In the age of social media, Instagram has become a crucial element of marketing strategies. It is an amazing visual tool where you can promote your products or services to more than one billion people. The best part you may ask? It is free! Using Instagram is completely free and gives you a lot of business opportunities! No matter your industry, you should consider utilizing the platform. That is why we came up with 12 Instagram marketing tips for laser clinics and spas.
We sell laser machines for laser hair removal, laser tattoo removal and skincare procedures. Thus, our client base mostly is made of laser clinics and spas. It can be intimidated to start on Instagram and some small businesses will straight ask what is in it for them. Simply put, access to a huge pool of potential clients.
Instagram marketing tips for your laser spa
And a way to increase brand awareness, strengthen your online presence as well as a direct communication channel to your existing customers. Instagram will be part of your social media marketing strategy and the app is also a great way to stay connected with your customers. Now, let’s get started with those Instagram marketing tips.
1. Pick your aesthetic
When starting out on Instagram, it is important to think of how you will make your profile match your existing brand. It must be part of it. That is why you need to stick to a color palette and pick an aesthetic for you Instagram account.
If you already had marketing materials, other social media accounts or specific colors around your logo, you may build an Instagram color palette around those. All your channels must be coherent and consistant to strengthen your brand.
Your aesthetic will rely on the major colors featured on your feed as well as the type of content you are going for. For example, some companies will alternate lifestyle and inspirational photos with their own content.
2. Use a scheduling tool
Social media never sleeps, however social media managers do. After building your following, you will have access to more data on when your audience is on Instagram, what is the best time to post for the best engagement, etc.
Use those data to post your content and ensure your followers engage with it. Instagram business has an analytics feature which will help you in that. Sometimes, your audience may be the most engaged in the morning or at the weekend.
As it may be difficult to post then, using a scheduling tool such as Planoly, Later Later or Tailwind can make your life easier. Those schedulers will allow you to plan your Instagram far ahead, write captions, pick hashtags and choose what time you want the post to be up. There will be no need for you to post at the weekend manually.
3. Use relevant hashtags
Third of our twelve Instagram marketing tips is to find the best hashtags for your brand and Instagram profile. Hashtags are like SEO keywords that define what your content is about. If people are looking for a specific type of content through a hashtag, they can find your own content and decide to follow you.
Instagram allows up to thirty hashtags. We advise that you use them all and a combination of different size hashtag. For example, you may combine ten big hashtags (over a million posts), ten medium hashtags (over 500k posts) and ten smaller hashtags.
All hashtags must be relevant to your brand, your spa and your industry. Pick a branded hashtags for yourself (most likely your brand name) to create a community around it. Try and test different combinations to see what works best.
4. Optimize your posts for discovery
Instagram is a platform that has over one billion users. To stand out from the crowd and ensure people can find your posts, or that you have them shown in as many places as possible, you need to optimize them for discovery.
In other words, you must increase their discoverability. This firstly goes through using the right hashtags, as explained above. Remember to geo-tag your images. First, people will be able to find you based on your location. Second, people in said location are likely more interested in your local spa than someone miles away.
You can also add an alt text to your images which allows visually impaired users to access your content. Furthermore, if your photo doesn’t load for any reason, you’ll see a descriptive text instead
5. Post high quality images
One of the most important of all Instagram marketing tips is to use high quality images. Users will not be impressed if your photos are blurry, unprofessional and not visually attractive. The nine top photos of your grid are crucial to make an impression. Just a few second will suffice for a user to stay or leave. That is why all your image must be clear, high quality, reflect your brand and visually attractive.
6. Use all sorts of content
When building your Instagram content strategy, it is tempting to just post about your brand. While posting your own content and promoting your services are essential, you must also remember to diversify your content.
Your followers do not want to be constantly bombarded by brand-centric content. For example, posting three images that are not yours for one that is branded can make your feed more interesting.
You can use videos, images, before/after, quotes, etc. Furthermore, UGCs and inspirational content will contribute to building a strong Instagram profile and an engaged community.
7. Be consistent on Instagram
To be successful on Instagram goes beyond posting pretty pictures and witty captions. The key is consistency. You need to be posting at least once a day, up to twice, to build a strong coherent feed and offer content to your followers. People are thirsty for content, so give them what they are looking for. Or else, they will unfollow.
8. Make the most of stories
Instagram stories are a way to allow people to share “moments” of their day quickly and easily. They can be a series of photos or videos and will stay live for twenty-four hours. IG Stories are featured at the top of the home feed. Simply add another element to your Story and you’re bumped to the front of the line.
Instagram stories are great for businesses as they allow to:
Promote product, services or sales
Show what happens behind-the-scenes
Crate how-to and other educational videos
Host live contests
Allow for influencer takeover
Can broadcast ads
Are create to engage with followers with polls, questions, quizzes, etc
Can be used to get feedbacks from users.
Can send back followers to your website with a swipe up link
People are switching from still images to video content. Demand for such content is increasing and represent a great opportunity for businesses. Take a look at the stats below:
1 in 4 Millennials and Gen Z-ers look for Stories of the products and services they want to buy.
15%–25% of people swipe up on a link in branded Stories.
One-third of the most-viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses.
36% of businesses use Instagram Stories for product promotion.
59% of brands link Instagram Stories to a shoppable page.
Instagram Stories accounts for 34% of Instagram’s sponsored content.
9. Engage with your audience
In order to build a community of engaged followers on Instagram, you need to engage with your audience yourself. Posting is not enough. Reply to all comments under your posts and to all messages in your inbox.
You can use stories to ask for feedbacks, ask questions, etc. Let people contribute to your business by taking into account their feedback. You can also use DMs for customer service. If you actively engage with people, they will engage with your content.
The more your followers engage with your content, the more likes and comments your post get, the more the Instagram algorithm will push it and make it more discoverable, thus growing your audience and increase your follower count.
10. Work with local influencers
A very effective way to get your business noticed and seen by more people is to work with local influencers. The details of each collaboration will depend on the objectives of your influencer strategy. Some spas will work with local bloggers for SEO and reputation purposes. Other will focus on Instagram for immediate visibility and awareness.
For example, you invite an Instagram influencer to review a service of yours. They will post stories before, during and after the treatment tagging you, speaking about you, sharing their experience. They can also post a photo on their feed. Either way, you will have access to the influencer audience and may get new client in the process.
In order to maximize return on investment when working with influencers, request a break-down of their audience. If you are based in NYC but only 10% of the influencer’s followers are too, you may want to pass on this one. Find influencers whose audience is quite similar to yours.
11. Repurpose UGCs
When influencers work with you, they will create content to promote your spa. Customers might also take photos documenting their experience with you. This is called user-generated content.
They are a great social proof and when reposted on your own Instagram profile, will serve as testimonials and will increase your credibility in the eyes of your followers. They might also encourage prospective customers to become clients.
UGCs are also great to create a community. Indeed, if you choose a branded hashtags, people will use said hashtags in their caption. After some time, you will have a collection of posts under your branded hashtag.
12. Host giveaways and contests
It is good to reward your followers for their loyalty and for being engaged. Organizing giveaways and contests is a great way to do so. You may give away a free service. Who does not love a freebie?
Not only are giveaways great to increase engagement, but they can also boost your follower count. Indeed, most Instagram giveaways require users to follow, like the post and tag few friends. As more and more people tag each other, the word spreads and your follower count increases.
Instagram is a quick changing platform with new features coming each year. Due to the high number of users, it can seem difficult to grow or stand out. However, the benefits are always worth it since you can really increase your audience. When harnessed well, Instagram can help you to significantly increase your revenue. We hope our Instagram marketing tips will help you nail the Instagram game!