’t get me wrong, video is a very valuable asset to have in your business. But—there’s a big difference between having a video on your website showcasing what it’s like to work with you when someone books your services. Compared to a video that may or may not be funny that you post on Instagram just because “you have to use” the attest trending audio.
Like I said Instagram can be great for building individual relationships—but every other form of marketing that leads to long-term results doesn’t work like that. Realistically you can only do this for so long before it becomes draining for you.
No Control
Let’s not forget that you have no control over your Instagram account. You’ve probably already seen one of your fellow creative entrepreneurs get their account taken down. And this could very well happen to you.
If Instagram decides on a random Tuesday that they want to shut down your account for no reason, they can. It’s even in their terms. This is why I said that Instagram needs to be a supplemental source to your marketing. You need to have something else in your back pocket.
While I doubt that Instagram will go out of business (at least not yet). That doesn’t guarantee that your account will always be there.
24-48 Hour Shelf-Life
I don’t know about you—but if I’m taking the time to create a piece of awesome content, I want it to be visible for more than 2 days. And the odds of any of your Instagram posts (yes, even Reels) getting seen for more than that are slim to none.
AND even if something you post on Instagram does “go viral” eventually that post will become obsolete too. At max. you’ve got maybe 48 hours of time before your post will be seen and after that, it’s useless on the app.
Ads are Where It’s at
At the end of the day, all Instagram cares about is making money. And the way they make money is by showing everyone ads aka. you’ve got to pay-to-play to get your posts seen by a mass amount of people. The average post is going to go out to maybe 10% of your followers. So even if you have millions of followers, only a fraction of them are going to see your posts.
Your Conversions Rates are Lower
The average conversion rate of Instagram posts is 1%. Which is lower than both email and website average conversion rates. So even in theory if your Instagram posts did just as well as your other content it would still underperform.
What to Do Instead of Instagram Marketing
Evergreen Content Strategies aka. Anything with an SEO Component
A tree doesn’t grow in a day and neither does evergreen content. It’s a long-game strategy. But because it’s a do-it-now-to-get-the-benefits-later that also means that you get better results.
A blog post or even a Youtube video can rank in search results for years if it’s very helpful and optimized correctly. Bottom line you need to focus on a marketing strategy that has an SEO component to it. This is what makes it sustainable compared to Instagram.
I know SEO sounds big and scary. Especially because you don’t see the fruits of your content labor quickly as you could potentially see with an Instagram post. But trust me when I say that it’s worth the wait.
Showit SEO 101
Evergreen Content Marketing Strategy Examples:
Blog
Blogging is basically the OG of evergreen content. And it’s arguably the easiest way to create content out of the other options—especially if you’re a solopreneur. Blogging takes less setup and manpower than say filming a video or scheduling podcast guests. All you really need to start blogging is access to the internet and a website.
The one potential downside of this method is that you have to write your content. So if you’re better at explaining yourself in words then it’s the perfect marketing strategy for you. But if you’re better at talking thru something then podcasting or YouTube might be the better option for you.
Why You Need a Blog on Your Website
Podcast
Podcasts are quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of long-form content. And the nice thing about is that you don’t have to show yourself on camera like you would with a YouTube video.
That being said this takes more planning than a blog post would. Unless you’re going to do every episode by yourself, you’re going to have to create a recording schedule of some sort for when you’re having guests come on your podcast. AND it’s ultra important that you transcript your podcast show notes into a blog post too. Podcasts by themselves do not have an SEO component like the other strategies. So if you don’t publish a coordinating blog post with your podcast show notes your podcast will not be found.
YouTube
YouTube unlike the other forms of content marketing is the only one where you’ve got to show your face on camera (unless you’re recording just your computer screen).
Like podcasting, you need to post a transcript of your video to a blog post to make sure that your SEO is doing its job. BUT unlike podcasting, your YouTube videos can potentially rank in searches without a corresponding blog post.
That still doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a quicker marketing method. It still takes time. The biggest downfall of this route is that you’ve got to show up on camera in most cases which is again gonna take a lot more hours and manpower to do than a blog.
Pinterest is often referred to as a social media platform but unlike Instagram, it actually has a search engine component. The caveat though is that you need to send someone to another piece of content like a blog from Pinterest.
Unlike the other marketing options where you create content on that platform, Pinterest is more like Google. It’s not the host of the content. It’s simply a search engine that’s directing people to the content on another platform.
It certainly doesn’t mean that you should ignore Pinterest, but you can’t really use it alone. You need something like blog posts to pair it with.
Building Your Email List
Okay, this one you can technically work on via Instagram but my main pointe still stands. The sooner you start building your email list the better. Besides your website, this is the one form of digital marketing real estate that you actually own. So no matter what form of content marketing you choose, even if it’s Instagram, you need to start getting people to subscribe to your email list.
Instagram Marketing Alternatives for Introverts
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