Quality over Quantity
Content marketing has changed the entire business landscape.
In just a few short years time, brands of all sizes have realized that instead of relying on an imprecise yet formulaic, “scattershot type” approach to marketing, the best results come from offering users highly relevant “surgical sniper shots”.
Less really is more when you are able to deliver high-value multimedia content which speaks to your target audience in the frame of their unique emotional language.
Instagram marketing is no different and is perhaps one of the platforms which has been most central in cementing the shift towards niche specific, high-value content.
If you’ve been following the Millionaire Mentor, there is a good chance you are already familiar with how important Instagram is to growing your brand and converting prospects into customers.
If not, let’s take a look at some of the marketing statistics guiding Instagram’s success in 2017:
- More than 500 million active international users per month.
- Almost 100 million photos and videos shared each and every day.
- Access to a global audience with over 80% of users residing outside the USA.
- 49% of the top brands use Instagram. This is projected to increase to over 70% by the end of 2017.
- 50% of Instagram users follow at least one business
- Nike is the most followed brand on Instagram with over 68 million followers
Instagram Demographics
- 55% of US 18-29-year-olds are Instagram users
- Instagram users are affluent – 56% of Instagram users earn over $50,000 per year
- Instagram has an extremely dedicated and active user base
Visual Storytelling is a Creative Art
Instagram is the home to some of the most stunning examples of audiovisual storytelling in the entire world.
You do not need to spend any great length of time on the platform before you will run into a large number of accounts from amateurs and professionals alike which showcase truly awe-inspiring imagery.
You might be wondering what it takes to produce photographs like the most successful accounts and the answer is simple: you need to emphasize QUALITY over quantity.
Furthermore, you need to make the investment in time and energy to get up to speed.
If you want to produce exceptional audiovisual content, you need to make that a priority and not an afterthought. Sure you can get by using other people’s content but eventually, if you truly want to define your brand and cultivate a truly impressive following, you will need to transition towards being a creative producer yourself.
Whether you grew up living and breathing art or you never thought taking pictures and videos were going to be relevant parts of your entrepreneurial ambitions, it does not matter.
There are steps anyone can take to improve their Instagram account.
Keep reading to learn more insight into how you can achieve greater success with Instagram marketing by developing your artistic talent and applying your skills with industry-leading precision.
Lights, Camera, Action
When you think about the most impressive blockbuster movies, most of the time at the center of them is incredible talent matched with leading technology. You could think of your Instagram page in much the same way.
Whether you hire someone else to be the artistic talent or you focus on developing the skills yourself, at some point you are going to have to invest in a high-quality camera if you want to create results that mimic the most visually stunning of Instagram accounts.
If the pictures you take are of a low quality, they will not pop and they will not impress people, this becomes especially apparent when viewing on an HD screen such as on a tablet. Do your pictures blur, have visible noise and artifacts, fuzzy edges, overexposed highlights and underexposed shadows?
If so, chances are, a camera upgrade could be a very important first step to improving the overall quality of your Instagram audiovisual output.
For many people, a smartphone update is the best choice for improving the quality of Instagram photos and videos. Sure you could seek to invest in a fancy digital camera but then you will have to deal with the potentially steep learning curve of learning how to use it AND get the photos you create with it to actually look good when cropped into Instagram. It’s pretty tough to be honest and if you are already struggling, this extra time investment might not be the best way to spend your time.
Consider picking up a modern smartphone and you will be able to capture, upload and share your content all in one handy place. For most people, this is really the easiest route. Some of the best smartphone cameras are on the iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy 8, Huawei P9, Google Pixel and Sony Xperia X. Any of these powerful handheld mini workstations have the right stuff to capture super high value Instagram marketing content.
Prepare to Launch
As simple as it may sound, some of the best advice anyone could receive around how to improve Instagram content comes down to simply cleaning your camera lens!
If you capture the perfect moment , employ the perfect hashtags and mix in a dash of well timed comedy but last night’s pizza residue is hazing your pictures a viral moment in the making could be lost forever.
Alternately, if you have the luxury of knowing what you want to capture before the moment arrives, take a second to adjust lighting. Even just a little extra effort put into the way you prepare to take pictures or video can really impact the final result.
If you really want to go the extra mile, consider purchasing a detachable lens attachment for either your normal digital camera or smartphone. A high quality, cleaned, glass lens could open up a whole world of creative possibilities which will make it much easier for you to create showstopping pictures even if you are using a smartphone.
Go Above and Beyond
While Instagram’s built-in photo editing software continues to improve on a monthly basis, it should come as no surprise to learn that the most high-quality photos on Instagram tend to be edited in other more powerful programs. Some of the most common ones today would include: Exposure X, Adobe Lightroom, LightZone, but the sky really is the limit.
The bottom line is simple: the more time you take to invest in improving the way you work with pictures, the higher quality they will end up being. Even if you do not have these skills yourself, tasks like photo editing can be fulfilled by freelance graphic designers and other types of professionals for fair prices.
Whether you choose to edit your photos yourself or hire someone else to do it, at the end of the day you will have more high-value photographs to use for your specific branding purposes. Don’t be afraid to invest in quality.
Train Your Eye
Editing software is great but even the most powerful professional tools can’t take a horribly designed photograph and turn it into an aesthetic masterpiece. If art really isn’t your thing, you might want to consider spending time following advertising websites, photojournalism hubs and anywhere else where you can study the fine art of how to capture and reproduce an exceptional photograph.
You could even go a step further and invest in a free online course such as the ones offered through MIT, Open University and many other digital learning platforms. At the very least, you could reach out to photographers whose work you appreciate and ask them for insight and guidance on how they produced the pictures that you think are high quality.
More often than not, artists are very friendly and open-minded people who will take the time to discuss their work with people who are interested. Whether you consult with a community college professor or top 10 influencers on Instagram, networking is a great way to learn how to train your eye and sharpen your skills.
Practice, Analyze, Repeat
Once you start to produce content on social media, there are a million and one ways to track your engagement. If you see a particular post attracts way more interest, don’t be afraid to ask your audience what they liked about it. The more insights you learn about what kinds of things your audience wants to see, the easier it will be for you to reproduce your results.
The same could go for analyzing the accounts you really like as well as the ones of your competitors. See what works and try to adopt what you see. All aspects of marketing revolve around more and more narrowly focusing in on what your audience wants and is motivated more.
The more you can learn about the demographics of your target audience, the more you can apply these insights into your content marketing strategy!
